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LIFE BLESSED YIRGIN MAEY, illotl)ct of Boh; WITH THE HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO HER. COMPLETED BY THE TRADITIONS OF THE EAST, ritings of t|e iM\txs, anb i\t |rihte fistors d l|e |cte. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF THE ABBE ORSINI, BY MRS. J. SADLIER. PUBLISHED WITA THE APPROBATION OF THE LATE MOST REV. JOHN HUGHES, D. 2>., AND THE MOST REV. J. MeCLOSKET, D. D., ARCHBISHOP OF NEW YORK. A NE-W, ENLARGED AND REVISED EDITION. few ftfflt: PUBLISHED BY D. & J. SADLIER & CO., 31 BAKCLAT STREET. MONTREAL :-CORNER OF NOTRE DAME AND ST. FRANCIS XAVIER STS. 1872. Entered according to Act of CongresB, in the year 1868, Br D. & J. SADLIEB & CO., In the Clerk' I Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New ToiK. lOAN STACK ■Unotrpad b7 Vncrsrr Dnx, 36 A 27 Kew ChAmb«n St.. ■. f. Printad Iqr Edwaxs O. Juxixs. U North WlUiun Bk, K. T P i JTiS it^^ HIS translation, made many years ago at the suggestion of an illustrious prelate, since dead, has been so well re- ceived by American Catholics, that it has passed through many editions. The magnificent work of the Abb^ Or- sini, is confessedly the fullest and most complete life of the Blessed Virgin Mary that has yet been given to the Catholic world. It does not end, as others do, at the close of her mor- tal life, but follows the course of the universal devotion wherewith the Church has honored, and does still, and shall ever honor, the Virgin of the Prophecies, the glorious Mother of God. It shows how literal has been the fulfillment of her own inspired prediction that all generations should call her Blessed. It shows how devotion to her has grown and prospered with the growth of Catholicity, and records the shrines and churches erected in every land under her invocation and to her honor and glory. Those of America I have myself added to the work, as there was little or nothing in the edition which I translated relating to the devotion in America. The work also embodies the Eastern traditions concerning her, with the conclu- sive testimony of the Fathers; the little which is related of her in Scrip ture being but a very faint sketch of her life. 4:3' TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. It is trulj a labor of love for a Catholic to celebrate the praises and re- eord the glories of Our Most Dear Mother, and it was with the filial devo- tion of a child of Ifary that I translated this great work some fifteen years ago. In common with all who are truly devout to Mary, I have much, very much to thank her for — many a priceless favor, many a sweet consolation, many a ray of light when all was dark around, and when earthly hopes had failed. In thanksgiving, then, and with all reverence and affection, I have now, prob- ably for the last time, revised this noble work, hoping that it may ever tend to make others love and honor Our Lady the Help of Christians as I love and honor her. M. A. S. Hew You, Mat 8, 187a HIS book, wMcli the public has vouchsafed to receive favor- ably, is not an ambitious attempt to obtain celebrity ; it is a work of patience and of faith, a flower laid on the altai of Mary, with the simple sincerity of a pilgrim of the good old times. The Blessed Virgin was, doubtless, deserving of a better historian, but she could find none more desirous of glorifying her name and propagating the devotion which is her due. The life of the Queen of Angels, of the Mystical Eose of the new law, is, of itself, a theme so poetical that it naturally called forth all graceful and touching ideas, as well as the noblest expressions of our language. It is an Eastern Tale, reflecting the customs, the pageants, and the scenery of Asia; is it, therefore, surprising that the style should be tinted with an Oriental coloring ? We have studied the Fathers enough to know that they did not disdain the graces of diction, and that, in this respect, they fought paganism with equal arms. This is what the great St. Jerome called, in his figurative language, cutting off tlie head of Goliath with his own sword. What can be more elevated, more poetical, than certain descriptions of St. John Chrysostom ? That sacred orator often chimes in with the Oriental poets, and it is in one of his homilies that we find the simili- tude of the earth emhalmed with the perfume of roses, which has since been repro- duced by Saadi in his Gulistan. The letters and the homilies of St. Basil the Great, replete with agreeable pic- tures, imitated but not surpassed by Fenelon, have all a poetical cast very fit to frighten those timorous minds who, now-a-days, take poetry for a spectre, and would fain exclude it from all manner of works. It is the same with St. Gregory of Nazianzen, that sublime Christian dreamer, who questioned himself on the nature Ti PREFACE. of his soul, under the ehade of thick fdiage^ whilst the zq>hyrs^ mingled with Hie songs of the InrdSf shed from the topmost branches of the tree a s^joeet and dreamy tranquility; whilst the grasshoppers^ hidden beneath the herbage, made all tJie woods resound, and a limpid stream flowed past his feet, winding on in its refreshing course through the wood. If that be not poetry, I know not what it is. In order to convert the nations it is necessary, first of all, to obtain a hearing ; to confirm in the Roman faith masses long agitated by the successive shocks of revo- lutions, beaten by the wind of systems, indifferent from weariness, and open to the attacks of an audacious sect which raises its head higher than ever, for D^ja de sa faveur on adore le bruit ; the first thing to be done is to induce them to read our works. The preacher who would divest the sacred Word of all the ornaments of elocution would soon have our churches deserted, and might say, like the Greek musician left alone in a public place, " Ye temples, hear me ! " The religious writer who would affect a dull and arid style, in the midst of a nation which prides itself on its taste and literary skill, would assuredly fare no better ; he would fall, with all his weight, into that oblivion where nothing floats, and his book, had it the intrinsic value of gold and pearls, would be, nevertheless, the most useless thing in the world, for none would touch it. St. Basil was so persuaded of this truth that he strenuously urged the young orators of his time to a profound study of human letters, so as to transfer their beauties to Catholic works. " Human letters," says that great doctor, " are like leaves which serve to cover and to ornament the words of truth and wisdom. If Moses and Daniel were the two most brilliant lights of the Synagogue, it was because they had acquired all the arts of the Egyptians." St. Jerome subjected to the anti-literary attacks of the priest Rufinus, who accused him of mingling the filth of paganism with the word of tlie Lord, coolly sent him word that being himself Uind as a mde he ought not to mock those who had tlie eyes of a goat. And, in fact, when the sumptuous decoration of altars and of tabernacles was regarded, even in the most austere ages of the Church, as a good and commendable practice, proper to heighten the majesty of Christian worship, wherefore should we make of religious literature a barren and dreary waste, whereon none would wish to enter for fear of sinking on the way under a load of weariness ? Is it thus, then, that the Holy Scriptures, which St. John Chrysostom declared full of pearls amd diamonds, were conceived ? Are not all kinds of composition found in the Bible, from the eclogue to the epic. The saints of those remote times, which we, in om* courtesy, are wont PREFACE. vii to call harbaroiLSj were far from wishing to deprive religious works of all literary merit. " Wliat ! " says an illustrious writer of tlie ninth century, " we enshrine the ashes of the saints in gold and precious stones, yet their actions are clothed but in rude and homely language ! We adorn our love-stories with all the graces of fiction, and we describe in the driest, the dullest, and the most uninteresting manner, the immortal deeds of the heroes of Christianity ! Is it, therefore, that elegance of style is only to be used for glossing over the turpitude of iniquity?" " Would," says a pious and learned author who, in 1722, dedicated the life of a holy personage to the Bishop of Blois ; " would that Catholics would give to the admirable achievements of the saints those ornaments wherewith sinners embellish their guilty passions, and thereby show that they know better how to adorn virtue than those worldlings to adorn vice." If it be ever permitted to throw poetical flowers on a religious theme, it is, assuredly, when treating of the Mystical Rose of the new law. This is so true, that the gravest doctors of other ages became poets without their knowing or wishing it, when they spoke of that glorious creature. St. Gregory of Neocesarea, that cold, austere thaumaturgus, finds the most charming appellations for the Mother of God, whom he styles source of light and immaculate flower of life. St. Ephraim, that melancholy and enthusiastic solitary, compares the Blessed Virgin to the golden censer exhaling the sweetest perfumes. St. Epiphanius calls the Virgin a spiritual ocean containing the celestial pearl. St. Cyril of Alexandria, the inex- tinguishable lamp which has brought forth the Sun of Justice. "With what marvel- ous flowers of eloquence shall we weave thee a crown, O Mary ! " says St. Basil of Selemia ; '■'-from thee has budded the floiver of Jesse, which embellishes us with glory and honor." St. Gregory the Great compares Mary, that virgin fair and adorned with the glory of her fruitfulness, to a very high mountain, towering above the angelic choirs, and reaching even to the throne of the Divinity. Alcuin, that light of the court of Charlemagne, accustomed as he was to dry and arid labors, became a poet for Mary : " Thou art my beloved," said he, " thou art my joy and glory, Virgin I tliou art the life of heaven, the flower of theflelds, the lily of the world." Pope Innocent III. com- pares Mary to the dawn. St. Thomas of Aquinas to the star of the ocean which guides and directs those %oho navigate the waters. " Hail ! noble daughter of Kings," cries the learned and mystical Erasmus, " tliou art more brilliant tlmn the dawn, milder than the silvery moon, purer than the fresh-blown lily, whiter than the mountain snow,mjOrt graceful than the rose, more precious than the ruby, more chaste than the angels. .... TUl P REFA CE. Impressed with these counsels, encouraged by these examples, we have lightly touched with the honey of Engaddi the edge of the cup which we present to the people of the world— those spoiled children who reject with scorn every beverage which has not, like the sherbets of the East, the perfume of the violet and the rose. Some have made this a crime, and bitterly reproached us with having sacrificed to false gods ; but when they set about giving quotations, the result was rather unfor- tunate for them, for they have, without knowing it, found fault with Scriptural idioms and phraseology ; that is to say, even the Word of God itself. " I do not always quote my authority," says Montaigne, "because nothing is more amusing than to see a thrust made through me at Virgil, Tacitus, Horace — in a word, at the greatest writers of antiquity — by some who are scarcely able to read them." Pre- cisely the same thing has happened to us, although we did not intend to lay such a snare for the simplicity of certain censors, who are, alas ! in the highest degree, ignorant of their own ignorance, which is the worst ignorance of all, if the Orientals are to be believed. We have heard the Prophets gravely descanted on by small critics, who are reputed to know the whole Bible by heart. What could we do in such a case as that ? All evil passions are up in arms against this book, and men who ought to have sustained it, were it only for the sacred cause which it espouses, have stealthily pursued it with a malignity truly Pharisaical. May God, who lifts the seven-fold veil of malice from false hearts to penetrate to the actuating motives of their works — may He forgive them, even as we do ! We have had such fair and honorable suffrages to console us, that we may well afford to overlook these puny attempts. The foreign press, namely, the Italian, the German, and the Spanish, have taken much notice of this Life of the blessed Virgin. Being unable to quote all, we shall confine ourselves to this extract from a learned article in Za Cruz (The 0?'OSSj) a Spanish journal, religious, political, and literary, which is honored with the patronage of the eminently Catholic clergy of Spain: — " The Abbd Orsini, in tracing the annals of the worship of the Blessed Virgin, which commenced with Christianity, and in raking up authorities, which, but for him, might perchance have remained in oblivion, presents to the reader the titles whereon hyperdulia and the worship of the Virgin are founded — ^a worship which certainly occupies a golden page in the calendar of the world, and is con- nected with the most glorious associations. Nor is this all that the Abbd Orsini has done. His book comprises the biography of Jesus, and, in some measure, the history of the terrestrial globe, which dates from the fall of man and the promise of a Redeemer. In this work we find profound theology, ■vast erudition, good literary taste, and enchanting touches of poetry P REF A C E. *' The translator, Dr. F. Y. P., has added another jewel, in the name of the Spaniards, to the crown wherewith the literati of Europe have adorned the brow of the author of The Complete Life of the Mother of God. This book is one of the great works of the nineteenth century, and merits a place in the first rank." We refer not to these eulogiums (wMcli are certainly somewhiit exaggerated) througli a ridiculous vanity or self-laudation, but to demonstrate that the lAfe of the Motlier of God has been well received by Catholics abroad, whose sympathy is exceedingly precious to us. It is no less consoling to see that it is also becoming popular in Germany, in England, in Russia, and in America, where it has probably assisted in dispelling some unjust prejudices amongst dissenting Christians. As for the French press, it has treated this book just as it pleased, for we have never attempted to influence it either by intrigue or solicitation of any sort ; not- withstanding which it has, in general, expressed itself in such a way that we have only to return our best thanks. By a providential chance it has happened, that most of those literary men who have taken cognizance of our work are men of feeling, knowledge, and intellect, and have acted generously by us. But great minds are usually indulgent and lenient towards others ; lions, conscious of their own strength, often magnanimously spare the weaker prey ; it is not so with the vipers who hiss and bite in the mire of their native marsh, by way of satisfying their conscience. Happy the author who falls into the hands of men able to appreciate a book, to examine it without prejudice, and with the probity which becomes the magis- tracy of thought. Criticism is a trade in which many meddle, but which very few understand ; to do it as it should be done, there is need of learning, taste, and conscience ; things which every one has not. A learned prelate, whose name was still unknown to us when we wrote the jpreface to our first edition, the late Bishop Cotteret of Beauvais, a profound theo- logian and a very distinguished writer, after having justified our use of Oriental traditions — " Traditions^'' says the learned Bishop, " wliich the author has not given as articles of faith " — goes on to say : " The Abb6 Orsini is one of the writers of our time who has the most perfectly mastered the language ; he speaks like a true disciple of Chateaubriand." This was conferring a high honor upon us, although it was far from being deserved; we have never had the presumption to follow, even afar ofi^, in the gigantic steps of that great master ; and if our style have any, even a slight resemblance to his, we can only say, as did an humble poet of Kurdis- X PREFACE. tan, on a similar occasion, " I have come forth, like Antar, that famous poet, from the garden of Nischabur ; but Antar was the rose of the garden, and I am only a brier." An observation has been made to us, to which we are now about to reply ; it relates to the use which we have made of the Hebrew customs in completing our Life of the Blessed Virgin. Any traveller who has visited the East, or any scholar who is at all acquainted with the history and condition of Asia, will per- ceive that our work is based on long and laborious researches, and not hy any fMOM <m imaginatUm; we had not even presumed to invent the common forms oi farewell^ or of wishing a good jmjumey ; all has been derived from respectable sources, which we have scrupulously acknowledged whenever the thing was worth the trouble. Our work has been read, moreover, by learned Orientalists, who have found it correct, and Israelites of the highest rank have praised the exact fidelity wherewith we have restored the faded splendor of Sion and the ancient customs of their fathers. The historian, like the painter, now requires a profound study of the local coloring. If an artist should attempt to introduce our Western customs and our Northern landscapes in a painting, of which the subject was taken from ancient Asia, he would by no means escape the just censure of the connois- seurs, A literary work is likewise a painting, which should reproduce the hues of the sky, the aspect of the country, the historical costumes, the habits and the customs of the groups represented in its pages. In writing the life of the descend- ant of the kings of Juda, we have studied the requirements of our theme ; we remembered that it would not do to engraft the manners of the Israelites on our own, or to wrap them up, as Strauss says, in a Western disguise, but to paint them such as they were when Mary lived : that was the only way to adhere to probability, when tracing a history of what occurred in Jewish society in the days of Herod. We meet, in every page of the Gospel, the manners and customs of the. Jews, to which Jesus Christ himself vouchsafed to conform; it can scarcely be doubted but that the Virgin had anticipated the example of her divine Son. The Hebrew customs were based upon Scripture and tradition, which made them sacred things in the eyes of the whole nation ; to deviate from received usages would have been regarded as a grave misdemeanor. Even the nuptial garments of the bride were directed by the reminiscences of the Bible and the antediluvian tradi- tions of the temple. We have received, from quarters not connected with the press, testimonies of P REFA CE. sympathy and good-will, wHcli have descended upon us from on high, like the gifts of Providence. The Prince Orsini, who has deigned to accept the dedication of our book, like a true Roman prince, and a friend of letters, has done us the honor to write to us : — " A work so remarkable and so holy as yours certainly deserved a more distinguished patron thuB I am ; I am penetrated with the liveliest gratitude, and no words of mine could convey to you my sense of the obligation you have conferred upon me. Eome applauds your work ; and the glory which you have given to the Mother of God already reflects on yourself." If we quote these flattering words, so characteristic of the graceful urbanity of the higher Italian nobility, it is not that we deem ourselves worthy of them ; we receive them as a generous encouragement to do better at another time, and we lay them respectfully at the feet of the Blessed Virgin, well knowing that such kind and honorable suffrage from a prince as eminent for his piety as for his intelligence, proceed from her and to her belongs. Another compliment, very precious to our heart, is from the Commander Mout- tinho-Lima, Minister-Plenipotentiary from the Emperor of Brazil, who, with diplo- matic talents of the highest order, has a refined and enlightened taste for letters, which he has himself cultivated with much success. " Your new edition of the Life of the Blessed Virgin, only a few months after its first appearance," writes his Excellency, " is sufficiently indicative of the favor wherewith the book has been received by the public. Permit me, on the occasion of this second edition, to add my humble testimony to those which you may have already received. " Your work has contributed, and doubtless will yet contribute more and more, to promote in France the touching devotion to the Virgin, where of old it was so fervently propagated by St. Bernard. I am persuaded that wherever the children of the Church are found, the Life of the Mother of God will produce the same eflfect ; be my name the pledge." But it is not only amongst the great ones of the earth that our Life of the Blessed Virgin has found favor ; many learned doctors, both Italian and Spanish, have also honored it with their approbation. His Lordship the Bishop of Sala- manca, a learned prelate, well worthy of presiding over that famous university which has, for many ages, shed a brilliant light on Europe, has deigned to protect it in Spain. His Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop of Malines, whose fame has spread far beyond the boundaries of his own country, has given his formal appro- bation to the Belgian editions. I inally, our own bishop has, from the first, taken it under his protection, as became a man who has no need of the opinion of others to form his own, and who waits not to see how the current of public opinion will go. We shall here insert a portion of the letter of Monser. Castanelli d'Istria, to the xii PREFACE. end that if this book should have any protracted eidstence, it will prove, in days to come, that at a time when religious literature had no sort of encouragement in France, it was protected and fostered by Roman princes, ambassadors from remote r^ons, and by saintly and learned prelates. ** It is somewhat late to thank you for the present of your valuable work, and for the pleasure it gave me to read a hfe doubly interesting, from the nature of the subject and the charming style wherewith you have embeUished it I prize this gift the more highly as coming from the author, and because that author is a countryman and one of my own priests. Nor am I alone in my appre- ciation of the merits of your book. The opinion of all those readers to whom I have lent it is quite in accordance with that of the journals of Paris. " I am gratified to see that the first fruits of your literary labors are dedicated to the Queen of Angels. From such a commencement there is reason to hope for a career the most distinguished." Since these encouraging letters were addressed to us, the life of the Mother of God has had (we may venture to say it, because the proof is apparent) the most unbounded success, not only in France, but throughout Europe, and even beyond its bounds. Three translations of it have been made in Italy ; it has been translated in Spain by two Spanish doctors; in Germany by an able ecclesiastic, and there has been published at Leipsic a second translation, magnificently illustrated; several editions have been published in Belgium; it has even penetrated the depth of Russia, and has crossed the ocean to Mexico ; finally, it has been favorably received at Rome, where it is propagated by permission of the Sacred College. Thanks to the powerful protection of Mary, the little grain of mustard-seed has become a great tree, whose branches overspread the earth ; trifling as this book may be. She has blessed it, because She knows it was written with no other intention than that of promoting her glory. Deeply grateful to that European public which has received our work so favora- bly, we have done our best to merit that sympathy which we prize so highly. This new edition, printed with the permission of his Grace the Archbishop of Paris, has been carefully revised and considerably enlarged ; as it is for the last time, we have endeavored to do our duty conscientiously. The second part, which comprises the History of the Devotion to Mary, has been entirely remodeled, and enriched with important facts taken from the rarest and most authentic sources. Notwithstanding all our efforts, we cannot but be aware that our work is still very imperfect. But such is the ordinary lot of human undertakings. Perfection is the mountain of the talisman, whose summit no mortal has ever reached, and the present writer least of all. GREGORIUS PP. XVI. (Dilecte Fill, Salutem et Apostolicam (Benedictionem Jampridem Nobis dono miseras opus gallica lingua a Te elucubratunt, at que inscriptum — La Vierge, Histoire de la Mere de Diect et de son Culte. JJunc vero cum tuis obsequentissimis Litteris alterum ejusdem operis exemplar libenter accepimus, quod a Te auctum, pulcherrim^isque im^aginibus ornatum, ac splendidissim,is (Parisiensibus typis editum, superiori anno rursus evulgan- dum, curasii. Tuum^ consilium ecclesiastico viro plane dignum, vehementer com^m^en^ dam,tis, quod eo potissimum, special, ut pietai> erga Sanctissimam (Dei Genetricem. Mariam in fidelium animis m^agis m>agisque augeatur, atque excitatur, Agim,us aulern pro dono gratias, ac paterncz nostrce in te caritatis testein, et ccelestium, omnium m^unerum, auspicem Apostolicam (Benedict tionem Tibi ipsi, (Dilecti Fili, intimo cordis affectu impertimur. (Datum (komcB apud S. Mariam Major em die 23 Augusti, Anno 1843, (Pontificatus nostri anno decimo quinto. GREGORIUS PP. XVL DiLECTO FiLlO, Presbytero Orsini, Luteti^ Parisiorum 'I'T-^L^r-sE^r^s'mis^sx:. OF OUR MOST HOLT LORD PIUS IX., BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE POPE, CONCEKNING THE DOGMATIC DEFINITION OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE VIEGIN MOTHER OF GOD. [TRANSLATION.] Pius, Bisliop, Servant of the Servants of God: for the perpetual remera- brance (f the thing, HE Ineffable God, whose ways are mercy and trath, whose will is omnipotence, and whose wisdom reaches powerfully from end to end, and disposes all things sweetly, when he foresaw from all eternity the most sorrowful ruin of the entire human race to follow from the transgression of Adam, and in a mystery hidden from ages determined to complete, through the incarnation of the Word, in a more hidden sac- rament, the first work of His goodness, so that man, led into sin by the craft of diabolical iniquity, should not perish contrary to his merciful design, and that what was about to befall in the first Adam, should be restored more happily in the second ; from the beginning and before ages, chose and ordained a mother for His only-begotten Son, of whom, made flesh. He should be born in the blessed plenitude of time, and followed her with so great love before all creatures that in her alone He pleased Him- xH LETTERS APOSTOLIC OF OUR self with a most benign complacency. Wherefore, far before all the an- gelic spirits, and all the Saints, He so wonderfully endowed her with the abundance of all heavenly gifts, drawn from the treasure of divinity, that she might be ever free froin every stain of sin, and, all fair and perfect, would bear before her that plenitude of innocence and holiness than which, under God, none greater is understood, and which, except God, no one can reach, even in thought. And, indeed, it was most becoming that she should shine, always adorned with the splendor of the most perfect holiness, and, free even from the stain of original sin, she should have the most complete triumph over the ancient serpent — that Mother so venerable, to whom God the Father willed to give His only Son, begotten of His heart, equal to Himself, and whom He loves as Himself; and to give Him in such a manner that He is by nature, one and the same common Son of God the Father and of the Virgin, and whom the Son chose substantially to be His Mother,, and of whom the Holy Ghost willed that, by His operation, He, from whom He Him- self proceeds, should be conceived and born. Which original innocence of the august Virgin agreeing completely with her admirable holiness, and with the most excellent dignity of the Mother of God, the Catholic Church, which, ever taught by the Holy Spirit, is the pillar and ground of truth, as possessing a doctrine di- vinely received, and comprehended in the deposit of heavenly revela- tion, has never ceased to lay down, to cherish, and to illustrate contin- ually by numerous proofs, and daily more and more by conspicuous facts. For this doctrine, flourishing from the most ancient times, and implanted in the minds of the faithful, and by the care and zeal of the Holy Pontiffs wonderfully propagated, the Church herself has most clearly pointed out when she did not hesitate to propose the conception of the same Vir- gin for the public devotion and veneration of the faithful. By which illustrious act she pointed out the conception of the Virgin as singular, wonderful, and very different from the origin of the rest of mankind, and to be venerated as entirely holy, since the Church celebrates by festi- vals only that which is holy. And, therefore, the very words in which the Sacred Scriptm-es speak of the uncreated Wisdom and represent His eternal origin, she has been accustomed to use not only in the offices of ihQ Church, but als) in the holy liturgy, and to transfer to the origin of MOST HOLY LORD PIUS IX. XVII that Virgin, which was pre-ordained by one and the same decree with the incarnation of Divine Wisdom. But though all those things everywhere justly received amongst the faitliful, show with what zeal the Roman Church, the mother and mis- tress of all churches, has supported the doctrine of the Immaculate Con- ception of the Virgin, yet the illustrious acts of this Church are evidently worthy that they should be reviewed in detail; since so great is the dignity and authority of the same Church, so much is due to her who is the centre of Catholic truth and unity, in whom alone religion has been inviolably guarded, and from whom it is right that all the Churches should receive the tradition of faith. Thus the same Roman Church had nothing more at heart than to as- sert, to protect, to promote, and to vindicate in the most eloquent manner the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, its devotion and doctrine, which fact is attested and proclaimed by so many illustrious acts of the Ro- man Pontiffs, Our predecessors, to whom, in the person of the Prince of the Apostles, was divinely committed by Christ Our Lord the supreme care and power of feeding lambs and sheep, of confirming the brethren, and of ruling and governing the Universal Church. Indeed, Our predecessors have ever gloried in instituting in the Roman Church by their own Apostolic authority the Feast of the Conception, and to augment, ennoble, and promote with all their power the devotion thus instituted, by a proper Office and a proper Mass; by which the pre- rogative of immunity from hereditary stain was most manifestly asserted; to increase it either by indulgences granted, or by leave given to states, provinces, and kingdoms, that they might choose as their patron the Mother of God, under the title of the Immaculate Conception ; or by approved sodalities, congregations, and religious families instituted to the honor of the Immaculate Conception ; or by praises given to the piety of those who have erected monasteries, hospitals, or churches, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, or who have bound themselves by a relig- ious vow to defend strenuously the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God. Above all, they were happy to ordain that the Feast of the Conception should be celebrated through the whole Church as that of the Nativity; and, in fine, that it should be celebrated with an Octave in the Universal Church as it was placed in the rank of the festivals x^ux LETTERS APOSTOLIC OF OUR which are commanded to be kept holy; also, tliat a Pontifical service in Hill Patriarchal LilxMinn Basilica should be peiformed yearly on the day sacred to the Conception of the Virgin; and desiring to cherish daily more and more in the minds of the Faithful this doctrine of the Immac- ulate Conception of the Mother of God, and to excite their piety in wor- shipping and venerating the Virgin conceived without original sin, they have rejoiced most fi'eely to give leave that in the Litany of Loretto, and in the Preface of the Mass itself, the Immaculate Conception of the same Virgin should be proclaimed, and that thus the law of faith should be established by the very law of supplication. We ourselves, treading in the footsteps of so many predecessors, have not only received and approved what had been most wisely and piously established and ap- pointed by them, but also mindful of the institution of Sixtus IV., We have appointed by Our authority a proper Office for the Immaculate Conception, and with a most joyful mind have granted the use of it to the Universal Chm'ch. But since those things which pertain to worship are evidently bound by an intimate chord to its object, and cannot remain fixed and deter- mined, if it be doubtful, and placed in uncertainty, therefore our prede- cessors, the Roman Pontiffs, increasing with all their care the devotion of the Conception, studied most especially to declare and inculcate its object and doctrine; for they taught clearly and openly that the festival was celebrated for the Conception of the Virgin, and they proscribed as false and most foreign to the intention of the Church the opinion of those who considered and affii-med that it was not the Conception itself, but the sanctification, to which devotion was paid by the Church. Nor did they think of treating more indulgently those who, in order to weaken the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, drawing a distinc- tion between the first and second instant and moment of the Conception, asserted that the Conception was indeed celebrated, but not for the first instant and moment; for Our predecessors themselves thought it their duty to protect and defend with all zeal both the feast of the Concep- tion of the Most Blessed Virgin, and the Conception from the first instant, as the true object of devotion. Hence the words, evidently decretive, in which Alexander VII. declared the true intention of the Church, saying : '* Certainly, it is the ancient piety of the faithful of Christ towards His MOST HOLY LORD Pi US IX. xix Most Blessed Mother the Virgin Mary, believing that her soul, in the first instant of creation, and of infusion into the body, was by a special grace and privilege of God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ her Son the Redeemer of mankind, preserved free from the stain of origi- nal sin, and in this sense they keep and celebrate with solemn rites the Festival of her Conception." And to the same. Our predecessors, this also was most especially a duty to preserve from contention the doctrine of the Immaculate Con- ception of the Mother of God, guarded and protected with all care and zeal. For not only have they never suffered that this doctrine should ever be censured or ti'aduced in any way, or by any one, but they have gone much farther, and in clear declarations on repeated occasions they have proclaimed that the doctrine in which we confess the Im- maculate Conception of the Virgin is, and by its own merit, held evidently consistent with Ecclesiastical worship, that it is ancient and nearly universal, and of the same sort as that which the Roman Church has undertaken to cherish and protect, and, above all, worthy to be placed in its sacred liturgy and its solemn prayers. Nor content with this, in order that the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin should remain inviolate, they have most severely prohibited the opinion adverse to this doctrine to be defended either in public or in private, and they have wished to crush it, as it were, by repeated blows. To which reiterated and most clear declarations, lest they might appear empty, they added a sanction; all which things Our illustrious predecessor, Alexander VII., embraced in these words: — " Considering that the Holy Roman Church solemnly celebrates the festival of the Conception of the Immaculate and Ever-Blessed Virgin, and has appointed for this a special and proper office according to the pious, devout, and laudable institution which emanated from Our predecessor, Sixtus IV., and wishing, after the example of the Roman Pontiffs, Om^ predecessors, to favor this laudable piety, devotion, and festival, and the reverence shown towards it, never changed in the Roman Church since the institution of the worship itself; also in order to protect the piety and devotion of venerating and celebrating the Most Blessed Virgin, preserved from original sin by the preventing grace of the Holy Ghost, and desiring to preserve in the flock of Chrst unity of spirit in IX LETTERS APOSTOLIC OF OUR the bond of peace, removing offences, and brawls, and scandals; at the instance and prayers of the said Bishops, with the Chapters of their churches, and of King Philip and liis kingdoms — we renew the consti- tutions and decrees issued by the Roman Pontifts, Our predecessors, and especially by Sixtus IV., Paul V., and Gregory XV., in favor of asserting the opinion that the soul of the Blessed Virgin, in its creation and infusion into the body, was endowed with the grace of the Holy Ghost, and preserved from original sin ; likewise, also, in favor of the festival of the same Virgin Mother of God, celebrated according to that pious belief which is recited above, and We command that it shall be ob- served under the censures and punishments contained in the same constitutions. "And against all and each of those who try to interpret the aforesaid constitutions or decrees so that they may frustrate the favor shown through these to the said belief and to the festival or worship cele- brated according to it, or who try to recall into dispute the same belief, festival, or worship, or against these in any manner, either directly or indirectly, and on any pretext, even that of examining the grounds of defining it, or of explaining or interpreting the Sacred Scriptui-es or the Holy Fathers or Doctors ; in fine, who should dare under any pre- text or on any occasion whatsoever, to say either in writing or in speech, to preach, to treat, to dispute, by determining or asserting anything against these, or by bringing arguments against them and leaving these arguments unanswered, or by expressing dissent in any other possible manner; besides the punishments and censures contained in the con- stitutions of Sixtus IV., to which we desire to add, and by these presents do add, those: We will that they should be deprived ipso fado^ and without other declaration, of the faculty of preaching, of reading in public, or of teaching and interpreting, and also of their voice, whether active or passive, in elections ; from which censures they cannot be absolved, nor obtain dispensation, unless from Us, or Our successors, the Roman Pontiffs ; likewise We wish to subject, and We hereby do subject, the same persons to other penalties to be inflicted at Our will, and at that of the same Roman Pontiffs, Our successors, renewing the constitutions or decrees of Paul IV., and Gregory XV., above re- ferred to. MOST HOLY LORD PIUS IX. xxi "And We prohibit, under the penalties and censures contained in the Index of Prohibited Books, and We will and declare that they should be esteemed prohibited ipso facto^ and without other declaration, books in which the aforesaid belief and the festival or devotion celebrated accord- ing to it is recalled into dispute, or in which anything whatever is writ- ten or read against these, or lectures, sermons, treatises, and disputations against the same, published after the decree of Paul V. above mentioned, or to be published at any future time." All are aware with how much zeal this doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God has been handed down, asserted and propagated by the most distinguished religious Orders, the most celebrated theological academies, and the most eminent doctors of the science of Divinity. All know likewise how anxious have been the Bishops openly and publicly to profess, even in the Ecclesiastical assemblies themselves, that the Most Holy Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, by virtue of the merits of ^Christ Our Lord, the Saviour of mankind, never lay under ori- ginal sin, but was preserved free from the original stain, and thus was redeemed in a more sublime manner. To which, lastly, is added this fact, most grave, and, in an especial manner, most important of all, that the Council of Trent itself, when it promulgated the dogmatic decree concerning original sin, in which, according to the testimonies of the Sacred Scriptures, of the Holy Fathers, and of the most approved coun- cils, it determined and defined that all mankind are born under original sin ; solemnly declared, however, that it was not its intention to in- clude in the decree itself, and in the amplitude of its definition, the Blessed and Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God. Indeed, by this declaration, the Tridentine Fathers have asserted, according to the times and the circumstances of affairs, that the Blessed Virgin Mary was free fi'om the original stain, and thus clearly signified that nothing could be justly adduced from the sacred writings, nor from the authority of the Fathers, which would in any way gainsay so great a prerogative of the Virgin. And, in real truth, illustrious monuments of a venerated antiquity of the Eastern and of the Western Church most powerfully testify that this doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin, every day more and more so splendidly explained and confirmed by the high- xxii LETTERS APOSTOLIC OF OUR est auUiority, teaching, zeal, science, and wisdom of the Church, and so wonderfully propagated amongst all the nations and peoples of the Cath- olic world, always existed in the Church as received by Our ancestors, and stamped with the character of a divine revelation. For the Church of Christ, careful guardian and defender of the dogmas deposited with her, changes nothing in them, diminishes nothing, adds nothing, but, with all industry, by faithfully and wisely treating ancient things, if they are handed down from antiquity, so studies to eliminate, to clear them up, that these ancient dogmas of heavenly faith may receive evidence, light, distinction, but still may retain their fullness, integrity, propriety, and may increase only in their own kind — that is, in the same dogma, the same sense, and the same belief. The Fathei*s and writers of the Church, taught by the heavenly writ- mgs, had nothing more at heart, in the books written to explain the Scriptures, to vindicate the dogmas, and to instruct the faithful, than emulously to declare and exhibit in many and wonderful ways the Virgin's most high sanctity, dignity, and freedom from all stain of original sin, and her renowned victory over the most foul enemy of the human race. Wherefore, repeating the words in which, at the beginning of the world, the Almighty, announcing the remedies of his mercy, prepared for regen- erating mankind, crushed the audacity of the lying Serpent, and wonder- fully raised up the hope of our race, saying, " I will place enmity between thee and the woman, thy seed and hers," they taught that in this divine oracle was clearly and openly pointed out the merciful Kedeemer of the human race — the only-begotten Son of God, Christ Jesus, and that his Most Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary, was designated, and at the same time that the enmity of both against the Serpent was signally expressed. Wherefore, as Christ, the mediator of God and men, having assumed human nature, blotting out the handwriting of the decree which stood against us, fastened it triumphantly to the Cross, so the Most Holy Vir- gin, bound by a most close and indissoluble chain with Him, exercis- ing with Him and through Him eternal enmity against the malignant Serpent, and triumphing most amply over the same, has crushed his head with her Immaculate foot. This illustrious and singular triumph of the Virgin, and her most ex- alted innocence, purity, and holiness, her freedom from all stain of sin, MOST HOLY LORD PIUS IX. rsiii and ineffable abundance and greatness of all heavenly graces, ^drtues, and privileges, the same Fathers beheld in that ark of Noah, which, di- vinely appointed, escaped safe and sound from the common shipwreck of the whole w^orld; also in that ladder which Jacob beheld reaching from earth to heaven, by whose steps the Angels of God ascended and descended, on whose top leaned God himself; also in that bush which, in the holy place, Moses beheld blaze on every side, and amidst the crackling flames neither to be consumed nor to suffer the least injury, but to grow green and to blossom fairly; also in that impregnable tower in front of the enemy, on which are hung a thousand bucklers and all the armor of the brave ; also in that garden fenced round about, which cannot be violated nor corrupted by any schemes of fraud; also in that brilliant city of God, whose foundations are in the holy mounts ; also in that most august temple of God, which, shining with divine splendor, is filled with the glory of God ; likewise in many other things of this kind which the Fathers have handed down, that the exalted dignity of the Mother of God, and her spotless innocence, and her holiness, obnoxious to no blemish, have been signally pre- announced. To describe the same totality, as it were, of divine gifts, and the original integrity of the Virgin of whom Jesus was born, the same Fathers, using the eloquence of the Prophets, celebrate the august Vir- gin as the spotless dove, the holy Jerusalem, the exalted throne of God, the ark and house of sanctification, which Eternal Wisdom built for itself; and as that Queen who, abounding in delights and leaning on her beloved, came forth entirely perfect from the mouth of the Most High, fair and most dear to God, and never stained with the least spot. But when the same Fathers and the writers of the Church re- volved in their hearts and minds that the Most Blessed Virgin, in the name and by the order of God himself, was proclaimed full of grace by the Angel Gabriel, when announcing her most sublime dignity of the Mother of God, they taught that, by this singular and solemn salu- tation, never heard on any other occasion, is shown that the Mother of God is the seat of all divine graces, and adorned with all the gifts of the Holy Ghost — yea, the infinite storehouse and inexhaustible abyss of the same gifts; so that, never subjected to malediction, and alono XXIT LETTERS APOSTOLIC OF OUR with her Son partaker of perpetual benediction, she deserved to hear from Elizabeth, inspired by the Holy Ghost: "Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb." Hence it is the clear and unanimous opinion of the same that the Most Glorious Virgin, for whom He who is powerful has done gi-eat things, has shone with such a brilliancy of all heavenly gifts, such fullness of grace, and such innocence, that she has been an ineffable miracle of the Almighty, yea, the crown of all miracles, and worthy Mother of God ; that she approaches as nearly to God as created natm-e can do, and is far above the praise of men or angels. And, therefore, to vindicate the original innocence and justice of the Mother of God, they not only compared her to Eve, as yet virgin, as yet innocent, as yet incorrupted, and not yet deceived by the most deadly snares of the most treacherous serpent, but they have preferred her with a wonderful variety of thought and expression. For Eve, miserably obeying the serpent, fell from original innocence, and became his slave, but the Most Blessed Virgin, ever increasing her original gift, not only never leant an ear to the serpent, but by a vii'tue divinely received utterly broke his power. Wherefore they have never ceased to call the Mother of God the lily amongst the thorns, earth entirely untouched, virgin, undefiled, immacu- late, ever blessed, and free from all contagion of sin, from which was foimed the new Adam; a reproachless, most sweet paradise of innocence, immortality, and delights, planted by God himself, and fenced from all snares of the malignant serpent; incorruptible branch that the worm of sin has never injured; fountain ever clear, and marked by the virtue of the Holy Ghost; a most divine temple, or treasure of immortality, or the sole and only daughter not of death but of life, the seed not of enmity but of grace, which by the singular providence of God has always flour- ished, springing from a coiTupt and imperfect root, contrary to the settled and common laws. But if these encomiums, though most splendid, were not sufficient, they proclaimed in proper and defined opinions that when sin was to be treated of, no question should be entertained concerning the Holy Virgin Mary, to whom an abundance of grace was given to con- quer sin completely. They also declared that the Most Glorious Virgin was the reparatiix of her parents, the vivifier of posterity, chosen from the ages, prepared for Himself by the Most High, predicted by God when he said to the serpent, " I will place enmity between thee and the woman," who luidoubtedly has crushed the poisonous head of the same serpent; and therefore they affirm that the same Blessed Virgin was through grace perfectly free from every stain of sin, and from all conta- gion of body and soul and mind, and always conversant with God, and united with him in an eternal covenant, never was in darkness, but always in light, and therefore was plainly a fit habitation for Christ, not on account of her bodily state, but on account of her original grace. To these things are added the noble words in which, speaking of the Conception of the Yirgin, they have testified that nature yielded to grace and stood trembling, not being able to proceed further ; for it was to be that the Virgin Mother of God should not be conceived by Anna before grace should bear fruit. For she ought thus to be conceived as the first born, from whom should be conceived the first born of every creature. They have testified that the flesh of the Virgin, taken from Adam, did not admit the stains of Adam, and on this account that the Most Blessed Vir- gin was the tabernacle created by God himself, formed by the Holy Spirit, truly enriched with purple which that new Beseleel made, adorned and woven with gold ; and that this same Virgin is, and deservedly is, celebrated as she who was the first and the peculiar work of God, escaped from the fiery weapons of evil; and fair by nature, and entirely free from all stain, came into the world all shining like the morn in her Immaculate Conception ; nor, truly, was it right that this vessel of elec- tion should be assailed by common injuries, since, differing very much from others, she had community with them only in their nature, not in their fault. Moreover, it was right that, as the Only Begotten had a Father in heaven whom the seraphim proclaim thrice holy, so He should have a Mother on the earth, who should never want the splendor of holiness. And this doctrine, indeed, so filled the minds and souls of om- forefathers, that a marvelous and singular form of speech prevailed with, them, in which they very frequently called the Mother of God immacuiate and entirely immaculate, innocent and most innocent, spotless, holy, and most distant from every stain of sin, all pure, all perfect, the type and model of purity and innocence, more beautiful than beauty, more gracious than xxn LETTERS APOSTOLIC OF OUR grace, more holy than holiness, and alone holy, and most pure in soul and body, who has surpassed all perfectitude and all virginity, and has become the dwelling-place of all the graces of the Most Holy Spirit, and who, God alone excepted, is superior to all, and by nature fairer, more beautiful, and more holy than the cherubim and seraphim ; she whom all the tongues of heaven and earth do not suffice to extol. No one is ignorant that these forms of speech have passed, as it were spontaneously, into the monuments of the most holy Liturgy, and the Offices of the Church, and that they occm- often in them and abound amply ; and that the Mother of God is invoked and named in them as a spotless dove of beauty, as a rose ever blooming and perfectly pure, and ever spotless and ever blessed, and is celebrated as innocence which was never wounded, and a second Eve who brought forth Emmanuel. It is no wonder, then, if the Pastors of the Church and the faithful people have daily more and more gloried to profess with so much piety and fei*vor this doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mother of God, pointed out in the Sacred Scriptures, according to the judgment of the Fathers, handed down in so many mighty testimonies of the same, expressed and celebrated in so many illustrious monuments of a revered antiquity, and proposed, and with great piety confirmed, by the greatest and highest judgment of the Church ; so that nothing would be more dear, more pleasing to the same, than everywhere to worship, venerate, invoke, and proclaim the Virgin Mother of God conceived with- out original stain. Wherefore, from the ancient times, the Princes of the Church, Ecclesiastics, and even emperors and kings themselves, have #imestly entreated of this Apostolic See that the Immaculate Conception of the Most Holy Mother of God should be defined as a dogma of Catholic faith. Which entreaties were renewed also in these Our times, and espe- cially were a ddress^ to Gregory XVL, Our predecessor of happy memoiy, and^^^urselves, not only 1)\' Bishops, but by the secular clergy, religious Ora^Pby the greatest princes, and by the faithful people. Tlrerelnre, with singular joy of mind, well knowing all these things, and seriously consIdtM-ing tl|pii, scarcely had We, though unworthy, been raised 1^ a mysterious dispensation of Divine Providence to the exalted Chair of Peter, and undertaken the government of the whole Church, than, following the veneration, the piety, and love We had entertained for the MOST HOLY LORD PIUS IX. XXVll Blessed Yirgin from Our tender years, We had nothing at heart more than to accomplish all these things which as yet were amongst the ardent wishes of the Church, that the honor of the Most Blessed Virgin should be increased, and her prerogatives should shine with a fuller light. But wishing to bring to this full maturity We appointed a special congrega- tion of Our Venerable Brothers, the Cardinals of the Holy Eoman Church, illustrious by their piety, their wisdom, and their knowledge of the sacred sciences, and We also selected Ecclesiastics, both secular and regular, well trained in theological discipline, that they should most carefully weigh all those things which relate to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, and report to Us their opinion. And, although from the entreaties lately received by Us for at length defining the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, the opinions of most of the Bishops of the Church were understood ; however. We sent Encyclic letters, dated at Gaeta, the 2d day of February, in the year 1849, to all Our Venerable Brethren, the Bishops of all the Catholic world, in order that having offered prayers to God they might signify to Us, in witing, what was the piety and devotion of their flocks towards the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God, and especially what the Bishops themselves thought about promulgating the definition, or what they desired in order that We might pronounce Our supreme judgment as solemnly as possible. Certainly we were filled with no slight consolation when the replies of Our Venerable Brethren came to Us. For, with an incredible joyfulness, gladness, and zeal, they not only confirmed their own singular piety, and that of their clergy and faithful people, towards the Immaculate Concep- tion of the Most Blessed Virgin, but they even entreated of Us with% common voice that the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin should be defined by Our supreme judgment and authority. Nor, indeed, were We filled with less joy when- Our Venerable Brothers, ,dtiie Cardinals of the Special Congregation aforesaid, and the consulting theologians chosen by Us, after a diligent examination demanded fi-om Us with equal alacrity and zeal this definition of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God. '^ M Afterwards walking in the illustrious footsteps of Our predecessors, and desiring to proceed duly and properly. We proclaimed and held a Consistory, in which We addressed Our Brethren, the Cardinals of the xxvui LETTERS APOSTOLIC OF OUR Holy Roman Churcli, and with the greatest consolation of mind We heard them entreat of Us that We should promulgate the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mother of God. Therefore having full trust in the Lord that the opportune time had come for defining the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary Mother of God, which the Divine word, venerable tradition, the perpetual opinion of the Church, the singular agreement of Catholic Prelates and Faithful, and the signal acts and constitutions of Our predecessors wonderfully illustrate and proclaim; having most diligently weighed all things, and poured forth to God assiduous and fervent prayers. We resolved that We would no longer delay to sanction and define, by Our supreme authority, the Innnaculate Conception of the Virgin, and thus to satisfy the most pious desires of the Catholic world and Our own piety towards the Most Holy Virgin, and, at the same time, to honor more and more the cmly-begot- ten Son Jesus Christ Om- Lord, since whatever honor and praise is given to the Mother redounds to the Son. Wherefore, after We had unceasingly, in humility and fasting, offered Our own prayers and the public prayers of the Church to God the Father, through his Son, that He would deign to direct and confirm Our mind by the power of the Holy Ghost, and implored the aid of the entire heavenly host, and invoked the Paraclete with sighs, and He thus inspir- ing, to the honor of the Holy and undivided Trinity, to the glory and ornament of the Virgin Mother of God, to the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of the Catholic religion, by the authority of Jesus Christ Our Lord, of the Blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul, We declare, .Renounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace of the Omnipitent God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind, was preserved immaculate from all stain of origi- nal si^h^^j^n revealed ])y God, and therefore should firmly and con- staiMlpi^Wliieved by all the faithful. Wherefore, if any shall dare — whicn (jJod forbid — to thiiilc otherwise than as it has been defined by Us, they ipK » 111 (1 know and understand that they are condemned by their own judPnent, that they have suffered shipwreck of the faith, and have revolted from the unity of the Chm-ch ; and besides, by their own act they subject themselves to the penalties justly established, if what they think MOST HOLY LORD PIUS IX. xxix they should dare to signify by word, writing, or any other outward means. Our mouth is filled with joy, and Our tongue with exultation, and We return, and shall ever return, the most humble and the greatest thanks to Jesus Christ Our Lord, because through his singular beneficence He has granted to Us, though unworthy, to offer and decree this honor, glory, and praise, to His Most Holy Mother; but We rest in the most certain hope and confidence that this Most Blessed Virgin, who, all fair and immaculate, has bruised the poisonous head of the most malignant Ser- pent, and brought salvation to the world, who is the praise of the Prophets and the Apostles, the honor of the Martyrs, and the crown and joy of all the Saints-^who is the safest refuge and most faithful helper of all who are in danger, and the most powerful mediatrix and conciliatrix with the only-begotten Son for the whole world, and the most illustrious glory and ornament, and most firm guardian of the Holy Church, who has destroyed all heresies, and snatched from the greatest calamities of all kinds the faithful peoples and nations, and delivered Us from so many threatening dangers, will effect by her most powerful patronage that, all difficulties being removed, and all errors dissipated. Our Holy Mother the Catholic Church may flourish daily more and more throughout all nations and countries, and may reign from sea to sea to the ends of the earth, and may enjoy all peace, tranquillity, and liberty; that the sinner may obtain pardon, the sick healing, the weak strength of heart, the afflicted consola- tion, and that all who are in error, their spiritual blindness being dissi- pated, may return to the path of truth and justice, and may become one flock and one shepherd. Let all the children of the Catholic Church, most dear to Us, hear these Our words, and, with a more ardent zeal of piety, religion, and love, pro- ceed to worship, invoke, and pray to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, conceived without original sin, and let them fly with entire confidence to this most sweet Mother of Mercy and Grac^ in all dangers, difficulties, doubts, and fears. For nothing is to be feared, and nothing is to be despaired of under her guidance, under her auspices, under her favor, under her protection, who, bearing towards us a maternal affection, and taking up the business of our salvation, is solicitous for the whole human race, and, appointed by God the Queen of Heaven and LETTERS APOSTOLIC. Earth, and exalted above all the choirs of Angels, and orders of Saints, standing at the right hand of the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ Our Lord, intercedes most powerfully, and obtains what she asks, and cannot be frusti*ated. Finally, in order that this Our definition of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary may be brought to the knowledge of the Universal Church, We will these Letters Apostolic to stand for a perpetual remembrance of the thing, commanding that to transcripts or printed- copies, subscribed by the hand of some notary public, and authenticated by the seal of a person of Ecclesiastical rank, appointed for the purpose, the same faith shall be paid which would be paid to these presents if they were exhibited or shown. Let no man interfere with this Our declaration, pronunciation, and definition, or oppose and contradict it with presumptuous rashness. If any should presume to assail it, let him know that he will incur the in- dignation of the Omnipotent God and of His Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, in the year of the Incarnation of Our Lord 1854, the sixth of the Ides of December, in the ninth year of Our Pontificate. PIUS IX., Pope. Li I P^ E OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY; iH0tl)er of (^oir. CHAPTER I. UNIVERSAL EXPECTATION OF THE VIRGIN AND OF THE MESSIAH. those remote times when the world was still in its infancy, when our first parents, trem- bling and amazed, heard, under the majestic shades of Eden,* the awful voice of Jehovah condemning them to exile, to labor, and to death, in punishment of their mad dis- obedience, a mysterious prediction, wherein the pitying kindness of the Creator was manifested through the * The word Eden, among the Arabs as among the Hebrews, is the name of the terrestrial paradise, and also of the paradise of the elect. * wrath of the ofiended Deity, came to raise the drooping spirits of those two frail creatures who had, like Lucifer, sinned through pride. A daughter of Eve, a woman of mascu- line com^age, was to crush the head of the serpent beneath her feet, and to regenerate for ever a guilty race ; that woman was Mary. Thenceforward, it was a tradition amongst the antediluvian tribes that a woman should come to repair the evil which another had done; this consoling tradition, which kept up In Hebrew, it signifies a place of delight ; in Arabic, a place proper for the grazing of flocks. 82 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. the hopes of a fallen race, had not * yet been effaced from the minds of men, at the time of their grand dis- persion on the plains of Sennaar; they carried with them, over seas and mountains, that sweet, though distant hope, together with the re- ligion of Noah, and the wreck of art and science saved from the waters of the Deluge.* In after times, when the primitive religion faded away, and the ancient traditions were shrouded in obscurity, that of the Vii-gin and the Messiah resisted, almost alone, the action of time, and reared itself up on the ruin of ancient creeds, swallowed up in the fables of polytheism, like the evergreen which grows amid the * It is certain that the race of primitive men, which was wild, but not savage, early attained a knowledge of the arts analogous to their wants and pleasures. Scarcely do the children of Adam form into little communities of men, when we see them establish a public worship, fabricate tents, build towns, forge iron, cast bronze, invent instruments of music, and follow the coarse of the stars. The history of Astron- omy must be traced, according to Bailly, to an antediluvian people, of whom the memory is lost, but of whose astronomical knowledge some fragments escaped the general revolution. La- lande, fearing that this assertion might prove too much in favor of the Sacred Books, refers to the Egyptians the origin of this science ; but the Hebrews, who, as neighbors, contempo- ruins of what once was Babylon the great.f* Let us sui-vey the various regions of the globe; let us search, from north to south, from east to west, the religious chi-onicles of the nations, we shall find the Virgin promised, and her divine maternity at the basis of almost all theogonies. In Thibet, in Japan, and in a por- tion of the eastern peninsula of In- dia, it is the god Fo, who, to save mankind, became incarnate in the womb of the young betrothed of a king, the nymph Lhamoghiuprul, the fairest and holiest of women. In China, they reckon amongst the number of the sons of Heaven the Emperor Hoang-Ti, whose mollier raries, and ancient dwellers amongst the E<2fyp- tians, have a right to settle this diiference, decide for Bailly, against his adversary, by in- forming us that the Egyptians derived their first astronomical knowledge from the tradi- tions saved from the Deluge. (/S'ee Joseph. Ant. Jud.) f There is but one single tree found amid the ruins of Babylon ; the Persians give it the name of Athele ; according to them, that tree existed in the ancient city, and was miracu- lously preserved, to the end that their prophet Ali, the son-in-law of Mahomet, might fasten his horse to it after the battle of Hilla. It is an evergreen shrub, and so rare in those rej^ions that there is only one other of the same kind, found at Bassora. (Rich's Memoir.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 83 conceived by a flash of lightning ; ' another emperor, Yao, who lived at the time of the Deluge, had for his mother a virgin who conceived from the beam of a star ; Yu, the head of the first Chinese dynasty, owed his life to a pearl (the emblem of light throughout all the East) ,* which fell from heaven into the chaste bosom of a young maiden. Heou-Tsi, chief of the dynasty of Tcheou, changed not, by his birth, the virginity of his mother, who conceived him by di- vine operation, one day as she was in prayer, and brought him forth without effort and without pain in a deserted grotto, where lambs and oxen warmed him with their breath.f The most popular goddess of the Celestial Empire, Sching-Mou, con- ceived at the simple touch of a * " The pearl,'' says Chardin, " has every- where distinctive names : in the East, the Turks and Tartars call it mardjaun, globe of light ; the Persians, marvid, production of light." f We find in the Chi-kmg two fine odes on this marvellous birth of Heou-Tsi ; and the com- ments and paraphrases of the learned on these verses agree in explaining them in a way which renders the resemblance to the divine mater- Hity of Mary still more striking. " Every child who is born," says Ho-sou, " rends the womb of his mother, and costs her the most cruel an- guish. Kiang-Yuen brought forth hers without rupture, hurt, or pain. It is that Tien {Heaven) ^ water-flower; her son, brought up under the roof of a poor fisherman, became a great man, and wrought miracles. The lamas say that Buddha is born of the virgin Maha-Mahai. Sommonokhodom, the prince, the legislator, and the god of Siam, likewise owes his life to a virgin made fruitful by the rays of the sun. Lao-Tseu took flesh in the womb of a black virgin, wonderful and fair as the jasper. The zodiacal Isis of the Egyptians is a virgin mother. The Isis of the Druids was to bring forth the future Sa- viour.;!; The Brahmins teach that, when a god assumes human flesh, he is conceived in the womb of a virgin, by divine operation: so also Jagrenat,§ the mutilated re- would thus display its power, and show how the Holy One differs from men. Having been con- ceived by the operation of Tien," says another commentator, Tsou-Tsong-Ho, " who gave him life by a miracle, he must needs be born without wounding the virginity of his mother." J Hinc Druidse statuam in intimis penetrali- bus erexerunt, Isidi seu virgini hanc dedicantes, ex qua filius ille proditurus erat (nempe generis humani Eedemptor). (Elias Schedius, de Dlis Germanis, cap. 13.) § Jagrenat, the seventh incarnation of Brah- ma, is represented in the form of a pyramid, without hands and without feet. "He lost u LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. deeuier of the world; Chricbna, born in a grotto, where angels and shepheixls come to adore him in his nadle, — each of these has a virgin for his mother. The Babylonian Dogdo sees in a dream a brilliant messenger fi*om Oromazes, who deposits at her feet the most magnificent garments; a celestial light falls upon the face of the sleeper, who becomes fair as the ibem," say the Brahmins, " trying to carry the world, in order to save it." {See Kircher.) * Zer-Ateucht signifies washed with silver; this surname was given to Zoroaster, because that, as the Ghebers say, he proved his mission, to a Sabean prince who persecuted him, by plunging into a bath of molten silver. (See Tavernier, ToL iL, p. 92.) t This Nemroud, whom Tavernier names Nenbrout, is, according to some, Nimrod, the famous hunter ; according to others, the tyrant Zhohac, of the Persians, a king of the first dy- nasty of princes, who reigned immediately after ^e Deluge. According to the author of the MefaiiA Aloloum, Nemroud would be identical with Gaicaous, second king of the second dy- nasty of Persia, named the Calanides. The Persian historians give him a reign of nearly two centuries, which must needs be rather long. By some he is represented as an impious man, who conceived the strange fancy of ascending to heaven in a chest, drawn by four of those monstrous birds called kerkes, mentioned by old Eastern writers in their romances. After having wandered some time through the air, he fell so heavily on a mountain, say the ancient legends of Persia, that it was shaken to its very base. According to the Persians, this Nimrod caused * day-star; Zerdhucht, Zoroaster, or rather Ebraliim-Zer-Ateucht, * the famous prophet of the Magi, is the fruit of this nocturnal vision. The tyrant Nimrod, f informed by his astrologers that a child, still unborn, menaces his gods and his throne, causes all pregnant women to be put to death; Zerdhucht, however, is saved through the prudence and dexterity of his mother.J The Ma- Zerdhucht, whom they confound with Abraham, to be cast into a fiery furnace ; according to others, Nemroud was a Sabean in religion, and it was he who first established the worship of fire. (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, t. iii., p. 32.) The Jews claim for Abraham, the father and the founder of their people, this persecu- tion, of which the honor is given by the Per- sians to Zerdhucht, their legislator. St. Jerome relates an ancient tradition of the Jews, to the effect that Abraham had been cast into the fire by order of the Chaldeans, because he would not adore him. (Hieron., Qucest. in Genes.) This tradition is confirmed by Jewish writers much more modern ; R. Chain, ben Adda mentions that Abraham, meeting a young girl carrying an idol, broke the latter in pieces ; a complaint was immediately laid before Nemroud, who would have him, therefore, adore the fire. The patriarch gravely answered, that it would be much more natural to worship water, which extinguishes fire, the clouds whence the water proceeds, the wind which gathers the clouds, and man who is a being much more pei'fect than the "wind. Nemroud, irritated by this cutting rebuke, cast Abraham into the fire, which, how- ever, did not harm him. J See Tavernier, at the place quoted. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 35 ceniques, who inhabit the shores of Lake Zarayas, in Paraguay, relate that at a very remote period a woman of rare beauty became a mother, yet remained a virgin ; her son, after having wrought many ex- traordinary miracles, ascended one day into the open air, in presence of his disciples, and transformed himself into a sun. Let all these scattered fragments of corrupted seed be brought to- gether, and they will make up, in nearly all its details, the history of the Virgin and her divine Son. The Virgin, notwithstanding the royal blood which flows through her veins, is of obscure condition, like the mother of Zoroaster; like her, too, she receives the visit of an angel bearing a message from Heaven. The tyrant Nemroud, who was the progenitor of a line of very wicked princes, may pass for the type of Herod, and is as anxious to compass the death of the young fire-wor- shipper as the sanguinary spouse of Mariamne to accomplish that of the infant Jesus ; both miss their prey. Born of a virgin who conceives him during fervent prayer, and brings him forth without pain or effort in a * poor stable, like the first-born of the noble and pious Kiang-Yuen, our divine Saviour dwelt amongst the lower classes, like the son of the Chinese goddess ; angels and shep- herds come to render Him homage, as to Chrichna, on the very night of his birth ; then, after having stilled the tempest, walked on the water, expelled demons, raised the dead to life, he ascends triumphantly into heaven in the presence of five hun- dred disciples, whose dazzled eyes lose sight of him in the clouds, pre- cisely as is related by the savage tribes of Paraguay. It is assuredly very strange that these marvellous legends, which have not been copied from the evan- gelical facts, since they are incontes- tably more ancient, yet form, when taken together, the real life of the Son of God. Can truth, then, spring from error ? What are we to think of these fantastic associations? Shall we say, with the scoffing philoso- phers of the Voltairian school, and some German visionaries of a some- what more recent date, that the Apostles borrowed these fables from the various creeds of Asia? But without speaking of the jealous care LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. with which they hid the books re- puted divine in the impenetiable darkness of the sanctuary — not to mention the profound horror where- with the Jews regarded idolatrous legends, and their supreme contempt for foreign learning — how could poor, illiterate men, the extent of whose knowledge was to steer a bark over the waters of Genesareth, and whose nets were still dripping with its living waters, when they were pro- moted to the Apostleship — how could laborious artizans, forced to toil for their daily bread during the intervals of their preaching — how could such as they have ransacked the sacred books of the Indias, of the Chinese, the Bactrians, the Pheni- cians, and the Persians ? What appearance is there that Simon Peter, the sons of Zebedee, or the austere disciple of Gamaliel, who boldly said to Corinth, that rich and learned Grecian city. For myself^ I kivow hut one thing ^ Jesus ^ and Him crtmjied, that these should have snatched from idolatry, which their mission was to destroy, some of its old tatters to patch upon the life of Jesus Christ — a life so simple and 80 grand ! Still, if the question had * only been of loans made from the fabulous legends of nations border- ing on Palestine, such as the Egyp- tians and Phenicians, however unjust might have been the accusation, it w^ould have had, at least, a show of probability ; but no ! these brilliant pomts, which detach themselves from the dark shades of idolatry to form, like so many little stars, the am-eola of the Yirgin's Son, come from places the most distant and the least known. Not to speak of that Gaul, whose impenetrable forests hid, at the extremity of Western Eu- rope, its mysterious creed under the shadow of giant oaks ; of the great Indies, so imperfectly known in the time of Tiberias ; of that Serica of the porcelain towers, whose distant provinces did not tempt even the covetous Romans;* how could the Apostles have contrived to commu- nicate with far America, separated from the old continent by her green belt of waves, and lost like the pearl amid the waters. * It was under the reign of Augustus that the Roman people received the first ambassador from the Seres, whom we now call Chinese. The ambassadors pretended that it had taken ^ them three years to make the journey. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 37 But, granting that the Apostles had known, no matter how, these ancient myths, disseminated over all the globe — nay, I will go far- ther still, and, setting aside native simplicity, the sealed testimony of blood, the high sanctity of these divine men, carried away, as Rous- seau says, with zeal for their Mas- ter's glory, I will suppose that the idea had occurred to them to em- broider some fabulous circumstances on the evangelical tissue — why, the thing would have passed ih^h: power. With what face, for instance, could they have attributed to that Herod, whom all Jerusalem had known, whose reign, so glorious and yet so tragical, each one knew by heart, an atrocious and improbable fact, renewed from I know not what king of Persia, who, perhaps, never ex- isted save in the dreams of the Magi? K the massacre of the In- nocents had been a story fabricated or copied by the Apostles, is it to be believed that the Bethlehemites, * The flatterers of Herod the First, dazzled with the greatness and magnificence of that prince, maintained that he was the Messiah. Hence arose the sect of the Herodians, so often mentioned in the Gospel, and even known to * SO likely to know what was passing in the Holy City, whose lofty towers darkened their horizon, would not have openly protested against that audacious falsehood; or that those cunning Pharisees, who would fain have confounded Jesus himself, would have let such a story become current without attempting to re- fute it ; or that the Herodians would have tamely suffered a stain so foul to be falsely imprinted on the fame of a prince whom they regarded al- most as a god,* and who had loaded them with wealth and honors? K all were silent, it is because the fact was too well accredited, too public, too recent, to leave any plausible pretence for denial; it is because that, within two hours' walk of Jeru- salem, were the mothers of the mar- tyrs who had purchased with their young lives the honor of being born with Christ ; it is because that whole towns had seen the glitter of the mm^derous steel, and heard the wail of death ; it is because that, at the the Pagans, since Persus and his scholiast inform us that, from the days of Nero, the birth of King Herod was celebrated by his sectaries with the same solemnity as the Sab- bath. fl8 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. tii-st denial given to the Christians, a ^ whole nation would have risen and shouted, But toe were there /* So it is with tlie divine child- bearing of Mary — the visit of the shephei-ds sent by the angels — the glorious resurrection — and, in short, with all the prodigies wliich marked the coming of Cluist. The Apostles WTote dming the lifetime of those who had figured in the scenes they related ; and, even before they con- signed these prodigies to writing, they had openly preached them in the very temple of Jehovah, before that immense assemblage of Heb- rews from all the provinces, who re- paired thither either to offer sacri- fice or to bring first-fruits ; the most dangerous auditory in the world, if they had promulgated falsehood. Far fi'om fearing conti'adictions. * " Neither Josephus nor the Rabbins speak of the massacre of the Innocents," says Strauss ; " Macrobus, who lived in the fourth century, is the only writer who says a word of the massacre decreed by Herod." Strauss is in error ; the Toldos, from whom Celsus has taken some of the facts prejudicial to Christianity, which he has interspersed through his writings, do speak positively on the subject, and the fact is in the Talmud. This is the way in which Bossuet answers those who deny the evangelical fact, and never was answer more definitive. " Where which in case of imposture must needs have followed, St. Peter speaks to that vast multitude as one sure of the general assent ; he boldly ap- peals to the yet recent remembrance of those who hear him ; he asserts the miracles which stamped as di- vine the mission of the Son of Mary, and that even before the great coun- cil of the nation, which had exerted all its power to have Jesus crucified. And the senators of Israel, frighten- ed and fm-ious, cause St. Peter and St. John to be beaten with rods, in order to make them keep silence; but yet they deny not, as the Tal- mud shows, those prodigies which they stupidly attribute to magic. Thus it is that they say not to the Apostles brought before them by the guards of the Temple, " Ye are liars or visionaries !" they only tell are those," says he, " who, in order to confirm their faith, would wish that the profane histo- rians of that age had mentioned this cruelty of Herod, as well as all the others? Just as though our faith ought to depend on what the negligence or affected policy of worldly histo- rians has made them record or omit in their histories ! Far from us be such weak imagin- ings ; even in a human point of view, the Evan- geHst would have been very careful not to com- promise the character of his narrative by record- ing a fact which was not well authenticated." LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 39 them, with an agitation which plain- * ly indicates their secret fears, "Be silent! will ye that we be stoned by the people ?" Whereupon those two men, simple in heart, but great in soul, made answer : " We cannot be silent! God commands us to speak, and Him must we obey rather than men." Imposture is not so bold or confident. After having examined the acts, the character, and the position of the Apostles, every impartial mind v/ill be forced to admit that they were neither deceiving nor deceived, and that they have nothing to do with the analogies remarked be- tween the evangelical facts and the traditions, more or less fabulous, of the ancient nations. But, then, how to explain these analogies ? Is it a mere game of chance, a lucky coincidence ? No, it is not by chance that the mystery of the incarnation of a God in the womb of a virgin is one of the fundamental doctrines of Asia. It is not by chance that the privi- leged women who bear in their womb that emanation of the Divin- ity are always chaste, beautiful, and holy; that they have glorious and ^ mysterious names, which signify, in all these ancient tongues, expected beauty^ immaculate virgin, faithful virgin, delight of mankind, polar star; and that they are all so much alike that one would say they were mould- ed on a far-off type hidden from us by the darkness of time. Finally, it is not by chance that a luminous ray unites the divine and human nature. These traditions, wherein the stamp of a primitive time is so plainly visible, evidently ascend to the birth of the world. The ante- diluvian patriarchs, that chain of old men who lived the age of cedars, wishing to form for themselves an idea of the woman blessed amongst all others, whose miraculous mater- nity was to save mankind, repre- sented her to themselves under the likeness of Eve before her fall ; they gave her a majestic and saintly beauty, which cguld awake in the minds of men no other feeling save that of religious veneration ; they made her a mild and veiled star, whose dawn was to precede that of the Sun of Justice. The means whereby God gave fecundity to that virginal womb are 40 L1J:E UF IHE BLESSED VIRQIN MARY Ktiikingly tUike, amongst the differ- ent nations of the world. Cast a glance over all the old religions, and you will there find a sacred fire. But the fire was, for the Persians, the ten'cstrial emblem of the sim, and the sun himself was but the dwelling of the Most High, the glo- rious tent of the God of Heaven.'^ The Hebrews, wht) shared in this belief, recognized the divine pres- ence, or the schelmiUy in the radiant cloud which overhung the cherubim of the mercy-seat. They believed that God clothed himself with light as with a garment, when manifest- ing himself to men, on solemn oc- casions. It was the opinion of the Synagogue, supported by the ti-adi- tion of the Temple, that in the midst of the wild rose-bush, which burned without being consumed, when Moses, that great shepherd of men, was tending, on Mount Horeb, the flocks of his Arab father-in-law, there was seen a very lovely face, resembling nothing that is seen here below; and that this celestial im- * " The Persians suppose that the throne of God is in the sun," says Hanway, " and hence their veneration for that star." f PhUon, Vie de McUse {Life of Moses). f age, clearer than the flame and more brilliant than the lightning, was, without doubt, the image of the Eternal God.f "With this premise, it is not difficult to understand the drift of the opinion, so generally dif- fused, that a luminous ray was to impart fecundity to the womb of the favored virgin who was the expec- tation of all nations. With this graceful tradition of a pure virgin admitted to a divine union, surrounded by impenetrable mystery, was connected that of a Saviour God, born of her womb, who was to suffer and die for the salva- tion of the world. J This tradition was not perpetuated, like the other, by means of brilliant and poetical images, but by terror, which makes an impression far more indelible than poetry. The bloody sacrifice, which we find established, from the earliest times, amongst nearly all nations, was solely intended to pre- serve amongst men the remembrance of the promised immolation of Cal- vary. This is easily proved. J This tradition is found in the sacred books of China. {See Father Premare's work, entitled, Selecta qucedam vestigia prcecipuorum Christiance religionis dogmatum ex antiquis lihris eruta. ) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGLN MART. 41 Worship, that demonstration of love, that homage of gratitude which Adam and Eve were to render to God immediately after their crea- tion, was, in Eden, doubtless com- posed of only innocent prayers and oblations of fruits and flowers.* But when they — ^ungrateful that they were — had infringed upon the pre- cept, so easy in observance, which the Lord had imposed, like a sweet yoke, upon them, merely to make them feel that they had a master; * Porphyr. de Abst., lib. ii. •f God might annex to the plants certain nat- ural virtues for the sake of our bodies, and it is easy to believe that the fruit of the tree of life had the virtue of restoring the body, by an ali- ment so proportionate and so efficacious that none could ever die while using it. (Bossuet, Elev. sur les MysL, t. i. p. 231.) I Man was never immortal, in this world, as the pure spirits are, for a body formed of dust must needs return to dust ; he was so only by a favor, without precedent, and conditionally granted, whereby he was elevated to, and main- tained in, a position far above his proper sphere. Immortality here below never yet belonged to man as a birthright. Every earthly body is to perish through the dissolution of its parts, unless prevented by a special decree of the Creator ; this Divine will was manifested in favor of our first parents. God planted, in the delicious garden where he had placed mor- tal man, the tree of life, a plant of celestial origin, which had the property of repelling death, as the laurel, according to the ancients, f when they had lost, with the immor- talizing fruits of the tree of life,f their talisman against death,J and descended from the charming hills of Eden to a land bristling with briers and thorns, to a land whose virgin bosom they must open to nourish themselves; they added to the fruits and wild flowers produced by the land of exile^ the first fruits of their flocks. This merits atten- tion. Adam, who joined to the per- fection of the human form an intel- keeps off the thunder. To that mysterious tree was attached the immortality of the human species ; away from that protecting tree, death again seized his prey, and man was hurled from the height of heaven into his miserable tene- ment of clay. (Aug., Quoest. Vet. et Nov. Test., q. 19, p. 430.") No one will question, I fancy, that God had an undoubted right to expel Adam from the garden after his disobedience ; but the expulsion involved the sentence of death for man and his posterity; without the tree of life, he was nothing more than a frail and perishable creature, subject to the laws which govern created bodies : when the anti- dote is wanting, it is very evident that the poison kills. Having again become mortal, Adam begot sons mortal like himself. The condition into which the father had fallen must needs be that of the children. In that, God did no wrong to the human race ; we are, by nature, mortal ; He has left us as we were. To withdraw a gratuitous favor, when the object of that favor tears with his own hands the deed of gift, is assuredly not severity, but only justice. i 42 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. ligent and elevated mind, wherein j the Loi-d had planted the germ of all virtue and of all knowledge, could not be void of humanity. His fatal complaisance to Eve shows him loving even to weakness, and therefore susceptible, in the highest degree, of all kindly feelings and affections. How could it, then, oc- cur to him that the Creator would take pleasure in the violent death of His creature, or that an act of destruction was an act of piety ? The immolation of animals, which has not the slightest connection with the vows and prayers of man, and which the purely vegetable food of the first patriarchs left with- out other object than that of mur- der, must needs have excited a * The time that Adam and Eve remained in the terrestrial paradise is not exactly known ; it must, nevertheless, have been of some dura- tion, and so it "was understood by Milton, whom we do not here quote as a poet, but as a pro- found Oriental scholar. Moreover, if we re- member that it was in Eden that Adam learned to distinguish and to call by name all the birds of the air, the beasts of the earth, and the fishes of the water ; that he there learned the virtues of plants, and what God chose to teach him regarding the course of the stars ; we must then conclude that all this was not the work of a day. The Persians and the Chinese have it that the first man was in Paradise for many thousand feelings of disgust and repugnance in the mind of our common father. Long had those poor, dumb creatures, devoid of rea- son, but very capable of attachment, composed, in Eden, the court of that solitary king. He then seated him- self at the same table, slept on the same mossy hillock, quenched his thirst at the same spring, and his prayer ascended to heaven, at early dawn and evening's close, with the warbling of the birds, who seemed to sing, in their turn, the morning or evening hymn. Those compan- ions of his happier days, involved in his misfortune, now shared his exile :* some, giving way to the fe- rocious instinct which in Paradise had remained undeveloped, fled to ages. The Arabs and the Rabbins say that he was there only half a day ; but, according to them, that half day in Paradise was equivalent to five hundred years ; for a day there was equal to a thousand years. According to our views, that period of time is much too long. It is commonly believed that Cain, whose birth, in Genesis, follows closely upon the expulsion of his parents, was born in the year of the world 13, which would leave the stay in Paradise in or about twelve years. That term, although some- what short, would have, nevertheless, enabled the first man to establish his supremacy over the animals subject to him, and to attach him J J to his humble dependants by the tie& of habit. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 43 the depth of the wilderness or the f secret caverns of the mountains, whence they soon waged deadly warfare against their former master. Others, mild and inoffensive by na- ture, established themselves around the grotto of their lord, to whom fchey offered, to satisfy his wants and soothe his cares, their milk, their labor, their fleece, and their melodious concerts. Well, it was from the ranks — thin they were, too — of these humble friends, faithful in misfortune, that Adam selected, counted, and marked his victims ; it was into the throat of the heifer who had given him milk, of the dove who had flown to his bosom for shelter when the vulture hovered in the air, of the lamb that quitted its flowery pasture to lick his hand, that he had the heart to plunge his knife. Ah ! when, man, yet unprac- tised in killing, struck down at his feet a poor, timid creature, and saw ' it bleeding and struggling in the \ agony of death, he must have stood * It is in remembrance of the sin of Eve, at sight of which, according to the Jews, the sun hid his hght, that the Jewish women are spe- cially charged to light the lamps which burn in every house during the Sabbath night. " It is pale and horror-stricken, like the assassin who has just committed his first murder! That thought never occurred to him ; it was not an act of choice, but of painful obedience. Who imposed it upon him ? He to whom alone it belongs to dispose of life and death — God ! Adam committed a sin so enor- mous by its aggravating circum- stances and its disastrous conse- quences, that, in order to express its full extent, the Hebrew tradition relates that the sun hid his face in horror.* Satan attacked him in his strength, at a time when, as yet, he knew nought but good, in the fair- est of earth's scenes, under the re- cent impression of the immense benefit of creation, free, happy, tranquil, immortal, and capable of resisting, if he had chosen to do so. It was from this height that he fell into the fearful abyss of disobedi- ence and ingratitude. The justice of God demanded a punishment proportionate? to the offence; man just," say the Hebrew doctors, "that women should rekindle the flame which they have ex- tinguished, and that they be charged with that trouble, in expiation of their sin." (Basn., Ub. vii. ch. 13.) M LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. was condemned to die a double f death, and it was all over with the human species, had not a Divine Being, predestined before the birth of time to the work of oui* redemp- tion, taken it upon himself to make satisfaction for us all. Thencefor- wai-d he was called the Messiah, and revealed as a Saviour, at the very moment when the voice of God — that voice which rends the cedars — pronomiced the sentence of the three criminals. " Because thou hast done this thing," said God to the serpent, who showed himself proud of our ruin, " the seed of the woman" — that is to say, her off- spring — " shall crush thy head." And the Hebrew tradition adds that God, touched by the repentance of our tirst parents, revealed to them by an angel, that from their race should arise a just man who would annihilate the pernicious ef- fects of the ti-ee of knowledge,* by means of a voluntary oblation, and * It is generally considered, amongst Chris- tians, that the tree of knowledge was an apple- tree ; the Persians maintain, on the contrary, that this fatal tree was a fig-tree. In our days, the German Eichhorn makes it out to have been a species of manchJnecL "A deduction would be the salvation of those who put their trust in Him.f On the other side, we learn from the Arab traditions that God, who is merciful and indulgent, would vouchsafe to point out to man the way to im- plore his forgiveness. That wor- ship, revealed by God, was un- doubtedly sacrifice, a ceremony at once commemorative, expiatory, and symbolical, whereby man acknowl- edged that he had deserved death, and, substituting for himself inno- cent victims, kept perpetually be- fore his mind the great victim of Calvary. Thus, then, the institution of the bloody sacrifice, which was not of human invention, rested, at bottom, on a conception of Divine mercy, since it perpetuated, amongst all nations, that tradition of the Mes- siah, without which the work of the Kedemption would have been a fa- vor thi'own away. God ripens his councils by ages, made from the wonders attending on the fall of man," says that Rationalist writer, " the fact is evident that the constitution of the human body has been, from the beginning, vitiated by the use of a poisonous fruit" (Eichhorn's Argeschichte.) f Basnage, lib. vL ch. 25, p. 417. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 45 for a thousand years are to Him but as one day; but man is eager to obtain, for man lasts but a short time. It appears that Eve had con- cluded, from the words of the angel, that she was to be the mother of the promised Redeemer, and that this was the reason why she testified such transports of joy on the birth of Cain,* whom she took for her Saviour. Undeceived by the devel- opment of his perverse inclinations, she transferred her hopes to Abel, that son so fondly loved, whose name recalls the mourning and tears * Cain is called Gahel by all the Arab writers ; that name, which means the first, is perhaps his proper name. The surname of Cain, which signifies traitor, must have been subsequently given him. (Savary, note to Chapter V. of the Koran. ) f Abel, by the Arabs written Habel, is, accord- ing to them, only the surname of that young shepherd who was the first type of Jesus Christ. In fact, it recalls the sad event which threw the family of Adam into mourning, "and properly signifies," says Savary (place quoted). His death left a mother in tears. Josephus, too, says that the name of Abel signifies mourning. (Antiq. Jud., p. 4.) \ See Basnage, lib. vi. ch. 25. § The Arabian traditions place the terrestrial paradise in that fair valley of Damascus which the Eastern poets designate as the emerald of the desert. This idea is justified by its admirable situation, its beauty, and its fertility ; and a learned commentator on Genesis has not hesi- of his mother;! then to Seth;J but all in vain, for the gates of Paradise never opened again for her. The just of the race of Seth, those pure, solitary, and contemplative men called in Scripture the children of God, and in the Assyrian legends genii, long flattered themselves with a similar hope ; and the Jewish tra- dition represents them as wandering on the heights around the garden of Eden,§ whose gigantic cedars they wistfully admired, 1 1 and flattered themselves the while that from amongst themselves should arise a tated to set down this fair site as that of the garden of Eden, although the names of the Euphrates and the Tigris indicate a position somewhat different. In support of this Arab tradition there is shown, about half a day's journey from Damascus, a lofty mountain of white marble, shaded with beautiful trees, and therein is a cavern, pointed out as the abode of Adam, of Abel, and of Cain ; there is also seen the sepulchre of Abel, which is much respected by the Turks. The spot whereon the fratri- cide was committed is marked by four pillars. (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 772 and 780. — Pere Pacifique, in his Commentaries on the Bible. ) |] The lofty cedars of Eden have remained traditionally in the memory of the Hebrews, who have made the terrestrial paradise their heaven. In most of their epitaphs we read these words : "He is gone down to the garden of Eden to those who are amongst the cedars." (Basnage, i V. lib. vii.) 46 LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. just man who would obtain admis- sion for them. But it was not the name of a virgin of the primitive times that was written in the immu- table decrees of the Eternal; and the eai'th, still quivering under the Divine malediction, had need of being washed as by the ablution of a baptism, before the foot of Him who was to bring the glad tidings should leave its sacred impress on the mountains. When the earth had absorbed the watei-s of the Deluge, and the winds had dried it up, the new human family, springing into life under fa- I vorable auspices, hastened to re-es- ; tablish the worship of Enos. Noah I joined thereto the seven precepts I which bear his name, not forgetting the historical and religious traditions which his long existence prior to the * All the ancient law bears an aspect of blood and death in figure of the new law established and confirmed by the blood of Jesus Christ. (Bossuet, Elkv. sur les Myst., tip. 428. t The Indians, the Chinese, the Peruvians, and even the Hurons, acknowledge that the first man was formed of clay. The Brahmins, who make delightful representations of their chorcam (paradise), place therein a tree whose fruit would confer immortaUty if it could be eaten. The Persians relate that the genius of evil, Aiiriman, seduced our first parents under the * Deluge had enabled him to gather. He told how man was formed of clay, his rebellion, his fall, and his future reparation, which the world was to owe to the miraculous mater- nity of a new Eve. At sight of the bloody sacrifice ofiered for the unex- piated crime of their first parents, he taught his descendants to raise their eyes to a more august victim, seated at the right hand of Jehovah, in the starry depths of heaven — a victim whereof the oblation of lambs and heifers was but the figure.* These primitive notions were at first faithfully retained by the na- tions, and are found at the base of all creeds.f Altars were erected at the confluence of rivers, in the shade of forests, on the summits of moun- tains, by the green sea-wave, and on the sandy moor where the worm- form of a snake. The story of the woman seduced at the foot of a tree, the anger of God, and the first fratricide, was traditionally told amongst the Iroquois. The Tartars attribute our fall to a plant sweet as honey and of won- drous beauty ; the Thibetans, to the crime of having tasted of the dangerous plant schimoe, mild and sweet as sugar ; the knowledge of the state of nakedness was revealed by this fruit. The tradition of the woman and the serpent was likewise known in Mexico, &c. (See le Christ devarU le Siecle, by M. Roselly de Lorgues, ch. 9.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 47 wood-tree spreads its leaves to the f desert- wind. The soft moonlight illumined, from the first, those rural temples which had no other bounds than the horizon, no other roof than the firmament with all its stars. At that remote period, God was worshipped in a manner worthy of Him, and with ideas so clear, so sublime, so uniform, and so simple, that they had evidently emanated from Himself. Nevertheless, there glided, like a destroying principle, into the post- diluvian worship, an element of su- perstitious terror founded on the fresh and drear remembrance of the submersion of the globe — a re- membrance of which traces are found in most of the religious fes- tivals of antiquity.* Congregated together on the lofty table-lands of Caucasus, and the mountains of Armenia, the descendants of Noah had long refused, even at the com- mand of the patriarch himself, to go down again into the plains, so great was their fear of a second deluge! In vain did the rainbow span the clouds — as it were to encourage the * See Boulanger, Antiq. Devoilee. children of men — with its soft, mel- low hues, where the green of the emerald united with the blue of the sapphire. That auspicious omen, that radiant sign of an appeased God, lessened, but could not dispel, a rooted terror. The Tower of Babel is proof of this. That gigantic mon- ument of human pride concealed, beneath its insolent boast, an over- whelming fear. It was as a fortress of refuge against the contingency of a new deluge which that race of men, already corrupt, could not but feel that they deserved. And when the confusion of tongues, that terri- ble stroke of Divine wrath, forced the builders to disperse — when they saw their precaution, injurious as it was to the sworn clemency of the Lord, result in their disgrace — they were the more disposed to give way to new fears. It must, however, be admitted, in extenuation of their fault, that the spectacle then presented by the earth was far from cheering. The whole economy of the creation was upset. The rivers, diverted from their natural channels,! formed im- i f History has preserved us proofs of this dis- 48 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. mense ponds and putrid marshes in those vast plains, adorned, before the Deluge, with the graceful tents of the shepherds. The cedars lay prostrate on the sea -shore, whilst the spoils of the ocean were found amongst the eternal snows of the loftiest mountains. On every side were seen towers levelled to the ground,* and cities silent and in ruins. The ploughshare everywhere notched on bones and rubbish. The avenging hand of an angry God had fallen so crushingly, that man, whose heart still trembled with fear, remembering the risk he had run, was more disposed to fear his Sovereign Master with a mighty fear than to love him with confiding placing of rivers after the Deluge. We read in Strabo, book ii., that the Araxes, which waters Armenia, was still without a vent, and inun- dated the country, when Jason, chief of the Aeronauts, opened a subterraneous channel, whereby the Araxes flowed into the Caspian Sea. In the famous Chou-King of Confucius, the Emperor Yao says that the waters, which had once risen to heaven, still bathed the feet of the highest mountains, and rendered the plains impassable. — (Freret, Chron. des Chinois, 1st part.) * The Tower of Babel, so immediately after the great Deluge, may furnish an idea of the antediluvian architecture. Brick and pitch were the materials used. If this immense f love; he had learned to fear God I He doubted His promises and His goodness. Like the drowning mar- iner, he eagerly sought, around him, some helping object, which might interpose between them, and ward off, at need, that just but terrible wrath. Noah had spoken to them of an influential and Divine Being whose tenderness for men was in- finite, and who was to plead their cause before the Eternal, and take upon himself their crimes ; but who was that privileged mediator, that powerful advocate ? They knew not. The descendants of Shem be- lieved that they had found him in the stars which cheered their soli- tary watchjf and which they sup- tower, as there is every reason to believe, re- sembled the ancient and famous Tower of Bel in Babylon, it was surrounded by an exterior staircase, on a gentle slope, which wound up to the flat roof, and gave the building the appear- ance of seven successive towers. f It is a very ancient notion in the East that the stars are animated ; the Jewish doctors had fallen into this error, although it dated much earlier than their people. Philo said that the stars were intelligent creatures, who had never done, and were incapable of doing, barm. Ac- cording to the Maimonides, the stars know God, their Maker, and also themselves, and their actions are always good and holy. (Philo, de Mundi opificio, de Gigant., de Somniis. — LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 49 posed inhabited by celestial spirits ; they engaged those spirits to pro- tect them, and kindled fires in their honor on the mountain-tops.* This was the origin of Sabeism, which degenerated into idolatry when the accursed race of Cham, attaching themselves to the mate- rial object, adored the fire, the water, the earth, the rustling breeze ; and in scornful mockery of the primitive worship, which knew not the use of images, they consecrated to the moon statues of silver, and to the sun statues of gold.f In the lapse of time the shades thickened, religions became bur- dened with rites, the worship of the Maimonides, More nevochim, Part II., ch. 4, p. 194, et de Fundam, legis, ch. 3, § 11.) The modern Persians still sacrifice to the Angel of the Moon. * According to R. Bechai, the Sabeans did not adore the sun ; they merely kindled fires on the earth to thank God for the luminary which he lit for them in the heavens ; and, looking at the stars, they begged of the angels, whom God had placed therein to keep them in motion, that they might be favorable to them. (R. Bechai, Gomm. in Genes., ch. 1.) The fires which are lit in almost every country of Europe, commonly called St. John's fires, or Midsummer fires, are a relic of Sabeism. f The ancient Arabs, descendants of Cham, regarded Noah with contempt, because he did not make use of images ; they consecrated to * true God was gradually intermixed with that of the stars and the ele- ments ; the invention of hieroglyph- ics completed the confusion, and the few truths which escaped the over- throw of creeds were mysteriously buried in the depth of the idolatrous fanes, like those sepulchral lamps which burn but for the dead. They were carefully concealed fi'om the multitude, J which lavished its sense- less adoration on stones, trees, riv- ers, mountains, and on animals — a worship more degrading still — and which ended at last by deifying the very vices and passions. It was then that impostors, speculating on human credulity, either entangled the moon statues of silver, and others of gold to the sun ; they divided metals and climates amongst the stars ; and believed that they have great influence on the things consigned to them, and on the images consecrated to them. (Maimonides, More nevochim, Part III., ch. 2, p. 423.) I Plato, speaking of the God who formed the universe, says that it is forbidden to make him known to the people. The books of Numa, written on birch-bark, and found in his tomb many ages after his death, were secretly burned as dangerous to Polytheism. The Brahmins, who, if some travellers are to be credited, have a sublime idea of the Divinity, do, nevertheless, make the Hindoos adore the most hideous idols. It is only the true religion that treats men as ^ rational and immortal beings. 60 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. or delibcmtely broke the slight thread of the patriarchal ti'aditions, and, audaciously substituting mem- ory for hope, grouped around the ci*adles of their fabulous kings, their false prophets, or theii* powerless divinities, the wonders of the Incar- nation of the Word, and the primi- tive revelations of his high and tragical destiny. This, we think, is the explanation of those analogies which are, at fii'st sight, incomprehensible. Nevertheless, all the heathen na- tions did not take the mystery of the Messiah as a fact accomplished. The Druids, just before the Chris- tian era, were still raising altars, in the gloomy forests of Gaul, to the Virgin wJio is to bring forth. The Chinese — instructed by Confucius, who had himself found that oracle in old traditions — expected the * " According to the ancient sages of China," sajs the learned Schmitt, " the Holy One, the miractUotus man, will renew the universe, change its morals, expiate the sins of the world, die oyerwhelined with sorrow and opprobrium, and open the gates of heaven." (See Redemption of Mankind, by that author. ) f Abulfarages {Hintoria Dynastarium) says that Zerdhucht prophesied to the Magi the birth of the Messiah, sprung from a virgin. He added that at the time of his birth there should f Holy One, horn of a Virgin, and Son of God, wlm was to die for the sal- vation of the world j^ in the western regions of Asia, and sent to seek him, by solemn embassy, less than half a century after the death of the Man -God. The Magi, on the faith of Zerdhucht, studied the con- stellations in quest of the star of Jacob, which was to guide them to the cradle of Chiist.f The Brah- mins sighed for the glorious avatar\ of Him who was to purge the world of sin, and begged it of Wichnou, laying on his jewelled altar odorous stuffs of sweet basil, a plant beloved by the Indian god. The haughty children of Romulus, those idola- ters by excellence, who had created whole legions of gods, read in the books so jealously and so wisely kept by the sibyl of Cumes, a con- temporary of Achilles and Hector, arise an unknown star to guide them to his cradle, and he commanded them to bring pres- ents with them when they went. Sharistani, a Mussulman author, also relates a prediction of Zerdhucht respecting a great prophet who was to reform the world as well in religion as in justice, and to whom kings and princes were to be submissive. I Avaiar, the fabulous incarnation of a Hindoo deity. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 51 the virgin^ tlie divine infant^ the ado- ration of the shepherds^ the serpent crushed, and the golden age restored to the earth. Finally, about the time of the Messiah, all the nations of the East were in expectation of a future Saviour ; and Boulanger (who was better inspired on his death-bed), after having shown how generally that hope was diffused, illogically calls it a universal chimera.* But what were those glimmering rays, powerless to dispel the dark- ness of idolatry, when compared with the blaze of light which illumined the chosen people ? We are struck with amazement at sight of that prophetic chain of which the first link was fixed to the cradle of the world, and the last settles down at the sepulchre of Christ.f The threat of Jehovah to the serpent contains, as we have already said, the first prediction of the Messiah. We have further said, and the Jewish tradi- tions confirm it, that this prediction was more fully explained, in after * "A unanimous testimony is of the greatest weight," says Bernardine de St, Pierre, " for all the earth cannot be in one universal error.'' {Etudes de la Nature, etude 8, p. 398.) f It is a tradition taught in the Synagogue, and recognized by the Church, that all the ^ times, to the exiles of Eden, when they had conciliated Heaven by pen- ance.J Noah, who was adopted by God as inheritor of the faith, § trans- mitted to Shem His revelations, and Shem, whose life was nearly as long as that of his ancestors, might re- peat them to the father of the faith- ful. Then it was that a mysterious benediction, wherein the promise of the Messiah was contained, made it manifest that the blessed seed promised to Eve should be also the seed and the offspring of Abraham. The primitive traditions were very soon succeeded by the great predic- tion of Jacob. The expiring patri- arch, who has seen in spirit the state of the twelve tribes, when in Palestine, announces to his sons, assembled round his death-bed, that Juda has been chosen, from amongst his brethren, to be the root of the kings of Israel, and the father of that Schilo so long promised, who was to be the King of kings and the Lord of lords. The coming of prophets, without any exception, prophesied only for the time of the Messiah." (St. Cypr., de Vanit. Idol.) X Basnage, t. iv. lib. viL § Epist. S. P. ad ffebr., 2. 62 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Christ is pointed out in a precise * manner: he shall arise from amid the ruins of his countiy, when the Hchebet (the sceptre, the legislative power) shall rest in the hand of strangei*s.* The prophet saved from the waters, who was divinely called to gather and consign to writing the history of the first ages and the ancient traditions of mankind — traditions whose remembrance was still vivid amongst the nations — fails not to lend the weight of his imposing tes- timony to the prophecy of Jacob. "A prophet," says he, speaking to * Christians apply this revelation of Jacob to the Messiah, and thereby prove to the Jews that he must have come long ago, seeing that for upwards of eighteen hundred years their tribes have been mixed up together, their sacri- fice abolished, their government extinct ; that they have no longer either territory or princes, and that, wherever they are found, they have to submit to the laws of foreign nations. To evade the force of this argument, the Jews now pre- tend that the word sckebet, which we translate by sceptre, also signifies the rod which chastises the slave ; and they take occasion from that to maintain that, even if this oracle did regard the Messiah, all that they could infer from it is, that their chastisement was to last till his eoming, which was to be the signal of their de- hveiy. Finally, they deny that the word Schilo can be translated by Messiah. But their old books give them the lie; this prophecy is under- the people of God, " shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me : him you shall hear according to all things, whatsoever he shall speak to you. And it shall be, that even some which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people."! Then it is of the Messiah that the Synagogue has always understood this text so clear ; St. Philip, with- out any hesitation, applied it to our Redeemer, when he said to Nathan- iel, "We have found Him who was foretold by the prophets, and of stood of the Messiah in the Talmud ; and here is how the Paraphrase of Onkelos expounds this passage: " Judas shall not be without a supreme ruler, nor without scribes of the sons of her children, till the Messiah come." Jonathan, to whom the Jews assign the first place amongst the disciples of Hillel, and whom they venerate almost as they do Moses, also translates schebet by principality, and Schilo by Messiah. The Paraphrase of Jerusalem is hkewise on that side. Thus the most ancient Commentaries, the most authentic, and the most respected amongst the Jews, furnish weapons for their own defeat. f Hence, comes that hope of a new law which the Jews expect with the Messiah, a law which they place far above that of Moses. The law which man studies in this toorld is but vanity, say their doctors, in comparison to that of the ^ Messiah. (Medrash-Rabba, in EccL, xi. 8.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 53 whoi.1 Moses spoke in the law — Jesus of Nazareth." Towards the end of the mission of Moses, and while Israel was still encamped in the desert, Balaam, who had been bribed by a Moabit- ish prince to curse them in the Val- ley of Willows,* came to strengthen, in his turn, the expectation of the Messiah, and to point out, in a clear and precise manner, the period of his coming. Standing on the pre- cipitous height of Phogor, surround- ed by victims slain for an oblation of hate, in view of the accursed lake and the barren mountains of Arabia, the conjurer from the shores of the Euphrates, actuated by the spirit of God, perceives, as with a dream- ing eye, f an admirable vision ; his phrases, interrupted by solemn pauses, are flung, without order or art, to the mountain- wind, like frag- ments of a mysterious dialogue kept up in a whisper with invisible * The plain of Babylon, intersected by rivers and canals, and consequently very marshy, abounded in willows. Hence it is that it is called in Scripture the Valley of Willows. ■\ Even if the prophecy of Balaam were not known to be ancient, yet the manner of its de- livery would be sufficient to prove its antiquity. Balaam, the Chaldean astrologer, prophesies not ^ ^ powers. / shall see him hut not now. I shall contemplate him hut not near. A star shall come forth from Jacoh a shoot shall arise from Israel; he shall rule over many na- tions. To these incoherent words succeeds a magnificent, but gloomy picture of the conquests of the great King. It is not without a purpose that the prophetic vision shows Eome at the height of her colossal power; it is then that Christ is to visit the earth, and immolate himself for us on the infamous tree. The prophet gives a bold sketch of that bloody period ; one would say that cities and empires yet to be, arise before his view on the mirage of the desert. He sees the fleet of the Caesars leave the ports of Italy and direct their conquering prows to- wards the level coasts of the Syri- ans ; he beholds the ruin of that Judea which was not yet in exist- ence, and where the people of God like the seers of Juda ; for him is required a vast horizon, whence he discovers at once earth, sea, and sky : he speaks as a man who details to himself things which he sees at the moment, and which impress themselves deeply on his mind. This species of prophecy is somewhat like that which the Scotch Highlanders call second sight. 64 LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MABY. then possessed only a few graves; finally, his eye marks the fall of the Roman eagle, seven himdi-ed years before the birth of the sons of Hia, and whilst the wild goats of Latium were still browsing in peace on the woody slopes of the seven hills. Ages and ages then roll away without any fui-ther promise from Jehovah ; but the prophecies are either confided to tradition, which faithfully preserves them, or else consigned to the sacred books. Is- rael maintains an obscure, but cease- less and infuriate struggle against the idolatrous nations which sm*- round and press in upon its tribes ; at times it gives way to the sti-ange infatuation which attracts it to idol- atry, and then the fatal sword of the Amorrhean and the Moabite is unwittingly drawn on behalf of the Lord, and avenges, though unde- signedly, the insult offered to the God of Jacob. But thi-ough all these vicissitudes, the people forget not the coming of Christ ; they live in the faith of the Messiah; in de- fault of new revelations, their very * Some Rabbins pretend that the daughter of Jephta was not sacrificed, but only condemned to perpetual celebacy. That assertion is nulli- * life becomes prophetic. Political and religious institutions, local cus- toms and private habits, all tend to the same end, all flow from the same source ; all are linked to the genera- tion of the Saviour born of a virgin of Juda. It was the coming of the Messiah that was asked by the prophet Samuel, kneeling in the Holy of Holies, before the Schekina, its luminous and divine emblem, and by all the high priests who suc- ceeded him in the temple of Solo- mon. It was to the expectation of the Messiah that the law of Deuter- onomy referred, which decreed that the brother should raise up an heir to his brother who died childless, to the end that his name might be perpetuated in Israel. It was the blighting of the hope of belonging one day, sooner or later, to the celes- tial ambassador, that drew tears from the eyes of that fair young vir- gin of Galaad, who sank but with that one sorrow into the bloody tomb which was to close on the last of her father's race.* It is to this belief, so general amongst the He- fied by the text of Scripture which saj's : Let the daughters of Israel assemble once in the year to mourn four days /or the daughter of Jephta of LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 55 brews, that the woman of Thecua has reference, when, denouncing to King David the secret intrigues which were warping the mind of the only son who remained to her, she signalizes her fears as a mother and a Jewish matron by the poeti- cal complaint, ''My lord, they would extinguish my last spark !" There is nothing but the present incredulity of the Jews to equal in depth the faith of their fathers. The grand business with the men of those days was the coming of the Messiah ; they who died at a period remote from that which was to see the fulfillment of the Divine prom- ises, departed in the firm persuasion that they should one day be ful- filled ; standing on the threshold of eternity, they hailed from afar that consoling hope, even as the great prophet, Moses, saluted, with a sigh, that land of milk and honey which the Lord did not permit him to enter. From the time of David, and un- der the kings of his race, the thread of prophecy is renewed, and the mystery of the Virgin and the Mes- Galaad! {Judic., ch. xi. ver. 40.) People do * siah is made more manifest than ever by magnificent predictions clearer than the sun. The holy king whom the God of Israel had preferred before the house of Saul, saw the virginity of Mary and the extraordinary birth of the Son of God. "Thy birth," said he, "unsullied by sin, shall be pure as the morning dew." Then, raising his eyes higher, he beholds Him whom God has given him for a son, according to the flesh, seated at the right hand of Jehovah, on a throne more lasting than sky or stars. In the earlier prophecies, the blessed Yirgin, though always point- ed out, was yet left somewhat in the shade, and, so to speak, on the verge of the picture ; but, from the time of David, the radiant figure of Mary is no longer undefined, and she who was to transfuse into the veins of the Man-God the blood of Abraham, of Jacob, and of Jesse the Just, begins to be clearly de- fined. David had spoken of her virginal maternity; Solomon took delight in tracing her image in col- phus also refers to the immolation of the daughtei not mourn for one who is living — Flavins Jose- i^ of Jephta. (Ant. Jud., t. ii. lib. v. ch. 9.) 56 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. ors 80 enchanting as to far out- strip the graceful descriptions of tlie Eastern Peris, those smiling and etliereal divinities which visit the dreams of Arabian shepherds. He sees her rise amid the daughters of Juda like a lily among thorns; her eyes are soft and mild as tlwse of the dove; fi'om her lips, red as a fillet of scarlet, comes a voice clear and me- lodious as the sound of the harp which inspires Israel in the battle; her step is ethereal as the breath of perjmnes; and her beauty is radi- ant as that of the rising morn. Her tastes are simple and poetical ; she loves to wander in the jGi-esh valleys when the vines are in blossom and the figs hang like clusters of eme- ralds from the leafless branches ; her looks seek out the red roses of the pomegranate, the tree of para- dise,* and she hears with delight the plaintive song of the turtle. Silent and collected, she shrinks from every eye, and conceals her- * In the East the pomegranate is called the £ruit of paradise. t It is agreed by all the holy Fathers that the Canticle of Canticles is but one continued alle- gory of the Mother of God. X When rain falls in Palestine, there is a general rejoicing amongst the people ; they as- t self within her dwelling like the dove which makes her nest in tJte clefts of the rock. She is chosen for a mystical marriage, preferably to all the virgins and queens of the nations ; a crown is promised her by Him whom her soul loveth ; and the blissful tie whereby she is united to her royal spouse is stronger than death.-f Elias, praying on Mount Carmel for the cessation of that long drought which, for three years, parched the earth and dried up every spring, discovers the prom- ised virgin under the form of a transparent cloud arising from the bosom of the waters to announce the return of rain. The acclama- tions of the people salute this pro- pitious omen, J and the prophet, who penetrates divine things, builds a chapel to the future Queen of Heaven. § Isaiah declares to the house of David, whose chief, Acliab, trembles beneath the threats of the semble in the streets, sing, caper, and cry aloud, " O God !" " O Blessed !" (Volney, Voy- age en Syrie.) § The chapel built by Elias on Mount Carmel was dedicated by him to the Virgin who was to bring forth, Virgini pariturce. This chapel was + called Semnceum, which means a place conse- LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 57 stranger like a forest beaten by the tempest^ that God shall give it an encouraging sign with regard to the future of Judea — a future long and glorious still. "A virgin shall con- ceive ;* she shall bring forth a son whose name shall be E7nmanuel, or God with us That child, miracu- lously given to the earth, shall be a scion from the stock of Jesse, a flower springing from his root.f He shall be called God the mighty, the Father of the world to come, the crated to an imperiere (empress), which can only refer to Mar}', empress of heaven and earth. [Histoire du Mont Garmel, succession du Saint Prophete, ch. 31.) * This grand prophecy of Isaiah has been the object of a long and sharp controversy between the Jews and the Christians. The Eabbins, who have commented on the text since the time of Christ, wishing to pervert the proofs which condemn them, and to mystify the words of the prophet, have pretended that the word halma, which is found in the Hebrew text, signifies a simple young woman, although the Septuagint has rendered it by virgin. The Fathers have triumphantly refuted this objection. " The in- terpreters of the Septuagint," says St. John Chrysostom, " are the most deserving of credit ; they made their version more than a century before Jesus Christ ; they were many in num- ber ; the time in which they wrote, their num- ber and their union, render them much more worthy of belief than the Jews of our days, who have maliciously corrupted many passages of the Sacred Scriptures." (S. Joan. Chrys., Sei'm. 4, ch. 1.) St. Jerome, the most profound Prince of peace. He shall be raised as a standard before the world ; all nations shall pray unto him^ and his sepulchre shall be glorious." The mystery of the Messiah is clearly foreshown to the prophets. Some see Bethlehem made illustri- ous by his birth ; others predict his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and indicate the peaceful and un- pretending style thereof. They see him enter into his temple, that sa- cred pontiff according to the order Hebrew scholar of all the interpreters and com- mentators, asserts, without fear, he says, of being contradicted by the Jews, that halma, everywhere that the word occurs in the Sacred Scriptures, signifies simply a virgin in all her purity, and never a married woman. {Comm. S. Hieron. in Is. lib. iii.) Luther, who made such lamentable use of much real learning, ex- claims, with chara,cteristic petulance and im- patience, "If there be Jew or Hebrew scholar who can show me the place where halma means a looman, and not a virgin, he shall be entitled to 100 florins from me — that is, providing that I have them." (Luther's works, vol. viii., p. 129.) Mahomet himself has testified to the virginity of the Mother of God. "And Mary, daughter of Imram, who has preserved her virginity ; and we have sent into her our spirit and she has beHeved in the words of the Lord and in his Scriptures." (Koran, Surate 66.) f Jesse, called al&o Isaie, was son of Obed and father of David. His memory is in high vener- ation amongst the Hebrews, who regard him as a perfectly just man. 88 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VTBGIN MARY. of Melchisedek ; they know the number of the pieces of silver which the persecuting " rulers of the Syna- gogue shall dix)p into the hands of the wretch who is to sell his Master;* they see the ignominious execution, the draught of vinegar and gall offered in insolent mockery during the agony of a God, and the gaiment, woven by the hands of a mother, disposed of by lot amongst the rude soldiers ; they hear the sound of the nails which rend the bleeding hand, and sink with a dry, crackling sound into the accursed wood. And then the scene changes, like those paintings of Raphael, where the subject, begun on earth, extends itself beyond the clouds. The man of sorrows, the humble Messiah, whom even his own kin- dred despised, whom his people have not known, looks down in tri- umph from the highest heavens on his prostrate enemies; and the na- tions of the earth are all at length * This passage, wherein God himself declares the number of silver pieces given in that in- famous bargain, is impressed with a bitter and a dreadful irony. "And the Lord said to me, Cast it to the statuary, a handsome price, that I was priced at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver," &c. {Zach. xi 13.) mindful of their God, forgotten for so many ages I The nations rally round the standard of the cross, and the empire of Christ shall have no boimds but those of the universe. Nothing is wanting to complete the prophecies. Jacob pointed out the coming of Schilo at the precise moment when the Jews shall cease to be governed by their own laws, which involves, of course, the ruin of a state; Balaam adds that that destruction shall be effected by a people from Italy, and the satrap Daniel counts exactly the weeks which are to elapse before the ap- pointed time. "Every thing that happens in this world has its preceding sign," said a man of genius, who is now lonely and dreaded under his tent. " When the sun is about to rise, the horizon is colored with a thousand hues, and the East appears all on lire. When the tempest is coming, there is heard on the shore a rum- bling noise, and the waves are agi- tated, as it were, of themselves." The figures of the Old Testament, according to the Fathers of the Church, are the signs which an- |j nounce the rising of the Sun of LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 59 Justice and of the Star of the Sea. To Christ, the Son of God, belongs strength and power ; to Mary, grace and pitying kindness. She is the tree of life planted in the abodes of men by the hands of God himself, and the pledge of happiness far be- yond that which our first parents enjoyed in Eden ; the dove from the ark, bearing to earth the olive branch ; the sealed fountain whose waters have never been troubled with aught of impurity; the fleece which receives the dew of heaven ; finally, the delicate and odoriferous rose-bush through which Moses per- ceived the Divinity — a bush which, very far from being consumed by the fire, which destroys all things else, was in some sort preserved thereby, and lost, in its contact with the celestial flame, neither a leaf nor a flower.* * Philo, who has made this remark, and who discovers in this burning bush a mysterious allegory, falsely applies it to the Jewish nation by a forced conjunction. Josephus, who also tried to penetrate this mystery, has succeeded no bettei". Those wild roses, emblematical of modest maidens who shed their sweet perfume in solitude, and who are made resplendent by contact with the Deity, without having their spotless white and dehcate blush anywise taint- Like that enchanting figure which an ancient painter composed by borrowing a thousand detached beauties from the loveliest women of Greece, so the chaste spouse of the Holy Ghost united, in her own person, all that had been most ad- mirable in the celebrated women of the old law. Fair as Rachel and Sarah, she united to the prudence of Abigail the heroic courage of Esther ; Susannah, chaste as the flower whose name she bears ;f Judith, whose crown of lilies was sprinkled with the blood of Holo- fernes ; J Axa, whose hand was the ransom of a conquered city ; and that mother, so illustrious in her misfortunes, who beheld all her sons die for the law ; these were but faint images of Her who was to unite within herself all the perfec- tions of the woman and the angel. ed thereby, these are the most striking image of Mary, that mystical rose of the new law. f The name Susannah signifies lily. (Fabyn. ii. 2.) X The ancients attribute to the lily the power of nullifying enchantments and warding oflf danger. "Judith encircled her brows," say the Kabbins, "with a garland of HHes, so as to make her way without fear into the tent of Holofernes." (Comm. E. R. m Judith.) 60 LITE OF THE BLESSED VIRQIN MART. After an expectation of four thou- * law disappear, and Mary arises on sand years, the time marked out by the horizon of Judea like the star 80 many prophecies at length ar- | which heralds the approach of rives ; the shadows of the ancient * day. CHAPTER II. THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. WOMAN des- tined from all eternity to save the world by deifying our nature, and to bear in her chaste womb Him wliose tent is the sun, and whose footsteps are on the highest heavens ; a woman expected from the beginning of the world, revealed by God even in Paradise, ' and the acknowledged end of all the holy generations who succeeded * According to Si Angustine, the issue to which all the patriarchs aspired was Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ in Mary, through whom alone they could expect him. "And in fact," says he, " if nature, in all her efforts, tends to Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of Ages, it is * each other from the days of the patriarchs ;* she can be no ordinary creature, and must needs have su- perhuman prerogatives. The pious belief of the immaculate conception of Mary is the result of that senti- ment of respect. Heirs of an unfor- tunate parent, degraded by our re- bellious father, blighted by the . sen- tence which condemns him, so far from receiving from him the life of grace, we have received from him the death of sin, and, by a fearful doom, are condemned even before not that she flatters herself that she can reach the Son of God by herself ; the extent of her power stops at the humble Mary, who was to engender the blessed seed, not by virtue of her ancestors, but by that of the Most High." (St. Augustine, 5, Gontr. Jul. 9.) LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 61 our birth. This misfortune, inher- ent in the human race, accursed as one man in its very origin, is com- mon to all, and the Scripture makes no exception in favor of any son of Adam. But the piety of the faith- ful cannot bear the idea that the Mother of God should be submitted to the scathing condemnation where- by we are stamped with the seal of hell even in our mother's womb ; they have believed that the Sove- reign Judge must have suspended the general effect of his rigorous law in favor of her who was brought into the world only to contribute to the accomplishment of the most secret, the most incomprehensible of the decrees of God — the Incarna- tion of the Messiah. Notwithstand- ing the silence of the Gospel, it has, therefore, been generally supposed * We find in the Menkes {Secret Practices), so ancient in use among the Greeks, these words, which clearly prove their belief in the Immac- ulate Conception : " By a special dispensation, the Lord decreed that the Blessed Virgin should be as pure, from the first moment of her exist- ence, as was suitable and becoming for her who was to conceive and to bring forth Jesus Christ, the Word made jflesh." f St. Andrew, of Crete, makes mention of this feast of the Immaculate Conception, the office of which St. Sabas had composed, and to which ^ that the Virgin, in anticipation of her divine maternity, was withheld, so to speak, on the verge of the dread abyss hollowed under our feet by the fatal disobedience of our first parents, and that her conception is immaculate as her life. This belief, which the Greeks bor- rowed from Palestine, and adopted with enthusiasm,* gave rise to the institution of the feast of the Im- maculate Conception, which was celebrated with great pomp in Con- stantinople, from the sixth century.f In the West, on the contrary, this doctrine met opponents, and power- ful opponents ; for St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, and many other pious and learned doc- tors, all great theologians, J and, moreover, devoted to the service of St. Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople, had added an anthem. J The opponents of the Immaculate Concep- tion are wont to boast of having in their ranks St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas, Albertus Magnus, &c. However great these names may be, yet we must not be dazzled by them ; for, confronting these doctors with themselves, we find that they have positively maintained the yea and nay, which shows either that their opinions on this siibject were not fixed, or that they had singular distractions. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. l&Bijf maintained that she was con- t ceived in sin and subjected to the common law, although she was very soon entirely purified there- fi-om by a special and excellent grace which commenced her glori- ous state of Mother of God. But the belief in the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin prevailed, at length, over the opin- ion of the great doctors of the Mid- dle Ages ; what the eagles of the school had not seen was revealed to the simple. The writings of the doctors and of the Apostles were again searched ; a more careful ex- amination was made of what has been handed down to us regarding the greatness and glory of Mary, and that investigation served to throw a more vivid light on this doubtful point in the life of the Mother of Christ. And in fact, going back even to the Apostles, we already see the title of Blessed and hnmaculate ap- plied to Mary.* The apostle St. * St. James the Major, and St. Mark, in their Liturgies. t S. Hipp, in an oration on the ConsummcUion of the World, | Orig. horn, in S. Matth. § S. Den. in an epistle given in the Biblioth. den PP. I S. Cypr., de Nat. Virg. Andrew, quoted by the Babylonian Abdias, expresses himself in these terms : " Even as the first Adam was made of the earth before it was cursed, so was the second Adam formed of a pure virgin who was never under the ban." The saints and martyrs who lived in the third century, St. Hippolytus, martyr,f Origen, J St. Denis of Alex- andria, § all give to the Blessed Vir- gin the qualification of pure and iminaculate. St. Cyprian || is more precise, and says clearly that " there is a great difference between the rest of mortals and the Virgin, and that she has nothing in common with them but nature — not sin." In the fourth century, St. Am- brose, who compares the Virgin " to a bright and luminous stem, where- on has never been either the knot of original sin or the bark of actual sin ;"^ St. John Chrysostom,** who proclaims her most holy, immacu- late, blessed above all creatures ; St. Jerome,! f ^^^ poetically calls her ^ " Virgo in qua nee nodus originaHs, nee cortex actualis culpse fuit." S. Ambr. de Inst. Virg., ch. 5. ** S. Chrysostom, in his Liturgy. ff St. Jerome's Commentaries on Psalm Ixxvii. " Diduxit eos in nube diei : nubes est LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 63 the day -cloud which never knew f darkness ; St. Basil,* whom the de- fenders of the Immaculate Concep- tion are proud to regard as their leader ; these have never varied re- garding that stainless purity which so well becomes the Queen of Angels. In the fifth century, St. Augus- tinef cannot endure to 'have the name of Mary mentioned when there is question of sin, and St. Peter OhrysologusJ affirms that "in the Virgin all were saved." St. Fulgentius, who lived in the beginning of the sixth century, says, that " the Blessed Virgin was entire- ly excluded from the first decree." § " It is very wrong," says St. Ilde- fonso,|| archbishop of Toledo, who flourished in the same century, "It is very wrong to think of subjecting beata Virgo, quae pulchre dicitur nubes diei, quia non fuit iu tenebris, sed semper in luce." * St. Basil, in his Liturgy. f It must be observed that St. Augustine was then defending the doctrine of Original Sin against the Pelagians. J S. Peter Chrj'sol. de Annonciat., Sermon 140. § S. Fulg., Sermon on the Glories of Mary. — Sermon on the Two Natures in Jesus Christ. II St. Ildefonso, in the book on the Virginity of Mary. the Mother of God to the laws of nature ; it is certain that she was free and exempt fi'om all original sin, and that she has removed the curse of Eve." St. John Damas- cene,^! speaking expressly of her conception, says that she was " pure and immaculater In the ninth cen- tury, Theophanes, Abbot of Grand- champ ; in the tenth, St. Fulbert, bishop of Chartres ; towards the middle of the eleventh, Yves of Chartres,** one of the most brilliant lights of that period, and a little later, St. Bruno, ff founder of the Carthusians, are evidently in favor of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. Islamism itself declares for the Immaculate Conception, and the Arab commentators on the Koran have adopted, in their own way, \ St. John Damascene, de Nativ. Mar., or. 1. ** The two holy bishops of Chartres, Fulbert and Yves, declared for the doctrine of the Im- maculate Conception. Yves maintained it in the pulpit, and Fulbert says in his paraphrase on the angel's salutation to Mary : "Ave, Maria, electa et insignis inter fiUas, quse immaculata semper extitisti ab exordis tuse creationis, quia paritura eras Creatorem totius sanctitatis." ff St. Bruno, in his explanation of those words of Psalm ci. : Dominus de codo in terram aspexit, which he appHes to the Blessed "Virgin. ttll LIF£ OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. the opinion of the Catholic theo- logians who have pronounced in favor of that doctrine. " Every de- scendant of Adam," says Cottada, "fi'om the moment that he comes into the world, is touched on the side by Satan ; Jesus and Mary are alone excepted ; for God interposed between them and Satan a veil which preserved them fi-om his fatal touch." These testimonies in favor of the Immaculate Conception become weaker and less abundant in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ; few wu-iters of any note then took this view of the subject, and sever- al men of eminent piety and learn- ing maintained the contrary opinion. On the other hand, the feast of the Conception of the Virgin was es- tablished in many kingdoms. William the Conqueror establish- ed this festival in Normandy as eaiiy as the year 1074; and, from the reign of his son, Henry the First, King of England and Duke of Normandy, it was celebrated at Rouen with extraordinary solem- nity. "It was instituted," say the ancient chroniclers, "because of the holy apparition seen by an eccle- f siastic worthy of credit, who found himself exposed to the perils of the sea during a storm." An old history of the antiquities of Kouen, adds that " even at the time of the institution of the feast, there was founded an association of the most notable persons of the city, who still annually elect one of their number to be prince of the confra- ternity, who holding the puy (or stage) open to all orators, in every language, gives excellent and valu- able prizes to those w^ho shall best and most faithfully celebrate the praises of the Virgin Mary, in her holy conception, by liymjis, odes, sonnets, ballads, royal songs, &c."* Thus the Virgin full of grace pre- sided at the revival of poetry, and her Immaculate Conception furnish- ed pious themes to the land of minstrels. J'rom Normandy, the feast of the Conception passed over to the En- glish. The first council of Oxford, held by Stephen Langton, arch- bishop of Canterbury, in the year 1222, placed it in the number of holidays to be observed. In France, * AntiquUes et Singularitks de la Ville de Rouen. ^ By N. Taillepied, Doctor of Theology. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 65 in the year 1288, a bishop of Paris, Renoul de Hombiere, bequeathed a considerable sum to found the office of that feast of the Blessed Virgin, which was about the same time in- troduced into the Lyonnais. Final- ly, a manuscript niartyrology of the thirteenth century, found in the li- brary of the Dominicans of Dijon, fixes the festival of the Conception of Om* Lady on the 8th of Decem- ber: "which also shows," say the learned Benedictines who deciphered that ancient manuscript, "that in St. Dominick's time, this feast was already celebrated in nearly all the Church." The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception had been banished from pulpits and from schools for a very long period of time, when some the- ologians, perceiving that this belief could be traced to the highest and purest sources of Christianity, un- dertook to revive it. The Francis- * Montfaucon, who journeyed through Italy about the year 1698, having visited at Pavia the library of the Signor Beleridus, renowned for his piety, was much surprised to see that his im- mense collection of books was composed solely of treatises written by the Franciscans in defence of the Immaculate Conception. f This is the decree of the Sorbonne : " We * cans, who first began to make a public profession of it, in speaking,* and in writing, supported it by rea- sons so strong and so convincing, that not only the mass of the faith- ful, but the most learned body in Europe, clung to it with enthusiasm. The Sorbonne, which was then called " the firmament of science, the prop of truth and piety in the church of God," decreed that all those who should be promoted to the degree of doctor were to engage them- selves by oath to maintain this pious belief.f So, in succession, did the universities of Mayence, of Cologne, of Yalentia, of Alcala, of Coi'mbra, of Salamanca, and of Naples. Amongst those religious orders in whom France has gloried for so many ages, the Dominicans alone, or nearly alone, showed themselves hostile to the pious doctrine of the spotless Conception ; but the learn- ed Benedictines, venerated even by resolve and declare that no one shall be admit- ted for the future into our Faculty, until he swears to maintain all his hfe this doctrine of the Immaculate Conception." "Statuentes ut nemo deinceps huic nostro collegio adscri- batur, nisi se hujus doctrinsB assertorum sem- per pro viribus futurum, simili juramento, profiteatuj*." * 66 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRQIN MARY. Protestants for their immense sci- entific labors, the Carthusians, the Cai-melites, the order of St. Augus- tine, in Cluny, in Citeaux, in Pr^- montrtf, and a host of others whom it would be superfluous to enumerate here, all adhered with an enlightened piety, an ardent zeal, and a profound conviction, to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Councils, too, have been favorable to this belief. That of Bale, in its * " There has arisen in this Council (that of Bale) a difficult question on the Conception of the glorious Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and on the beginning of her sanctification ; some saying that her soul was, for some time, or at least for some moments, subjected to original sin ; others maintaining, on the contrary, that the love of God for her extended even to the first instant of her creation ; that the Most High, who created her, and the Son who formed her to be his mother on earth, endowed her with singular and extraordinary graces ; that Jesus Christ re- deemed her in a superior and particular manner, preserving her from the original stain, and sanc- tifying her in the very first moment of her con- ception. "Having, therefore, carefully examined the reasons and the authorities which, for several years, have been brought forward, on both sides, in the public acts of this holy Council ; having, moreover, given our attention to many other things on the same subject; all weighed and maturely considered, we decide and declare that the doctrine which teaches that the glorious Virgin Mary, Mother of God, by a special favor, and by a preventing and operating grace, has session of 27th September, 1429, declares that the doctrine which teaches that the glorious Virgin Mary was conceived without sin is a pious doctrine, conformable to ecclesiastical worship, to Catholic faith, to right reason, and to Holy Writ.* Tlie Council of Avignon confirmed, in 1457, the decree of the Council of Bale, and in their session of 1564,f the Fathers of the Council of Trent declared that, in their de- never been actually subjected to original sin, but that she has ever been holy, immaculate and ex- eYnpt from all sin, original and actual ; we de- clare that the doctrine which teaches all that, is a pious doctrine, conformable to ecclesiastical worship, to Catholic faith, to right reason, and to Holy Writ, and that, as such, it is to be ap- proved, held, and followed by all Catholics, so that no one shall be hereafter permitted to preach or teach the contrary. Rene\ving, be- sides the institution of the feast of the holy Con- ception; which, by an ancient and praiseworthy custom, is solemnized on the 8th day of Decem- ber, at Rome, as in all the other churches, we will and ordain that this festival be celebrated on the day before mentioned, under the name of the Conception of the Virgin, in all the churches, monasteries, and communities of the Catholic religion, and that it be observed with all manner of praise and gladness, and canticles of joy." The Council even attaches indulgences to this solemnity. t " Declerat haec sancta synodus non esse in- tentionis suse comprehendere in hoc decreto, ubi de peccato originali agitur, beatam et Immacula- TAM Dei Genitricem." (Cone. Trid. sex. 1564.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 67 cree of 1546, on original sin, they did ' not pretend to include the Blessed and Immaculate Mother of God. Notwithstanding the prudent re- serve maintained by the Holy See in an affair wherein figured, for and against, famous doctors and illustri- ous theologians, it yet could not help showing, at times, which party had its sympathy. In the year 1483, Pope Sixtus lY. had expressly for- bidden that the subject of the Con- ception of Our Lady * should be dis- cussed in pulpits or in schools. This might be taken for a mere act of neutrality, had not this pontiff ap- proved of the Office of the Con- ception composed by a monk of Yerona, and granted a hundred days' indulgence to those who should assist thereat, f The suc- cessors of that great pope walked uniformly in the way which he had marked out and followed. In 1506, Cardinal Ximenes establish- ed in Spain, with the consent of Pope Julius II., a confraternity of * See the constitution of Sixtus IV., whicli commences with Grave nimis. f See the constitution of Sixtus IV., which begins, Cum prce excelsa . . . Extravag. Commun. J In this order of the Immaculate Conception, the Conception. The same pope confirmed, by a brief, dated the 17th of September, 1511, an order of nuns founded under the same title by Innocent YIII.J In the hymns which Zachary, bishop of Gordia, composed by order of Leo X. and Clement YIL, it is said that Our Lady was created in the state of grace. In 1569, Pope Pius Y. gave the Franciscans permission to cele- brate the office of the Immaculate Conception, attaching thereto the same indulgences as to the feast of the Holy Sacrament. Paul Y., by a bull of the year 1616, forbade any one to maintain, in public instruc- tions, the opinion contrary to the Immaculate Conception ; and Greg- ory XY., in 1622, extended that prohibition even to discourses and private conversations. It only re- mained for the popes to celebrate this festival in Rome itself, and this was done by Alexander YIL in 1661. It is evident, from this uni- form conduct of the Holy See, that each Sister consecrated herself expressly to this mystery by these unequivocal words, "I, Sister N for the love and service of Jesus Christ our Lord, and the Immaculate Conception of his Blessed Mother, do promise," &c. 68 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. all its sympathies were with the ^ docti'ine of the spotless conception. Nevei-theless, it never chose to cen- mre the contraiy opinion, doubtless through respect for high and holy names. ' A voice whose weight is immense, the great voice of Bossuet, made itself heai-d in this cause ; the sliield of religion nobly took his stand before, the Blessed Virgin. "The opinion of the immaculate concep- tion," says he, "has, I know not what, force which persuades pious souls. After the articles of faith, I see but few things better assured. Hence I am not surprised that the Paris school of theology obliges all its members to defend this doctrine. For my own part, I am delighted now to follow its intentions. After having been nursed on its milk, I willingly submit to its ordinance, the more so as this seems to me to be also the will of the Church ; she has a very great veneration for the conception of Mary ; she does not, it is true, oblige us to believe it im- maculute ; but she makes us under- stand that that belief is very pleasing ♦ Bossuet, Sermon on the Gonception, to her. There are things which she commands, and by them we manifest our obedience ; there are others which she insinuates, and by them we may testify our aifection. It is for our piety, if we are true children of the Church, not only to obey the commandments, but to bow to the slightest indications of the will of a mother so good and so holy."* It is certain that the devotion to the Blessed Virgin has been common in Western Europe from the medi- aeval times ; a»d, since then, it has made immense progress ; but, with- out meaning to disparage France and Italy, those two nations so emi- nently devoted to the Virgin, it must be acknowledged that it is Spain which has labored the most zealously and ardently for the propagation of that doctrine. The Spanish Church, protesting against the pretensions of the Church of Normandy, which attrib- utes to itself the institution of the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady in the West, will have it that it has been observed in Spain ever since the seventh century.f It ■{• " La Iglesia espafiola fu^ la primera que eel- LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 69 is certain that, in 1394, Don Juan I. of Arragon, who instituted it, in the name of the king, in the several provinces of Spain which had shaken off the yoke of Islamism, affirms that a great number of his predecessors had celebrated this festival before ebro la Immaculada Concepcion de Santisima Virgen ; euya fiesta tuvo lugor eu ella desde el siglio sdptims." (El maestro Villados, en el cap. de los Festiv. Ecles. t. i., part ii. * This is the decree of Don Juan I. of Arra- gon : "We, Don Juan, by the grace of God, King of Arragon and Valencia, &c. Why is it that some persons are amazed to hear that the Ever-blessed Mary, Mother of God, was con- ceived without original sin, whilst they doubt not that St. John the Baptist was sanctified in his mother's womb by the same God,- who, coming down from the highest heavens and from the throne of the Most Holy Trinity, was made flesh in the blessed womb of a virgin ? What graces do we think could the Lord withhold from the woman who brought him forth by the splendid miracle of her fruitful virginity ? Lov- ing his mother as he loves her, he must have invested with the most glorious privileges her conception, her nativity, and the other phases of her holy life. " Why raise up a doubt as to the glorious conception of a Virgin so privileged, and of whom we are obliged, by Catholic faith, to be- lieve wonders and greatness beyond the reach of our imagination? Is it not, for all Chris- tians, a much greater subject of admiration to see that a creature has begotten her Creator, and become a mother without ceasing to be a viro-in ? How, then, can the human mind give adequate praise to that glorious Virgin, destined by the Almighty to possess, without the slightest corruption, the advantages of divine maternity, him.* We shall not decide between the two churches ; but if Spain have but a doubtful claim to the institu- tion of that festival of Mary, which is called in France and in England the feast of the Normans, she cannot be deprived of the honor of having conjointly with the glory of the purest virginity, and to be placed over all the prophets, over all the saints, and over all the choirs of angels, as their queen ? Could the stain of original sin have been imputed to her even for an instant, there would then have been some deficiency of grace and of purity in that excellent Virgin, to whom the angel of the Lord, the ambassador of heaven, addressed these words : Hail, Mary, full of grace ; the Lord is with thee ; blessed art thou amongst tvomen ! Let those persons who speak so unrea- sonably be now silent ; let those who have only vain and frivolous arguments to propose against the Immaculate Conception, so privileged and so pure, of the Blessed Virgin, be ashamed to publish them, because it was expedient that she should be endowed with so great purity, that after that of God there could be none such im- agined. It is likewise most fitting that she who became the Mother of the Creator and Father of all things should have been ever and always purest, fairest, and most perfect, having been chosen from the beginning and before all ages, by an eternal decree of God, to bear in her womb Him whom the whole world and all the immensity of the heavens cannot contain. "But we who, of all Catholic kings, have received, from this Mother of mercy, so many graces and benefits undeserved by us, we firmly believe that the conception of this Blessed Virgin, in whose womb the Son of God vouch- safed to become man, was indeed holy and immaculate. "Hence, we honor with a pure heart the 70 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. been the fii*st to erect cbarelies and altars under the title of the Mystery of the Immaculate Conception. In the yeai* 1525, the Spaniards of Mexico placed the splendid cathe- di'al of PvMx de los Angelas under the invocation of the immaculate Virgin, whose sacred image stood mystery of that Immaculate and Blessed Con- ception of the most Blessed Virgin, Mother of God ; and we, with all the royal house, do annu- ally solemnize the feast thereof, even as our most illustrious predecessors, of glorious mem- ory, did celebrate the same, having established a perpetual confraternity thereof. Wherefore, we do hereby ordain that this festival of the Im- maculate Conception be celebrated every year in perpetuity, with great solemnity and respect, throughout all the kingdoms subject unto us, by all faithful Catholics, whether religious or secular priests and laity, of whatsoever state or condition they may be ; and that, henceforward, it is not permitted, but expressly forbidden, to all preach- ers, and to all those who publicly expound the Gospel, to say, to advance, or to pubhsh any- thing that might, in any way whatsoever, be prejudicial or hurtful to the purity and holiness of that Blessed Conception ; but, on the con- trary, we ordain that preachers, and other per- sons who have had opposite sentiments, shall keep silent, since the Catholic faith does not in any way oblige us to maintain and profess the contrary opinion ; and that others, who cherish in their hearts our own holy and salutary opin- ion, may publish it in their discourses, and hasten to manifest their devotion by celebrat- ing, through the praises of the Most High, the glor}- and honor of his holy mother, who is the Queen of Heaven, the gate of paradise, the protectress of our souls, the sure port of salva- sparkling with jewels over an altar of massive silver, surrounded by a multitude of elegant pillars, with plinths and capitals of burnished gold. The faithful of Mexico raised in her honor, in their metropolitan church, an altar and a statue of massive silver, adorned with a mag- tion, and the anchor of hope for sinners who have confidence in her. We now hereby ex- pressly establish, in perpetuity, that if it happen that any preacher, or any other of our subjects, of any state or condition, fail to observe this ordinance, unless exempt by reason of some of our other edicts, that they be expelled from their convents and houses, and, whilst they retain that contrary opinion, they shall be driven, as our enemies, from all parts of our dominions. Commanding Hkewise, and decree- ing, in our knowledge and mature deliberation, that all and each of our officers, whether at home or abroad, present or future, shall observe, and cause to be observed, with great diligence and respect, our present edict, as soon as they are made cognizant thereof ; and that each, in his district, shall have it published exactly, solemnly, and by sound of trumpet in aU the accustomed places, to the end that no one may plead ignorance, and that the devotion of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, so long preserved in the hearts of Christians, may increase more and more, and that no one may ever again be heard to express a contrary opinion. In faith whereof we command that these present acts be dispatched everywhere, duly authorized by our sign and seal, hereto attached. — Given at Valencia, on the 2d of February, being the Feast of the Purification of that Ever-blessed Virgin, the year of our Lord 1384, and the eighth of our reign." LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 71 nificence truly Peruvian. A little later, the Mexican cathedrals of Merida, Maracai'bo, and Nahana were founded under the invocation of the immaculate Virgin ; nor did Peru remain behind. This splendid accession to the doctrine of the con- ception without" sin, did not sufi&ce for the zeal of the nations subject to the Spanish domination. In 1618, the vice-king of Naples, his court and his army, made a vow, in the Church of Our Lady the Great, to believe and to defend the immacu- late conception of the Virgin. A commemorative pillar, surrounded by a magnificent statue of Our Lady, with the symbolical emblems of her victory over original sin, was raised in testimony of that public engagement so chivalrously con- tracted. The Spanish people, who have at all times specially signalized them- selves in this devotion, have adopted * Alabado sea el santisimo Sacramento del altar, y la Immaculada Concepcion de la Yirgen Maria, concebida sin pecado original en el primer instante de su ser natural. I On entering a Spanish house, the first words spoken by the visitor, even before wishing good day, are these : " Ave, Maria purisima ;" the people of the house immediately answer : " Sin it so far that not a single preacher ascends a pulpit without prefac- ing his sermon by a profession of faith in the spotless conception,* and it has even been introduced into the familiar phrases used in greeting.-j- Finally, in 1771, whilst the de- stroying wind of philosophy was violently shaking religious belief in France and several other countries of Europe, the King of Spain, Charles III., instituted an order in honor of the Virgin conceived with- out sin, and solemnly declared her, with the assembled Cortes and a brief of the Holy See, Universal patrona de Espana ^ Indias.\ In France, notwithstanding the license and the unbelief which the flood of revolution left behind it, this doctrine is gaining ground, and penetrating even to the most distant hamlets. The Diocese of Paris is particularly distinguished pecado concebida, santisima," (holiest, conceived without sin.) J " Por la devocion que desde nuestra in- fancia hemos tenido a Maria santisima en su misterio de la Immaculada Concepcion, deseamos poner bajo los divinos auspicios de esta celestial protectora la Nueva Orden, y mandamos que sea reconocida en ella por 72 UFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. for its zeal in propagating this * pious belief^ which flourishes there under the protecting shadow of its archbishops,* confirmed by the supernatui'al things related of the miraculous medal struck in honor of the mystery of the spotless Conception. K the tradition of the Apostles, the inclination of the Church, the authority of Councils, the adhesion of universities and religious orders, the assent of kings and nations, the dedication of temples and altars, the })atrona. " {Leg. 12, t. iL, 1. vi. Noviss. Bee.) * " It is a fact we would wish to establish, and to make known in even the most remote parts of the Catholic world : in our Diocese, this de- votion has been rooted deeper and deeper with passing time, and misfortunes have come in plenty to confirm, increase, and extend it with marvellous rapidity." {See the mandamus of ¥ foundation of offices, the institution of confraternities and royal orders have any weight in a controversy which has astonished the Pagans themselves,! then the cause of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, so long pending before the tribunal of Catholic opinion, appears to us gained ; and we do not think it rash to suppose that God, preserving his divine Mother from the original stain, said to her, as Assuerus did to Esther, "This law is not made for thee, but for all others." His Grace the Archbishop of Paris on the occa- sion of the consecration of the Church of Our Lady of Loretto. ) f " How !" exclaimed JuUan the Apostate, ad- dressing a bishop who maintained the univer- sality of original sin ; " How ! dost thou, then, subject the birth of Mary to the empire of tho Devil!" (St. Augustine, L iv., Op. imperf.) CHAPTER III. THE BIRTH BOUT the time when the reli- gion and the prosperity of the Hebrews were on the decline at the period pointed out by the prophets, and when the royal sceptre was in stranger hands, according to the great prediction of Jacob, there was in Nazareth, a city of Lower Galilee, not far from Mount Carmel, a just man named Joachim,* of the * A biographer of Mary, Christopher de Castro, discovered, according to the Rabbins, St. Hilary and other Fathers of the Church, that the father of Mary had two names, Heli and Joachim. The Arabs and the Mussulmans know him under that of Amram, son of Matheus, and distinguish him from another Amram, father of Mary, the sister of Moses. (D'Herbe- lot, Bibtiotheque Orientale, t. ii.) f According to the proto-Gospel of St. James and the Gospel of the nativity of Mary, Joachim was of the race of David. Justin, who flourished only fifty years after the death of St. John the Apostle, who was born in Palestine, and was in a position to collect traditions still quite recent, likewise says that Mary was descended in a^irect line from David. I St. August., De consens. Evangel. § The Mahometans, inheritors of the Arabian OF MARY. tribe of Juda and the race of Davidf by Nathan ; his wife, who, according to the opinion of St. Augustine, was of the sacerdotal tribe,J was called Anne, a name which, in Hebrew, signifies graceful.^ They were both just before Jeho- vah, and walked in the way of His commandments with a perfect heart ;|| but the Lord seemed to have turned away his face from them, for a great blessing was wanting unto them; they were childless, and therefore sorrowful, traditions, know the blessed mother of the Virgin under her own name, which is Hannah ; she was, according to them, the daughter of Makhor, and wife of Amram. (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, t. ii.) II St. Anne and St. Joachim were publicly hon- ored in the Church in the first ages. St. John Damascene highly extols their virtue. The Emperor Justinian I. had a church built in Constantinople under the invocation of St. Anne, about the year 550. The body of the saint was removed, it is said, from Palestine to Constantinople in 710. {See Godescard, t. V. p. 319.) Luther had a great devotion for St. Anne previous to his heresy ; it was to that saint that he promised to embrace the monastic state, in presence of the corpse of a comrade killed by lightning before his eyes. 74 Lil THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART, because in Israel barrenness was a (lisgmce. Juucliim, who loved his wife for her exceeding mildness and her em- inent virtues, would not increase her misfortune by giving her those letters of divorce which the law then gmnted so easily;* he kept her with him, and that pious pair, humbly resigned to the divine be- hest, passed their days in labor, prayer, and alms-deeds. So many virtues could not go un- rewarded ; after twenty years of baiTcnness, Ann conceived, as it were by a miracle, and brought forth that favored creature who was more perfect, more holy, and more agreeable to the Lord than all the elect taken together. * It was the Pharisees who had introduced this abuse of divorce, so loudlV censured by our Lord [Matth. eh. xix. v. 8) ; they taught that a wife might be put away for the most trifling cause ; for instance, for having cooked her master's meat over much, or even for not being sufficiently handsome. This was the opinion of Hillel and of Akiba. (Basnage, 1. vii. ch. 22.) f The 8th of September, according to the teaching of the Church. Baronius has it that Mary was born in the year of Rome 733, twenty- one years before the vulgar era, on the 8th of September, being Saturday, at the dawn of day. Le Nain de Tillemont says that the Virgin was It was about the beginning of the month Tisri,f which is the lirst of the civil year of the Jews, whilst the smoke of holocausts was ascending to heaven for the expiation of the sins of the peo- ple, that the promised Virgin was born — she who was to repair the primitive transgression ; J her birth was humble, like that of her di- vine Son ; her parents were of the people, although descended from a long Ime of kings, and led, to all appearance, an obscure life ; that mystical rose, whom St. John after- wards beheld clothed with the sun as with a radiant garment, was to blos- som, in the scorching wind of adver- sity, on a withered and leafless stem.§ The cradle of the Queen of Angels born 'in the year 734 of the Roman era. This opinion is the most generally followed. I Here is what the Turks relate regarding the birth of the Blessed Virgin. The wife of Amram (Joachim) said to God, " Lord, I have conse- crated to thee the fruit of my womb ; vouchsafe to receive it, O Thou who kuowest and hearest all." When she had brought forth, she added, " Lord, I have brought a daughter into the world ; I have called her Miriam (Mary) ; I place her under thy protection, she and her pos- terity, to the end that thou mayst preserve them from the snares of Satan." (Koran, ch. iii.^ § Isaias had foretold it, saying : There shall ^ come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a \.^ LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 75 was neither adorned with gold nor covered with the richly-embroidered quilts ^of Egypt, neither perfumed with spikenard, myrrh, nor aloes, like those of the Hebrew princes ; it was formed of flexible branches, and bands of coarse linen confined the little arms which were one day to cradle the Saviour of the world. The children of kings, whilst yet wrapped up in their sumptuous swaddling-clothes, behold the great ones of the land humbling them- selves before them, and calling them by high-sounding titles. The woman who was to be the Spouse and the Mother of God bestowed her first smile on poor humble women, who perhaps said within themselves, as they remembered the obscurity and hardship of their lot, " Another slave is born!" It was the custom amongst the Israelites to assemble the family on the ninth day, in order to give the new-born child its name. The daughter of Joachim received from ■flower shall rise up out of his root ; for this word root signifies, in Hebrew, as St. Jerome observes {in Is. c. xi.) a stena without branches and with- out leaves, to denote, continues this holy doctor, that the august Mary was to be born of the race her father the name of Miriam (Mary), which means in the Syriac language, lady, sovereign, mistress, and in Hebrew, star of the sea. " And assuredly," says St. Ber- nard, " the Mother of God could not have a name more appropriate, nor more expressive of her high dignity. Mary is, in fact, that fair and lumin- ous star which shines over the vast and stormy sea of this world." There is hidden in that divine name a spell so potent, and of such marvellous sweetness, that merely to pronounce it softens the heart, mere- ly to write it beautifies the style. ''The name of Mary," says St. An- thony of Padua, '' is sweeter to the lips than honey,* more grateful to the ear than the sweetest music, more delicious to the heart than the purest joy." Eighty days after the birth of a daughter, the Jewish woman was solemnly purified in the temple where she ofi'ered her first-born child. Conformably to the law of of David, when that family should have lost its splendor and its royalty. * Noraen Virginis Marice, mel in ore, melos in aure, jubilum in corde, is the poetical expression of St. Anthony of Padua. T« LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. Moses, she theu olfered to the Lord. ^ a laiiib or two doves; the latter was the holy offering of the poor, and was that of Joachim's wife. But the gratitude of the pious mother went still farther than the customary sacrifice; worthy imitator of Anna, the wife of Elcana, she offered to the Lord a victim more pure, a dove more innocent, than those which fell bleeding and palpi- tating under the sacrificing knife. She had no votive crown of purest gold wherewith to adorn the walls of the temple ; * she laid at the feet of the Most High the crown of her old age, the child whom He had given her, and solemnly promised to bring back her daughter to the Tem- ple, and to consecrate her to the ser- vice of the holy place as soon as her mind was capable of knowing good from evil. Mary's father ratified * Mach. lib. i. cap. 4. f There were amongst the Jews two sorts of vows ; the first, neder, was a simple vow, after which men could purchase a dispensation of what they had vowed to the Lord (of this kind was the vow of Ann, mother of Mary) ; the second, cherem, was a vow indispensably bind- ing, whereby all right and title to the thing promised was irrevocably given up. Every Isra- elite could thus consecrate whatever belonged to him — houses, lands, cattle, children, slaves, ^ -, this vow, which then became bind- ing.f The ceremony being finished, the holy couple took their way back to their own country, to that country so barren in regard to great men that Israel was far from expecting a prophet to arise there, J and they returned to their humble dwelling, which was ever the asylum of the poor and the stranger. There it was that the child of benediction, the child of grace and of miracle, pass- ed her early years, the delight of her family, growing up like one of those lilies whose loveliness is prais- ed by Jesus Christ himself, and which have, as St. Bernard poeti- cally says, " the odor of hope," hahens odorem spei. Anne was herself to nurse the child, according to the custom of her people. § Mary's understanding, like the &c. ; and the things so consecrated could neither be sold nor redeemed at any price whatsoever. X " Can anything good come forth from Nazareth ? " asked Nathaniel of those who spoke to him of Christ. "Because the place was small and contemptible," says St. John Chrysostom, " and not only that particular place, but the whole of Galilee." (Serm. d, in S. Matth.) § In Judea, the women did not often dispense with nursing their children ; there are only three LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. T7 day in some favored regions, had scarcely a dawn, and shone clearly out from her earliest days. Her precocious fervor and the wisdom of her discourse, at a period of life when other children still enjoy but a purely physical existence, made the parents judge that the time of their separation was come ; and when Joachim had offered to the ¥ Lord, for the third time since the birth of his daughter, the first-fruits of the crops and fruits of his small inheritance, the husband and wife, grateful and resigned, set out for Jerusalem, in order to deposit within the sacred precincts of the temple the treasure which they had received from the Holy One of Israel. CHAPTEE, IV. THE PRESENTATION. HE Cison rolled majestically on, its reddish waves swelled by the e- quinoctial rains, * and the green mountains of Gal- ilee were beginning to put on their snowy covering, when Mary's pa- nurses mentioned in Scripture ; they are those of Kebecca, of Miphiboseth, and of Joas ; then it is to be observed that Rebecca was a foreigner, and the others royal personages. rents undertook the journey to Jeru- salem. There is no knowing the motive which induced them to leave their native province during the rainy season. It might be that they wished to assist at the grand solem- nities of the Feast of the Dedication ; or perhaps it was that they simply regulated their departure by the * The Cison is a small river which flows be- tween Nazareth and Mount Carmel ; shallow and insignificant in summer, like all the water- courses of Palestine, it becomes a considerable 78 Lli'L ui lUL JiLESSLD VIRGIN MARY. period of Zachary's service in the ^ toinplo which only took place at rc)j;ular intervals.* Uaving before them a journey of several days, in the midst of the lainy seixson, with an infant child, the pious and prudent travellers journeyed not towards the Holy City by the wild and pebbly road which winds amid the arid plains, the foamy torrents and deep ravines of the mountains of Samaria, where the frosts of winter had already set in. They descended by the woody slopes of Carmel, into the charming plains which extend between the mountains of Palestine and the stream during the rainy season. The troops of Sisara, general of the army of Jabin, were drowned in the swollen waters of this rivor while trying to force a passage. * According to the ordinance of David, the priests were divided into twenty-four classes or courses, each of which served its week. Each course was subdivided into seven parties, of which each officiated in its turn ; each indi- vidual of these parties had his share of the service assigned to him by lot (1 Par, ch. xxiv.) Zacharias belonged to the course or service of Abiu. (Prid., Hint, of the JewH.) f Volney mentions having seen, on the coasts of Syria, orange-trees loaded with fruit in the open air, in the month of January. " With us," says he, " nature has divided the seasons by months : there, it may be said, that they are only divided by hours. At TripoU, we suffer coasts of Syria, that fair and favored region, whose climate is so mild that the orange-trees blossom in the depth of winter, and the flowers of summer bloom in December.f Hav- ing left behind them the rich pastur- age-lands where rose of old the tents of Issachar, that race of pasto- ral astronomers J whom the burning breath of the wrath of God had scattered, like a handful of straw, over the wild and mountainous re- gions of Media ; having admired as they passed, the groves of palms, banana - trees and pomegranates clothing the hills which were once the fair inheritance of the children from the excessive warmth of July : six hours' journey brings us to the adjacent mountains, where the air has the temperature of March. On the other hand, we are chilled by the frost of December in the mountain districts : a day's journey brings us to the shore, where we find the summer-flowers in bloom." I St. Jerome says that the sons of Issachar were the sages who made the chronological cal- culations, and marked the festivals. (Hieron., QucBst. in 1 Paral. 112, p. 1390, et in Gen., 49.) This tradition agrees with that of the rabbins, who relate that the tribe of Issachar were much given to the study of astronomy. (Mai- mon., in Kiddosch, hachodesch, et Zachuth, in Juchasin.) Finally, the Scripture authorizes this tradition, since it mentions that the sons of Issachar knew all times to order what Israel should do. (1 Par. xii. 32.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 79 of Joseph, that noble and warlike race, renowned for their skill in archery, our (Jalilean travellers sped along by the small stream of Graas, overhung by its graceful willows, traversed the groves of Ramatha, that pretty town, which resembles a cameo laid in a basket of roses, and at length gained the confines of the ancient territory of the Jebusites. There, all was changed: no more flowers, no more verdure, no more balmy breezes, laden with the per- fumes of the citron-tree. All around were sterile rocks, profound ravines through which the wind swept in mournful murmurs; abrupt and craggy mountains, resounding with the hoarse cry of the eagle; in a word, a landscape the grandest, the most desolate, and the most cheer- less that can well be imagined. The little party had been follow- ing, for some time, a rugged path which crossed the table-land of a barren mountain, when Joaehim suddenly stopped at an abrupt turn of the road, and stretched his arm * The exterior front of the Temple was 80 thickly covered with plates of gold that, when the day began to appear, it was no less dazzUog than the rays of the rising snn. As for the other f towards the south with an emotion of religious exultation mingled with national pride. The object which he thus pointed out to his compan- ions was well worthy of being re- marked, for Asia had then nothing more magnificent or fantastic. It was a city about thirty-three stadas in circumference ; set in stone like a ruby of Beloochistan ; a city of marble, of cedar, and of gold, whose splendor had in it something gloomy, ferocious and suspicious, denoting an unsettled jx)wer and a permanent dread of the stranger; a state of things abounding in strange con- trasts. There were seen enormous towers, magnificent as palaces, and palaces fortified like citadels. Its temple, radiant with gold, stood glittering on a narrow table-land of the highest mountain, like the fiili- orbed moon when it rises over the snowv heiprhts of Lebanon.* It was an almost impregnable for- tress, held in awe by the people of (Jod, whilst the tower of Antonia, with its four elegant turrets of pol- sides, where there was no gold, their stones were BO white that, at a distance, that superb pile of building, looked Uke a mountain covered with mow. f Joseph. De Bello, b. t. ch. xiiL) 80 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. ished mtuble, kept jealous and un- * ceasing watch over the precincts of the temple. A triple inclosui-e of massive stone walls,* with ninety forts, encom- passed that singular city, and all around it lay gloomy valleys, dizzy heights and inaccessible rocks. That stately and warlike city, which seem- ed as though it were transported by magic from the fabulous regions of Ginnistan,f to be placed under the cloudless sky of Palestine, was that Jewish Paradise [Ghangh-dix- hoitcht), so poetically mourned on the banks of the Euphrates, — the city of David and the Maccabees ; that Je- rusalem which, even in its slavish abjection, is still hailed throughout the East by the ancient appellation then given it by the father of Mary : cl Cods (the Holy City) ! The parents of the Virgin entered the capital of Judea by the gate of ♦ " Extrema rupis abrupta : et turres, ubi mons juvisset, in sexaginta pedes, inter devexa, in centenos vicenosque attollebantur ; mira spe- cie, ac procul intuentibus pares." (Tacit. Hist. cap. v.> f Ginnistan, which is placed by the marvel- lous legends of the Arabs and Assyrians, at the foot of Mount Caucacus on the shores of the • Caspian Sea, was the abode of the Peris, a fair Rama, which was shaded by a tow- erj so lofty that its flat roof com- manded a view of Mount Carmel, the great sea, and the mountains of Arabia. From its summit still float- ed the green banner of Judas Mac- cabeus with its sacred device; no longer understood by the soldiers who kept guard aroimd, for they were Thracians, Galatians, Germans, and the fair-haired sons of Gaul, whom Herod, in his fear of the Jews, kept always in pay, and who were almost as odious to the people as himself The travellers then took their way through some dark and winding streets, bordered with heavy-looking square houses, without windows, their flat roofs forming long un- broken lines that looked like fortifi- cations, and stopped in the eastern part of the city, in front of a house of unpretending appearance, pointed and fabulous race bearing much resemblance to our fairies. These powerful beings, born before the Deluge, were supposed to command the elements, and to create whatever they wished. Their capital city, which they had carefully fortified in order to keep ofif the incursions of the Dives, a formidable race of evil spirits, was of marble, gold, rubies, and diamonds. I The tower Psephina. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 81 out by tradition as the dwelling of St. Ann.* Having purified himself for seven days, according to the custom of those who went to offer sacrifice in the temple,f Joachim provided him- self with the lamb which he was to present to the Lord, put on white garments, J gathered together such of his relations and friends as were in Jerusalem, and went up with them to the temple as resolutely as though he were about to make an assault. § That temple of the Lord of Hosts, where the Virgin then presented herself like the dove with the olive branch, had undergone numerous vicissitudes. One of the ancestors of Mary, the wise son of David, had made it the glory of the East. He lavished upon it the gold of Ophir, the perfumes of Saba, the cedar of * A monastery was erected on this house of St. Ann, but it has since been converted into a mosque. Under the Christian kings it was in- habited by nuns. (See Itineraire de Paris a Jerusalem, vol. 2, p, 211.) fit was not only that they had to present themselves in the temple with their victim ; the law required that they should remain outside for seven entire days, and that they should sol- emnly purify themselves on the third and seventh days with ashes and hyssop ; that done, they t Lebanon, brass which the fleets of Tyre brought fi'om far-off lands, and silver, which was then so plenty that it had become a base metal. That splendor had passed away like a vision of the night, thanks to the insatiable greed of the tribes of Egypt and Ohaldea, a score of times had it been despoiled, and as often restored to its former splendor, and finally it arose from its ruins under Zorobabel, who built it, sword in hand, notwithstanding the active opposition of many envious nations. Nevertheless, the second temple, with all its unheard-of magnificence, was as inferior to the fii'st in grand- eur as in sanctity. It was in vain that the Jews poured forth upon it with a liberal hand the strength of wheat and the blood of the vine ; that rivers of gold, flowing in from every point of the compass, unceasingly might offer their sacrifice. (Philo, Tract de Sacrif., c. 3.) J According to the Rabbins, the sacrifice was null when he who offered it was not clothed in white. (Basn. b. ix. ch. iv.) § This was of obHgation ; the Hebrews were to go up to the temple with as much ardor as a soldier goes up to battle ; they found this precept in the fifty-fifth Psalm, where David said that he went to the house of Grod as to a strong city. {See Basn., Histoire des Juifs, b. vii. ch. 17.) 82 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. replenished its sacred treasury ; that the pagan kings, recognizing the awful sanctity of the God of Israel, sent thither the most magnificent offerings.* Nothing of all that could supply the absence of the Ark, with which had disappeared the tables of the law, that is to say, the decrees of (rod wiitten by Himself amid the lightnings of Sinai ; the miraculous rod, which constituted the most an- cient title of the sons of Aaron to the supreme priesthood; and the manna of the desert, which confirm- ed by the miracle of its long pres- ervation, so many ancient prodigies wrought for the deliverance of Israel. Those precious objects were lost, to- gether with the sacred fire, which was only to be fanned by the breez- es of the holy mountain on the brazen altar of holocausts ; and the oil of unction, prepared by Moses, from which the priests and the kings * Josephus g^ves a minute description of the magnificent table of massive gold incrusted with precious stones, and the equally splendid vases given by Ptolemy Philadelphus to the Temple ; nearly all the princes of Asia had enriched it with thej'r gifts, and, about the time of the Pres- entation )f the Virgin, the Empress Livia sent there in her name and that of Augustus, some superb vases of gold. (Joseph, de BeUo, b. ii ch. 17.— Philo, ad Cajum.) ^ derived their lofty title : anointed of the Lord. But most mom-nful of all, the ScJiekina, that radiant cloud which attested the divine presence, had never been seen in the sacred temple, and even the jewels of the breast-plate, that last and most bril- liant oracle of the God of hosts, had lost their prophetic lustre.f This it was that filled the hearts of the sons of Aaron with bitterness when they compared the house of Zorobabel with the temple of the son of David ; and this it was that made the doc- tors of the law declare that the ful- fillment of the prophecy of Aggeus was not to be hoped for, unless the Messiah himself appeared in person in the new temple. Having passed that magnificent gate of Corinthian brass which twenty Levites could hardly close at night, and which, to the great dis- may of the Deicide people,^ opened f God made use of the precious stones which the high-priest wore on the breast-plate in order to presage victory ; for, before they encamped, these stones emitted so bright a lustre that the people thereby recognized the presence and assistance of his divine majesty ; but for two hundred years past, the breast-plate has ceased to emit that light. (FL Joseph. Ant. Jud., b. iii. ch. 8.) X Joseph, de Bella, 1. vL LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 83 of its own accord four years before the ruin of Jerusalem, Mary and her parents found themselves in a vast inclosure paved with black and white flags, and surrounded by lofty piazzas which, in time of war, served as ramparts.* A crowd of strangers and of natives, whose brilliant cos- tumes of glaring colors recalled the idea of an immense bed of tulips, walked to and fro in conversatix)n in that forum of Jerusalem, which was not considered sacred, and was called the Gentiles' Porch, because idolators could not, under pain of death, advance farther. j* At some distance from the crowd, under Solomon's porch, stood the proud aristocrats of Israel, clad in scarlet and purple, or in those long Babylonian robes embroidered with gold, which cost enormous sums, awaiting the hour of prayer, and de- taching themselves from the strang- ers with a haughty reserve that savored of contempt. Joachim, f whose birth, notwithstanding his poverty, was as noble as that of any of the princes of his people, bent his steps in that direction, sure of a cordial reception; for those Jews, so disdainful towards the Gentiles, J were amongst themselves like brethren, especially when they belonged to the same line. Scarcely had they perceived him when a number of illustrious ladies, warri- ors, and princes of the house of David, came to meet him, and, after the usual salutations, they joined the Galilean family, as though to form a suitable train for Mary.§ The Fathers, who note this circum- stance, have piously supposed that those great personages, the flower of the Jewish nobility, were not there by mere accident, but that God, who would have the future mother of the Messiah enter his temple in triumph, had divinely inspired them to be there at that particular time. * Tacit., Historiarum, 1. y. f Joseph, de Bella, 1. v. and vi. J Basnage remarks that at the time of Jesus Christ the Jews regarded the Gentiles as dogs, and mortally hated them. "If idolators are drowning," taught the doctors, " no one is to take them out of the water, or render them any assist- ^ ance ; the utmost that can be done for them is not to plunge them deeper into the water, or throw them farther down the precipice." (Basnage, L vii. ch. 25. ) § " Primarios quoque Hierosolymitas viros et mulieres interfuisse huic deductioni, succinenti- bus universis angeUs." (Isid. de Tfuss.) 84 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. From the middle of the Gentiles' Porch arose two other inclosm'es, both sacred, which composed the temple. Seen fiom below, that majestic and resplendent edifice pre- sented a quadrangular mass, w^hose walls, of alabaster whiteness, were pierced with ten superb gates, cov- ered with thick plates of gold and silver. As the temple, properly so called, crowned the summit of Mount Moria, a becoming site for the dwelling of the God of Moun- tahis, the ground had a gradual as- cent, and the walls were completely sm-rounded by marble steps, which somewhat concealed their height. Having ascended the steps of the temple, the purified group, in whose midst was the holy child about to be consecrated to God, paused a mo- * The chel was a space of ten cubits between the court of the Gentiles and that of the women. fThe tephilim were small pieces of parchment whereon they wrote four sentences of Scripture, with ink made expressly for the purpose ; the Jews wore them at the bend of the left arm and on the middle of the forehead. These tephilim, or phylacteries, were much in use at the time of Jesus Christ, since they were paraded as marks of distinction, and called forth his censure. (Basnage, Hisloire des Jui/s, b. vii. c. 17.) J The Pharisees always walked with their heads bowed down, in order to affect a more ^ ment on the narrow platform of the c/w?/.* There the Pharisees display- ed their tephilim^-\ and threw back over their subdued brows J a flap of their taled, which was composed of fine white wool,§ adorned with pur- ple pomegranates and small violet twists. The undaunted captains of Herod half concealed their dazzling breast-plates under their long cloaks, and the daughters of Sion wrapped themselves more closely in their veils of purple, of azure, or of Syr- ian gauze embroidered with gold, through respect for the holy angels of the sanctuary. 1 1 That done, they entered the temple by the east- ern gate, the most gorgeous of all ; that gate which poured forth streams of liquid gold when the Romans, unable to force an en- humble appearance, and sometimes even with their eyes closed, so as to avoid seeing anything that might be a cause of temptation ; hence it often happened that, in passing along the streets they knocked their head against the walls. (Basn., b. iii. ch. 3.) § Taled, a species of square cloak, which the Jews wore while praying in the temple ; some fastened it around their neck, others threw it over their head ; this last cnstom was the most generaL (Basnage, tom. v. book vii. chap. 17.) I Ideo debet mulier potestatem habere supra caput propter angelos. (1 Gor. xi. IC.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 85 trance through it, opened it by f means of fire.* In our cold northern regions vast edifices are required to shelter the people from the inclemency of the weather. Hence, we have immense cathedrals, made to contain whole multitudes ; but in ancient Asia the temples were for little else than the use of the priests ; the people prayed without. In Israel, the engdah or sacred assembly was usually held in the women's court. The second in- closure was so called because the Jewish women, whom the old law, in its severity, assimilated to slaves, could not advance farther. Sepa- rated from their sons and husbands, who remained, during the religious ceremonies, either in the open air of the square or under the arches of the peristyle, they prayed apart in the upper galleries, their heads humbly inclined towards the house of Jehovah, whose magnificent roof * Josephus mentions that, when Titus gave orders to set fire to the gates of the second inelosure of the temple, the molten gold and silver ran down in streams, as water streams from a fountain. {De Bello, c. xxiii.) f This precaution had been taken in order to prevent the doves and pigeons, who were very numerous in Jerusalem, from resting on the temple and soiling its roof. of cedar, bristling with needles of gold, they beheld at some dis- tance.f The ceremony of the presentation undoubtedly took place in the wo- men's court, and not in the very interior of the sanctuary, as some authors have said. It opened with a solemn sacrifice. The gate of Meaner, opening to admit the vic- tim, gave a perspective view of the inner inelosure, like a glimpse of that lost paradise, whose golden palaces, shaded by lofty cedars, were, as the Pharisees taught, the dwelling of the just. J Through the marble columns of a stately portico, overhung by the gigantic leaves and fruit of a golden vine, there was seen a structure which, at first sight, seemed of massive gold, so dazzling was the effect of its golden front of a hundred cubits as it reflected the rays of the Asiatic sun. An incred- ible number of votive garlands, X The Jews believed that the souls of the just went to the Garden of Eden, from which the hv- ing were debarred by the angel of death. They are sublime in their descriptions of this place, whose palaces, they say, are of precious stones, and its rivers of odorous perfumes. In hell, on the contrary, a river of fire flows over the damned, who suffer the extremes of hea* and cold. (Maimonides, Menasse, &c.) 86 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, whose ears of corn, lilies, pome- granates, and vine-leaves were com- posed of emeralds, topazes, carbun- cles, rubies, according to their color, were attached to the walls by cords of gold ; and when the wild moun- tain-breeze agitated theii' leaves, you would have taken them for real flowei'S, so exquisite was the work- manship and so perfect the imitation of nature. Here and there were seen tattered and blood-stained ban- ners, wrested by the brave Asmo^ nian princes from the Greeks of Syria in the glorious wars of the Independence, and consecrated to the God of Hosts by their priestly and warrior hands. Herod, that cruel prince but valiant leader, had recently added thereto the standards taken in his successful expeditions against the Arabs ; and the sight of those warlike trophies filled with patriot pride and martial ardor those Jewish hearts, who regarded death as a trifling thing when there was question of fighting for what was dearer to them than gold, family, and life — ^the temple ! The priests and the Levites assem- bled in the inner inclosure received from the hands of Joachim the victim ^ of prosperity.'^ Those ministers of the living God were not crowned with laurel, like the Pagan priests. A sort of round mitre, composed of very thick linen ; a linen tmiic, long, white, and without fullness, confined by a broad zone embroidered with sky-blue and purple ; these compos- ed the sacerdotal costume, which was worn only in the temple. One of the sacrificers took the lamb, and, after a short invocation to the God of Jacob, slew him, turning his head towards the north; the blood was caught in a vase of brass, and sprinkled around the temple. These preliminary rites being gone through, the priest arranged on a golden dish a portion of the flesh of the victim, together with part of the entrails, which had been carefully washed by the Levites in the hall of the spring. He wrapped up the oblation in a coat of fat, covered it with incense, and threw upon it the salt of the covenant; then, ascending barefoot to the platform in front of the brazen altar, he deposited the offering on the sound, firm logs, which, stripped ♦Whether they asked a, favor of God, or thanked him for having bestowed one, it waa ^ called the sacrifice of prosperity. LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 87 of their bark, fed the sacred lire. The remainder of the host, with the exception of the breast and the right shoulder, which belonged to the priests, was given back to Joachim, in order to furnish a banquet for his friends and neighbors, according to custom.* The last sounds of the priestly trumpets were dying away along the arched roof, and the sacrifice was still burning on the brazen altar, when a priest descended to the women's court in order to complete the ceremony. Ann, followed by Joachim, and bearing Mary in her * This festival, which was considered sacred, might be kept up for two days in succession, but the law expressly prohibited keeping anything of it for the third. While it lasted, the poor were to have their full share, and that for two reasons, says Philo. Firstly, because the victim belonged to God, who is bountiful by nature, and wished that the needy should be relieved ; secondly, for fear that avarice, which is a slavish vice, might creep in and dishonor a pious prac- tice. (Philo, Trad de Sacrif., c. ii.) f According to a Mahometan tradition, when St. Ann was delivered of the Blessed Virgin, she presented her to the priests, saying these words, which are also found in the Koran, " Dhouncon hadih alne-dhirat ; " that is to say, " Behold the offering which I make to thee." Hossain Vaer adds to these words, in his Persian paraphrase, " Kih ez an Khoddi," which signifies, "For this is a gift which God has f arms, advanced, veiled, towards the minister of the Most High, and (if we may believe an Arabian ti*adition which Mahomet himself inserted in the Koran) presented to him the young servant of the Lord, saying, in a tremulous voice, " I come to offer you the gift which God gave to me."f The priest accepted, in the name of God, who fructifies the womb of mothers, the precious deposit which the gratitude of blessed Joachim and his . pious companion confided to him ; J then extending his hands over the assembly who bowed to receive his pontifical blessing : § "0 given me ; " or rather, word for word, " For it is from this gift that God is to come." (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientate, torn. ii. p. 620.) I Eli blessed Elcana and his wife, and said to the former, " May the Lord give you yet other children by this woman, because of the deposit which you have placed in his hands." And they returned to their home. (Kings, b. 1 ch. ii. ver. 20.) See Pere Croiset on this ceremony. {Ex- ercises de Piete, t. xviii. p. 48.) § Whilst the high-priest gave his blessing, the people were obliged to place their hands on their eyes and to hide their face, because they were not permitted to look upon the hands of the priest. The Jews imagined that God was be- hind the pontiff, looking at them through hia outstretched hands ; they dared not raise their eyes, then, to look upon him, /or no man could see God and live. (Basn., 1. vii. ch. 15.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Israel," said he, " may the Lord shed bis light upon thee; may He prosper thee in all thy ways, and grant thee peaee ! " A canticle of thanksgiving, harmoniously accompanied by the priestly harps, terminated the pres- entation of the Virgin. Such was the ceremony which took place towards the end of November, in the holy temple of Sion. Men, who usually go no farther than the surface, saw there only a young child of marvellous beauty and precocious piety, consecrated by her mother to the God who had granted her to her tears and mortifications ; but the angels of heaven, hovering over the sanctuary, beheld in that fair and fragile creature the Virgin of Isaiah, the spouse whose mystic hymn was sung by Solomon, the celestial Eve who came to restore to a fallen race the hope of a glorious immortality. Penetrated with joy to see the dawn of the Messiah's day at last appear, "they thronged," say the ancient authors,* "to that earthly festival, and, covering with their snowy wings the youthful descendant of * St Andrew ol Crete and St. George of Nic- omedia. * the royal David, they strewed hei path with the odoriferous flowers of paradise, and celebrated her entry into th^ temple by melodious con- certs." Who can tell what was then pass- ing in Mary's soul — that soul pre- maturely matured by the breath of the sanctifying Spirit, wherein al. was peace, and light, and love ? By what secret bonds was she united tc Him who had preferred her before the virgins and queens of so many nations ? This is a secret between her and God ; but we may reasona- bly suppose that never was obla- tion more favorably received; and St. Evodius of Antioch, St. Epipha- nius of Salamina, St. Andrew of Crete, and a number of the Latin fathers, agree in regarding the con- secration of the Virgin as more pleasing to God than any act of religion that man had yet accom- plished. We know not the name of the priest who received the Blessed Vir- gin amongst the daughters of the Lord; St. Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople, and St. George of Nicomedia, incline to the opinion that it was the father of St. John the LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 89 Baptist. The relationship existing between Zachary and the family of Joachim, the high rank which he then held in the priesthood,* and the tender affection wherewith Mary ever regarded him, as well as Eliza- beth, make this supposition ex- tremely probable. Whoever it was, the blessed daughter of Joachim was solemnly admitted to the number of the almas or young virgins who were brought up in the sacred shade of the altar. That Mary spent her best years in the temple, is proved by apostolic tradition, the writings of the Fathers, and the opinion of the Church, which is not apt to sanction doubtful facts.f Nevertheless, heretics have chosen to treat this circumstance as fabu- lous, and even some Catholic authors have considered it as an obscure * The Jews believed that John the Baptist was much greater than Jesus Christ, because he was the son of a high-priest. (S. J. Chrysostom, Serm. 12 in Matt.) t In 1373, Philippe de Maziere, a French gentleman, chancellor of the King of Cyprus, came to the court of Charles V. and informed him that in the East, where he had long resided, they celebrated every year the feast of the pres- entation of the Blessed Virgin, in memory of her having been presented in the temple at the age * point, shi'ouded by the veil of time, and very difficult to determine. The denial of the former is not at all surprising, but the doubt of the latter is indeed wonderful; for if ever Christian tradition bore the stamp of authenticity, it is this. St. Evodius, a contemporary of the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles, was the first who recorded this glori- ous peculiarity of the childhood of Mary, in an epistle entitled Liimen^ which Mcephorus has preserved. He was bishop of Antioch, a city of Syria, much frequented by both Jews and Christians ; and the tem- ple, where the early faithful followed, with profound veneration, the traces of the Son of God and his divine Mother, was still standing in all its splendor. This tradition, which came from the Church of Jerusalem, — a Church which was composed of the of three years. Philippe added, " I began to re- flect that this great festival was not known in the Western Church, and, when I was ambassador from the King of Cyprus to the Pope, I spoke to him of that festival, and presented its office to him ; he had it carefully examined by cardinals, bishops, and doctors of theology, and then per- mitted the feast to be celebrated." The Greeks be- gan early to celebrate it under the title of The En- trance of the Blessed Virgin into the Temple. It is mentioned in their most ancient martyrologies. 90 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART, fii-bt disciples of Jesus Christ, many * of whom were relations of the Virgin and St Joseph, — was very eai-ly con- secrated by a religious monument, a demonstrative proof even in the eyes of Protestants.* Finally, the majority of the Fathers,f and espe- cially St. Jerome, who lived amidst the scenes of the Redemption, and while the ti-aditions were still very recent, have related it and held it as true. We may, therefore, place this traditionar belief amongst the best authenticated facts of history. CHAPTER V. MARY IN THE TEMPLE. Virgins ITHIN the forti- fied inclosure of the temple rose that part of the sacred edifice which was set apart for the consecrated to the Lord. * Gibbon himself could not help admitting the authenticity of the religious traditions in Palestine. " The Christians point out," says he, "by undoubted tradition, the scene of every memorable event" (voL iv. p. 101), an admission of considerable importance coming from a man of such research as the English historian, and at the same time so little favorable to religion. — ^According to M. Chateaubriand, if there be Thither did Zachary conduct his youthful relative.^ On this site the Christians of Jerusalem erected an oratory, which was afterwards re- placed by a church with a gilded .dome, by Godfrey de Bouillon's companions in arms. This church the valiant knights of the temple anything on earth clearly proved, it is the authenticity of the Christian traditions of Jeru- salem. fSt. Epiphanius, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople, St. George of Nicomedia, St. John Damascene, &c. X St. Germanus states that it was Zachary who took charge of the Virgin, and placed her in the LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 91 took pleasure in adorning with the rich spoils which they took from the Saracens.* Although virginity was, in Israel, but the virtue of a season, and was soon to give place to the conjugal duties, it was not without its honors and its special prerogatives. Jeho- vah delighted in the prayers of spotless children, of pure virgins; and it was a virgin rather than a queen whom he had chosen to co- operate in the redemption of man- kind. Hence, when the seers of Juda disclosed to that chosen but often chastised people the prophetic picture of its miseries or of its tri- umphs, they always painted a virgin temple. The Arabian traditions also have it that God gave the Virgin in charge to Zachary, ouacqfalha Zojcharia. The Koran, in the Sural which treats of the family of Amram, adds to this fact a marvellous legend handed down amongst the Christian tribes of the desert. It says that Zachary, going now and then to visit his young relative, always found near her a quantity of the finest fruits of the Holy Land, and that, at seasons when they were not to be had, which at last induced him to ask Mary where she got all those fine fruits. Mary answered, Hou men and Allah 'iarroc man 'iascha hegdir hissa: All that you see comes from God, who provides for whosoever he will, without number and without measure. (D'Her- belot, Bibl. Orient., t. ii. art, Miriam.) * The mosque of Omar {el AJcsa) represents for ^ either joyous or in tears, to personi- fy the cities and provinces. In the wars of extermination, when the broadsword of the Hebrews smote the women, the children, and the old men of Moab, the virgins were spared; and the high-priest, who was prohibited by a severe law from fulfilling the last duties to a friend whom he loved as Ms own sotd, and even to the prince of his people, could assist, without contracting legal impurity, at the funeral of his sister, who died a virgin.f The virgins, or almas, figured in the ceremonies of the Hebrew wor- ship before that worship had a tem- ple. "We see them, under the guid- Christians the ancient temple of Solomon ; el sakhra (the rock) is built on the place where Mary lived from the age of three years till her betrothal with Joseph. . . . This place was at that time a dependency of the temple of Solomon, aa el sakhra is now of the mosque of Omar. Before the crusades, el sakhra was but a chapel ; the Franks added thereto a church, surmounted by a gilded cupola. When the victors threw down the great cross which shone on the cupola of the sakhra, the acclamations of the Mussulmans and the lamentations of the Christians were so great, says an Arab writer, that it seemed as though the whole world were about to be swallowed up. (Correspondence d' Orient, t. v.) According to Schonah, it excited so great a tumult in the city, that Saladin himself had to interfere, f Levit. oh. xxi. v. 3. 9-2 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. ance of Mary, the sister of Moses, * celebniting by songs and dances the passage of the Red Sea.* Those diincing-ehoirs of young maidens, transplanted fi'om Egypt to the des- ei-t, were long kept up amongst the Hebrews. The virgins of Silo, who seem to have been, fi'om the time of the Judges, more especially conse- crated to the service of Adonai than the other daughters of Israel, were singing canticles and dancing to the sound of the harp, within a short distance of the holy place, during a certain festival, when they were carried off by the Benjamites. But that event did not abolish the cus- tom, which was kept up till that disastrous period when the ark was lost and the first temple desti'oyed.f It is probable that all the almas were admissible to those sacred choirs, when their reputation was * Mary and her young companions (the almas) sang canticles on the passage of the Red Sea, accompanying themselves with the timbrel. (R. sal Tarhhi.) Exod. xv. f These sacred dances, which commemorated the passage of the Red Sea, and were accompani- ed by hymns of praise, were regarded by the Jews as a practice so pious as to be adopted even amongst the austere therapeutae. " The sacred dance of the devout therapeutce," says Philo, " was untarnished ; but there was amongst them a select number who gathered around the altar with more fervor, and more perseverance. Whilst the ark of the Lord was yet encamped under the tents, the women who watch- ed and prayed at the door of the taber- nacle, offered to God the brazen mirrors which they had brought from Egypt. These were probably pious widows who had refused to contract new ties, in order to apply themselves more constantly to heav- enly tilings, and almas devoted by their parents to the service of the sanctuary, who had been placed under the care of those righteous matrons. St. Jerome thus under- stands this passage of Exodus : As the vow of the parents was usually redeemable, and the ransom, fixed at a moderate sum,J always took place after the expiration of a composed of two choirs, one of men, the other of women ; the effect of which was very musical and harmonious, because the words that were heard were very fine, and the grave and modest danc- ers had only in view the honor and the service of the God of Israel." (Philo, de Vita cont.) X Moses had, by a special law, fixed the re- demption of this vow at a sum of fifty shekels or more. The shekel of silver was, at least, four Attic drachms. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 93 few years,* these temporary vows were called a loan given to the Lord.f / have lent him to the Lord, said Anna, as she conducted her young Samuel to Silo.J After the return from captivity, the influence of the Persians oper- ated against the institution of the almas, as that people excluded wo- men from their religious celebra- tions. § They ceased to form, as it were, a body in the state, and to figure ostensibly in the public wor- ship. Under the pontiff-kings they lived shut up, and their days flowed on in such profound seclusion, that when they ran in terror to the high- priest Onias, at the moment when the sacrilegious crime of Heliodorus * Children in this sort of bondage retained their rights to the paternal inheritance, and might redeem themselves, in case they were not redeemed by their parents. {Ahh'e Ouenee.) Josephus {Ant., h. iv.) remarks that those men and women who, after having voluntarily conse- crated themselves to the ministry, wished to break their vows, paid the priests a certain sum, and that those who were insolvent placed them- selves at the disposal of the priest. f Pere Croiset, Exerc. de Piet'e. I Ideirco et ego commodavi eum Domino. § In Bombay, the descendants of the Persians have a temple consecrated to the fire. They come in crowds to the esplanade, with their snow-white garments and colored turbans, to ^j threw all Jerusalem into confusion, the fact was considered so unusual and so remarkable, that the Jewish historians give it a place in their annals. 1 1 It appears, then, that whatever may be said to the contrary, there were virgins attached to the service of the second temple at the time of Mary's presentation. The institu- tions of the first Christians certify that such was the case,^] and St. Am- brose, St. Jerome, and, before them, the proto-gospel of St. James afiirm- ed it. But what took place during the Virgin's sojourn in the temple ? What were, at that most interesting period of her life, her tastes, her habits, her practices of devotion? salute the rising sun or to offer their homage to his departing rays, humbly prostrating them- selves before him. Their women do not then appear, for it is at that time that they go to fetch water from the wells. (Buckingham, Tableau de I'Inde.) II II. Mac. iii. \ It is known that the first Christians, es- pecially those of Jerusalem, who were of He- brew origin, preserved some of the institutions of the old law ; of this number was that of the virgins and widows, whom we find attached to the primitive chui-ches for the exercise of various good works suitable to their sex. {See Fleury, Mosurs des Israelites et des Chretiens, p. 115.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. There remains to us, on this head, but few authentic documents. These details were most probably given in a traditional life of the Mother of God, which St. Epiphanius, in 390, regarded as very ancient, but that life is lost. The " Gospel of the Childhood of Mary " and St. Jerome, when they mention that Mary was a<)mitted amongst the daughters of the Lord, say very little more on the subject To fill up this vacuum in a life which God seems to have taken pleasure in surrounding with mystery, we have only some incon- clusive lines, some detached pages fi*om the Fathers, from which it is very difficult, even with the utmost care, to make a satisfactory sketch. No matter; like the Indian work- man who joins a broken tissue thread by thread, and patiently tries to tie the ends together, unweaving, knotting, sending his shuttle with infinite care along that worn-out and attenuated woof, we are going to apply ourselves assiduously to our work, and gather together the scat- tered fragments of the precious tissue of the Virgin's life, so as to connect, if possible, the broken thread. With the persevering patience of the han- ^ ian, we will endeavor not to make a suppositious narrative — which our profound respect for our subject for- bids — but to give, with the help of the best authorities, and a long study of the customs of the Hebrews, the most precise idea, and the nearest to the truth that can possibly be given, of the almost monastic life of the Blessed Virgin in the temple. Many of the old legendary writers took pleasm-e in surrounding the childhood of Mary with a multitude of prodigies. These we pass over in silence, because they are not suffi- ciently authenticated. But there is one thing which we cannot omit to mention, viz., an inaccurate, or rath- er an inadmissible assertion, which has been adopted credulously and without examination by some holy personages and religious writers.* From the fact that the Virgin was always sanctity itself, which no one disputes, they inferred that she must have been placed in the most sanctified part of the temple, which is materially false. The Holy of Holies, that impenetrable sanctuary * St. Andrew of Crete, St. George of Nicome- .j dia, &c 1- LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 95 of the God of Hosts, was closed to the whole Hebrew priesthood ex- cept the high-priest, who entered it but once a year, after much fasting, watching, and purification. He only presented himself there in the midst of a thick cloud of incense, which interposed between him and the Divinity, "whom no man can see and live," says the Scripture. Fi- nally, he remained there but a few minutes, while the people, prostrate on the ground, sobbed and wept, fearing lest he should meet his death. He himself afterwards gave a grand banquet to his friends, to rejoice with them for having escaped such imminent and fearful danger.* From this we may judge whether it be possible that Mary was brought up in the Holy of Holies. The local traditions of Jerusalem, no less loudly than common sense, protest against this rash opinion. The sakhra^ which was first a Chris- * Prideaux. — ^Basnage, Hidoire desSuisses, 1, v. ch. 15. ■j" The uncleanness of the woman, according to the Jewish doctors, dates from the seduction of Eve by the serpent, and is only to be extirpated at the coming of their Messiah. Her prayer is not so obhgatory as that of man, and she is not 8ven bound to the observance of most of the tian church, built on the site of the apartments of the Virgin, is distinct- ly detached from the mosque of Omar; yet the mosque of Omar is built on the very ground' of the temple. Father Croiset, in his Exercises de Piete, did not adopt this opinion; but, unwilling to reject it altogether, he attempted a sort of compromise. According to him, the Mother of God was not brought up in the Holy OF Holies, but the priests, touched by her admirable virtues, permitted her to pray there from time to time. The Jesuit Father, in adopting this mezzo termine, has forgotten several things: first, that amongst the He- brews, woman was considered an unclean creature, assimilated to the slave, and scarcely bound to pray ; f that she was banished to an inclos- ure whose boundaries she might not cross, and that the interior of the temple was to her a forbidden place. affirmative commandments. Finally, the Jews still say, in their morning prayer. Blessed be thou, Lord, King of the universe, for that thou hast not made me a woman. Woman, on the other hand, said, in her humility, Blessed be thou, Lord, who hast made me according to thine own will. (Basnage, Bistoire des Juifs, lib. vii ch. 10.) 96 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. even though she were a prophetess f or the daughter of a king ; the sec- ond is, that the priests could not grant to Mary a privilege which they did not themselves enjoy, and which would, moreover, have exposed her to certain death ; * finally, that even supposing the priests of Jehovah to have been without these fears and prejudices, they would by no means have suffered any one to penetrate to the Holy of Holies, seemg that it was important to conceal from the ])eople the disappearance of the ark, lost in some obscure grotto of the mountains since the days of Jere- minh.f This second version, then, is not more admissible than the first. The education which Mary receiv- ♦ "The sanctuary," says Philo, " is so holy a place, that npne amongst us, save the high-priest, is permitted to penetrate there, and even he only once a year, after a solemn fast, to burn per- fumes in honor of God, and humbly to beg of Him that the year may be favorable for all men. If any one, even a prince of our nation, dared to enter, or if the high -priest himself went in a second time in one year, or more than once on the day that he is permitted to do so, it would cost either of them his life, with- out any chance of escape, so strict was the ordinance of Moses, our legislator, concerning the veneration of the temple. (Fhilo, ad Cajum, C.16.) ed in the temple was the best that those times and the customs of the Hebrews permitted. It was chiefly confined to the domestic labors, from which even the wife and daughter of Cesar Augustus did not exempt themselves in their imperial palace and amid the delights of Rome.;); Brought up in the strict observance of the Mosaic law, and conforming herself to the customs of her people, Mary arose with the lark, at the hour when wielded spirits are silent^ and when prayers are most favorably heard.^ She dressed herself with the greatest modesty, through re- spect for the glory of God who is every where present, and beholds all the actions of men, even through the gloom of the darkest night. At the fThe Jews do not agree concerning the fate of the ark after the ruin of the first temple. Some will have it, that Jeremiah concealed it in a cavern of the mountains, the entrance to which was never found ; others say that the holy king Josias, warned by Holda, the prophetess, that the temple should be destroyed shortly after his death, caused that precious deposit to be placed in a subterraneous vault, which had been con- structed by Solomon. J Augustus wore no other garments than those- which were spun by his wife or daugh- ter, and Alexander the Great by his mother and sisters. § Basnage, L vii, ch. 17, p. 308. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 97 same time, she gave thanks to the Lord for having added another day to her life, and for having preserved her during her sleep from the snares of the evil one.* Her toilet was ex- tremely simple, and occupied but little time. She wore neither brace- lets of pearl, nor chains of gold inlaid with silver^ nor purple tunics, such as were worn by the daughters of the princes of her race. A robe of sky-blue, a white tunic, confined at the waist by a girdle with flowing ends, a long veil, simply but gracefully arranged, so as completely to cover the face when necessary; these, with a species of shoe corresponding to the robe, composed the oriental costume of Mary.f *Ba.sn age, joZace quoted. f The Annunciade of Genoa wore, in the six- teenth century, the costume of the Blessed Vir- gin, that is to say, white under and blue over, in order that such dress might continually remind them of her. The, slippers of the choristers are also com- posed of blue leather. {Ride of the Annunciade of Genoa, ch. 2.) M. de Lamartine found in that Eastern land, where nothing seems to change, that the costume of the women of Nazareth is still that which was worn by Mary. " They wear," says he, " a long tunic of sky-blue, con- fined by a white girdle, the ends of which reach the ground ; the soft folds of a white tunic fall gracefully over the blue." M. de Lamartine After the customary ablutions, the Virgin and her young companions, with certain pious women who were answerable to the priests and to God for that sacred deposit, took their way towards the gallery J where the almas sat in the place of honor. § The sun began to gild with his radiant beams the distant mountains of Arabia, the eagle cut circles in the clouds above, the sacrifice burn- ed on the brazen altar to the sound of the morning trumpets, when Mary, her head bowed down beneath her veil, after repeating the eighteen prayers of Esdras, demanded of God, with all Israel, that Christ, so long promised and so tardy in appear- ing— " Let thy name, O God ! be praised and glori- traces this costume to the time of Abraham and Isaac, and his supposition is not at aU improba- ble. "We see that there is but a very trifling difference between the costume adopted in the sixteenth century, from the traditions of Italy, and that which the French traveller found in the Holy Land. I During the feast of the drawing of water, the men were placed under the galleries which surround the women's peristyle. § Origen, St. Basil, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Cyril, have preserved to us a tradition which assigns to the virgins of the temple an hon- orable and distinct place in the women's peri- style. 96 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. fied in this world, which thoa hast created ac- oording to thy good pleasure ; rouchsafe to ertabliih thy reign ; let redemption flourish, and th« Mewiah quickly come." * And the people, in chorus, re- sponded, "Amen I Amen!" Then were sung the concluding verses of that beautiful psalm at- tributed to the prophets Aggeus and Zacharias. " The Lord unbinds those who are fettered ; the Lord enlightens those who are blind. "The Lord upraises those who are crushed down ; the Lord loves those who are just. " The Lord has care over strangers ; he will protect the widow and the orphan, and the ways of sinners he will destroy. •' The Lord shall reign for ever and ever ; thy God, O Sion 1 shall rule the nations." f The reading of the schema'l and the blessing of the priest termin- ated this public prayer, which took place every morning and evening. § ♦ This prayer, which is called the kaddisch, is the most ancient of all those which the Jews have preserved, and, as it is read in the Chal- dean tongue, it is thought to be one of the pray- ers composed after the return from Babylon. (Basn., 1. viL ch. 17, p. 314.) Prideaux affirms that it was in use long before the coming of Christ, and that the Apostles frequently offered it up with the people in the synagogues. It was often recited during the service, and the assem- bly was obliged to answer Amen several times. t Leo of Modena. — Maimonides. X Leo of Modena, c. xL p. 29. By the schema they meant three different sections of Deuter- Having fulfilled, with indescriba- ble fervor, this first religious duty, Mary and her young companions resumed their wonted avocations. Some rapidly twirled in their agile fingers spindles of cedar or of ithel ;|| others embroidered the veil of the temple, or the rich girdles of the priests, with purple, blue, and gold ; whilst groups, bent forward over a Sidonian loom, applied themselves to the execution of those magnificent carpets which won for " the strong woman" the admiration of all Israel, and were extolled by Homer him- self.^ The Virgin surpassed all the daughters of her people in those beautiful fabrications so highly priz- ed by the ancients. We learn from St. Epiphanius that she ex- celled in embroidery and the art onomy and Numbers. It was a sort of profes- sion of faith recited morning and evening, whereby they acknowledged that there is but one God, who drew his people out of Egypt. §It is certain that the Blessed Virgin must have assisted very often at the morning and evening service. Those prayers were considered more efficacious than any others, and some of the Hebrew doctors even maintain that God hears none but these. II The ithel is a species of acacia which grows in Arabia ; it is of a beautiful black, resembling eb- ony ; it is thought to be the setim wood of Moses. 1" See the Iliad, b. vi LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 99 of working wool, in byssus, and in gold.* The proto-gospel of St. James represents her seated before a distaff of purple wool, which mov- ed under her taper fingers like the trembling leaf of the poplar ;f and the Christians of the West have per- petuated the traditional opinion of her unrivalled skill in spinning the flax of Pelusia, J by giving the name of Virgin^s thread to that net-work of dazzling whiteness, and of almost etherial texture, which floats over deep valleys in the damp mornings of autumn. The chaste and mod- est brides of the early Christians, in memory of thes-e domestic avoca- tions of the Queen of Angels, never failed to consecrate to her a distaff *In the middle ages, in commemoration of the Virgin's works in flax, weavers were ranged under the banner of the Annunciation. The makers of gold brocade and silkeri stuffs had for their patroness Notre Dame la Riche ( Our Lady the Rich), and bore her image on their banner, heavy with superb embroidery. (Alex. Monteil, Hidoire des Frangais des divers etats.) f The Church of Jerusalem early consecrated this remembrance by ranking amongst its treas- ures the spindles of Mary. Those spindles were subsequently sent to the Empress Pulcneria, who placed them in the Church of the Guides in Constantinople. I The garments worn in the morning by the chief priests were, says the Misnah, of the fine ^ adorned with fillets of purple, and charged with spotless wool.§ But the talents and acquirements of the Virgin did not end here. St. Ambrose ascribes to her a perfect understanding of Holy Writ, and St. Anselm will have it that she was thoroughly acquainted with the old Hebrew, the language of the terres- trial paradise, || in which God himself traced, on tables composed of pre- cious stones,^ the ten precepts of the Decalogue. Whether Mary, studying the idiom of Anna and of Deborah, became conversant, during her solitary vigils, with the lofty conceptions of the seers of Israel, or that she received from the sanctifying Spirit, who had so richly flax of Pelusia, a city of Egypt famous for the excellent quality of its flax. § This custom is still kept up in some hamlets in the north and west of France. II According to the Rabbins and the Commen- tators on the Bible, the language of Paradise was the ancient Hebrew. ^ A Hebrew tradition. (Basnage, vi. ch. 16.) According to some Oriental writers, the tables of the law were either of rubies or carbuncles ; but the most common opinion, amongst the Arabs and Mussulmans, is, that they were of emeralds, within which the characters were cut, so that they could be read on every side. (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, tome ii-) 100 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. endowed her, a breath of poetic inspiration, like tlie harmonious breezes which swept the JEolian har]> of the Koyal Prophet,* it must be acknowledged that the youthful prophetess, who gave to the new law its finest canticle, could not have been a stranger to the sweetest or the most sublime inspir- ations of genius. Undoubtedly, the woman who composed the Magnifi- aU was not a mere common girl, as some Protestant authors have not hesitated to assert, and must have united to unequaled sanctity talents of the highest order. But then this brilliant aspect of her character was scarcely perceptible, so carefully did she cover it with her angelic modes- ty. Knowing the delicate duties and the real interests of her sex, she shrank from all display, and passed silently along the way of life, like some fair star gliding through the clouds. The rich treasures of her mind and heart were but partially revealed on earth ; they were as the ♦Accordiug to the ancient Jewish tradition, David had a harp which played by night when a certain wind came to blow. Basnage ridicules the idea of chords, which only echo to the night wind, and plainly sets it down as an absurdity. t roses of Yemen which the Arab maiden conceals beneath her veil, and whose gentle perfume is scarce- ly felt. An ancient poet said servilely to Augustus that he alone was the work of several centuries, and that, ever since the creation, all the in- dustry of natm-e had been employed in producing him. That which was an outrageous hyperbole in speaking of the sanguinary nephew of Cesar, becomes a demonstrated truth when applied to the Virgin. In reality, Mary is the masterpiece of Nature, the flower of the ancient days, and the wonder of ages. Never has the earth seen, and never will it again see, so many perfections re-united in a mere mortal. In that blessed creature all was grace, sanctity, and grandeur. Conceived in the friend- ship of Gpd, sanctified before her birth, she knew nothing of the pas- sions which agitate the soul, or the sin which corrupts the heart. Hav- ing a sweet and natural inclination The invention, or rather the re-invention of -Slolian harps, whose magic sounds enchant the English parks, gives probability to the statement of the Rabbins. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 101 to virtue, thanks to her immaculate * conception, her pure and innocent acts were like the wreath of snow which silently falls on the mountain- top, adding purity to purity and whiteness to whiteness, till it rears itself into a shining cone, which at- tracts the rays of the sun, and daz- zles the eye of man. It has not been given to any other creature to pre- sent such a life to the Sovereign Judge of men. Jesus Christ alone surpassed her ; but Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Mary entered the temple of Jeru- salem like one of those unspotted victims shown by the Spirit of the Lord to Malachi. Young, beautiful, nobly born, and qualified to aspire to the highest place amongst a people who often raised beauty to the throne,* she bound herself to the horns of the altar by a vow of vir- ginity which her infant lips could barely articulate, and which her heart subsequently ratified, with a perfect renunciation of the pomps and vanities of the world. By that * It is certain that David, Solomon, and the other kings of Juda, often took to their royal bed women of obscure condition ; the famous Sulam- ite of Solomon was, it is said, a young country VOW, till then unheard, Maiy crossed the boundary which divides the old law from the new, and plunged so deep into the sea of evangelical virtues, that one might think she had already sounded its depths when her divine Son came to reveal it to the children of men. God does not alter his course ab- ruptly. He announces, he prepares long beforehand the great events which are to change the aspect of the world. A precursor was requir- ed for the Messiah, and he found one in the person of St. John the Baptist. A preliminary was required for the new law, and the virtues of Mary were to the Gospel what the fresh and roseate dawn is to the risen day. St. Epiphanius, cited by Niceph- orus, has left us a charming descrip- tion of the Virgin. That portrait, traced in the fourth century from traditions now lost, and manuscripts which are no longer in existence, is yet the only one which remains to us. girl from the little village of Sulam, situated at a short distance from Jerusalem. In the time of Mary, Herod the Great espoused Mariamne, the daughter of a priest, because of her beautj. 102 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. The Virgin, according to this holy bisliop, was not of tall stature, though somewhat above the middle height; her face was of that fine oval which characterizes the Jewish women, and her eyes were of a soft hazel color. Her person was, in fine, a casket worthy of the priceless jewel it contained, and was like it all bemUi/uL All the Fathers agree as to the admirable beauty of the Virgin. St. Denis the Areopagite, who had seen the divine Mary, assures us that she was of dazzling beauty, and that he would have worshipped her as a goddess, had he not known that there is but one God. But it was not to this assemblage of physical perfections that Mary owed the power of her beauty; it emanated from a higher source. This was well understood by St. Ambrose when he said that her charming exterior was but a trans- parent veil which disclosed all her virtues ; and that her soul, the no- * It is neither climate, nor food, nor bod- ily exercise, which forms human beauty; it is the moral sentiment of virtue, which cannot subsist without religion. The beauty of the countenance is the true index of the ^ blest and the purest that ever was, after the soul of Jesus Christ, re- vealed itself fully in her look. The physical beauty of Mary was but the distant reflection of her intel- lectual and imperishable beauty ; she was the fairest, because she was the purest and holiest, of the daughters of Eve.* God has incased the Green Sea pearl in a mother-of-pearl shell,f but it is the pearl and not its bril- liant case that men set in gold and place in the diadem of kings. The Fathers were well aware of this, and, in their glowing descriptions of Mary's loveliness, they dwelt partic- ularly on the charms of her mind — those which belong not to the earth, and perish not with the frail body. We are about to collect the gems scattered here and there throughout their works, to form them into a mosaic, which may present a second portrait of her who was, as Sophro- nius says, " a garden of pleasure to the Lord."I soul. ( Bernardino de St. Pierre, Mudes de la Nature, dtude 10.) \ Bahr-al-Akhdhar, one of the names of the Persian Gulf. X Vere Virgo erai hortiis deliciarum in quo con^ LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 103 The greatest decorum reigned in f all the actions of the Virgin. She was kind, aifable, compassionate, and never tired of hearing the com- plaints of the wretched. She spoke little, always to the purpose, and never did falsehood defile her lips. Her voice was mild and penetrating, and her words had in them some- thing unctuous and soothing, which infused peace into the soul. She was the first in vigils, the most ex- act in fulfilling the divine law, the most profound in humility, the most perfect in every virtue. She was never seen in anger ; never offended, annoyed, or rebuked any one. She was averse to all pomp, simple in her apparel, simple in her manners, and never once thought of turning to account either her beauty, her noble birth, or the rich treasures of her mind and heart. Her presence seemed to sanctify all around, and the very sight of her was sufficient to detach the mind from earthly aita sunt universa Jlorum genera et odoramenta virtutum. (Sophro., Serm. de Ass.) * The ancients believed that the grasshoppers lived on air and dew. (Philo, de Vita cont., p. 831.) Homer, book third of the Iliad : "Like the grasshoppers which, perched on the top of the forest-trees, send forth their harmonious strains things. Her politeness was not an idle formula, consisting of empty words ; it was an expansion of uni- versal beneficence proceeding from her inmost soul. In fine, her look already denoted the Mother of Mercy, the Virgin of whom it has been since said, " She would even ask pardon of God for Lucifer, if Lucifer would ask it for himself." Although she had but little of this world's wealth, yet Mary w^as bountiful towards the poor, and her childish alms fell often unperceived into the poor-box attached to one of the pillars of the peristyle ; the same into which Jesus, in after- times, saw the widow drop her mite. St. Ambrose reveals the pure and sacred source whence Mary de- rived her alms. She deprived her- self of all, granted nothing to nature but barely what was necessary for preserving life, and seemed to live, like the grasshopper, on air and dew.* Her frequent and rigorous (after having drunk a Httle dew)." " The grass- hoppers feed only on dew." (Theocrit. idyl 4.) "Does he feed only on dew hke the grass- hopper ? " And Virgil : Dum thymo pascentur apes, dum tore cicadse. " Whilst the bees shall feed on thyme and the 104 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART fasts were also made profitable to f so profound, that her soul seemed to the poor. The fasts observed by the Virgin were not like our northern fasts, which last but for a single moniing, and are confined to the abstiiining from certain ' kinds of food ; it was a total abstinence from all things, which began at sunset and continued the whole of the next day till the stars were in the sky.* During that time, Mary deprived herself of every thing that might gratify her taste or her appetite. She imposed on herself the hardest labor, the most disgusting works of mercy, clothed herself in her mean- est garments, slept on the bare ground, and allowed herself nothing during this time of penace and mor- tification (often prolonged for whole weeks) but a light repast composed of bread baked under the ashes, some bitter vegetables, and a cup of water from the fountain of Siloe.f Her meditations were frequent, and her prayer so collected, so attentive, grasshoppers on dew." Hence it was that Cal- limachus called the dew " the grasshopper's food." * The Jews considered that no fast, on which the sun did not set. "f Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 18. Fleury, Moeurs des Israelites, p. 104. X Augustus, if we may believe Suetonius, was ^ melt in adoration before the Eternal God. The roar of the tempest and the crash of the thunder, which drove Cesar to the subterraneous vaults of his palace,J reached not the ear of the youthful Virgin; completely absorbed in her religious duties, her soul was at the feet of the great Author of the universe, far beyond the confines of the world and the region of storms. " Never was any one endowed," says St. Ambrose, " with a more sublime gift of contemplation. Her mind, ever in accordance with her heart, never lost sight of Him whom she loved more ardently than all the seraphim put together. Her whole life was but a continual exercise of the purest love of her God, and, when sleep weighed down her eye- lids, her heart still watched and prayed. § Such were the virtues, such the occupations of Mary in the temple. as much afraid of thunder and lightning as any female could be. At the slightest appear- ance of a storm, he went and hid himself in the deepest vaults, whither the noise of the thunder and the glare of the lightning could not pene- trate. § St. Ambrose, de Virg., L iu LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 105 Slie shone amongst her young com- panions like a rich diamond which, placed amidst other precious stones, effaces them all by its splendor. Hence it was that men who had * grown gray in the priesthood never passed her without a murmured blessing, and considered her as the fairest ornament of the holy house. CHAPTEE YI. MARY, AN ORPHAN, must be admit- ted — though it is a strange thing — that the history of the Virgin is bar- ren of facts and full of gaps. It may be likened to the majestic remains of some ancient city of the desert. Here, gigantic columns standing firm as the moun- tains ; there, porticoes which the Arab, in his love of the marvelous, proclaims as the work of genii; farther on, temples buried in the sand which the imagination delights to raise again; and then, here and * there, a bleak and sterile area, with- out a single blade of grass for the camel of the Bedouin. In default of the Apostles, who were too much occupied, it would seem, with the grand figure of Christ to think of his earthly relatives, the Fathers have made us acquainted with the virtues of St. Ann. "We follow them into her humble dwelling ; we behold her piety, we hear her vows and her fervent prayers ; we wit- ness the joys of her late maternity, and the outpouring of her gratitude ; but there the thread of tradition becomes so frail that it incessantly snaps asunder, and the remainder 106 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. of St Ann's life is almost entii'ely conjectural. That mother, who had obtained her blessed daughter after so many fasts and tears, who had so lovingly watched over her infancy, who had brought her in her arms to the Lord,* and had laid her weeping in his sanctuary, reappears but for a moment on the scene, and that only to die. It is, however, very unlikely that the wife of Joachim would have remained nine years without seeing her child again. The outer buildings of the temple, where the consecrated children were brought up, could not have been closed against their mothers. The rights of a mother are both sacred and religious: all nations declare them to be imprescriptible; and, moreover, the Scripture tells us that Anna, wife of Elcana, freely visited her son at Silo, on solemn days, and that she never failed to bring a tunic spun by her own hands, to the young prophet, whom she had lent ♦Liguori, Glories of Mary, discourse iii., p. 59. t It has been said that St. Ann had another daughter of the name of Mary, born twenty years before the Blessed Virgin ; this tradition has not been accepted by the Church. J The Jewish women spun together in the to the Lord. Anna had had, after the birth of Samuel, several children, whom she beheld growing up around her like olive-trees, and who shared with the yomig servant of the taber- nacle her maternal solicitude. St. Ann had none but Mary;| that dear child was, therefore, the sum of her happiness, the hope of her old days, and the source of her earthly joy. It is, then, almost certain that, in company with her husband, she came to see her as often as her piety drew her to the temple, and that she also sat up, by the light of her lamp or the silvery radiance of the moon, J to spin the virginal robes of her child. It is thought that St. Joachim and St. Ann retm-ned to their home after the presentation of Mary, and that they remained there for some years before their final settlement in Jerusalem. Joachim, who was not an artisan like Joseph, seems to have cultivated the small patrimony summer evenings by the light of the moon, since the Jewish doctors authorize a husband to put away his wife when slandered by the women who loere spinning by moonlight. (Sotah, cap. 6, p. 250.) This custom of spinning by moon- light is still kept up in many southern coun- tries. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 107 which he had inherited, and enjoyed that happy mediocrity for which sages and poets have ever sighed when weary of the great world.* Churches have been erected in Seph- oris, in Nazareth, and in Jerusalem, on sites which had formed part of his inheritance. But the vineyard, or farm of his fathers, must have been in the vicinity of Sephoris ; hence his return to Low^er Galilee. Joachim was a true Israelite, sti'ongly attached to the law of Moses. He went to the temple on every solemn festival with his wife and some of their kinsfolk, according to the cus- tom of the Hebrews, and it is likely that the desire of seeing his daugh- ter, made him still more eager to visit the temple. How joyfully did his good and pious spouse set out for the Holy City! How endless did the way appear, as she beheld it winding far and away over hill ^ and dale! Looking eagerly forward, she passed a score of times in imag- ination before she reached them in reality, the nopal bushes, the thickets of rose-bay, the clumps of oak or sycamore which marked the road; for, each of these points gained, she was so much nearer her daughter— her daughter, the gift of the Lord, the child of miracle — she whom an angel had announced as the glory of Israel ! With what emotion did she hail, from the depth of the valley, that tower of Antonia rising proud and menacing on its base of polished marble,f to protect the house of prayer ! and how her holy and ten- der heart must have throbbed at the sight of that temple which contained her child and her God ! When evening came, and the sacerdotal trumpets summoned the people to the ceremony, J Ann has- tened to adore God, and catch a * According to St. Gregory of Nyssa, the father of the Blessed Virgin was an honorable citizen. God-fearing, and of singular piety. Father de Valverde states, on the testimony of some of the Fathers of the Church, that Ann and Joachim, being in easy circumstances, gave one part of their savings to the temple and the other to the needy. ( Vie de Jesus Christ, t. 1., p. 46.) f The tower of Antonia might be considered ^ as the citadel of the temple ; it was of old the palace of the Asmonian princes. The rock on which it was seated was fifty cubits high, and in- accessible on all sides. Herod had this rock cov- ered with marble from base to summit, so that no one could either go up or down. (Joseph., A)it. Jud^ 1. XV., ch. 14, and de Bello, 1. ii., ch. 16.) I The rehgious festivals of the Jews began always in the svening. 108 UFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. glimpse of her daughter, whom she had not seen for months long. The comt-yai-d had no other covering than the sky, and the dazzling radiance of its candelabras* min- gled with the glimmering light of the stars. Thousands of lights were gleaming beneath the porticoes, garlands of fi'esh flowers were wreathed around the pillars,f and the chief priests walked through the crowd with their splendid orna- ments, brought from Indian lands by the caravans of Palmyra. J Now and then the chords of the harp seemed to accompany the mm-murs of prayer, which, like the voice of many waters, § went up from that multitude of Hebrews assembled from the banks of the Mle, the Euphrates, and the Tiber, to bend the knee before the only altar of their fathers' God.|| In the midst t of this immense concourse of native and foreign believers, Ann, ab- sorbed in prayer, raised her head but for a moment; it was wlien Mary and her young companions passed, veiled and robed in white, with lamps in their hands, like the wise virgins of the gospel. The festival over, Ann, after hav- ing blessed and embraced Mary, took, with Joachim, her homeward way through the mountains ; slowly did she depart from Jerusalem, not daring to cast a look behind, and bearing with her a fund of happi- ness and of joyous reminiscences for all the time that was to elapse before the next festival. When years and toil had exhaust- ed Joachim's strength, so that he was no longer able to cultivate his ground, he began to think of moving nearer to his daughter. Accordingly, * These candelabras were of gold, and fifty cubits high. The light which they shed, say the Babbins (who are noted for exaggeration), was seen at an incredible distance from Jerusalem, while within the city the houses were so well lit that cooks could pick the grain for their pottage without the assistance of their lamps. ( Talmud, tract. Lucca., foL 3.) f These green wreaths were used during the feast of Tabernacles. (Basn., 1. vii., ch. 16.) X The garments worn in the evening by the ^ priests on solemn festivals came from India, and cost very dear. (Basn., 1. vii., ch. 15.) § It is well known that the Jews and the Arabs pray aloud. II So long as the temple stood, the Jews made a special devotion of visiting it. More than eleven hundred thousand persons perished in the destruction of Jerusalem, under Titus, be- cause they were assembled for the feast of the Passover when the city was besieged. (Joseph., de Bella, 1. vii., ch. 17.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 109 he and his spouse bade a last fare- well to Lower Galilee, and took up their abode in Jerusalem, in the neighborhood of the temple. Ann was then at the summit of her wishes ; she could serve the Lord in his holy house, and see her daughter frequently. How often, during the fine evenings of summer, as she sat spinning before her door, would she twirl her spindle mechan- ically, whilst her maternal glance was pensively fixed on the glittering roof of the temple ! Where a mavUs treasure is, says the Holy Scripture, there is his heart. St. Ann might have shortened the duration of that painful separa- tion, as the law of Moses accepted compensations. This she would not do; her gratitude to God spoke still louder than her maternal tenderness, and when the voice of religion made itself heard, that of nature became silent. The Virgin had been nine years shut up in the temple* when the * Pere Croiset, Exercises de Piete, t. xviii., p. 59. f The Hebrew confession is from all antiquity; the Jews made it, at the article of death, not merely aloud, but before ten persons and a Rab- * first dark cloud obscured her young life. Her beloved father, Joachim the Just, fell dangerously ill, and the symptoms of approaching disso- lution very soon appeared. Appre- hensive for his life, his friends and kinsfolk crowded around, with every manifestation of kindness and sym- pathy ; for the families of Juda were closely united amongst themselves, and lived in the utmost harmony. The dying man smiled benignly on his friends and neighbors. Like Jacob, he had been long a wanderer on the earth, and it gave him little concern that the wind of death came to beat down his tent, for, beyond this earthly planet, he saw in spirit those blissful regions where he was going to repose for ever in Abra- ham's bosom. When his increasing wealniess gave him to understand that life was ebbing fast away, the holy old man confessed his sins aloud, in presence of all, according to the custom of the Hebrews,f and offered bin. Aaron ben Berachia, in his book entitled Maavar Jobbok, treating of the art of dying well, and the assistance to be rendered to the dying, records the method of confessing and the pray- ers for the agonizing. Abraham ben Isaao uo LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. up his death to the Supreme Judge in expiation of the faults inherent in our nature, from which even the just are not exempt. This duty ac- complished, Joachim asked for his daughter, in order to give her his blessing. Mary came ; * her ardent prayers for the preservation of her father's life had not been heard. ThQJealoris God would sever, one by one, the earthly bonds of his chosen Spouse, to the end that she might lean on Him alone. Some pious authors have thought that, at the moment when Joachim extended his hands to bless his child, a revelation from on high suddenly disclosed to him the glori- ous destiny awaiting her; the joy of the elect diffused itself over his venerable countenance, his arms fell by his side, he bowed down his head and died. Laniado also wrote a book, entitled !Z%e Shield of Abraham, a work much esteemed by the Jews, wherein he treats of the confession of sins. See also Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 24. * It was customary, from the very times of the patriarchs, for the dying father to bless his chil- dien. Mary had to conform to this custom. Her seclusion in the temple was not monastic, and St. Joachim then resided in Jerusalem. t St. Jerome remarks that, in his time, most of the Jews still slashed their skin on the The house then resounded with cries and lamentations. The women hacked their breasts and tore their hair;f the men covered their heads with ashes and rent their garments, whilst some of the matrons, moved by charity and devotion, spread a a thick veil over the pale calm face of the just man, which was never more to be seen in this world, and folded the thumb within the hand, which was left open to denote the total abandonment of all earthly things. After having washed the body in water, mingled with myrrh and dried rose-leaves, those pious women wrapped it up in a linen shroud, which they tied round with bands, after the manner of Egypt. Having then opened all the doors and windows of the house^J they lit near the corpse death of their friends, and made themselves bald by tearing out their hair, which they sacri- ficed to death. I Dead bodies, amongst the Jews, defiled those who touched them, and rendered them unclean. (Misnah, Ordo puritatum.) "When the doors are closed, the house of death is regarded as a sepulchre, and, consequently, it is defiled ; when the doors are open, on the contrary, the impurity goes away." {Mair monides.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Ill I a brazen lamp, with several sockets — the lamp of the dead — which cast its mournful reflection on the bed of death. On the following day, a numerous train, in which the flute-players fvere conspicuous,* stopped before the house of death. The nearest of kin ascended to the upper cham- ber, wherein Joachim had been laid out, and placed the corpse on a bed,f which they then took upon their shoulders. The funeral pro- cession traversed the streets of Je- rusalem chanting funeral hymns, accompanied by the soft wailing sound of the flutes, drowned at times in the noisy lamentations of the weepers. Ann and Mary were present at the funeral, and walked with downcast eyes amongst the * Jesus found the flute-players making a great noise at the door of a nobleman whose daughter he restored to life. Maimonides says that the poorest of the Jews is obliged to hire two flute- players and a weeper for the burial of his wife, and that the rich are to increase the number in proportion to their wealth. See also Fleury, Mceurs des Israelites, page 106. f These funeral beds were used long before sofiins : the latter are still unknown to the Arabs, who bury their dead only in a shroud, which enables the jackals, who prowl at night through the cemeteries, to disinter the bodies and devour them. * ^ matrons of their family, whose tears flowed profusely. J The procession passed through the Gate of Flocks, since known to Christians as the Virgin's gate. On reaching the place of sepulture, the sound of the flutes, the hymns, and the lamentations all ceased awhile, and the chief mourners thus apos- trophized the dead: "Blessed be God, who formed and nourished thee, and has now deprived thee of life. Oh, ye dead, he knows your number, and will one day raise ye up ! Blessed be He who taketh life and restoreth it again ! " § They then put a small bag of clay on the head of the corpse, and pro- ceeded to open the sepulchre — a gloomy grotto, which was called the hotcse of the living || — wherein the X Women and children assisted at the funer- als of their husbands and fathers. The widow of Naim followed the corpse of her son ; Joseph mourned for his father. This custom is still observed in Judea. The Hebrew children re- ceived the blessing of their parents, closed their eyes, and accompanied them to their last resting- place, amongst the bones of their fathers. (M. Salvador, Histoire des Institutions de Mdise et du peuple Hebreu, t. ii., p. 398.) § Ldon de Modena, Gout, des Juifs. Buxtorf, Syn. Hebr., p. 502. II The sepulchre, which should be called (ha house of the dead. They gave it, on the contrary, 112 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. patriarch was to sleep his hist sleep, * awaiting the other members of his family. Xiien the most heart-rend- ing cries arose on every side. Ann threw hei-self on the mortal remains of her husband to bid him a last farewell, and was soon taken away almost insensible. Having com- mitted to the earth the holy remains of the just man, they rolled to the mouth of the sepulchral cave an enormous stone, which no man was to remove under pain of excommu- nication. The cries of lamentation began once more, and the spectators, pulling three different times a tuft of grass, and casting it each time behind them, said, in a sorrowful tone. They shall flourish like, the grass of the fields! These rites terminated the obsequies of the descendant of the kings of Juda — the father of the title of the house of the living, to denote that the immortal soul survives its separation from the body. This title is attributed to the Phari- sees. (Basn., 1. vii., 24.) The Rabbins give an 3xact description of these sepulchres. The door is usuallj made very narrow, for they are gener- ally closed by a stone rolled to the entrance. A large space is left in the middle of the sepulchre, ■where the bearers go in and rest the coffin before it is put in its place. In the sides and at the end were hollowed out a certain number of niches, wherein the dead bodies of each family Mary — the grandsire of Jesus, ac- cording to the flesh.* The tender heart of the Blessed Virgin was crushed by this first affliction — the prelude to so many others. It was ber^ apprenticeship in sorrow. Misfortune greeted her on the threshold of adolescence, but the noble child shrank not from its approach. She wept; for her soul — like that of her divine Son — was never cold or insensi- ble; but she drained the bitter chalice, saying, " Jehovah, thy will be done!" The mother and daugh- ter put on mourning after the manner of the Hebrews ; they clothed themselves in tight robes, made of a coarse camlet, called hair-cloth; their head and feet bare, their face concealed in a fold of their robes, fasting and abstain- were placed. Tombs were held in great respect. No one was allowed to cross them in making a road or an aqueduct, nor to cut wood there, nor bring flocks to graze. They were placed on the side of the highway, in order to remind the passengers of death, and to keep the dead in their recollection. (Lightfoot, Cent, chorogr., c. 100.) We see in the Gospel that the tomb of Lazarus was a cave closed by a large stone. * Salom. ben Virgse., Hist. Jud., p. 193. L^on de Modena, CotU. relig. des Juifs. Bas- J5 nage, L vii., ch. 25. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 113 ing,* they remained for seven days seated on the ground, weeping and lamenting with their kindred, and praying for the departed soul.f When the seven days were ended, Ann had lamps lit in the synagogue, and prayers offered up for her hus- band, giving alms in proportion to her means. Mary, on her side, fasted every week on the day of her father's death, and prayed morning and evening for the repose of his soul. These fasts and prayers for the dead lasted for the space of eleven months. J " Thou art welcome, Misfortune I if thou comest alone," say the Greeks. Thus, this first affliction of Mary's was followed by one more poignant still, and she was soon called upon to renew her mourning. Scarcely had the death-lamp been extinguish- ed in the melancholy dwelling of St. Ann when it had to be lit again; * Fasting was very severe amongst the Jews; there was nothing allowed but some vegetables, beans, for instance, or lentils, which were consid- ered mourning food. Eggs were permitted, for the figure of the egg being round and globular, is the image of an afOlicted man. Wine was no less forbidden than meat. f During the days of mourning they recited the 49th Psalm. (L. de Modena, Gout, des Juifs, p. 182. Lightfoot, in John., p. 1072.) * the last tears which Mary had shed for one parent were scarcely dry on her cheek, when she had to bewail the loss of the other. § One evening Mary, accompanied by some of her kindred, went down from the temple to the narrow and obscure street in which her mother lived. The lurid glare of a lamp shone out through one of the latticed windows of the humble dwelling. Before the thresh- old were grouped, in silence, some of the women who, even now, throughout all the East, make a trade of weeping for the dead ; like those birds of ill omen which seem to foresee deaths, these sinister creatures were waiting for the mo- ment when an afflicted family should come to engage their hired lamentations. 1 1 St. Ann collected all her failing strength to bless her daughter, pa- thetically recommended her to her X Basnage, 1. vii., eh. 11, p. 182. § According to the best authorities, St. Ann survived St. Joachim but a very short time. II All over the Levant, people hire, as mourn- ers for their dead, women who have no other means of earning their living. They pay them so much an hour, and they endeavor to earn their wages by uttering the most heart-rending cries. (Burkhart, Voyage en Arable, t. ii., p. 139.) * 114 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. friends, but especially to Him who ^ is the Father of the oi'phan, and then calmly slept the sleep of the just* Mary bent in anguish over the lifeless body of her mother ; her fair tresses mingled with the snowy locks of the dead. It seemed as though she hoped that her tears would restore her to life ; but it is only the breath of God that can re- animate the dead. When the first paroxysm of her grief was over, Mary closed the eyes of the saint, and took leave of her by a long, last kiss, according to the custom of her people.f The sorrow of the young orphan was deep and silent, and endured with heroic patience. Having now no other support on earth but Prov- idence, she took refuge in the bosom of God. Thence, as from the depth * Grave historians state that the Blessed Virgin was present at the death of her mother, which is quite conformable to the customs of the Hebrews. t This custom is very ancient; for Philo, relat- ing the complaints of Jacob for the untimely death of his son, makes him say that he will not have the consolation of closing his eyes, and giving him the parting kiss. J Descoutures, Vie de la Sainte Vierge, page 27. § A young girl might make vows amongst the ^^ of a peaceful harbor, she overheard the distant roaring of the world's storms, and comprehended all the vanity of earthly things ; the vanity of rank, of greatness, of wealth, of beauty, things which glitter and pass away like the bubble on the wintry torrent, which itself disap- pears at the end of a season. It is at this period of sorrow, of isolation and lonely watching, that a historian has judiciously fixed Mary's vow of perpetual virginity ; J in fact, we do not anywhere find that either Ann or Joachim knew of that vow, and without their knowl- edge it was not valid in the eyes of the law, either civil or religious. § It was, therefore, after their death that Mary chose the Lord for her portion, and devoted herself to his service without any limitation of Jews, and she could even make a vow of vir- ginity ; but such vow was annulled by paternal authority, because that, being subject to her father, she could not violate the law of nature by disobeying him. All vows made by a young maiden or a married woman, unknown or con- trary to the will of a father or husband, were null. {Num., ch. xxx.) Some Kabbins main- tain, nevertheless, that the father or husband had to annul the vow within twenty-four hours after he had cognizance of it, otherwise it was vahd. ^Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 19.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 115 time, says Bernadine de Busto, and with the intention of remaining always in the temple. Like the august founder of her race, the Yii'gin found that a day spent in ik the tabernacles of the God of Israel was worth a thousand, and she also would rather be the last in the holy place than the first under the tents of cedar. CHAPTER YII. MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN. HETHER Jo- achim, on his death-bed had placed the Virgin under the special protection of the priesthood; or that the magis- trates who took care of orphans had themselves chosen guardians for her in the powerful family of Aaron, to which she was related by the *The Jews, as also Celsus, Porphyrus, and Faust have taken occasion from this relationship to maintain that the Blessed Virgin was of the tribe of Levi. Catholic doctors combat this opinion. They maintain that Mary was of the tribe of Juda, and the family of David. In fact, St. Matthew tells us that Jesus Christ is called * mother's side; or that the tutelage of children devoted to the service of the temple belonged of right to the Levites, it is certain that Mary, after the death of her parents, had guardians of the sacerdotal race. It is probable (and the Arab traditions say so) that the cares of this tutel- age devolved chiefly on Zachary, the holy spouse of St. EKzabeth, whose high reputation and near re- lationship* entitled him to that the son of David according to the flesh. Now, he can only be the son of David through Mary, since he had no father amongst men. When it is asked how it is that Mary, being of the tribe of Juda, was the cousin of St. Elizabeth, who was of the tribe of Levi, St. Augustine answers that there is nothing improbable in the supposi- 116 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIHUIN MARY. office.* The alacrity wherewith the Blessed Virgin traversed all Judea, two or thiee years later, to assist and congratulate the mother of St. John the Baptist, and her prolonged sojourn in the mountains of Hebron, seem, indeed, to indicate a closer connection than that of mere rela- tionship; the roof which sheltered Mary for so long a time must have been, according to the rigorous pro- priety of the Hebrews, as sacred to her as the paternal roof Whoever the priests might be that were honored with the tutelage of the blessed daughter of St. Ann, they scrupulously acquitted them- selves of the obligations of their charge; and, when the Virgin had attained her fifteenth year, they began to think of providing her with a suitable husband. This hy- meneal project gave Mary the ut- most uneasiness ; that soul, so lofty, tion that a man of the tribe of Juda had taken a wife of the tribe of Levi, and that the Blessed Virgin, the issue of that marriage, was related by her mother to St. Elizabeth. It is elsewhere proved that the prohibition of marrying into an- other tribe regarded only heiresses. * The Koran, which contains many Arabian traditions relating to Mary, says expressly that Zachary took her under his protection. {Koran, ch. iiL) f SO pure, so contemplative, had an- ticipated the Gospel, and regarded virginity as the most perfect, the most holy, and the most desirable of all states. An ancient author, quoted by St. Gregory of Nyssa relates that she long refused, with much modesty, to accede to the pro- posal made her, and that she hum- bly entreated her family to consent to her remaining in the temple, and leading a life of innocence, of seclu- sion, of freedom from all ties except those of the Lord. Her demand was wholly unaccountable to those who had care over her. They could not understand her imploring as a favor that barrenness which was consid- ered disgraceful, and was solemnly condemned by the law of Moses f — the celibacy of an only child,J in- volving the total extinction of her father's name — a thought which was almost impious amongst the Jews, f Origen remarks that the law affixed a stigma on steriUty ; for it is written, " Ac- cursed be he who leaves none of his race in Israel." \ Mary was an heiress, because it was proper that the line of David, whence the Messiah was to spring, should end in the person of an only daughter, who, bringing into the world the eternal Heir to the throne of David, crowned ^ and consummated his race. {Oldshausen.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 117 who considered it the greatest mis- fortune if their name were not per- petuated in Israel. As to the vow of virginity whereby she had bound herself, she could make no excuse of that, since it might be annulled by a decision of the family council. It is known that woman was, every- where and always, treated as a minor before the promulgation of that immortal code which has glori- ously removed fi'om her the curse of slavery. Hence it was that the Virgin's supplications found but little sym- pathy even amongst the priests of Jehovah. Such virtues were far beyond their comprehension, and with all their learning and penetra- tion, the angelic and all-holy soul of Mary was to them a seven-sealed book. Her thought, which was far in advance of her age, and contrary to all the ancient prejudices of her nation, remained incomprehensible, and all that she could bring for- ward, in order to excuse herself A'om entering on a state so wholly opposed to her dearest wishes, was of no avail. Besides, how could she * St. Aug., de Sancta Virg., c. 14. f have succeeded, since God himself was against her? It was the will of God that her marriage with a just man, who was to render testimony to the purity of her life, should screen her from the importunities of the young Hebrews, who might have sought her hand even in the temple, as St. Augustine observes,* and also to give to her and her divine Son a protector in the hour of peril. It was the only means of hiding the mystery of the Incarna- tion from the malevolent scrutiny of a perverse world, which would have laid hold of the miracle as a subject for the most abominable conjectures, and might even have been so infat- uated by false zeal as to stone the Mother of the Saviour, as they after- wards sought to stone the woman taken in adultery ; f for mercy was never one of the chosen virtues of the Hebrews, and God himself re- proaches them, by the mouth of his prophets, with having their heart as hard as adamant. In addition to these powerful reasons, which were hidden in the impenetrable obscurity of the coun- ts f St. John Chrys., serm. 3, in Math. U8 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 6el8 of God, there was another which had its source in the antediluvian traditions and in national pride, and that one reason, of itself, left little chance of success for the timid opposition of the Virgin. Perpet- ual chastity, which Christians have made the queen of virtues, was al- most unknown amongst the disci- ples of Moses, who lived for so many ages in anxious expectation of the Messiah-King [Melech-Hamaschiak) . A young flower of the root of Jesse, a daughter of David, was not at liberty to reject the bonds of Hymen. She owed a son to the ambitious piety of her family, who would not have renounced, for all the treasures of the great king, the hope of one day numbering amongst themselves the Liberator of Israel. This hope, which had sustained the Jews when the Chaldeans, " mounted on horses swifter than eagles," violently rent asunder the embattled wall of Sion, and transplanted its people to the * The standard of Juda was of a green color. {Dom Calmet.) f This banner of the Maccabees bore the ^ords : "Who is like unto thee, O Eternal? Mi camocha baelim, Jehovah ? " J Every maiden who inherited a prop- ^ banks of the Euphrates — this hope was mingled with a bitter desire of revenge ever since the Romans ruled in Asia. The Hebrews hoped soon to see the day when the eagles should fly before the emerald ban- ner,* and when the device of the Maccabees f should wave in tri- umph over that of the Roman senate. Never did the fulfillment of the Mes- sianic prophecies seem so near at hand, and hence the moment was unfavorable for obtaining the favor solicited by Mary. According to the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary and the Proto- gospel of St. James, the guardians of the Blessed Virgin, regardless of her remonstrances, convoked a meeting of her nearest relations, all of the race of David and tribe of Juda, like herself, J in order to proceed to the choice of the hus- band whom they imposed upon her. Amongst those who were entitled to aspire to her hand, there were erty — and not maidens in general, as the Vulgate says — was bound to marry a man of her own family and tribe, and not her nearest relation, as Montesquieu asserts. This was in order that patrimonies might not pass from one tribe to another. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIBGIN MABY. 119 a number of young Israelites, some handsome and brave, others the possessors of fertile lands, vine- yards, flocks and groves of olives. The captains of Juda would have added to Mary's portion a part of the spoils and slaves taken in battle ; the nabobs of her tribe would have covered her with the gold-embroi- dered stuffs of India, and with thrice- dyed Tyrian purple ; whilst the sons of commerce, who traded in the emeralds of Egypt, the turquoises of Iran, and the pearls of the Persian Gulf, would have laid at her feet chains of precious stones, costly bracelets and ear-rings, that were worth a prince's ransom — in short. * aU the brilliant insignia of female servitude. But these were all weigh- ed in the balance and found wanting-. Despising the advantages of youth, beauty, high rank, wealth, and mar- tial glory, the priestly guardians of the Blessed Virgin and the ancients of her house fixed their choice on a man of advanced age,* a decayed patrician, whose fortune had been swallowed up in the political revo- lutions and religious wars of Judea as the sea absorbs a drop of rain, leaving him only his arms and his trade. This poor, but high-bom old man, who, according to the Proto- gospel of St. James, was a widow- er,! but according to St. Jerome had *Tlie Proto-gospel of St. James, ch. 2, and the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary, ch. 8 (books whose contents have been, for the most part, approved of, even by the Fathers of the Church), merely say that he was already old. St. Epi- phanius gives eighty years to Joseph at the time of his marriage, Father Pezron fifty, and FHistoire divine de La Vierge, by Marie d'Agrada, thirty-three. The supposition of St. Epiphanius will not bear examination ; it is, moreover, sol- emnly refuted by the Hebrew law, which forbids the union of a young woman and an old man, and places it in the most disgraceful category. (Basn., 1. vii., ch. 21.) Hist, de Institutions de Mdise. Neither the priests nor Joseph would have done that which was condemned by the law. The age given by Marie d'Agrada to Joseph does not agree with the opinion of the jj Fathers ; there remains but that of Father Pez- ron, which is altogether the most probable. f Many of the Fathers have thought that St. Joseph was a widower when he espoused the Blessed Virgin. The Proto-gospel of St. James, and the Gospel of the Nativity of the Virgin both mention it as a fact. St. Epiphanius as- serts that he had had four sons and two daugh- ters. St. Hippolytus of Thebes, calls his first wife Salomd. Origen, Eusebius, St. Ambrose, and several other Fathers, have adopted the same opinion. Yet still it is by no means gen- erally received, and it is commonly thought that St, Joseph led a Hfe of virginity. Such is the opinion of St. Jerome, who expressly says, writ- ing against Helvidius, " We nowhere read that he had had any other wife than Mai-y ; aliam eum uxorem habuisse non scribitur." St. Augustine XM LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. never been married — and this last f is the prevailing opinion of the Church — this old man was Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth. When we think of the rare beauty of Mary, the education which she had received in the temple, the great connections of her family, and her quality of heiress, which was a desirable and even brilliant lot amongst the Jews, who endowed their wives and received scarcely anything with them,* we might be astonished at this decision of her family, were we not informed by the Fathers that Joseph was chosen by lot and by the express manifestation of the divine will.f An ancient tra- dition, inserted in the Proto-gospel of St. James and mentioned by St. Jerome, relates that the candidates, after having invoked Him who de- cides lots, left each his own almond- tree rod in the temple in the evening, leaves the question undecided ; but St. Peter Damian declares it to be the belief of the entire Church that St. Joseph, who passed for the father of the Saviour, was a virgin like unto Mary. *0n the occasion of the marriage-contract, the woman only received from her friends the apparel necessary for her. It was the husband who gave the dowry. (M. Salva- dor, Institutions de Mdise. t. ii., eh. 1.) and that next day the dry and with- ered branch of Joseph, son of Jacob, son of Nathan, was found green and blossomed like that which had of old secured the priesthood to the Aaronites. The history of Mount C arm el states that, at sight of this prodigy, which annihilated his hopes, a young and wealthy patrician, be- longing to one of the most powerful families of Judea, broke his rod in pieces, with every token of despair, and hastened to shut himself up in one of the caves of Carmel with the disciples of Elias.;|; When the guardians had made their choice, they announced it to Mary, and that admirable young Virgin, accustomed only to works of fancy — reared amid the perfumes, the melodious songs, and fairy pa- geants of the holy house — hesitated not a moment in devoting herself to an obscure life, menial occupations, f Gospel of the Nativity of Mary, ch. 7 ; Proto- gosp. St. James, ch. 8 ; St. Hier. in Dam., 1. iv., ch. 5 ; St. Greg. Naz., horn, de St. Nat.; Niceph., b. ii., ch. 7. J This young candidate for the Virgin's hand, who was named Agabus, afterwards became a Christian, it is said, and was famous for his sanctity. (See Histoire du Garmd, chaptei xii.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 121 and arduous cares, with the humble artisan chosen by her friends. A divine revelation had, they say, made known to her that this just man would be to her only a protector, a father, and the guardian of her chas- tity.* What would she more ? The Lord had heard her prayer. While leaving her faithful to the vow which she had made, he gave her, in addi- tion, the merit of obedience. The projected marriage of Joseph and Mary must have excited surprise both in Nazareth and in Jerusalem, for there was little similarity of age, fortune, or condition between the pair. It would, however, be a great mistake to think that this union, apparently so disproportionate, was regarded by Jewish society (whose habits were simple and primitive) as in any degree improper. Though not holding a distinguished rank in the state, the trade of a mechanic * Vie de la Sainte Vierge, by Descoutures, p. 49. Viede Jesus Christ, by Valverde, t. i., p, 71. f Mechanics are still highly respected in Judea. " In Syria and Palestine," says Burck- hardt, " the corporations of mechanics are almost as much respected as they were during the middle ages in France and Germany. A master-tradesman is there considered equal to a merchant of the second class. He can I was neither abject nor degrading in Israel.f We see in the genealogy of the tribe of Juda a family of workers in fine flax, and another of potters, whose memory is held in honor, and Scripture has handed down to posterity the names of Beleseel and Hiram. It is well known that St. Paul, brought up to the study of the law, the famous Pharisean doctor, Hillel, and since them many doctors who, according to the emphatic language of the Rabbins, shed light on the holy nor- tion, were not ashamed to apply themselves to the most common mechanical arts. But what is more: all the Israelites were artificers ; for every father of a family, whatever might be his social position, was bound to make his son learn a trade, unless, said the law, he would make him a thief. ^ Those Jews whose patrimony had marry into the respectable families of the city, and has usually more influence in his own locality than a merchant who has three times his wealth." (Burckhardt, Voyage en Arabie, t. ii., p. 139. ) X Any man who does not give his children a profession, said the Pharisean school, prepares them for a bad life "Be not burdensome to any one Never say, I am a man of 122 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. passed into the hands of sti'angers, had no other alternative than to quit the country or support themselves by the labor of their hands, awaiting the arrival of that grand epoch which restored all property to its original owners. They whose love of coun- try induced them to adopt the latter course, were in no way degraded thereby, or incapacitated for any office in the state. Unlike Egypt and India, Israel had no castes ; her pride was based on her religious belief, and her descent from the patriarchs. "To be the issue of Abraham according to the flesh," says the great Bossuet, " was a dis- tinction beyond all others." In fact, the lowest of the Hebrews was held as a prince in comparison with strangers.* There were, however, amongst the Jews, as amongst the Arabs, some tribes more illustrious and some houses more noble than others. The tribe of Juda, which carried the national standard at the head of the embattled thousands of Israel, and with whom the sceptre quality — that occupation does not suit me. Kabbi Johanan wrought as a skinner, Na- hum as a copier of books, another Johanan made sandals, and Rabbi Juda knew the baking * was to remain till the coming of the Messiah, had always the preem- inence; and the family of David was the first and most honored amongst the families of Juda. Now Joseph, although poor, was of the Davidical race. The blood of twen- ty kings flowed in his veins, and it was Zorobabel, one of his ancestors, who brought back the people of God from the land of exile. Since that time, the splendor of his house had gradually declined; his family had become identified with the peo- ple, like that of Moses and of Samuel, but its illustrious origin was not for- gotten. In our own days, the hum- ble Abassides, who vegetate in the depth of the Hedjaz, are still honor- ed as the descendants of Haroun- al-Raschid, and the highest family in Arabia would not disdain their alliance. The holy daughter of Joachim did not lower herself, therefore, as much as might be thought by espousing the CARPENTER. TMs is said in a worldly sense ; for, if we regard this trade." {Tcdmud., Tract. Kidotischim, Pessarh, Aboth, Soto.) * The Jews have not lost this opinion with their nationality ; they hold it stilL LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 123 union from a higher point of view, we find that it was in fact a noble alliance. God gave not to his chosen Virgin a man whose merit consisted in his lands, his vines, or his shekels of gold — things which often change masters, and are not more inherent in the rich than the clothes which they leave off at night. He gave her a just man, the most perfect of his works. The Lord takes no ac- count of the vain gewgaws which delight mankind ; before Him there is no distinction between the poor creatures who crawl a moment in the dust, soon to become the pasture of worms. Man judges by appear- ances, says the Scripture, but Jelio- vah beholds the heart. If G-od chose the humble Joseph to be the spouse of the Queen of Angels, the adoptive father of the Messiah, it was because he possessed treasures of grace and of sanctity which the angels them- selves might envy; it was because his virtues had made him first amongst his people, and that his * Hillel and Schammay warmly discuss the value of this marriage-coin, mentioned by the Talmud, but have come to no conclusion on the subject. (Basn., 1. vii., ch. 21.) f The following is the Uteral form of the mar- ^ name stood far higher in the book of life — the heraldic annals of eter- nity — than that of the imperial Cesar. The Virgin was not confided to the most powerful, but to the most worthy; thus the ark, which the princes and captains of Israel dared not touch for fear of being stricken with death, drew down the blessing of heaven on the house of a simple Levite wherein it was sheltered. Joseph, in presence of the guar- dians and some witnesses, presented her with a small piece of money, the value of which is not now known,* saying, " K thou consentest to become my wife, accept this pledge." Mary, by accepting the gift, was solemnly bound, and thence forward nothing but a formal divorce could restore her to freedom. The contract was drawn up by certain of the Scribes. It was concise, and not overbm'dened with technical terms.f The husband promised to honor his wife, to provide for her riage contract of the Hebrews. It was in use from the very earliest times, and must, therefore, have been employed at the marriage of Joseph and Mary. "In the year . . . ., the .... day of the month of ... . Benjamin, son of . . . ., said to 124 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. support, accoi-ding to the custom of ^ Hebrew husbands, and secured to her a dowry of two hundred zuses (fifty crowns), being just the same for the daughter of a prince as for the daughter of a mechanic, but it might be increased according to the wealth of the husband. After hav- ing insured this dowry by pledging all his possessions, and even his cloak, which, nevertheless, the law did not allow to be claimed until after his death,* Joseph signed the contract, to which Mary likewise affixed her signature. A short ben- ediction in honor of God terminated this ceremony, which took place several months before that of the marriage. The maiTiage of the Blessed Vir- gin was solemnized in Jerusalem, and the most dignified members of Rachel, daughter of . . . ., Become my wife under the law of Moses and Israel. I promise to re- spect thee, to provide for thy maintenance, in food and clothing, according to the custom of Hebrew husbands who honor their wives and maintain them in a proper manner. I give thee at this present (the sum fixed by the law), and I promise thee, over and above thy food, clothing, and all other necessaries, that conjugal love, which is common to peo- ple of all nations. Rachel consents to be- come the wife of Benjamin, who, of his own lier family made it their duty to appear on the occasion, with all that magnificence so characteristic of the East, and which excites the wonder of European travellers — even the common people exhibiting at such times the most unheard-of splendor.f Not to invite all their relatives, on an occasion so solemn, would have been tantamount to rejecting the ancient customs of their fathers — a thing which could never happen amongst that traditionary people, as unchanging in its customs as in its religious practices, as Philo, the Jew, truly said to the emperor Cai'us. It would, moreover, have outraged all the observances of He- brew society; and the presence of Mary at the wedding of Cana proves, on the contrary, that she conformed to them. free will, and in order to make a dowry pro- portioned to his means, adds to the dowry aforesaid the sum of " {Institutions de Mdise. ) * Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 21. f " We in Europe have no idea of the splendor displayed in the East on such occasions," says Baron Geramb in his Pilgrimage to Jerusalem; " the nuptial garment of almost every woman is of crimson velvet, embroidered with gold ; with this they wear numerous diamond and pearl ornaments." M. de Lamartine was likewise LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 125 It was a bright winter's day,* and the new moon was slowly rising be- hind the mountains,! when a long train of richly-dressed women was seen to approach the dwelling of Mary. The light of the torches, borne by a number of slaves, flashed on their cinctures of gold, their strings of pearl, the jeweled cres- cents which they wore on their fore- heads, and the diamonds of their Persian tiaras. J Those daughters of Sion still retained the use of paint, which was known even in the days of Jezabel ; their brows and eye- lashes were painted black, and the tips of their fingers were red as the berries of the eglantine. § Being ushered into the inner room, where the young and holy bride was seated in company with some pious matrons of her family, they blessed God for giving her a husband to protect her, dazzled with the superb costumes and profusion of jewels displayed by the women of Syria at the weddings of their friends. * In the middle of the sixteenth century the Church authorized the celebration of this festival. It is solemnized on the 22d of January, being, it is said, the day on which the marriage took place. The city of Arras holds this festival on the 23d of January, and some of the Flemish churches on the 24th of the same mouth. and complimented her on her ap- proaching marriage, the festivities of which they came to share. Belonging to Jewish society, with whom the bridal adornment was a Biblical reminiscence, and could not be dispensed with, Mary was obliged to submit for a while to the require- ments of Eastern luxury, although it had no charms for her. Gold, pearls, and rich stuffs are not, of them- selves, reprehensible ; it is only the thoughts of pride and vanity which they engender in weak minds that are positively evil. Queen Matilda was more humble under her embroi- dered garments, studded with jewels, than the coarsely-clad women with whom she shut herself up, after her glorious regency ; such is the simple testimony of the chroniclers of those times. Taking care, then, to avoid that f Amongst the Jews marriages were not cele- brated indiscriminately on every day of the week ; they were usually solemnized at the time of a new moon, and on Wednesday rather than any other day. (Basn., 1. vii., ch. 21.) \ Isai, cap. iii. § Throughout all the East, the women color the tips of their fingers with lausonia iner- rtm. (Linn.) This plant abounds in the islo of Cyprus. rj6 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. (lisrt'iraitl of dres8 which would have been sure to give offence, at a time when custom required even of the wedding-guests a certain richness of costume — failing in which they were expelled, as we see even by the Gospel — the young descendant of the kings of Juda was bound to wear, on that occasion, a rich and becom- ing costume, and we see by authen- tic relics that such was the case.* Her robe was carefully preserved in Palestine, and thence conveyed to Constantinople in 461 (as we learn from Nicephorus). It was exceed- ingly valuable both in ornament and design. The ground was of a buff, or nankin color, interspersed with flow- ers of blue, white, violet and gold. It is now the holy relic of Chartres.f ♦There are two of the Virgin's tunics still preserved, and they are made of very precious stofifl Chardin saw one of these in Mingrelia ; it was of a nankin color and richly embroidered. f This tunic was given by Charles the Bald to the Church of Chartres in 877. Numerous miracles have been attributed to it. ^The Christians of Damascus have retained thiB custom. Some days before the nuptial feast, the bridegroom sends to his betrothed a pair of bracelets either of gold or of jewels, ac- cording to his means, a piece of gold brocade, and 160 dollars for the expenses of the bath and the wedding banquet {Corres. d' Orient, lettre 147.) § The bride's crown was usually of gold, and In memory of ancient times and the patriarchal customs of her fa- thers, she wore, like Rebecca, ear- rings and bracelets of gold — a mod- est and indispensable present which Joseph had to send some days be- fore the ceremony, J and to which the richer Hebrews added necklaces of pearls, and magnificent sets of jewels. Instead of the pointed gold- en crown, § worn by the brides of the more opulent classes, there was placed on Mary's fair tresses || a simple wreath of myrtle, which in spring would have been intertwined with roses.^ Her bridal veil covered her from head to foot, and floated around her like a cloud.** A canopy of precious stuff, borne by four young Hebrews, awaited the made in the form of a tower like that of Cybella. This custom was abolished during the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, but the wreaths of myrtle and roses were retained. (Basn., 1. vii., ch. 21.) II Amongst the Jews, even the women's apparel was within the province of tradition. "Hair- dressers were called in to curl the young bride's hair, because, said the Rabbins, Jehovah himself arranged Eve's hair in curls, when he gave her to Adam in Paradise." (Basnage, L ,vii., ch. 21, p. 393.) ^ Garlands of myrtle and roses were worn by brides of the lower classes. (Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 21. Misnah, Tit. Sotah, c. 9, sect. 14.) ** These nuptial veils, embroidered in gold and silver, are still in use all over Syria. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 127 bride outside her dwelling.* Mary was placed under it, between two matrons, the one on the right repre- senting her mother; the other was probably that Mary of Cleophas, supposed by some authors to have been the elder daughter of St. Ann, but who was only the sister-in-law of the Virgin.f After them came all the nuptial train, waving palm and myrtle branches in token of re- joicing.;}; The procession moved along to the sound of cymbals, harps and flutes playing grave and simple airs in concert ; § these were prob- ably identical with the choirs of David. Then came the bridegroom, his brow adorned with a fantastic crown, clear as crystal, and peculiar ^ to his people. 1 1 He was surrounded by a number of friends singing an epithalamium, imitated from Solo- mon's Canticle of Canticles, that mystic and sublime marriage-song whose lofty metaphors have each a divine and hidden meaning. They sang the beauty of the young bride, whose locks were as branches of palm-trees, her form light and grace- ful as that of a young hart, her teeth (white) as a flock of sheep, which come up from the washing ; her eyes as doves upon brooks of waters ; they said that the odor of her re- nown was as sweet as the perfume that exhaled from her garments; that she was the lily of virgins and the object of women's praise. Pass- * The order of this bridal pomp, which goes back to the most remote ages, is still found in Egypt. Niebuhr thus describes an Egyptian marriage. " The bride, covered from head to foot, walks between two women under a canopy borne by four men. Several slaves go before, some of them playing the tabor ; others carry fly-flaps, ifhile others again sprinkle perfumes around as they pass along. They are followed by a number of women, and by musicians seated on asses. The ceremony takes place by night, and torches are borne by the slaves." (Niebuhr, Voyage en Arahie, t. 1. ) ■{■According to M. Peignot, a conscientious historian, who made many inquiries on the sub- sect, this holy woman was the wife of Cleophas, brother of St. Joseph, and consequently a sister- ^ in-law of the Blessed Virgin. (See Recherches historiques sur la personne de J^us Christ et ceUe de Marie, p. 249.) I See Fleury, Mceurs des Israelites. § The music of the East is altogether different from ours. It is grave and simple, without any labored modulation. All the instruments play together, unless one may take the notion of keep- ing up a continued bass, by repeating incessantly the same note. (Niebuhr, vol. 1, p. 136.) II This crown, which, according to the Jewish doctors, contained a mysterious lesson, was composed of salt and sulphur. The salt was clear as crystal, and upon it were traced various characters with the sulphur. {Codex, M. S. apud Wagenseil in Mismam. Tit. Sotah, adult, de uxore suspect, c. 9, sec. 14. ) r 198 LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. ing then to the eulogiuin of the bridegroom, they praised his mien, majestic and imposing as Lebanon, the mildness of his voice, the gra- cious urbanity of his manners, and tliey added, that he was distfnguished amongst men as the cedar amongst trees. Then, proceeding to matters of a higher and more general nature, they said that the husband ought to be to his wife as the bunch of myrrh which she wears on her bosom ; that she ought to pass through life rest- ing on him, and as heedless of all other men as though she were in a desert, because that jealousy is in- flexible as death, and its lamps are lamps of fire and flame. They added, that conjugal love was a thing so precious that the richest of men, were he to buy it at the expense of all he possessed, might still reckon that he had it for nothing. Now and then the young people, who brought up the rear, formed dances of the same kind as the relig- * Dancing, which, in its origin, was intended to imitate the motion of the stars, mingled in all the religious feasts of antiquity. It was, doubtless, of antediluvian origin, and must even have preceded the invention of musi- cal instruments. t See Niebuhr, hook quoted. f ious dance, which was associated, in its origin, with the religious festi- vals.* Again, they would burst out into those shrill and prolonged cries of joy still in use amongst the Arabs,f which are compared by a recent traveller in Syria to the loud shouts wherewith the vine-dressers of southern France accost their brethren on an opposite hill. The whole procession, as it passed along, scattered small pieces of silver;j; amongst the poor, who were loud in their blessings and gratulations. These silver coins bore either the device of a vine-leaf, or the three ears of corn which were the emblem of Judea.§ The women of Israel, grouped along the wayside, strewed palm-branches before the bride and bridegroom, and now and then they stopped the former to sprinkle her garments with essence of roses.|| Mary, too, was to have her day of triumph in Jerusalem. Arrived at the nuptial dwelling, X Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 21 § Some of these Jewish coins have been found of the time of Herod and the Maccabees. They bear the effigfy of no prince, but merely ears of corn and vine-leaves. \ This custom, like many others, was borrowed from Egypt. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 129 the friends of the bride and bride- groom cried in chorus, Blessed he he who Cometh I Joseph covered with his taled, and Mary with her veil, sat side by side under the canopy ; Mary taking the right side — because the Psalmist said, the queen (thy spouse) stood on thy right hand* — and turning towards the south. f The bridegroom placed a ring upon her finger,J saying, "Behold, thou art my spouse according to the law of Moses and of Israel." He took off his taled and threw it over the shoulders of the bride, in imitation of what passed at the marriage of Ruth, who said to Booz, Spread thy coverlet over thy servant.^ One of the nearest kinsmen then poured wine into a cup, tasted of it, and then presented it to the new-married pair, blessing Grod for having created man and woman, and instituted mar- riage. "Whilst they carried to their lips the sacred marriage-cup, the assistants sang to the God of Israel * Psalm xliv., 10. f Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 21. \ It is said that this ring is at Perouse, where it is carefully preserved. (Basnage, lib. vii., ch. 21.) S See Buxtort a hymn which contained six bless- ings. Joseph then poured out the remainder of the wine in token of liberality, and the assembly scatter- ed handfuls of wheat, as the symbol of abundance; then the cup was broken to pieces by a child. || All the assembly, surrounding the newly-married pair with torches, blessed the Lord, and then passed on to the banquet-hall, where they proceeded (according to an ancient bishop of Bresse,^ who traces back this Hebrew tradition to the days of Christ) to choose the king of the feast, who was to be " of the sacer- dotal race," and to preside over the meats and the wines, and to see that the guests did not infringe on the rules of religion and propriety. Joseph and Mary also arose; but, before they followed their guests, they exchanged a few secret words in face of the firmament with all its stars, which attest the glory of the Most High.** " Thou shalt be as a II Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 21. Instil, de M<me, L vii., ch. i., p. 336. T Gaudent, Serm. 9, B. P., t. ii., p. 38. ** St. Thomas is of opinion that it was immediately after the celebration of their mar^ riage that St. Joseph and the Blessed Vir- 130 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. mother unto me," said the patriarch to the holy Virgin, " and I will re- spect thee even as the altar of Jeho- vah." Thenceforward they were no more, in the eyes of religious law, than brother and sister in marriage, although their union was strictly maintained.* Those festivals, which were ac- companied by the religious ceremo- ny of sacrifice, lasted seven days, as in the time of the patriarchs. The week being ended, Joseph and Mary, escorted by a brilliant cavalcade of their relations, took the way to Galilee. The little caravan set out to the merry sound of cymbals, and only broke up at the fountain of Anathot,f w^here those of Jerusalem took leave of the newly-married pair, with tears in their eyes, blessings gin made, by mutual consent, their vow of virginity. * This vow of chastity in married life, which has given rise to so much impious sarcasm, was not unknown amongst the Hebrews ; but with them it was dictated by passion and anger, whilst that of these holy spouses was the result of piety. If a husband said to his wife, " Thou art as my mother," he was never again allowed to consider her in any other light ; especially if he had intro- duced into his vow the altar of Jehovah, the tem- ple, or the sacrifice. "Women sometimes did the same thing. And although these vows were * on their lips, and hands solemnly placed on their heart. The Naza- renes went on their way ; they cross- ed the mountains of Samaria, where the eagle watched them from his eyrie on high, regardless of their presence. Sichem then presented itself to the eyes of the travellers, with its evergreen woods, its limpid streams, and its stately edifices rising above the foliage. They passed the reddish sides of the mountain of Garizim, where stood the ruins of the schismatic temple, the shameless rival of the holy house, which John Hircan had destroyed by fire, and which was afterwards replaced by a church dedicated to Mary herself; then the lofty heights of Mount Hebal ; then Sebastes, where a new and stately scarcely approved of, because they proceeded from wrath and malediction, they were still considered binding, and had to be religiously fulfilled. (Basnage, lib. vii., chapter 19, page 352. Leo of Modena, Ceremon. d Gout, des Juifs, ch. 4.) f All the relations went on horseback to escort the bride home, in case her husband's house was not far oflf. This is still customary amongst the Arabs. We have represented the bridal party as separating at Anathot, a small town about five leagues from Jerusalem, because it is the first LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 131 palace was rising up under the protection of Augustus, and which Herod delighted to embellish, as the only altar whereon he might sacri- fice to the genius of Rome. Towards the middle of the second day's journey they distinguished the summit of Mount Thabor, raising its verdant head towards the pale and silvery sky of Galilee, and beyond, the towering heights of Lebanon, hiding their snowy peaks in the clouds. From the woody slopes of Hermon, where the goats were browsing on the tender shoots of the bushes, they descended into a smiling plain, which lay like an immense basket of flowers between hills covered with green oaks and myrtles, vineyards, and groves of olives. Fields of barley, wheat and clover, in full verdure, were gently waving in the cool fresh breeze of opening spring, warmer and more rapid there than in our Western regions. The clear, bright sunlight *The philosophers of the last century took great pains to depreciate Palestine. The im- pression which they gave of it still remains, while the poverty and depopulation of that country, scarcely breathing under the sabre of the Mus- sulman, has given them a show of reason in the eyes of superficial readers. Yet there is no doubt ^ * lay on that lovely land, vegetation was rapidly progressing, an^ the blue waters, soon to be dried up by the scorching summer sun, were running in silvery brightness through that new Eden. Thriving villages were seen peeping out here and there between rows of stately palms, and at intervals, on the summit of a rock, was seated the solitary fortress whose garrison, Hebrews as yet, and charg- ed with a protecting mission, drew their Damascus blades only against nocturnal marauders, or the Arabs of the desert. This delightful valley, set, as it were, in the midst of high and gloomy mountains, was the vale of Esdrelon, and at its farther end appeared a small city, picturesquely seated on the declivity of a hill, and shining preeminent over all the neighboring hamlets; that fair and smiling town was Nazareth, the birth-place of Mary, the cradle of the Messiah ! * Doubtless, it was not without that, with the exception of the environs of Jeru- salem, whose sterility no one can deny, we find in that country, and especiallj' that part of it which formerly belonged to the Canaanites, the promised land of Moses. In proof of this asser- tion, we wiU give two descriptions of Galilee, written eight hundred years apart " Galilee,** 182 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. emotion that Mary once more be- held her native town, the memory of which, dimmed, but not effaced, had been wont to haunt her dreams. She had quitted it a child for the splendid walls of the temple; she retui-ned fair, young, accomplished, and pure as when she left. The travellers went into the house of St. Ann, an ancient and mysteri- ous dwelling, pai'tly hollowed from the rock, like the prophetic grottoes of former times,* and which w^as soon says Flavius Josephus, " is divided into Upper and Lower, both extremely fertile ; the soil is at once rich and light, and abounds in pasturage ; it is suitable for every production, and filled with trees of every kind, but especially with large plantations of vines and olives. It is watered by the torrents which fall from the mountains, and by a vast number of springs and rivulets which are never exhausted, and supply the want of the torrents when these last are dried up during the heat of summer. The fertihty of the soil is so great that it induces all men, even those who are least laborious, to cultivate it. Hence it is well tilled, and there is not a spot of waste land to be seen. Its inhabitants are robust and warlike, the cities frequent, the villages numerous, and so densely peopled that the smallest can reckon fifteen thousand souls. (Joseph., de Bello, lib. ii, cap. ii. ) " To give an idea of the aspect of Gahlee," says a modern traveller, speaking in his turn, " it is not in France that one can find a comparison, but in I'Agro Romano ; around Naz- areth, as around Rome, it is every where the same light, the same configuration of the soil, Nature is there as su- lime as the Gospel itsell * to become holier than the temple at Jerusalem — the very dwelling-place of Jehovah. The women of Naza- reth greeted the youthful bride with blessings as she modestly advanced, wrapped up in her veil like Rebecca of old; and Mary, amid the gratu- lations of those who had seen her in her early infancy, entered once more that calm paternal dwelling, which seemed still redolent with the good odor of the virtues of Ann and Joachim. GaUlee is an abridged picture of the Holy Land, and when once we have seen it under the differ- ent aspects of day and night, we are able to understand what it must have been in the time of Christ. For the artist, Galilee is an Eden ; nothing is deficient ; neither the accidents of the soil of Judea, nor the luminous solitudes of Palestine, nor the verdant fecundity of Samaria, Garizim, and the Mount of Olives, are more sub- lime than Hermon and Thabor ; nor are the blueish plains of Ascalon more solemn than the fragrant shores of the lake of Tiberias, where the air is absorbed in light. The Galilean soil every- where reminds us of history and miracles ; eve- rywhere it presents traces of heroes and the imprint of God ; and one feels, in contemplating the land from the heights of Thabor, that it was the country where dwelt the Man- God ; so strangely are religious reminiscences mingled with the marvels of earth and sky." {Gorres. d' Orient, t. v.) * " There are still found in Nazareth," says the Baron Geramb, " houses like that of St. Joseph, that is to say, very low, and communicating with a cave excavated from the side of tl^e mountain." CHAPTER YIII. THE ANNUNCIATION. is easy to imagine the blessed tran- quillity in which Joseph and Mary passed the first months of their chaste union. The peace of God was in and around their humble dwelling, and their time was divided between labor and prayer, which sanctified and rendered it less rude. According to an ancient custom, still in use amongst the Arabs and near- ly all over the East, Joseph wrought at his trade, in a house apart from his dwelling.* His workshop, the same in which Jesus himself subse- quently worked, was a low room, ten or twelve feet in width by as many in length. Outside the door * This house of St. Joseph is about 130 or 140 paces from that of St. Ann. The place is still pointed out, under the name of Joseph's Work- shop. This shop had been transformed into a spacious church, a part of which was destroyed by the Turks. A chapel still remains, wherein the Holy Sacrifice is daily offered up. {Pelerin- age a Jerusalem, par le K. P. Geramb. ) was a stone bench, whereon the passer-by might rest, sheltered from the burning rays of the sun by an awning of palm-leaf matting.f There it was that the laborious Avorkman fabricated plows, yokes, and rustic cars. Sometimes he put up the cabins of the valley, and at times his arm, still stout and strong, hewed down the lofty sycamore and the black turpentine-tree of Mount Car- mel.J The pay which he received for so much toil was very trifling, and even that he shared with the needy. On her side, his gentle and holy helpmate was not idle. Gifted with a mind enlightened, wise, and pru- dent, without regret for the past or delusive speculations for the future. f These shops are still the same all over the Levant. {See Burckhardt, Voyage en Arable, t. i. ) J St. Justin, Martyr {Dialog, cum Ti'iphone), mentions that Jesus helped his adoptive father to make yokes and plows. St. Ambrose {in Luc., lib. iii., 2) asserts that St. Joseph worked at the hewing and felling of trees, the building of houses, and other works of that kind. 134 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. seeing the world just as it is, and hei own position in its true light, Bhe piously conformed herself to it, and fulfilled with religious fidelity its sacred obligations. From the moment she took possession of her mother's dwelling, she clothed her- self with poverty as with a garment sent by Gjd, and became, what she ought to be, in the obscure condition to which Providence had reduced her, an humble and unassuming maiden. All the gay and brilliant works of elegant life were suddenly put aside, and replaced by the ar- duous cares, the monotonous occu- * The first mills that were invented were hand- mills. In Egypt, in Arabia, in Palestine, and even in Greece, it was the women who worked them. There is still shown at Mecca, in a fine house which is said to have been that of Khad- idje, a cavity wherein Fatima, surnamed the daz- zling, daughter of Mahomet, turned her hand-mill. {See Burckhardt, Voyage en Arabie.) The wives of the Arab Sheiks have still to perform this la- borious duty. In the time of the sons of Clovis, St Radegonde, queen of France, ground, in imi- tation of the Blessed Virgin, all the grain that she used during Lent. (Le Grand d'Aussy, Hid. prisee des Franfais.) The invention of water-mills is attributed to Mithridates. It is certain that they have existed from his time. Amongst other proofs of this, that pretty epi- gram of Antipator of Thessalonica is quoted, and we will here give a translation of it. " Ye women, who have hitherto been employed in grinding ^ pations of a poor household, whose mistress has neither slaves nor servants. The delicate hands of Mary, accustomed to handle silken tissues, plaited, with date-leaves, or reeds pulled on the banks of Jordan, the mat which covered the earthen floor of her dwelling. Her spindle was charged with the coarsest flax. She had herself to grind the wheat and barley,* which she kneaded into round thin cakes. Wrapt in her white veil, an antique urn on her head,f she went to draw water from a neighboring fountain, J like the wives of the old patriarchs, or to our grain, sleep in peace, and let your arms rest ; it is no longer for you that the birds usher in the morning by their songs. Ceres has com- manded the Naiads to do your work ; they obey, and swiftly turn a wheel which, in its turn, moves the heavy mill-stones." The Romans did not perfectly succeed in making water-mills until Constantine had abolished slavery. f These urns are enormous earthern pitchers of immoderate height. The Nazarenes carry them on their head ; and under such a weight, and sometimes with a child in their arms, they walk with astonishing lightness. (De Geramb, t. ii., p. 239.) I This fountain is called in that country Mary's Fountain. Tradition says that the divine Mother of Jesus went habitually thither to draw what water she required ; and it is easy to believe that such was the case, when we consider the ^ scarcity of water in Nazareth. The path which LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 135 wash her blue robes in the run- ning stream, like the princesses of Homer. Jesus, witnessing the toilsome avocations of this strong woman^ frequently alluded to them in his parables, and these simple occu- pations of Mary are preserved in the Gospel tissue as a sea-flower is in amber. We there see the thrifty housewife putting the leaven in three measures of meal,* care- fully sweeping over her house in search of something that she lost,f and patiently mending an old garment. J When Jesus seeks a similitude to recommend purity of heart, he draws it from the remem- brance of her cleanliness who care- fully washed the inside and outside of the cup; § and we may guess that he thought of Mary when praising the offering of the widow who giveth not of her abundance^ hut of her pov- erty. Hence the chanter of Ohio represents Justice under the likeness leads to this fountain, where the pious mother of Constantiue constructed fine basins and res- ervoirs, is bordered with nopals and fruit-trees. (De Geramb, place quoted.) * St. Luke, eh. xiii., v. 21, and St. Matthew, ch. xiii., 8, 33. t lUd., ch. v., V. 36. * of his mother, a poor humble woman, carefully weighing the wool which she is going to spin for her own maintenance and that of her son, remaining just and honest towards the rich in the midst of all her poverty. At nightfall, || when the birds seek their lofty nests, Mary placed on a clean, bright table, the work of Jo- seph's hands, the little cakes of wheat and barley, the savory dates, milk-meat, fruits, and dry vegeta- bles, which composed the frugal meal of the descendant of the Jew- ish princes. These articles, plainly cooked, formed the principal food of the ancient Hebrews, a sober race, who at need could well content themselves with bread and water.^ As to the Virgin, she lived on so little that ancient authors — lovers of the marvelous — thought she must have been fed by angels. When Joseph, tired after the la- bors of the day, entered his humble I Ibid., ch. XV., V. 8. § Ibid., ch. xi., v. 39. II In Israel, people eat after having worked, and late enough too. (Fleury, Maeurs des Isra- elites.) The principal meal of Joseph and Mary was taken about six in the evening. *ilbid., p. 61. 18^ LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. home at sunset, he found his young spouse waiting to present the water which she had warmed to bathe his feet, and the clear, cold water from the fountain, in a vase free from all unclean touch,* for the ablutions necessary before meals. That grave and simple man, with his fine patri- archal countenance, where the pas- sions had left no trace, and that angelic maiden, so eager to serve him with the solicitude of a tender child, formed a group worthy of the golden age.f Meanwhile the hour was come-^ the hour which the Eternal had marked out in his divine counsels for the Incarnation of his Son. The angel Gabriel, one of the four J who stand always before the Lord, re- ceived a mysterious mission which * Ajuongst the Jews there were numberless precautions to be taken for purifying the vessels in which water was drawn or food prepared. They were not only careful in regard to their having belonged to strangers, but they carried their scruples much farther still, for a thousand circumstances rendered them unclean. {Misnah, Ordo Puriiaium.) f Non dedignabar parare d ministrare qtUB erant necessaria JoKt^h. Such are the words put in the mouth of Mary by an ancient author, and it is in perfect conformity with the still existing customs. X " There are four angels who are scarcely ever t withdrew him for a time from the heavenly court. Assuming one of those radiant coverings of thick air wherewith the celestial spirits clothe themselves when they are to fall under the gross senses of the chil- dren of men,§ the angel left behind him the golden palaces and emerald walls of the heavenly Jerusalem, whose gates are twelve pearls, || and spread his vast white wings, ^ his face all radiant with benignant joy ; for he was bearing to earth a mes- sage of peace, and the holy angels take as much pleasure in the hap- piness of men as the wicked spir- its do in their sufferings and their ruin. Having crossed the measureless wastes of heaven, in which every star is an oasis, the angel w^ho had seen on earth," say the Rabbins, " because they stand around the throne of God ; these angels are : Michael, who is on the right ; Gabriel, on the left ; Uriel, who is before God ; and Raphael, who is behind him." {Bibt. Rabbin, i., page 206.) §St. Thomas Aquinas, Question unique des creatures spirituelles, Art. 6. I Apocalypse, ch. xxi., v. 21. T The Jews represent the angels, as Chris- tians do, with wings. The Koran gives the angel Gabriel one hundred and forty pairs of wings, and says that it takes him only an hour to come from heaven to earth. {Legend of Mahomet.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 137 foretold to Daniel the coming of the f Messiah, and who was now setting out for the accomplishment of that great promise of God, directed his course with the rapidity of thought towards a little planet, which his piercing eye descried at an immense distance, first, in the state of a nebulous star; then shining with a pale milky light; then, at last, with the rotundity and tranquil light of the moon, whose phases it has. On approaching this little globe, which man has proudly divided into zones and hemispheres — where he toils with senseless ardor to amass some treasures which he makes his god — the angel began to distinguish ponds of blue, shining water, sur- mounted by dark peaks like little submarine rocks. These were our oceans and our lofty mountains. The cities did not yet appear, nor men. At length the earth, which * It is commonly believed that the angel's visit to the Blessed Virgin took place about the close of the day. f The people of the East turn towards a certain point of the heavens when they pray ; this is what they call the Kehla. The Jews turn towards the temple of Jerusalem, the Mahometans towards Mecca, the Sabeans to- had first appeared under a micro- scopic form, gradually expanded into vast countries of many king- doms, intersected with deserts, and planted with forests. Arrived at the zenith of Palestine, the angel cast a gracious glance on the pretty town of Nazareth, and, descending softly through the clouds after the manner of a falling star, he gracefully lower- ed himself to the humble, but holy dwelling of Joseph, the carpenter of Galilee, whose fathers were kings. The sun was declining towards the lofty promontory of Carmel, and was soon to set behind the horizon of the Syrian Sea, when the angel presented himself in the simple oratory of the Blessed Virgin.* Faithful to the religious customs of her people, Mary, her head turned towards the temple,f was then engaged in her evening prayer to the God of Jacob. % "Hail, full of grace," said the heavenly messen- wards the south, and the Ghebers towards the rising sun. :{;The Jews prayed three times a day; at sunrise in the morning, at three o'clock in the afternoon, when sacrifice was offered, and in the evening at sunset. According to the Eabbins, Abraham estabUshed the morning >. prayer, Isaac that of the afternoon, and Jacob 188 LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. ger, bending bis riidiant head ; " the Loi*d is with thee ; blessed art thou amongst women." Maiy was alarmed at this marvel- ous apparition. Perhaps she feared, like Moses, to see God and die. Perhaps, as St. Ambrose thought, her virginal modesty was alarmed at sight of that son of heaven, who in- troduced himself, like a sunbeam, into that solitary cell, w^here no man ever entered. Perhaps it was the respectful attitude and splendid eu- logium of the angel that disturbed her humility. However it was, the Gospel mentions that she was troubled within herself, and tried in vain to understand the object of that sui-prising visit, and the hidden meaning of that mysterious saluta- tion. The angel, perceiving her alarm, mildly said, "Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy that of the evening. (Basnage, lib. viL, chap. 17.) * Calvin, that haughty heresiarch, who burned Servetus while preaching toleration, dared to calumniate the Virgin, taking occasion from this text to accuse her of incredulity. St. Augustine had met the objection long beforehand- " The Virgin does not doubt," said he, " non quasi in- f womb, and shalt bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be call- ed the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father : and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever." At these words, which would have overwhelmed another with joy, the chaste and prudent Mary thought only of her virginal wreath, which she was resolved never to tarnish, and inquired how this prediction was to be reconciled with her vow of perpetual chastity.* Virginal pmity is a thing so holy in the eyes of the angels that Ga- briel, in order to reassure Mary, feared not to reveal a part of the chaste mystery of the Incarnation. " The power of the Most High shall overshadow thee," said he, " and the Holy which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God."f Then, according to the custom of the credula de oraculo ; she only seeks to be informed as to how the miracle is to be wrought." St. John Chrysostom adds that this inquiry is the effect of respectful admiration, and not of vain curiosity. f This Gospel record has been received by the Mussulmans themselves. Here is how the Koran ^ relates the interview between the Blessed Virgin LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 139 heavenly ambassadors, he would give her a sign which should confirm the truth of his words. "And be- hold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age : and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren: because no word shall be impossible with God." Sarah had smiled an incredulous smile when the angel, seated under the oaks which shaded her tent, announced that she, old and barren, should bear a son. Mary, to whom a. new prodigy was announced, a thing unprecedented under the sun — in fine, a virginal maternity — immediately believed the di- vine promise, and humbling herself before Him who exalted her above all women, she answered submis- sively, " Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me accord- ing to thy will ! " At these words the angel disappeared, and the and the angel. " The angel said unto Mary : ' God announces his Word to thee : he shall be called Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of Mary, great in this world and in the other, and the confidant of the Most High ; men shall hear his Word from infancy to old age, and he shall be num- bered amongst the just.' 'Lord,* answered Mary, ' how could I have a son ? I know not f Word was made flesh to dwell amongst us.* Thus it was that the angel of light treated of our salva- tion with the second Eve, when the crime of the guilty Eve, who had conspired om^ ruin with the infernal angel, was gloriously repaired. Thus it was that a simple mortal was raised to the unequalled dignity of Mother of God, and that, virgin and mother both together, she united by a new miracle the two most oppo- site and sublime states of her sex. "Let us dive no farther into this mystery," says St. John Chrysostom, " or seek to know how the Holy Ghost could work this prodigy in the Virgin ; that divine generation is an unfathomable abyss which no curious glance may sound."f We have adopted the opinion of the doctors and theologians who maintain that Joseph was legally the spouse of Mary at the time of the Incarnation. Yet this opinion man.' 'Yet so shall it be,' replied the angel; ' God forms creatures as he pleases : if he wills that any thing should exist, he says. Be done, and it is done.' " (Ko., ch. iii.) * The mystery of the Incarnation took place on the 25th of March, on a Friday evening, ac- cording to Father Drexelius. f St. John Chrysostom, Ser. 4. 140 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. is controverted ; and amongst the authorities who pretend that Mary was not yet the spouse, but only the betrothed of Joseph, we find in the first rank the great St. John Chrysostom himself.* Still, Mary was living in the house of Joseph, according to the same Father, at the moment of the Annunciation. " For," says that illustrious doctor, " in former times it was customary for betrothed brides to reside in the house of the intended husband, which is still occasionally done. We see that the sons-in-law of Lot dwelt in the house of their future father-in-law,"f Notwithstanding her profound re- spect for St. John Chrysostom, the Church has not adopted his opinion. The example of the sons-in-law of Lot, which he brings forward to prove his case, is badly chosen. Scripture nowhere says that they lived with Lot; and all goes to prove the contrary, since the patri- arch was obliged to go out, at a t moment of terror and consteiiiation, whilst the wicked city was in an uproar, to warn " his sons-in-law that were to have his daughters." Even supposing that these young men had formed a part of Lot's family, since the flocks of that pa- triarch covered the hills and valleys of an entire province, they would have been, on the banks of the Jordan, precisely what Jacob was in Mesopotamia, active and vigilant servants, day and night parched with heat, and with frost.\ We nowhere see that they had their betrothed in their tents ; they lived under the protection of the patriarch, whose chief shepherds they were ; there is nothing in this contrary to the cus- toms of Asia. The Blessed Virgin, being an orphan and alone in the world, would have been in an awk- ward position, residing in the house of her betrothed husband. Such a supposition could only be author- ized by a general custom amongst the Hebrews, and we find in their * Descoutures has erred in placing St. John Chrysostom amongst those who maintain that Joseph was legally the husband of Mary at the time of the Incarnation; that writer, who is ^ in general very judicious, probably quoted him from supposition. t St. John Chrysostom, Serm. 4 X Gen. ch. xxxi., v. 40. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 141 code an express law against it.* * St. Chrysostom himself tells us, and in this he fully agrees with the ancient theologians, that God long covered with an impenetrable veil the miraculous maternity of Mary, in order to save her from a revolt- ing suspicion, which would have been as hurtful to the divinity of the Son as to the universal respect due to the Mother. Now, marriage alone could cover Avith its honored mantle the mystery of the Incarna- tion, for a mere betrothal would not have sufficed. And then, if Joseph and Mary had been only betrothed at the time of the Incarnation of the Word, they would have been nothing more four months after, since the Gospel mentions that Mary, after the Annunciation, set out with haste to visit St. Elizabeth, and that it was only on her return from Hebron, after an absence of three months, that she was found with child, a phrase which indicates a position visible to all. Are we to suppose that the marriage of the Virgin was only celebrated when her maternity was known and estab- * Misnah, t. iii., de Sponsalibus. Selden, Uxor Hehrdica. * lished ? What would the two fami- lies have thought ? What would the people of Nazareth have said as they thronged to witness the ceremony ? What insulting re- marks would have been applied to the most pure Virgin, amongst a people with whom female chastity was so sacred that its violation was inevitably punished with death! Would not the birth of the Messiah — that birth which was to be pure as the morning-dew — have been tainted and defiled by this foul slander ? Would not the Jews, and especially those of Nazareth, who were so much opposed to Christ, and who called him the car- penter's son — would they not have taunted him with the irregularity of his birth ? But this they did not do, and the evident conclusion is that they could not do it. Here, then, undoubtedly, are the reasons which induced many illus- trious theologians to hold that Mary was really married, notwith- standing the support which the opposite party seem to find in the words of St. Matthew — words which would seem to favor the other interpretation — but which are far 142 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. from being so precise as to resolve the difficulty.* Finally, the dispute has never turned on the principal point Whether wife or betrothed, no tine Christian has ever doubted * The verse which has divided the doctors is this : Christi autem generatio, sic erat : cum esset defiponsata mater ejus Maria Joseph, antequam convenirent, inveiUa est in utero habens de Spiritu Sanclo. Those who dwell on the meaning of these words say that the Virgin was only be- trothed, because the Gi'eek verb which renders the Hebrew expression of St. Matthew means desponden, to be promised, and because there is another term signifying to be married, just as there are amongst the Latins desponderi and nubere, so that St. Joseph had not yet taken the Virgin to his house. This they prove by that part of the 20th verse. Noli timere accipere Mariam cofijugem tuam : quod enim in ea natum est, de Spirilu Sancto est, which they thus ex- plain : " Fear not to take Mary for thy wife, for what is conceived in her is conceived by the operation of the Holy Gost." But in order to translate thus, there must be, in conjugem tuam. The opposite party, who are sustained by many of the Fathers, by respectable commen- tators, and nearly all the theologians, find wherewith to combat their opponents in the second chapter of St. Luke, where, notwith- standing that the Virgin was already married to Joseph, the Evangelist employs the Greek term vTTioxveiadaj,, which signifies being promised, and says, Ut prqfiteretur cum Maria desponsata sibi that the Mother of God was the purest and holiest of virgins. The Mussulmans themselves agree that she was "the source and mine of purity."f ujcre prcegnante : to the end that he might have an understanding with his betrothed wife, who was with child. And in the 19th verse of the first chapter of St. Matthew, St. Joseph is called vir ejus (her husband) and not her betrothed. Although St. Matthew calls the Blessed Virgin sponsa (betrothed) and she a wife, that does not prove that she had not yet contracted marriage; it is merely to show, as one of the Fathers remarks, that she had no closer connection with her spouse than if she was only his betrothed. f The purity of Mary is fully recognized by the Mussulmans ; hence we find that Abou- Ishac, ambassador from the Caliph to the court of the Greek Emperor, being present at a re- ligious conference with the patriarch and the Greek bishops, the latter reproached the Mus- sulmans with many slanderous stories which had been formerly circulated against Aischah, the widow of their prophet, which had occa- sioned grievous disputes amongst them. Where- upon Abou-Ishac replied that these disputes were not to be wondered at, seeing that, amongst Christians, there had been so much difference of opinion regarding the glorious Mary, mother of Jesus, " who may be called," said he, "the mine and source of all purity," genab ismet mealo kon offet. (D'Herbelot, BiJbli^ oth. Orientale, t. ii., p. 620.) CHAPTER IX. THE VISITATION. gEANWHILE, * Mary, informed by the angel of the miracu- lous pregnancy of Elizabeth, resolved on go- ing to offer her tender congratula- tions to her venerable relative. It was not, as heretics have dared to assert, that the Yirgin wished to have ocular demonstration of the reality of that extraordinary event. She knew that nothing is impossi- ble to God, and could not suppose that an envoy from heaven would bring her words of falsehood and deceit from the Most High. She set out, not to assure herself, but because she was sure. She set out with haste, because charity, says St. Ambrose, admits neither hesita- tion nor delay; and because, with her wonted kindness and benevo- lence, she longed to impart to the venerable guardians of her child- hood a portion of that sanctifi cation, ^ and of those celestial graces, which sprang from her soul, as from a source of living water, ever since she bore in her chaste womb the Creator of the world. With the consent of St. Joseph, whose simple but lofty soul was in perfect unison with her own, Mary set out from Nazareth in the season of roses, and took her way towards the mountains of Judea, where Zachary, the Aaronite, had his dwelling. The Scripture, omitting details, and barely mentioning facts, does not mention whether the Vu-- gin was accompanied by any one on this journey. Some authors have thought that she travelled alone, which is altogether improbable. In fact, the distance from Nazareth to the city of Ain * is five days' journey. There was part of Galilee to be traversed, with the hostile country of Samaria, and nearly aU * Zachary lived at Ain, or Aen, two leagues south of Jerusalem. St. Helen had a beautiful church erected on the site of his house. 144 LIFE OF TEE BLESSED TTROIN MART. Qie lands of Joda. Then, the coon- ^ ^ trr is bristling with mountains, in- tereected by foaming torrents, and intersp^-sed with deserts.* The roads, which the Romans subse- quently repaired, were at that time only beaten by the heavy foot-fall of the camels, and were covered with round stones, so that the trav- eller was at every step in danger of falling. Then, when night came, the wayfarer was obliged to put up in some caravanserea, where there was nothing to be found but a small room covered with a rush-mat,f and no provisions of any sort; for the primitive hospitality had re- trograded amongst the Hebrews in proportion to the advance of civili- zation. Such being the case, is it at all likely that a man of years and experience, like Joseph, would have wantonly exposed a young woman, feur, delicate, and totally * Attlko^lli Jadnvma then &r more popoloin tlisa It now is, there were atin some dtstziete so bamn ttoi fliej could not be ealthralied. Tbe Goipel ifwVii of deserts not far irom. flie eitiea^ wliitlier JesBS retired to praj. f "lliere is no inn in anj part of Sjiis or PalesiiDe," sajs IL deYolney; "but the cities sad most ci the Tillsgee hsTe each a large build- ing called £emss-eend, whidi srares as an Mjtem ior an farnvdOera. llieae hoetdries. unused to the ways of the world, to brave alone the thousand dan- gers of such a journey? Such a supposition is contrary to all the customs of Asia,^ and especially of the people of Grod. Xever was Jewish woman allowed to under- take such a journey without a fitting escort If St Joseph, as Pere Croiset thinks, could not accompany the Blessed Virgin, it is probable that she would join some of her pious relatives who were going to the Holy City, and that she thus trav- elled in safe company. In fact, we always find her travelling with some of her friends, whether in going to Jerusalem to celebrate the grand festivals, or with the holy women, following Jesus during his missions, at a much later period of her life. " Although she could have had no better guardian tlian her- ahrajB pJaeed oatside the walls of the dtj car town, are oonqpoeed <tf four wings sorroonding a sqnare eoort, which serves as a padded ; the j cont ai n neither fanutore nor pronakms." J|;Xo <me tzarek akme in Sjiia; the j go in troops and eaiBrans, and emj one must wait until there are serend persons boond for the same plaeei Ihese {Heeantkms are xerj neeea- saxy in eoontnes open to the Arabs, sofdi as Syria and Palestine. (Yolner, Vogage en &pie.'^ <f^ LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 145 self," says St. Ambrose, "yet she never went abroad without fitting company."* Arrived at the sacerdotal town where the Levite dwelt with his blessed wife, Mary went straight to their well-known house. Elizabeth, apprised by a slave of her cousin's unexpected visit, came forth to meet her with every demonstration of joy. Seeing her approach, the young Virgin bowed down, and laying her hand on her heart, Peace he with you, said she, eager to give the first salutation, f Elizabeth drew back. The pleased and friendly expression of her countenance gave place to that of profound respect. Her features kindled by degrees. It was plain that something strange and unusual was passing within her. The simple formula of polite- ness which the Virgin had pro- nounced in her low sweet voice destroyed Elizabeth's familiarity. Suddenly the prophetic spirit de- scended upon her, and she exclaim- '^ ed, " Blessed art thou amongst women^ and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me," she added, " that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, as soon as the voice of thy saluta- tion sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be ac- complished that were spoken to thee by the Lord." Mary's answer was the sublime Magnificat, the first canticle of the New Testament, and the most beau- tiful in all the Scriptures. " My soul doth magnify the Lord : and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour : "Because he hath regarded the humiUty of his handmaid : for, behold, from henceforth all gen- erations shall call me blessed. "For he that is mighty hath done great things to me : and holy is his name. " And his mercy is from generation to genera- tion, to them that fear him. " He hath showed might in his arm : he hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. " He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. " He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent away empty. * St. Ambr. de Virginibus, 1. iL be with you " {salem alaicom), they lay their f This salutation, so often used by Christ, is hand on their heart. This salutation was in still common throughout the East. When two use in the days of Abraham. {S&7Bjrj, Note on persons meet, after the usual greeting, "Peace ^ ^^ H'^ ^^* ^ ^ Koran."^ 14S LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. "He hath reoeiyed Israel his servant, being mindfal of his mercy. **A8 he spoke to oar fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for eTer." It was thus that the Virgin sud- denly saw, by a supernatural light, those ancient prophecies and their perfect fultillment — herself a thou- sand times more enlightened and more privileged than all the proph- ets put together. "In that cele- brated interview," says St. Ambrose, "Mary and Elizabeth both prophe- sied by the Holy Ghost, with whom they were tilled, and by the merit of their children." The Virgin remained three months in the country of the Hethites, with- in a short distance of the city of Ain, in the depth of a shady and fertile vale, where Zachary had his country-house.* It was then that the daughter of David — herself, too, a prophetess, and gifted with a genius equal to that of the illustri- ous founder of her race — could con- template at her leisure the starry firmament, the stately forests, and f the vast ocean as it stretched in ever-changing majesty along the blueish coasts of Syria. The Bless- ed Virgin never looked without emotion on those magnificent scenes of the creation. All the works of nature spoke to her heart of their great Author, and gently animated her soul while charming her eyes. The plain, which spread far and away towards the mountains of Arabia, the blue dome of heaven, rising like a tent over the habita- tions of men, gave her an idea of the immensity of the creating God ; the rich yellow of the crops, the delicious fruitage, and the fresh mountain-spring to her announced his providence ; the voice of the tempest, his power ; the order of the heavenly bodies, his wisdom; and his care over the birds of the air and the insects of the earth, his supreme goodness. In these rural excursions, she sometimes rested on the verge of a gushing spring, whose sparkling spray she loved to watch and to * This country-house was within a short dis- tance of Ain, in the depth of a pleasant and fer- tile valley which now serves as a garden for the jf but it is now nothing more than a heap of ruins, village of St. John. There was formerly a church erected in this place in memory of the Visitation, LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 147 listen to the gurgling of its water. This spring, called Kephtoa in the time of Joshua, now bears the name of Mary.^ To the rear of the Hebrew pon- tiff's villa lay one of those gardens, called by the Persians Paradise^ the arrangement of which had been borrowed by the Jewish captives from the people of Cyrus and of Semiramis. In it were seen the most beautiful trees of Palestine; and the tufts of flowers thrown care- lessly here and there through the glades, the sweet perfume of the orange -trees, the rivulet gliding along beneath the drooping branch- es of the willows, gave a thousand charms to the shade. There it was that Mary's mild persuasions made Elizabeth forget her fears for the issue of an event whose anticipa- tion filled her with hope and joy, but which was full of danger to a woman of her advanced age. How pure, how lofty must have been the discourse of these two holy women ! * This fountain has so great an abundance of water that it irrigates and fertiUzes the whole valley. Tradition says that Mary sometimes "went thither. It was called Nephtoa in the days of Joshua ; it now bears the name of the Virgin's Fountain. ^ * the one young, artless, and ignorant of evil, like Eve when she came from her Creator's hand; the other full of days, and enriched with a long experience of the things of life ; both profoundly pious, and both well-pleasing to Jehovah: the one bearing in her womb — so long barren — a son who was to be a prophet, yea, more than a prophet; the other, the blessed germ of the Most High, the Chief and Liberator of Israel. In the fine evenings of summer, when the silvery radiance of the moon brightened the foliage, the elegant meal of the family was spread beneath a large fig-tree, or under the green leaves of a spread- ing vine.f There was lamb, fed on the aromatic slopes of the moun- tains; fish, taken by the Sidonian fishermen ; the wild honeycomb, from the hollow of some ancient oak; then, in green baskets, skill- fully made of palm-leaves, were the dates of Jericho,J which figured f The Hebrews made it a practice to eat in gardens, under trees and arbors ; it is so natural, in warm countries, to seek the fresh air, (Fleury, Moeurs des Israelites, p. 101.) X The dates of Syria and Judea are yellow 148 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. even on the table of Caesar; the f apricots of Ai-menia, the pistachio- nuts of Aleppo, and the water- melons of Egypt : finally, the golden wine of Lebanon, the fragrant juice of vineyai'ds in the far-oflf islands of the Cyprian Sea, and wine from the hills of Engaddi, preserved in stone jai'S,* was sparkling in costly cups. Maiy, temperate as ever in the midst of this profusion, content- ed herself with some fruit and a cup of water. Frugality was not in her a forced virtue, it was one of choice.f Some, with a view to enhance the humility of the Virgin, which requires no such aid, have pre- tended that she acted as a servant and black, round like apples, and very sweet. Pliny reckons forty-nine sorts of dates. * The Jews who are settled in Yemen still make use of these jars. (5feeNiebuhr, Voyage en Arable.) f With her, abstinence seemed no longer a privation ; it was rather her custom not to make use of meat, if we may so speak. (P. Valverde, Vie de Jesms Christ, t. i., p. 6.) X Zachary was descended from Abdia, father of the eighth sacerdotal family. These ancient families were rare, several of them having re- mained in Persia after the captivity. Elizabeth was descended from Aaron and from David. The Jews place John the Baptist far above Jesus, because he passed his life in the desert and was the son of a pontiff. Jesus, on the and almost as a slave towards St Elizabeth. This is mere folly. Elizabeth would never have permitted a wo- man whom she had herself pro- claimed as the mother of her Lord, and whom she had loudly extolled beyond all the daughters of Sion, thus to humble herself before her. The holy spouse of ZacharyJ had no want of either servants or slaves. Christians and Jews all agree that this family was of distinguished rank, and the illustrious birth of St. John the Baptist seemed even to throw some discredit on that of Jesus Christ, whose reputed parents were much more obscure, and lived the life of the common people. contrary, was born of a poor woman, and seem- ed to them only an ordinary man. (St. J. Chry- sos. in Matt, Serm. 12.) The Mussulmans have retained a great idea of St. John the Baptist, whom they call Jahia ben Zacaria »( John son of Zachary). Saadi, in his GtUistan, makes men- tion of the sepulchre of St. John the Baptist, venerated in the mosque of Damascus. He himself had prayed there, and he mentions an Arabian king who had come there on a pilgrim- age. " The Caliph Abdalmalek would fain buy that church from the Christians," says d'Herbe- lot, "and when they refused to take four thou- sand pistoles, which he had offered them for it, he took it from them by force." {Bibliotheque Orienlale, t. ii.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 149 The attentions which the mild t and amiable Virgin lavished on Elizabeth had in them nothing of servility ; they were just such atten- tions as she would have bestowed on her mother had heaven spared her to her; and we may, indeed, suppose that she was often remind- ed of her own parents by the sight of that loving, devoted, and venera- ble pair, who loved her so paternally, and. who, after that first interview wherein her greatness was so mar- velously revealed, never failed to treat her with a profound respect which Mary's humility would fain avert, but could never wholly de- stroy. It is easy to imagine, say the Fathers, how many blessings were drawn down on this excellent fam- ily by the visit of the Blessed Vir- gin. If the Lord blessed Obededom and all that was his — even so as to excite the >envy of the holy king David — for having had the ark of the covenant three months in his house, what blessings must not Zachary and his household have received from the three months' so- journ of Her of whom the ark of old was but the figure, so holy and so venerable was she? "The purity in which St. John passed his whole life," says St. Ambrose, "was the effect of that unction and that grace infused into his soul by the presence of the Blessed Virgin." It is not precisely known whether the Mother of God assisted at the delivery of Elizabeth. Origen, St. Ambrose, and other grave authors, both ancient and modern, pronounce in the affirmative, and their opinion is highly probable. It would, in- deed, have been very strange if, after so long a visit to her cousin, Mary had suddenly left her at the critical time, and without any rea- sonable motive for such a hasty and untimely departure. Custom re- quired that all the matrons of the family should be with the new mother to share in her happiness. "We see by the Gospel that Elizabeth was surrounded by her friends on that solemn occasion, and that the birth of St. John the Baptist drew to his father's house a great number of friends and kinsfolk. It is ob- jected that virgins were not usually present at such times, and the objec- tion is very proper ; but Mary was married, and therefore bound by 150 UFS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. certain rules of decorum, which she f could not violate without going in expi-ess contradiction to customs which had been handed down from the patriarchal times. The retir- ing habits of the Virgin are also brought forward to prove that the very rumor of the festivals which were to celebrate the birth of the Precursor would have driven her away like a frightened dove. But Mary could easily reconcile her dis- taste for the world with that exqui- site sense of propriety attributed to her by the Fathers, and her tender solicitude for her mother's niece. It * Some theologians, embracing an opinion contrary to that of Origan and St. Ambrose, maintain their position by quoting that passage of St. Luke which only mentions the delivery of Elizabeth after having brought the Virgin back to Galilee. It seems to us that the subject de- manded more reflection than these writers seem to have bestowed upon it. For ourselves, we have carefully examined the Gospel of St. Luke, and that minute investigation has convinced us that the proof brought forward is anything but conclusive ; for it is the manner of St. Luke to make just such transpositions, as we can show by two instances of a similar kind. For instance, after having followed the preaching of St. John the Baptist, and announced his imprisonment, St Luke speaks, in the following verse, of the baptism of Jesus Christ, which is well known to have taken place long before the Precursor was is, then, most probable that she remained in the house of the pontiff until Elizabeth was out of danger ; when, withdrawing herself fi'om the admiration which she never failed to excite, she quitted the mountains of Judea, after having embraced and blessed the new Elias.* A religious author observes that the blessed daughter of Joachim went with haste to visit her cousin, but that she slowly and reluctantly departed from those fresh valleys whose oaks had sheltered angels.f Perhaps, like the sea-bird, she had a presentiment of the coming storm. cast into prison. In recounting the adoration of the shepherds, St. Luke enlarges on their marvelous accounts of their visit to the grotto of Bethlehem, and the astonishment wherewith they were heard ; then, returning all at once to the scene of the adoration, he speaks of their de- parture from the stable. This, then, is our reason for adopting the opinion of St. Ambrose, which, of itself, is altogether the most probable. Father Valverde, who has closely studied the Holy Fathers, is also of opinion that the Blessed Vir- gin did not leave her friends till she had seen and blessed the young Precursor of the Messiah, f In the vale of Mambre, which is but six stadas from Hebron, there was still to be seen, in St. Jerome's time, a tree of enormous thick- ness, said to be the identical tree under which Abraham received the visit of the three angels, who came to announce to him the birth of Isaac. CHAPTER X. THE RETURN FROM HEBRON. 'iN her return to Nazareth, Mary cheerfully re- sumed her ple- beian life, and the toilsome oc- cupations which she had to suspend during her long visit. She became again the active and diligent young housewife, who finds time for work, time for prayer, time for pious read- ing ; whose whole conversation was in heaven, and who seemed to have applied to herself those wise and beautiful words of the Psalmist, " All the glory of the king's daughter is within." Meantime she was ad- vancing in her virginal pregnancy, and Joseph began to wax jealous. The high and upright mind of the patriarch was tortured with doubt and grievous perplexity. At first he could not believe his eyes, and thought it more just to distrust the evidence of his senses than the vir- tue of a woman who had always appeared to him a prodigy of holi- f ness and purity. But Mary's con- dition became daily more evident "She was found with child," says the Gospel; which means that all JS"azareth knew the fact, and that Joseph's friends, in the simplicity of their heart, came to offer their cruel congratulations, which he had to receive with a show of composure, while they gave a crushing certainty to what he had himself suspected. According to the Proto-gospel of St. James, he prostrated himself before God, bathed in tears, in the first paroxysm of his grief, and cried out, " Who has betrayed me ? who has brought evil into my house ?" Then, yielding to his tenderness for the young orphan, whom he had always regarded as the pearl and glory of her sex, he bitterly accused himself for not having taken more care of her. "Alas!" said he to himself, " my history is that of Adam ; when he rested most securely in his glory and happiness, Satan suddenly be- guiled Eve by deceitful words and 162 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Bcduced her."* When his mind t became calm enough to reflect, he found himself in a most painful pi*edicament Accoi*ding to the Jewish law, adultery was punished with death. When there were no witnesses (even one would have sufficed), and that the woman denied the crime laid to her charge, she was conducted, by order of the Sanhedrim, to the east- ern gate of the temple, and there, in presence of all, her veil was torn off, a cord from Egypt was put around her neck to remind her of the mira- cles which God had wrought in that country, her long hair was spread over her shoulders — because it was a disgrace for a Jewish woman to be seen with her hair disheveled — a priest pronounced a formal male- diction, to which she had to answer Amen, and then presented to her the famous cup of the waters of jealousy, which was also called the hitter waters, because they had the taste of wormwood.f That accursed cup was sure to kill the guilty wife, un- * Proto-gospel of St. James, in the Apocryph of Fabric, t, L, p. 97. f Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 22. J Wagenseil, in Sotah, p. 244 less the husband himself had been unfaithful. In that case, the miracle did not take place, " seeing," said the doctors of Israel, " that it would have been unjust if one criminal were absolved, whilst God himself punished the other."J A hasty, pas- sionate husband would not have failed to drag Mary before the priests of the Lord, ho as to have her go through the ordeal oUhe bitter waters; but Joseph, the most moderate as well as the most just of men, never so much as thought of taking such a step. Being unable to keep Mary under his roof, since the law of honor and the law of Moses both for- bade it, he would, at least, take all possible precautions to prevent the separation from injuring her charac- ter, for he was a Ju^t man, and un- willing piiblicly to expose her, " I will divorce her," said Joseph sadly within himself, " but before God, and not before the judges who would condemn her to death and me to throw the first stone. § I will save her from the reproaches of her fami- § It was decreed by the Jewish law that the accuser should cast the first stone at the person who was condemned on his accusation. (See Indit. de Mdise, t. ii., p. 65.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 153 ly and the contempt of the world. But how am I to get out of this labyrinth where death and dishonor stare me in the face at every turn?" And the son of David was over- Avhelmed with affliction. Mary could not but see the gloomy dejection of the just man to whom God had confided her, and certainly it must have cost her much to con- ceal from him the glorious embassy of the angel. But how was she to communicate an event so strange, so miraculous, as that of her divine maternity, and without other proof than her own assertion? Justly persuaded that the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word must be revealed by supernatural means in order to be believed, and leaving to Him who had wrought such great things in her the care of convincing Joseph of her innocence, " the daugh- ter of David," says the great bishop of Meaux, " at the risk of seeing her- self not only suspected and aban- doned, but also lost and dishonored. * " Undoubtedly," says Bossuet (Elev. sur les MysL), "God could have abridged these suflferings of Joseph by sooner revealing to him the mystery of Mary's pregnancy ; but his virtue would not then have been put to * left all to God and remained in peace." The Eternal, from the height of his starry throne, cast a look of com- passion on the just man whom he had made to undergo so hard a trial,* before raising him to the supreme honor of being his representative on earth; and the angels, with their eyes fixed on the holy house of Nazareth, anxiously awaited the result of that secret struggle where- in humanity, duty, and the noblest feelings of the soul were engaged. At length, the patriarch conceived an idea so generous, so heroic, as almost to place him on a level with the Queen of Angels. He resolved to sacrifice his honor, the respect which he had gained by his spotless life, the means of existence which furnished his daily bread, and the air of his native land, so necessary to the aged, in order to save the reputation of a wife who did not even seek to justify herself and who was so cruelly condemned by ap- the proof. We should not have seen Joseph ti'iumph over the most indomitable of all pas- sions, and the most rational jealousy that ever was would not have been cast down at the feet of virtue." r 151 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. peariinces. There was but one way to leave Mary without ruining her, for her family would have provoked explanations which must have ended fatally. It was, to expatriate him- self, to go leave his bones in a for- eign land, and to take upon himself all the odium of such a desertion. There is a species of resignation which is in itself a glorious triumpli, and there are sorrows which, if pa- tiently endured, Heaven repays as mmiiticently as martyrdom itself. Of this class was the unknown sac- ritice of the Virgin's spouse. In order to reconcile his duty and his humanity, he accepted beforehand the ignominious character of a heart- h ss husband, an unfeeling father, a man without conscience and without faith. He accepted the contempt of his neighbors, the mortal hatred of Mary's friends, and resolved to give up his good name for the sake of her whose mysterious and unaccountable position filled his heart with sorrow, and made his life miserable. St. John Chrysostom delights to dwell on the admirable conduct of St. Joseph. "It was expedient," says that great saint, " that coming on to the time of our Saviom* there ^ should appear many marks of greater perfection than the world had yet dreamed of. Thus, when the sun is about to rise, the East assumes a brilliant coloring long before the first streak of day has reached the hori- zon; so did Jesus Christ, about to emerge from the womb of the Virgin, already shed light on the world. Hence it was that, even before that divine birth, prophets leaped for joy in their mother's womb, women prophesied, and Joseph manifested a superhuman degree of virtue." We have here adopted the opinion of St. John Chrysostom in preference to that of St. Bernard, who supposes that Joseph penetrated of himself the mystery of the birth of Christ, and that, seeing Mary pregnant, he doubted not — in his profound vener- ation for her — that she must be the miraculous Virgin of Isaiah. "He believed it," says the Apostle of the Crusades, " and it was only from a sentiment of humility and respect like unto that which made St. Peter afterwards say, * Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man,' that St. Joseph, not less humble than St. Peter, thought of leaving the Vir- ^ gin, not doubting but that she LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 155 was pregnant of the Saviour of * mankind." This interpretation — a very pious one, indeed, and worthy of him who was honored with the title of devout chaplain of Mary — is yet more in ac- cordance with the ascetic notions of the middle ages than with the cus- toms of the ancient Hebrews, and will not stand a close investigation. In fact, the words of the Evangelist are so clear, that it takes no small industry to make them obscure. It is not at all that instinctive feeling of religious awe, which makes us shrink from a religious object, that suggests to Joseph the idea of leav- ing Mary; it is the prompting of conscience and of duty. "He was just," says Bossuet, " and his justice would not permit him to remain in the company of a woman whom he could no longer believe innocent. As for his suspecting what had happened by the operation of the Holy Ghost, it was a miracle as yet unexampled, and could by no means present itself to the human mind." The words of the angel would no longer have a meaning, and would savor of falsehood — which could not be the case — if St. Bernard's hypoth- esis were carried out. " Fear not," said the ambassador of God, " to take unto thee Mary thy wife : for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." Does Joseph pro- claim his unworthiness at the mo- ment when he is made certain that Mary bears in her womb the very Author of nature ? Does he reveal to the angel those scruples which must now be more urgent than ever ? Does he beg that the cup of honor, presented to him by the celestial messenger, may pass to some wor- thier mortal ? He does nothing of the kind. The storm of his soul is suddenly hushed, and he falls into that profound calm which follows great moral tempests. Some will have it that the proph- ecies relating to the Messiah were familiar to Joseph, as to all the Hebrews ; that he must have been aware that the time of the Messiah was at hand, and that he must have known at first sight, considering the sanctity of Mary, that she bore in her womb the Saviour of the world. But the understanding of those prophecies was then far from being as easy as may now be imagined 156 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Whether it was that Isaiah's alle- gorical descriptions of the glorious reign of Emanuel had led the synagogue into error, or that the carnal mind of the Jews could not raise itself above the earth and earthly things, it is certain that the Hebrew people — that hard-headed people — had taken a wrong view of the subject, and did not choose to be set right. The ambassador of God, the desired of the nations, was to be a legislator, a great captain, a monarch magnificent and powerful as Solomon. The Apostles them- selves were long mistaken as to the humble and pacific mission of the poor King, who passed silently along. They were seen to flatter themselves with gilded visions and kingdoms in perspective, even in sight of that deicide city where their Master was to be put to death. It was not without an effort that our Lord brought them back to spirituality, and rectified their ideas, ever ready to return within the narrow channel of material and palpable goods, whither they were directed by the * Bossuet, Elev. siir les Mysferes, t. ii., p. 135. t Whence comes he (the Messiah)? From the royal city, Bethlfcliem of Juda. Where are ^ salem.) ambitious dreams of doctors and traditionary Pharisees.* If even the Apostles, then, had so much trouble in divesting themselves of their childish prejudices — they who lived amid the miracles of the Messiah, and in constant intercourse with him — how could Joseph have done it of himself, without assist- ance from on high? The coarse garments of the workman had little resemblance to the purple of the kings of Juda ; and of all things, it was least expected that the Messiah should spring from the people. Gal- ilee was, besides, the last country that would have been thought of. " Search the Scriptures," said the doctors of the law to the disciples of Christ, " and see that out of Gali- lee a prophet riseth not." In fact, the prophets had specially mention- ed Bethlehem of Juda — Bethlehem, the house of bread — as the birth- place of the Messiah ; and the Jew- ish commentators, outstripping the prophets, pretended to point out the quarter of the city in which he was to be born.f Joseph was too hum- his parents? In the quarter Biral Harba of Bethlehem of Juda. (See Talmud de Jeru- LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 157 ble to think that his lowly roof was ^ to shelter so much greatness, and Mary's silence left him nothing to guess. As for the project of sending back the Virgin to her own family, through pure respect, as some learned theolo- gians of the Bernardino school will have it, it would have been utterly impracticable in a nation so jealous of all that concerned female honor. Mary was an orphan, and therefore under the care of her relations, all of whom were not of a pacific dis- position, while it is probable that some of them were far from being pleased by the marriage of their young kinswoman with the obscure Nazarene. It is very improbable that they would have taken Joseph's word, and admitted, without further information, that the Virgin was pregnant of the King-Messiah. It is much more likely that they would have brought the husband before the tribunal of the ancients, there to give an account of his conduct ; for the question was no longer of a sim- ple divorce, but of the state of the child borne by Mary, a young woman of illustrious birth and unsuitably married, according to the eleven who, St. Jerome says, had been themselves on the list of candidates for the hand of the young and lovely heiress of Joachim. . Thence there would have resulted two grave facts. Either Joseph would have kept silent, and then he would have been obliged to take back his wife and forbidden ever to put her away ; * or he would have solemnly sworn that the child which Mary bore was not his, in which case that child became incapacitated for any employment. His birth, de- filed in its source, would have de- barred him from the national assem- blies, public schools, and entrance to the temple or the synagogues. His posterity, inheritors of disgrace, would not be admitted to the privi- leges of the Hebrews till the tenth generation. He became a fugitive, without rights, without country, and the warrant which condemned his mother to be stoned would have stamped his brow and that of his children with the accursed mark of Cain. But such could never have been the case. Rather than suffer such a stain to be imprinted on their * InstU. de Mdise, t. ii., 1. vii. 168 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. royal genealogy, the proud descend- ants of David would have killed the Vii-gin with their own hands. Such examples ai'e not rare, and are of frequent occui-rence even now, in Judea as well as in Arabia.* Joseph was too wise and too hii- mane to place himself in either pre- dicament, and he found, as is always the case, that the most generous part was the best. He resolved, then, to quit his native city and his "^ dear, though suspected wife, who had made him so supremely happy ever since their chaste marriage. WTiilst he was preparing for this sad separation, as he slept one night on his solitary couch, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. * Niebuhr relates that, " in a cofifee-house of Yemen, an Arab having asked another who was present if he were not the father of a young and beautiful woman newly married in his tribe, the father suspecting an ironical meaning in the question, and thinking the honor of his family compromised, coolly arose, ran to his daughter's house, and, without saying a word, plunged his weapon into her bosom." Father Geramb gives an anecdote of the same kind. " The widow of a Bethlehemite Cathohc," says he, " became an object of suspicion ; not knowing where to con- ceal herself from the vengeance of her family, she took refuge in the convent of the Fathers of the Holy Land, and put herself under the sacred protection of the altar. Her asylum was disco v- 1 "Joseph, son of David," said the celestial envoy, "fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus ; for he shall save bis people from their sins." After this dream and the words of the angel, Joseph found himself completely changed. His humility was not in the least disturbed by the honor which God conferred up- on him, in transferring to him the guidance of his only Son ; but he had become a father and a spouse in aflfection, and he thought of noth- ing more but the care of Mary and her divine Infant. ered, the doors of the monastery forced, and the young woman dragged out, her hair all dishev- eled, to the public place, amid the shouts of the populace, and the supplications of the monks, who demanded, in the name of the crucified God, pardon and mercy for that unjiappy creature, who lotidly asserted her innocence. She called, in despair, on her father and brothers beseech- ing them, in the most touching manner, to save her from a cruel death. They advanced in gloomy silence, each grasping a poignard : the unfortunate woman shuddered ; a moment after, the three poignards were plunged into her heart, and the murderers, washing their hr.nds in the blood of their daughter and sister, exulted in having washed away the disgrace of their family." V/^'j!^. '^l^ LIFE OF THE B LESSEE) VIE GIN MARY. 159 St John Chrysostom inquired why the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph, and not manifestly, as to the shepherds, to Zachary, and the Virgin. '• It is," says he, an- swering his own question, " because Joseph had great faith, and required no clearer revelation. As for the Virgin, since there were things to be told to her greater and more in- credible than all that was told to Zachary, it was necessary that they should be revealed to her before they were put into execution, and that by a manifest revelation. The shepherds, also, as more rude and * simple, had need of a clear vision. But Joseph having already seen the pregnancy of Mary, having conceived iniurious suspicions of her,* and being ready to change his sorrow for joy, if he only had the opportunity, re- ceived with all his heart the revela- tion made by the angel .... This conduct of Providence was infinitely wise, since it served to prove the excellence of Joseph's virtue, and to render the Gospel history more credible, showing him actuated by the same motives that would have influenced any man on such an oc- casion." * CHAPTER XI THE BIRTH OF THE MESSIAH. impious empire-f had planted its eagles even on the farthest shores. The Ro- mans had caught the Eastern world as in a net. EANWHILE, the * before them in the depths of its deserts, and the most distant ti-ibes of Asia, the peaceable Chinese, sent a solemn embassy to Cassar to seek his powerful alliance. Egypt * St. John Chrysostom, Serm. 4. f The Jews designated the Roman Empire by Sarmatia trembled * the name of the impious empire. IGO LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. and Syria were nothing more than Roman provinces. Judea, herself, was tributary ; and the Jewish king, paying dear for a capricious protection, was no more than a crowned slave. The time was come — the Messianic oracles were to be accomplished. The power of Rome was at its height, as Balaam had pre- dicted ; and, according to the famous prophecy of Jacob, the sceptre had departed from Juda: for the phantom of royalty, which still hovered over the Holy City, was not even a nation- al phantom. Just then, there was published in Judea an edict of Caesar Augustus, ordering all the people to be enrolled. This census, much more complete than that which took place under the sixth consulate of the nephew of Julius Caesar,* comprised * Augustus had three diflferent enrollments made throughout the empire : the first, during his sixth consulate with Agrippa, in the year 28 before the Christian era ; the second, under the consulate of Caius Marius Censorinus, and of C. Asinins Qallus, eight years before the same era ; the third, and last, under the consulate of Sextus Pompeius Nepos and Sextus Apuleius Nepos, in the fourteenth year of the Christian era. It is of the second census that St. Luke speaks. The decree which ordained it was issued in the eighth year before the Christian era. (Sueton., in Octa, V. 27.) t Augustus had a work prepared, just then. ^ not only persons, but property, and also the various qualities of the lands. It was the basis on which the tribute was to be levied.f The Roman governors were charg- ed with the execution of this edict, each in his own department.^ Sex- tius Saturninus, governor of Syria, began fi.rst with Phoenicia and Celo- Syria, rich and populous cantons, which required long and patient toil. In fact, there is nothing like it on record, except the famous registry taken by William the Conqueror a thousand years later, and so well known in England as the Domesday- book. Having executed the orders of Caesar in the Roman provinces, with the kingdoms and principalities belonging to it, at the end of three years from the date of the decree, § containing the description of the Roman empire, and the countries subject to him. Tacitus, Sue- tonius, and Dion Cassius refer to this book, and its particular description of the provinces. From the way in which they speak, it must have been a most elaborate work. % TertuUian states that such was the case with Sextius Saturninus, who was governor of Syria, §The three years which were employed in making this census can make no difficulty, for it certainly took that length of time to enregister the whole of Syria, Celo- Syria, Phoenicia, and Judea. Joab took nearly ten months to number the fighting-men of the ten LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 161 they at length reached Bethlehem, precisely at the memorable period of our Saviour's birth. Cassar and his agents thought they were per- forming only an administrative oper- ation, by ascertaining the population and resources of the empire; but God had other designs, which they were made instrumental in execut- ing, though they^ knew it not. His Son was to be born in Bethlehem of Juda, the humble birth-place of King David. He had foretold it, by his prophet, more than seven hun- dred years before, and all the world was put in motion to accomplish that prophecy. It appe-ars that, faithful to an an- cient custom, the Jews still had themselves enrolled by families and by tribes. David was born at Beth- lehem ; his descendants, therefore, regarded that small city as their na- tive place, and the cradle of their tribes ; and the census of Augustus, at the time of the birth of Christ, consisted of many other details, since it embraced not only the individ- uals, but the various qualities of their lands. It took William the Conqueror six whole years to make his register, although the Domesday-book contained neither Ireland, Scotland, Wales, nor the Channel Islands, but merely England itself. ♦Never has date been more disputed than ^ house. There it was, then, that they assembled to give in their names and the state of their property, con- formably to the edict of Caesar. The autumn was near its close, the torrents were rushing wildly down into the valleys, the north wind whistled through the tall tur- pentine trees, and a gray cloudy sky announced the approach of the winter's snow. On a dark, gloomy morning, in the year of Rome 748,* a Nazarene was seen busily engaged in preparing for a journey, which could not be one of choice, for the time was unseasonable, and the woman who accompanied him, and whom he seated so carefully on the mild and patient animal which the daughters of the East prefer, was very young, and far advanced in her pregnancy. To the saddle of the beautiful animal f on which the young Galilean rode was attached a that of the birth of Christ. We adopt that of the authors of VArt de verifier les dates (the Ait of verifying dates), which seems to us the most, correct, and which places the birth of the Savi nu- on the 25th of December, in the year of Eonie 748. According to Baronius, our Saviour was born on a Friday. f The asses in Palestine are remarkably beau- tiful 162 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. palm-leaf basket, containing provi- sions for the journey; dates, figs, and dried grapes, ?onie barley-cakes, and an earthen pitcher for taking water from the spi'ing or the cistern. A leathern flask, of Egyptian manufac- ture, hung on the opposite side. The traveller flung over his shoulder a bag containing some clothes, gird- ed his loins, wrapped himself up in his goat-skin cloak, and holding in one hand his crooked stick, with the other tie seized the bridle of the ass which bore his young wife. Thus they quitted their humble abode, and descended the narrow streets of Nazareth, amid the good wishes of their friends and neighbors, who cried on every side, " Go in peace ! " These travellers, who thus set out on that cloudy morning, were the hum- ble descendants of the great kings of Juda, Joseph and Mary, who were going, on the order of a pagan and a stranger, to inscribe their obscure names beside the most illustrious names in the kingdom. This journey, undertaken at such an inclement season, and in a coun- try like Palestine, must have been * Mich., ch. v., ver. 2. * extremely painful to the Blessed Virgin, in the position in which she was; but yet she did not murmur. That delicate and fragile creature had a soul both firm and courage- ous ; a lofty soul, which greatness did not dazzle nor joy agitate, and which bore misfortune silently and calmly. Joseph, advancing by her side, was meditating on the ancient prophecies which promised, four thousand years before, a Liberator to his people. As he journeyed towards Bethlehem, at the bidding of a Roman, he reflected on the words of the prophet Micheas, " And THOU, BethlehexM Ephrata, art a little one among the thousands of Juda ; out of thee shall He come forth unto me, that is to be the Ruler in Isra- el."* Glancing, then, at his humble equipage and his modest sj^ouse, in her plain, unpretending apparel, he revolved in his mind the great proph- ecies of Isaiah, " He shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground ; there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: .... despised and the most abject of men." f And the patriarch began •|" Isaiah, ch. liii., ver. 2. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 163 to comprehend the designs of God on his Christ. After five days of a toilsome jour- ney, the travellers caught a distant view of Bethlehem, the city of kings, seated on a rising ground, amid smiling hills planted with vines, olives, and groves of verdant oaks. Camels, laden with women wrapped up in purple cloaks, and covered with white veils ; Arab nakas, dash- ing along at full speed, bearing gay and brilliant cavaliers ; groups of old men, mounted on white asses, and chatting gravely together, like the ancient judges of Israel,* were all going up to the city of David, already crowded with Hebrews, who had arrived on the previous days. Outside the city, but a short distance from its walls, arose a large square building, whose white walls stood out in strong relief from the pale green of the olive-trees which cover- ed the hill. It looked like one of the Persian caravansaries. Through * The horse was used, amongst the Jews, for military men ; hence it was taken as the emblem of fight. Judges, on the contrary, rode on asses of perfect beauty ; hence the scriptural words, " Speak, you that ride upon fair asses, and you that sit in judgment." — (Judges, V. 10.) its open door were seen a crowd of slaves and servants coming and going in its vast yard. This was the inn. Joseph, hurrying the pace of the animal on which the Virgin rode, hastened thither in hopes of arriving in time to obtain one of those narrow cells, which belonged of right to the first comer, and was never refused to any one ;f but mer- chants and ti^avellers were already issuing in crowds from the cara- vansary. It could accommodate no more. Gold might, doubtless, have procured admission, but Joseph had no gold. The patriarch returned with this saddening intelligence to Mary, who heard it with a smile of resignation, and taking hold of the bridle to con- duct the poor animal, which was already sinking with fatigue, he wandered about through the streets of the little city, hoping, but in vain, that some charitable Bethlehemite might offer them a lodging for God's f There is nothing found in these cells but four walls, an abundance of dust, and sometimes scorpions. The keeper is only bound to give the key and a mat. The traveller has to provide the rest ; hence he has to carry with him his bed, his cooking apparatus, and even his provisions. (Volney, Voyage en Syrie.) 164 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. sake. No one offered them any- thing. The evening wind fell cold and piercing on the young Virgin, who breathed not a word of com- plaint, though her face grew paler every moment, for she was scarcely able to support herself. Joseph, in despair, continued his fruitless at- tempts ; and more than once, alas ! he saw some wealthier stranger admitted where he had been rudely lepulsed. Surely interest, that rul- ing passion of the Jews, must have petrified every soul, when Mary's situation excited no pity. The night closed in. The lonely travellers, seeing themselves rejected by all the world, and despairing of obtaining a shelter in the city of their fathers, quitted Bethlehem, without knowing which way to turn, and advanced at random through the fields, still partially lighted by the fading twi- light, while the jackals made the air resound with their shrill cries. ♦Justin quotes the prophecy of Isaiah (xxxiii. 16), as applying to our Saviour's birth in a cave, " The for I locations of rocks shall he his highness." f"It is an incontestable fact," says Dupuis, " and independent of all the consequences which I will draw from it, that precisely at the hour of midnight, on the 25th December, in those ages when Christianity fiiv-it appeared, the celestial f as they roamed in search of their prey. Southward, within a short dis- tance of the inhospitable city, there appeared a gloomy cavern, hollowed in the rock. The entrance was to- wards the north, and the cave be- came narrower towards its farther end. It served as a common stable for the Bethlehemites, and sometimes as a shelter for the shepherds on stormy nights. The pious couple blessed Heaven for having guided their steps towards this rude asylum ; and Mary, with the help of Joseph's arm, made her way to a bare rock, which formed a sort of seat, though narrow and uncomfortable, in a hol- low of the rock. It was there, " in the fortifications - of rocks," as Isaiah had predicted,* just as the rising of the mysterious constellation Virgo announced mid- night,! that the ahna\ of the great Messianic prophecy, amidst the sol- sign which appeared on the horizon, and ushered in the opening of the new solar revolution, was the Virgin of the constellations. \ The word alma, employed by Isaiah, signifies, in Hebi'ew, a virgin in all her innocence. We have already said, in note fifty-five of the first chapter, that this word has given rise to many controversies between Jews and Christians. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 165 emn stillness of nature, concealed by * a luminous cloud,* brought forth Him whom God himself had produced before the hiUs,-f and who was begotten from all eternity. He suddenly ap- peared, like a sunbeam emerging from a cloud, before the eyes of his young, astonished mother, and came to take possession of the throne of his poverty, whilst the angels of God, prostrate around, adored him under his human form. J That vir- ginal childbirth was exempt from cries as from pains, and no groan disturbed the sacred silence of that night of wonders. Miraculously con- ceived, Jesus was born more mirac- ulously still. God was preparing for the world a new and grand sight, in the birth of a poor King. The palace which he destined for him was a deserted stable, a fitting asylum for him who, in the course of his life, was to say, * Proto-gospel, St. James, ch. 17. f According to the opinion of the Kabbins, the Messiah was in the terrestrial paradise with our first parents. (Sohar Chadaseh, f. 82, 4.) He existed even before the world. (Nezach Is- rael, ch. 35.) And before becoming man he was in glory with God. (Phil., ch. ii., v. 6.) Thus, immediately before the time of Christ, the idea of the Messiah's pre-existence found its way into the higher theology of the Jews. " The fox has his den, the birds of the air have their nests, but the Son of man has not where to lay. his head." Moses, proscribed at his birth, had, at least, a cradle of bul- rushes, when his sister, the young Mary, exposed him amid the reeds and the sacred lotus which at night- fall dip their leaves in the Nile ; § but Jesus, the divine outcast, who came amongst us to suffer and to die, had not even that. He was laid in a manger, on a handful of damp straw, providentially forgotten by some camel-driver from Egypt or Syria, hastening away before the dawn. God had provided a couch for his only Son, as he provides nests for the birds of the air. But this new Adam was to be covered from the inclemency of the weather, and also because modesty required it. Mary tore her veil into bands, wherewith she wrapped up 1 Hebrews, i. 6. Psalm xlvii. 7. §The lotus, which was consecrated to the sun, is an aquatic plant, the leaves of which dip into the Nile when the sun sets, and spring up again when he rises. This plant has a narcotic quaUty. It was said of those who made long voyages, that they had eaten of the lotus; that is to say, that they had for- gotten their country. (Basnage, 1. ix., ch. 15, p. 450.) 1G6 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. his delicate limbs; then the infant God was adored, by her and her lioly spouse, as Joseph of old, the tinest type of Jesus Christ, was by his father and mother. St. Basil, entering into the myste- ries of fervor and of rapture which passed through the soul of the Vir- gin, shows her divided between maternal love and holy adoration. •What am I to call thee?" said she, addressing her infant God " A mortal ? . . . not so, for I con- reived thee by divine operation. .... A God ? but thou hast a hu- man body. Am I to approach thee with incense, or to offer thee my milk ? Am I to cherish thee as a tender mother, or to serve thee pros- trate iff* the dust? A marvelous contrast! Heaven is thy dwelling- place, yet I rock thee on my knee ! Thou art on earth, and yet retainest thy place in heaven ! The heavens are witl^ thee!" * The village of the shepherds is situated on a very pleasant plain, about a quarter of a league to the north of Bethlehem, and in the depth of the valley is the celebrated field, where these shepherds were grazing their flocks on Christ- mas night. According to grave authors, both sacred and profane, the appearance of the angels to the shepherds was not the only prodigy that Thus were accomplished the great prophecies of Isaiah and Micheas. "And there were in the same coun- try shepherds watching, and keep- ing the night-watches over their flock. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the bright- ness of God shone round about them : and they feared with a great fear. And the angel said to them : Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people : for this day is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. And . this shall be a sign unto you : you shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and laid in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying : Glory to God in the moH- EST ; AND ON EARTH PEACE TO MEN OF GOOD WILL."* The marvelous vision had disap- signalized the birth of the infant God. They relate that, dtiring that holy night, the vines of Engaddi blossomed ; that, at Comus, the Temple of Peace suddenly fell, and the ora- cles of the demons were silenced for ever. The mere birth of our Lord was a sentence of banishment for those heathen deities, who had hitherto been permitted to deliver oi-acles. "R.TJudens:nx THE-NAnviTY OF CHRi:.! LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 167 peared, the heavenly music had ceased, and the shepherds, leaning on their crooks, still listened for a renewal of those ravishing sounds. When they could hear nothing more save the night-breeze murmuring through the valley, and could no longer discover in the deep blue sky a single radiant point which fancy could convert into an angel, the shepherds took counsel together, and said one to another, " Let us go to Betlilehem, and see this word that is come to pass." Then, taking baskets, w^ith such simple presents as their cabins could afford, they left their flocks to their own guidance for a while, and set out by the glimmering light of the stars for the little city of David. At sight of the poor stable, they felt their hearts burn within them, like the disciples of Emmaiis, and they said to each other, ''Perhaps this is the place." For they knew that the di- vine child who was born to them had not seen the light under gilded ceilings, nor was laid in a royally- Milton, with true poetic inspiration, thus de- scribes, in one of his earher compositions, the flight of these pretended divinities on Christmas Eve. f adorned cradle. The angel had made no such announcement. They advanced, then, with faith, hope, and love, towards that deserted stable, where they well deserved to find the promised Saviour, since they came to seek him with pure hearts and single minds. Looking into the cave, in order to assure themselves that they had real- ly reached the term of their noctur- nal pilgrimage, these " men of good will" discovered Him who came to preach the Gospel to the poor, and abolish the curse of slavery, under the humble form of a little babe peacefully slumbering in his crib. The Virgin, bent over her new- born infant, was regarding him with touching humility and profound ten- derness. Joseph stood close by, his venerable head bowed down before that adopted son, who was truly God. A ray of moonlight shone on the divine group, and on the reddish wall of rock ; without, the earth was calmly reposing in the bright, sil- very light.* * *"The Persians call Christmas night sch^b jaldai, the clear and luminous night, because of the descent of the angels." (D'Herbelot, BilL Orient, i, ii. p. 294.) 168 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. " This is the place," said the shep- hei-ds to themselves; and prostrat- ing themselves, respectfully, before the manger of the King of kings, they offered to the infant God " the mite " and the homage of the poor. There they related the apparition of the angels, their ravishing hymns, and their joyful words. Joseph ad- mired this divine manifestation, and Mary, who heard the simple tale in silence, treasured up every word within her heart. This duty fulfilled, and their mission ended, the Judean shepherds retired praising God, and published in the mountains the mar- vels of that holy night. Those who heard them were seized with aston- ishment, and said to themselves, " Can it be possible ? Are we, then, gone back to the days of Abraham, when angels visited shepherds?" Perchance it was these tales, told * " El Azraki quotes the ocular testimony of many respectable persons," says Burckhardt, "in proof of a remarkable fact which has not hitherto been noticed, as far as I am aware. It is, that the figure of the Virgin Mary, with the young Asia {Jesus) on her knee, was carved as a divinity on one of the pillars of the Caaba " (Burckhardt, Voyage en Arable, t. i., p. 221.) f This fact, which confirms the account of the Arab historian, is mentioned in the Toldos, a very ancient Jewish book, written with the t at evening in the skirt of the woods 01* in the deep ravine, whilst the camels drank together at the lonely spring, that induced one of the Arab tribes to deify Mary and the child. The sweet image of the Virgin, with her Son on her knee, was painted on one of the pillars of the Caaba, and solemnly placed amongst the three hundred and sixty deities of the three Arabias. In the time of Ma- homet they were still seen there,* as we find from grave Arab writers. After the massacre of the Holy In- nocents, that valiant tribe rose in a body, gave a long, loud cry of re- venge, and, heedless of the enemy's superior numbers, attacked Herod's son, protected as he was by the Roraans.f This authentic anecdote, so curi- ous and so little known, serves tfi confirm the supernatural fact related most violent hatred of Christians. We there see that Herod the Great and his son had to maintain a war against one of the tribes of the desert, who adored the image of Jesus, and Mary, his mother. This tribe sought the alliance of several cities of Palestine, and especially that of Hai. But, since the Jews themselves place this event in the lifetime of Herod, it must have been because of the massacre of the Innocents, as the old king lived only one year after the birth of our Saviour. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 169 by St. Luke ; a fact which the scoff- ing philosophers of the Yoltairian school, and the, if possible, still more pagan professors of panthe- ism, have not failed to set down as a fable. The fantastic devotion of these Arabs, who commit idolatry with the true God before the preach- ing of the Gospel, can only be ac- counted for by the miracles of the holy night of Christmas. On the eighth day after his birth the Son of God was circumcised, and named Jesus, according to the command of his heavenly Father. He must have had a godfather, like all the Israelites, but there is no record of the name of that favored man. As to the ceremony of the circumcision, which was always per- formed under the patronage of Elias * (who, according to the Hebrews, never failed to assist invisibly),* it took place, St. Epiphanius says, in the very cavern where Jesus was born; and St. Bernard presumes, with much probability, that St. Jo- seph was the minister on that occa- sion. Some men of the lower classes, docile to the call of the angels, came to adore the infant God in his manger, and to share with him their black bread and goat's milk. A miracle of a higher order, and of greater renown, brought soon after, to the same crib, the first fruits of converted gentilism. The shepherds of Juda had led the way, it was for kings and sages to follow. * * See Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 10. CHAPTER XII. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. jN the course of the * autumn which preceded the birth of Christ, certain of the Chaldean Ma- gi, skillful in the science of tho heavenly bodies, discerned a star of the first magni- tude, which they recognized, by its extraordinary motions and other unequivocal signs, as that star of Jacob, foretold by Balaam so long before— that star which was to rise on their horizon at the coming of the Messiah. According to the an- cient traditions of Iran, collected by Abulfarages, Zoroaster, the restorer of the Magian religion, a man of * Some have made Zoroaster a disciple of Jeremiah, but the times do not agree. It is much more probable that he was a pupil of DanieL f The learned are not agreed as to the country of the Magi. Some make them come from the depth of Arabia Felix, others from the Indies, which is by no means probable. The best au- thorities point out Persia as their country, and that opinion seems the most correct. The science, a great astronomer, and well Tersed, moreover, in the He- brew theology,* announced, under the immediate successors of Cyrus, and soon after the re-establi?hment of the Temple, that a divine child, destined to change the aspect of the world, should be born of a pure and immaculate Virgin in the extreme west of Asia. He added, that a star unknown in their hemisphere should signalize that remarkable event, and that, on its appearance, the Magi were to set out with pres- ents to the infant King. Faithful and religious executors of Zoroas- ter's will, three of the most illus- trious sages of Babylonia,! had no sooner remarked the star than they names Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, gener- ally given to the Magi, are Babylonian. In fact, Babylon, and after it, Seleucia, situated at a short distance, were the seats of the most famous astronomers of antiquity. Finally, those cities are to the east of Jerusalem, and it is only twenty days' journey from the banks of the Euphrates to Bethlehem. Origen, who was judicious and well-informed, states that the Magi were addicted to astrology. Drexelius, LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIBGIN MABY. 171 gave the signal for departure. Leaving behind them the city of Seleucides, with its stately palm- wood buildings,* and Babylon, where the mournful desert -wind seemed whispering to the silent ruins the fatal prophecy of the son of Amos, they quitted the land of dates and took the sandy road to Palestine. Before them, like the luminous pil- lar which guided the flying cohorts of Israel towards the desert strand of the Red Sea, moved the star of the Messiah. That new star, inde- pendent of the laws which govern the heavenly bodies, had no regular motion peculiar to itself. Now it advanced at the head of the cara- van, moving in a straight line to- wards the west; now it remained stationary over the tents erected for the night, seeming to balance itself gently in the clouds like a sleeping thereupon, takes upon him to scoff at Origen, which proves that he was but httle versed in the ancient history of the East, where every astron- omer was an astrologer. • * Strabo, b. xvii. f St. John Chrysostom, Serm. 6 in Matth. Chalcidius, a pagan philosopher, who lived about the end of the third century, makes men- tion of this star, and the Eastern sages whom it guided to the birth-place of Christ. St. Augus- tine, the doctor of doctors, says on this subject. ^ albatross. At the dawn of day it gave the signal for departure, as it had done at night for halting.f At length the lofty towers ol Jerusalem were visible in the dis- tance, amid the bare, bleak summits of its mountains. The camels were quenching their thirst at a wayside cistern, when the Magi gave a cry of surprise and alarm. The star had disappeared in the far depths of heaven, like a rational creature who perceives impending danger. J Thus puzzled, like the mariners of ancient times when dark clouds concealed the polar star, the Magi consulted a moment. What meant the sudden disappearance of their brilliant guide ? Were they, then, at the term of their long journey? It was very possible, and even probable, that the infant King whom they came from the banks " A new star appeared at the birth of Him whose death was to obscure the ancient sun." What, then, was that star which never ap- peared before or since in the firmament? Was it not the magnificent language of Heaven, pro- claiming the glory of God and a virgin's child- bearing ? X This cistern, or well, on the highway near Jerusalem, is still known as the Cistern of the Three Kings, or of the Star, in memory of this event. 172 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. of the Tigris to adore, might be f found in Jerusalem. "The God of heaven," thought they, "does not idly prolong his miracles; they cease when human agents are suffi- cient. That is the usual order of things. Wliat matter though the star has left us? We may easily, without its assistance, find this new king in the capital of his states. To find out the young Messiah, we have only to enter the first street which we shall find strewed with green branches, perfumed with es- sence of roses, and tapestried with cloth of gold. The sound of the Hebrew harps, their dancing cho- ruses, and shouts of joy, will speed- ily show us which way we are to go." Then, quickening their pace, they passed the boundary gate, and penetrated into the ancient Zion between two tiles of barbarian sol- diers. The aspect of Jerusalem was cheerless. Its populace, busy, yet silent, had no appearance of either joy or festival. Groups gathered together, here and there, to stare at the strangers, whom they recognized by their long white robes, girt with magnificent Eastern zones, by their ^ bazuhends* enriched with precious stones, and, especially, by the manly beauty of their features, as satraps of the great king. The Eastern cavaliers, as they passed along, bent over the neck of their dromedaries to ask some of the numerous spec- tators where they were to find the new-born Bang of the Jews, whose star they had seen in the East. The people of Jerusalem, regarding each other in surprise, knew not what to answer. ... A king of the Jews ! . . . What king ? They knew none but Herod, whom they abhorred, and he had no infant son. Astonished, in their turn, that all whom they interrogated declared their ignorance, and, moreover, see- ing no mark of festivity anywhere around, the Magi, in great conster- nation, ascended the populous street which led to the ancient palace oi David, and erected their tents amid its ruinous, but shady courts. Meanw^hile, the appearance of these Persian^ nobles, w^ho seldom visited the mountains of Judea, * Bazubends, ancient bracelets adorned with diamonds, turquoises, and pearls, which the satraps wore above the elbow. The king of Persia and his sons still wear the bazubend. {See Morier, Voyage en Perse et en Armenie.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 173 their startling questions, which both amazed and intimidated a people who were kept in constant trepida- tion by the system of espionage organized by Herod,* soon excited a general tumult in that seditious city, the most restless in all the East. The name of the Messiah- king, pronounced by the Pharisees — ever careful to excite the fears of the aged monarch, as to the pros- pects of his house and the dura- tion of his own power — ^fell amid the listening groups like a spark amongst stubble. The King-Mes- siah ! There was freedom in that sound. There was conquest — there was glory ! It spoke of the banner of Juda, waving in triumph over a conquered world. The satraps of Persia were considered the first as- trologers in the world.f They had, doubtless, read the birth of the He- brew GoelX in the stars. The heir of the kings of Juda was about * See Josephus, Ant. Jud., c. xv., ch. 13. f All the East then believed in Astrology ; and Philo tells us that the satraps of Persia were esteemed as the first astrologers in the world. X Go'il (Saviour), one of the names by which the Hebrews designated the Messiah. § Herod had strictly forbidden the Jews to speak of state affairs. They could not even ^ to ascend the great throne of his fathers, and to banish the race of the Herods, those half Jews, who were the slaves of Rome ! A sullen murmur, like that which precedes the ocean -storm, quickly spread from street to street, from house to house. Never had the people of Jerusalem felt less disposed to obey the royal edict which forbade them ''to meddle with any thing but their own afi'airs." § Vainly did the fierce soldiers of Herod fringe the ramparts of the towers. The peo- ple were roused : they were no longer afraid to talk together in the open street. "All Jerusalem was troubled," says the Gospel, and it was soon the tyrant's turn to be troubled himself. Herod then dwelt in his palace in Jerusalem ; but its flowery gar- dens, peopled as they were with rare birds, and intersected by lim- pid sti'eams, II could not divert his assemble to hold those great family-festivals hitherto so common amongst them. His spies, spread over the whole city, and even along the highways, instantly arrested those who in- fringed on the royal edict. They were thrown secretl}^ and sometimes even openly, into the fortresses, where they were severely puuished. ( Joseph., Ant. Jud., c. xv., ch. 13.) 11 Josephus, de Bello, b. v., ch. 13. 174 LTFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. mind from tlie gloomy recollections and dark forebodings which ren- dered life a burden to him. Ap- prised by his chief spy of the arri- val of the Magi, and their strange discom'se, his massive brow, wrin- kled with harassing thought, grew dark as a stormy sky, and his anxiety was visible to all. The apprehensions of the Jewish king are easily understood, and are explained by his peculiar position. Herod was neither the anointed of the Lord nor yet the chosen of the people ; a branch of laurel, gathered within the pagan precincts of the capitol, formed his tributary crown — a crown of slavery, intertwined with thorns, every leaf of which had been purchased by heaps of gold levied from the savings of the rich and the indigence of the poor. Hated by the nobles, whose heads he struck off at the first suspicion ; dreaded by his relatives, whose lives he sacrificed without remorse, on the slightest pretext ; detested by the priests, whose privileges he trampled under foot ; abhorred by the people, for his speculative re-, ligion and his foreign extraction, he had nothing to depjend on but his courtiers, his assassins, his artists, and the wealthy, but by no means numerous sect of the Herodians, who were infatuated by his mag- nificence. Often was the friend of Caesar openly braved by his obsti- nate subjects. The Pharisees, an artful and powerful sect, had mock- ingly and insultingly refused to take the oath of fidelity. The Essoeans, who were formidable from their martial courage, had followed the example of the Pharisees ; while the young and impetuous disciples of the doctors of the law had re- cently cut down, in broad daylight, the golden eagle which, in compli- ment to the Romans, he had placed over the gate of the Temple. Conspiracies were going on in every quarter against his life, hatch- ed and fomented by his nearest and dearest, so that he might fall at any moment under the dagger of some young enthusiast, who would deem it a virtuous and patriotic act to rid the earth of a prince * who reigned * The people were so fai* from applauding the discovery of this plot, or rejoicing in the king's escape, that they laid hold of the informer by whom it was revealed, tore him in pieces, and threw his flesh to the dogs. (Joseph., Ant. Jud. b. XV., eh. 11.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 175 like a madman. Ascribing this un- accountable boldness to the con- tempt inspired by his great age, he exhausted all the secrets of art to make himself young again.* He would fain have persuaded both himself and others that he was still that young and brilliant Herod who surpassed most of the Hebrews in all gymnastic exercises ; Herod, the bold cavalier, the skillful huntsman, the proud and handsome prince, who had despised the love of that famous Egyptian queen for whom Antony had lost the empire of the world. But, alas ! the silvery hairs which began to appear amid the dark locks of his sons, their impa- tience to reign, the spirit of revolt and sedition gliding in amongst the people, and the insolence of the brigands, who were again begin- ning their depredations in Galilee, all gave him but too clearly to un- derstand that his reign — hi§ dread reign — was drawing to a close. Harassed with suspicion, and dis- trusting even his spies, he some- * Herod painted his face, and had his hair and beard dyed black, in order to appear young. (Joseph., Ant. Jud., b. xvi., ch. 11.) f He often went out at night amongst the times wandered at night through the streets and squares of his me- tropolis,! and heard with his own ears the deep imprecations, the bit- ter reproaches, the biting sarcasms heaped on the upstart^ the Ascalonite, the wild beast, who had killed his innocent wife — that gem of beauty and pattei'u of chastity — and who had afterwards caused the two sons whom he had by her to be put to death — those two princes, so sad, so beautiful, so stately, and so dear to the people because of the Asmonean heroes, their ancestors, and their fair, but hapless mother. The day following these nocturnal rounds was sure to be one of mourning and death. None were spared. From the highest to the lowest, eveiy offender was cut off. Hence, on every side, there were heard vows of vengeance ; and as (5ften as the delusive report of Herod's death was spread, whether by accident or design, through the distant prov- inces, the people, greedily snatching at the deceitful bait, so gratifying people, under some disguise, in order to find out the opinion entertained of him, and woe betide those whom he heard censure himself or his doings. (Joseph., b. xv., ch. 13.) 176 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. to their hatred, hastened everywhere to kindle bonfires, which Herod quenched in blood. In the midst of these elements of civil discord, when the army is in a state of all but open revolt, and the whole nation seemed merely awaiting the signal for a general insm-rection, there arrives in Jeru- salem certain foreigners of lofty mien, who inquire, without either mystery or concealment, for a new- born king of the Jews, whose star they have perceived. Herod is astounded. He anxiously questions his memory. The fatal predictions concerning his dynasty, which the Pharisees carefully kept afloat, the oracles of the ancient seers, to which he has hitherto paid but little atten- tion, now recur to his mind. That warrior Messiah, that prophet-son of David, who was to overrun the world from east to west, begins now to give him some vague uneasiness. * Some are surprised at the fears wherewith Herod regarded a branch of the family of Da- vid; nevertheless, Herod was not the only one who persecuted that noble house, because of its ancient rights and its glorious hopes. Eusebius relates, from Hegesipus, that after the conquest of Jerusalem, Vespasian gave orders to seek and destroy all the posterity of David. Under Tra- jan, the persecution btill continued. Finally, ' It is not God who suggests these thoughts to the old king's mind; but the wily prince, the more he thinks of it, the more he is con- vinced that that mysterious event is connected with a vast conspiracy, tending to raise an occult and rival power on the ruins of his. What! he had shed like water the illustri- ous blood of the Maccabees, nor spared even his own wife and sons. He had crushed beneath the iron wheel of his despotism all that offered any sort of resistance. He had lost his soul, his honor, his peace of mind, his rest by night, w^hen his bleeding victims haunted his dreams And why all that? to prepare the way for the race of David !*.... That scep- tre, so dearly bought — that sceptre, still reeking with the blood of his own kindred — was it, then, but a dry and accursed rod, to be broken over his tomb ? Was he himself to Domitian had two members of this illustrious family brought to Rome, who were the lineal descendants of the Apostle St. Jude. The em- peror, having questioned them, found that they possessed only thirty-nine acres of land, which they tilled with their own hands. He 8ei\t them back to their home, being satisfied, on account of their poverty, that there was no danger from ^ their ambition. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 177 pass, like the meteor-glare of a tern- ^ pestuous evening, over that earth whose former glory would break out anew after his death ? And that nation, which hated him with a ha- tred so strong, so deadly, so infuri- ate, which his very favors could not propitiate — how it would love and cherish the descendant of its an- cient kings ! This last thought fell, bitter as wormwood, on the dark, desolate heart of the aged monarch; for, amid all his deeds of cruelty, he felt the desire of being loved — a strange desire, truly, but yet a real one, in that most extraordinary nature, which seemed made up of contrasts, and w^hich had devoted some of the very noblest qualities to the service of the most absorbing and the most cruel passion which can ravage the human soul — ambi- tion. " Let this child be earthly prince or heaven-sent prophet," said Her- od, after a pause, '' he must die ; . . . yea, and he shall die, w^ere I sure of extinguishing, with that fee- ble breath, all the glories which our seers behold in the future. Athalia, that strong woman, who knew so well how to reign, forgot only one ^- infant in the massacre of the royal family of Juda That child lived to deprive her of her throne and life. . . . For me, I shall try to forget nothing. But where are they hiding this 'new-born' king of the Jews, whose birth the stars proclaim, and whom these insolent satraps come to seek at the very gates of my palace ? .... Can it, indeed, be that Schilo foretold by Jacob ? . , . . These are, perchance, only the idle dreams of astrologers. .... No matter, .... we must make all sure." A few hours after, the doctors of the law and the chief priests were assembled in council, with Herod presiding, and were asked that question which seemed strange to them in the mouth of such a prince, "In what place is the Messiah to be born ?" The answer was prompt and unanimous, '' In Bethlehem of Juda." And the ancients of Israel, quite willing to annoy the friend of the Romans, failed not to add that, as the last week of Daniel was nearly at an end, the coming of the Mes- siah must be at hand. This infor- mation, by no means satisfactory, would not do for Herod, who must LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. ascertain wliere the blow was to be struck. He resolved to interrogate I lie Magi, and to find out, if possi- ble, the precise period of the child's birth, computing by the appearance of the star. Too cunning to grant the Persian sages a public audience, which would have given notoriety to a rumor that it was most impor- tant to stifle, the king had them brought before him, and examined them closely as to the time of the star's appearance. "He inquires minutely, not after the child, but the star," says St. John Chrysostom, "in order to observe all possible circumspection in laying his snare." Having learned all that he wished to know, the man of blood dismissed the strangers in an affable and gra- cious manner. "Go," said he, "and diligently inquire after the young child : and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I also may come and adore him." * The kings of Persia administered justice in quite a patriarchal manner. They had above their heads a golden bell, and to the bell was fastened a chain, the end 'of which hung with- out the palace. Every time that the bell rang, the oflBcers of the prince went forth from his apartments, and introduced before the great king the supphants, who demanded justice of Now, the Magi, like all lofty- minded men — sons of science and contemplation — were simple, sin- cere, and but little disposed to sus- pect evil. They understood despot- ism and cruelty in a prince, but they did not understand falsehood, for the first thing that the kings of Persia learn in their infancy is to speak the truth. They, therefore, gave implicit credence to the false words of the Idumean, and passing again under the stately porticos of the palace, which vied in magnifi- cence with that of the great king, but w^hich had not, with all its bronzes and arcades, the golden bell of the suj)pluints,'^ they quitted the Betzetha,f had their tents taken up, and once more traversed the Holy City to repair to the supposed birth- place of the Messiah. As they wound along the walls, enriched by trophies from the new amphitheatre, whose unusual style of decoration the prince himself, who instantly examined their case, and gave his decision with equity. (Antar. Translated from the Arabic by Terrick Hamilton.) f The quarter named Betzetha, or the new city, which Herod had joined to Jerusalem, was situated to the north of the Temple ; it con- tained the lower pond, the pond of probation, and Herod's palace. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 179 was an inexhaustible subject of rid- icule for the Pharisees, they met King Herod, surrounded by a forest of Thracian and German spears, going in the direction of Jericho.* The Persians quitted Jerusalem by the Damascus gate ; then, turn- ing to the left, they made their way through some hollow ravines, inter- sected with steep hillocks which they had to climb. They were nearly an hour's journey from the capital of Judea, and had permitted their camels to stop at a cistern to drink, when a brilliant point ap- peared in the heavens, and rapidly descended towards them like a fall- ing star. "The star! our star!" cried the slaves, in a transport of joy. "The star!" repeated their masters, equally delighted ; for they were now sure of being in the right way, and resumed their march with increased ardor. They were preparing to enter the city of David, when the star, inclin- * We have followed the authors who state that Herod set out for Jericho, where he was some time sick, just when the Magi went to Bethlehem : this is quite conformable to the Gospel narrative ; for if Herod had been in Jerusalem when the Persians returned thither, they would probably have seen him j^rior to the ^i ing towards the south, suddenly stopped over a deserted cave, which had the appearance of a rustic stable, and down, down it went till it seemed to rest, almost, on the head of the infant God. The sicrht of that motionless star, its soft rays falling brightly on that dreary grotto, filled the Magi with a lively faith, and a lively faith it did re- quire to discover the King-Messiah in a poor, unnoticed cliild, born in such a place, laid in a manger, and whose mother, though fair and full of grace, was evidently of very ob- scure condition. God, who would make the Jews ashamed of their obduracy by con- trasting it with the pious haste and the docile faith of infidels, allotted it so that the strange humiliation of the holy family should not shake the firm belief of the Magi. The worshippers of the sun — the Gentiles — who were to be saved by the Cross as well as the children of angel's warning, which was not given until the night. The illness of Herod, by diverting his attention from the Magi and the child, left the former at Hberty to return in peace to their own country, and gave the Holy Family time to set out for Nazareth. 180 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. tlie covenant, penetrated into the t lowly abode of Christ with as much venemtion as though it were one of their own temples, built over subterraneous fires, wherein starry spheres kept ever turning.* Fol- lowing the custom of theii* people, they prostrated themselves as they crossed the threshold, and having taken off their rich sandals, they adored the new-born infant as all the Eastern nations then adored their gods and their masters. Then, opening their caskets of perfumed wood, wherein were the offerings intended for the Messiah, they took out some of the finest gold, gathered in the neighborhood of Nineveh the Great, and perfumes, purchased with fruits and pearls from the Ai-abs of Yemen. These mysterious gifts were not carnal, like the offer- ings of the Jews. The cradle of Him who w^as come to abolish the sacrifices of the synagogue was not to be sprinkled with blood; hence, the Magi did not sacrifice to him ! * These spheres, composed of golden circles, I hollowed like our armillary spheres, turned with a loud noise at sunrise. They are still to I be seen at Oulam, where the Ghebers have a temple. {Rabbi Benjamin.) either spotless lambs or white heif- ers. They ofiered him gold, as an earthly prince — myrrh and incense, as a God.f Then, bowing down to the ground before Mary, whom they found "fair as the nuxm and modest as the pale water-lily," they invoked the blessing of God upon her, and prayed that " the hand of misfc^rtune might never reach her." This w^as the hist scene of splen- dor in w^hich the Virgin figured. The first period of her life, like a sw^eet dream of Ginnestan, had rolled away under roofs of cedar and of gold, amid sacred perfumes and the sound of harp and lyre ; the second, full of mysteries and w^on- ders, had brought her in connec- tion w^ith the inhabitants of heaven and the princes of Asia ; the third w^as about to open under other aus- pices : it was now her turn for per- secution, anguish and unutterable sorrow. Meanwhile, the Magi prepared to leave Bethlehem, having nothing f Much praise has justly been given to these verses of Juvencus — the most ancient Christian poet whose works have come down to us — on the gifts of the Magi kings : Aurum, thus, myrrham, regique, Deoque, Iiominique Dona fernnt .... LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 181 more to do in Jiidea. They pro- f posed, according to their promise, to seek the king in his palace at Jericho, to let him know where the Messiah was; but the angel of the Lord apprised them in a dream of the dark designs of that perfidious prince, and commanded them to go home by another way. The sons of Ormuzd returned thanks to the "Master of the sun and of the morning star," attributed this nocturnal revelation to their good genius,* and merited by their * Ormuzd, en zend ahurb-mezdeo (the most learned king), and Ahrimen, en zend ahyro- maingus (the wicked intelligence), according to the Persian mythology, sprang from good and bad genii, to whom ai'e ascribed divers functions in the universe, whether for the diffusion of good or the propagation of evil. One of the good genii, named Serosch, went seven times every night around all the earth, to watch over the safety of the servants of Ormuzd. (See the Amschaspand- Named, and the -Book of Kings of Firdousi. t Very ancient authors affirm that the Magi received baptism from St. Thomas ; it is be- lieyed that they suffered martyrdom in India, where they preached the G-ospel. I "The date trees of Babylon," says Diodorus of Sicily, " bear exquisite fruit ; they are six inches long, some yellow, others red, and others of a purple color, so that they are just as pleas- ing to the sight as to the taste. The trunk of the tree is of a surprising height, and is per- ^ perfect docility the gift of faith, which they afterwards received.f Instead of journeying by the barren and dangerous shores of that ac- cursed lake whose dark, stagnant waters cover the reprobate cities of the plain, they turned their camels' heads towards the coast of the Great Sea, where they could almost fancy themselves in the valleys of dates and roses J watered by the Euphrates and the Bend-Emyr, as they wound their way across the lovely strand of Syria. fectly straight and even, but the head, or tuft, is not the same in all. Some date trees extend their branches in a round form, and the fruit of some grows out in clusters from the bark, about the middle ; others have all their branches on one side, and their own weight bending them down towards the ground, gives them the form of a hanging lamp ; others, again, divide their branches into two parts, and they then fall to the right and left in perfect symmetry." {Diod. b. ii.) Here is a description of the banks of the Euphrates, by an Arabian poet, anterior to Mahomet : — " They saw populous towns, plains abounding in flowing streams, date trees, and warbling birds and sweet-smell- ing flowers ; and the country appeared like a blessing to enliven the sorrowing heart ; and the camels were grazing and straying about the land ; and they were of various colors, like the flowers of a garden." (Antar. D-analated from the Arabic by Terrick Hamilton. ) As to the fields and gardens of roses so common in ancient Persia, see Firdousi's Book of Kings. CHAPTER XIII. THE PURIFICATION. ^-ORTY days after the Saviour's birth, the Yir- gin prepared to return to Jerusalera for the fiillillment of the Levitical pre- cept, which prescribed the purifica- tion of mothers and the redemption of the first-born. Undoubtedly, this law did not apply to Mary ; for though she was the mother of the Redeemer, she was still a pure vir- gin, and that immaculate concep- tion had been followed by a spotless maternity ; " but she willingly sub- mitted, for example's sake, to a law which was no way binding on her," says Bossuet, " because the secret of her virginal maternity was not known." Meanly attired and undistinguish- ed from the crowd, in their first appearance on the dusty road of * This tree, under which Mary stopped to nurse Jesus, was destroyed in the 17th century, but the place where it stood is still pointed out. * Ephrata, Joseph and Mary, having attracted no observation, left behind them • no remembrance to become traditionary. It was far different, however, on their return to Jerusa- lem — thanks, we may suppose, to the wondrous tale of the shei)herds, and the brilliant visit of the Magi. At some distance from Bethlehem, Mary stopped under a spreading tree to nurse her divine Infant ; and that tree, according to the common belief, had ever after a secret virtue, which for sixteen centuries effected many marvellous things, — so it is said, at least, by the Christians of Asia, and also by the Turks, for whom that tree was, not more than two hundred- years ago, an object of veneration and the term of a pilgrimage.* After this memorable halt, the holy couple journeyed on to the tomb of Rachel, f where every He- f According to the Jewish doctors, Jacob only buried his beloved wife on the highway of Beth- lehem because his prophetic knowledge enabled LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 183 brew was to pray in passing. This primitive monument consisted of twelve large stones, overgrown with moss, on each of which was en- graved the name of a tribe, and its only epitaph was a white Syrian rose— frail, sweet emblem of that lovely woman who withered away ere yet her beauty had reached its prime, like the flower mentioned by Job. While they stopped to say a prayer for the dead over the revered dust of one of the saints of their people, the Virgin and Joseph little thought that the wailing of the dove, ascribed by Scripture to that fair Assyrian, was so soon to have its application, or that the mother of Joseph and of Benjamin was the desolate type of the mothers who, some days after, in the mountains of Judea, were to mourn for their him to foresee that a number of his descendants should pass that way as captives of the Assyr- ians, and that he would have Eachel intercede for them with Jehovah, according as they passed her tomb. Protestants have loudly exclaimed against this passage of the Talmud, as being too favorable to the intercession of the Virgin and the saints. This tomb of Rachel was so highly venerated, that every Jew who passed by made it a sacred duty to engrave his name on one of the stones; these enormous stones were twelve in number. ( Talm. of Jet. ) It is well known children massacred in place of Je- sus Christ. Going forth from the vale of Re- phai'm, whose ancient oaks shaded the graves of the gigantic race of Enac, the Yirgin observed a tree whose sinister aspect saddened and depressed her heart. It was a bar- ren olive-tree, whose pale leaves rustled in the evening breeze with a mournful sound that seemed like the wail of human sorrow. As she passed under its gloomy foliage, uncheered by the song of any bird, Mary felt that sensation of blighting cold which belongs to the fatal shade of the manchineel-tree. That tree, if local tradition be not mis- taken, was the infamous wood to which Christ was nailed.* At the moment when Joseph and Mary made their way into the sacred that the tears of Rachel, mentioned by Jere- miah, vs^ere but the figure of the tears shed by the Jewish women after the Massacre of the Innocents. (S. Mat. ch. ii., v. 17, 18.) * About half a league from Jerusalem stands the monastery of the Holy Cross. Inside its chapel is shown the spot which was occupied by the barren olive tree of which the Cross was made. The place where the trunk stood is now filled up by a block of marble in a niche under the high altar, where there is a lamp continually burning. 184 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. inclosiire, with the shekels of silver f for the ransom, and the two doves for the sacrifice, a holy old man named Simeon,* to whom it had been divinely revealed that he slionld not die until he had seen the Christ of the Lord, entered the Temple by an impulse of the Holy Ghost. At sight of the Holy Fam- ily, the eye of the just man became inspired. Discovering the King- Messiah under the poor swaddling- clothes of a common child, he took him in his arms, drew him close to him, arid gazed upon him with de- light, whilst the tears of joy rolled down his venerable cheeks. " Now," cried the pious old man — "now thou dost dismiss thy servant, Lord, according to thy word, in peace; because my eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast pre- pared before the face of all people — a light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy peo- ple Israel." Having uttered these words, Simeon solemnly blessed the — ^ ^ — * The Arabs give Simeon the title of Siddik (he who verifies), because he bore testimony to the coming of the true Messiah, in the person "^of Jesus, son of Mary, whom every Mussulman is obliged to receive as such, (D'Herbelot, BMioth. Orient., t. iii., p. 266.) mother and her spouse; and then, addressing himself to Mary, after a moment's mournful silence, he added that this child was born for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which should be contradicted, and that grief, like a sharp sword, should pierce his mother's soul. By this unexpected light, which partially disclosed the high destiny of Christ, the ignominies, the suffer- ings, and the agony of the Cross were suddenly revealed to the bless- ed Virgin. The ominous words of Simeon, like a stormy wind, made her bend her head, and her heart throbbed with anguish.f But Mary knew how to accept, without mur- mur or complaint, whatever came from God. Her pale lips touched that cup of wormwood and gall, she drained it to the dregs, and then, restraining her teai's, she meekly said, " Thy will, Lord, be done ! " At that moment, the daughter of Abraham rose superior to the chief f " Mary, my sovereign," says St. Anselm, speaking on this subject, " I cannot believe that you could ha"ve lived a single moment with such a sorrow at your heart, had not God, the giver of life, given you strength to bear it." LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. '185 and father of her people. She, too, sacrificed her son on the altar of the Lord ; but she had the sad certainty that her sacrifice would be accepted, and she ivas a mother ! Slie was still revolving in her mind these lofty thoughts, when there came in a prophetess named Anna, wife of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser, who was far advanced in years. This holy widow remained continually in the Temple, serving God night and day in prayer and fasting. Seeing the divine child, she began to praise the Lord aloud, and to speak of him to all those who expected the redemption of Israel. "Not only," says St. Ambrose, "did angels, prophets, and shep- herds proclaim the birth of the Saviour, but also the just, and the ancients of Isi-ael. A Virgin con- ceives, a barren woman brings forth, a dumb man speaks, Elizabeth pro- phesies, the Magi adore, the child in his mother's womb leaps for joy, a widow confesses that wondrous event, and all the just expect it." * Prideaux, Hidoire des Juifs. f There was then, and still is, amongst the Jewish doctors, a horrifying doctrine: they As women might not enter the inner court of the Temple, where the child was to be offered to the Lord, because of his sex, Joseph himself carried him into the hall of the first-born, asking himself whether the scenes which had marked the entrance of Jesus into the holy house were to be renewed before the Hebrew pontiffs. But nothing revealed the Infant -God in that privileged part of the Temple ; all there remained dull and cold, not- withstanding the radiant presence of the young Sun of Justice. A priest who was unknown to Joseph carelessly received from the hard hands of the man of labor, whom he regarded as the scum of the workl,"^ the timid birds prescribed by the law, and did not even deign to honor Christ with a look. The love of gold — that shameful idolatry, which conceals its unholy worship when it has still the grace to be ashamed of itr— had totally petrified the narrow, selfish, vindictivef heart of the princes of the synagogue. Leaving a monopoly of the toils ■ ^ ~^ ~k^ hold that he who nourishes not his hatred, and takes not revenge, is unworthy the title of i Kabbi. (Basnage, 1. vi., ch. 17.) ise LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. jiiul j)i'iviitions to the simple Le- * vites, whom they reduced to live on herbs and dry figs,* they passed by the poor man lying on their marble threshold, the wounded traveller stretched on the mountain - path, coldly averting their head. At bot- tom, they loved neither God nor man. And hence it was that our Lord, who Himself instituted a priesthood of charity, bitterly re- proached them with this in the par- able ol "^he good Samaritan. Thus, as Malachy had foretold, God cursed their blessings, and turned away from his Temple, which he was soon after to deliver to the fire and sword of the Romans. The presence of the Messiah, which inflamed the heart of the dis- ciples of Emmaus even before they had recognized him in the breaking of bread, passed over the soul of the Aaronites as the first ray of spring passes over the eternal snows of Ararat. Tliat solemn moment, which suspended the angelic concerts, and fixed the attention of the heavenly * The luxury and avarice of the chief priests of Jerusalem were incredible. They sent out and collected the tithes through the country, taking all to themselves, and leaving the inferior priests wholly destitute. At the first remon- hosts on a single point of the uni- verse — that moment, foretold by Ag- geus, when the gloiy of the second Temple effViced that of the first — that moment passed unnoticed be- fore the darkened vision of the priests and doctors. There was none to recognize the clean offering mentioned by Malachy. The De- sired of all nations — Him whose way the angels had prepared — the great Redeemer, so long promised and so long expected, w^as there, bodily, in his holy house, and no one thouGclit of welcomino* him with palms, crying out on the watch- towers of the Temple and the house- tops of Jerusalem, " Hosanna to the Son of David!" They knew well, as the Gospel says, how to predict the approach of rain by the clouds that rose from the west ; they could foretell heat by the blowing of the south wind: but these men, so clever in drawing presages from the different aspects of the heavens, saw not that the fig-tree of Solomon was about to put forth its fruit, and strance, the unhappy Levites, accused of revolt and sedition, were given over to the Romans ; and Governor Felix alone threw forty of them into prison, in order to propitiate the doctors and princes of the synagogue. (Joseph., Vita.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 187 they could not discover the God in that humble child. Oh, poverty I what a disguise thou art, even for the divine nature ! The real Christ was in the midst of his own, but he was poor, and his own received him not; hence they remained without a Saviour, for no Melech-Hmnaschiak ever came to justify their incredu- lous contempt for the divine Son of the Virgin, and they are reduced to cry, with cold, yet despairing malice, "Perish those who compute the time of the Messiah!"* Meanwhile, the Infant- God, who had recognized, along the streets of Jerusalem, the difterent stages of the passion, silently distinguished his futm-e executioners amid that grave and glittering crowd ; among the choirs who sang on the harp hymns of praise to the Eternal, Christ distinguished the loud, dis- cordant voices that were one day ere * Basnage, 1. vi., ch. 26. Talmud, 349. f We have followed the opinion of St. Luke, St. John Chrysostom, and some other authori- ties, in making the Holy Family set out for Nazareth immediately after the Purification. It is the only way to reconcile St. Matthew — who says nothing of the marvellous events of the Presentation — ^with St; Luke, who is silent as to the Massacre of the Innocents and the flight ^ many years to cry, "Crucify liiin ! crucify him!" Race of Aaron, where art thou now? The vengeful bre;;th of the Crucified has scattered thee, like chaff, over all the earth ; swallowed up in those masses which thou didst so despise, thy companions in exile know thee no more! But caring little, at that time, for the clouds which darkened above their heads, the Hebrew priests offered to that God who spurned their gifts the chosen victims of both high and low. One of them took Joseph's doves, ascended the gentle slope of the altar of holocausts, and offered to the Lord that simple and humble sacrifice. "After" Joseph and Mary "had performed all things according to the law of the Lord," says St. Luke, " they returned into Galilee, to their city Nazareth." f into Egypt. "What shall we say to reconcile these two evangelists," says St. John Chrysos- tom, " except that the return to Nazareth pre- ceded the flight into Egypt ? For God did not command Joseph and Mary to go into Egypt before the Purification, lest the law might be left unfulfilled. But, that duty accomplished, they returned of themselves to Nazareth, where they received the order to fly into Egypt." CHAPTER Xiy. THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. .CARCELY were they returned in- to Lower Galilee, when Joseph and Mary had to set out again on a long and perilous journey, ending in the land of exile. One night, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph, during his sleep. "Arise," said he, '"take the child and his mother, and fly into Egypt, and be there until I shall tell thee. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy him." At these words, Joseph rose affrighted, adored the Lord, and ran to awake Mary, who was sweetly sleeping be- side her child. The young mother quickly understood the necessity of this abrupt and secret departure. She casts a look of anguish on her son, and hastily collects a few clothes and some provisions for the journey ; then, preceded by Joseph, and carrying Jesus in her arms, she ^ quits her native city reposing in the calm star-light. The prophecies of Simeon were speedily accom})lislied. Scarcely was Jesus born, when a tyrant's persecution sought him in his cra- dle, and his mother, so young, so holy, was forced to fly by night like a guilty creature, accompanied only by an aged man who could only oppose prayer and patience to the Arab spears which, perchance, lay in ambush in the mountain ravine, or the murderous attack of Herod's soldiers. It would seem as though God himself abandoned that holy family to its fate, for, when giving the order for Joseph to set out, his messenger had not promised, as Raphael did of old to the young Tobias, to guard them on the way. But the Virgin's spouse understood that the solemn moment of Christ's manifestation not being yet come, God would save them from the de- vices of Herod by means of mere ■.*i*' ^.^JHIhi^i^ LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 189 human prudence. To Joseph, then, belonged all the care, and all the honor, of that arduous enterprise ; it was for him — a poor, obscure old man — to thwart the plans, to defeat the schemes, to elude the jealous watchfulness of a gloomy, politic tyrant, who was served by his myr- midons like an Eastern despot. What was to happen, and what was to be done, if any danger presented itself on the Jerusalem road ? The sudden departure of the Magi had aroused the suspicions of Herod, and those suspicions were strength- ened by the words of Anna and Simeon ; secret inquiries, dark in- vestigations were already on foot, and none might say where that san- guinary prince would stop, he who hlled with gold the red hand of the assassin. The more Joseph pon- dered, the more clearly he fore- saw some horrible tragedy, the very thouorht of which made the blood curdle in his veins. Mary, on her side, pale and silent as death, kept looking forward into the depth of * About the middle of February, when it is still very cold in the mountains of the interior, where the temperature, according to M. Volney, is nearly like ours ; on the plains of Syria, on the valley, the shade of the woods, or along the windings of the I'ocky path which Joseph had chosen as the safest, and the most remote from the dwellings of men. The soft moonlight illumined the earth, and guided the silent march of the holy travellers. "The weather was still cold,"* says St. Bonaventure, " and, while crossing Palestine, the Holy Family had to choose the wildest and least frequented roads. Where are they to lodge during the night ? Wliere can they venture to rest a little during the day? Where are they to take the frugal meal necessary to sustain their strength?"! Tradition is silent on most of the details of this touching and perilous pilgrimage. Doubtless, the holy travellers made long and painful marches through the mountains, availing themselves of the lirst hours of day, and often, too, await- ing the rising of the moon to re- sume their ■ journey. Whilst their way lay through Galilee, they found the contrary, it was already the heat of summer {See note 3 of ch. vi.) ■f St. Bonaventure, De Vita Ghridi. 190 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. places of rest and shelter in its deep * ca\es, with their secret branches winding no one knew whither ; but uMMi these had their dangers, for they were often chosen as a secure hiding-place by some of those jiu- merous bands of robbers who had long bid defiance to all the forces of the kingdom, and who were now emboldened by the illness of Herod.* The fear of happening unawares into one of these murderous dens, must have made Joseph hesitate many a time at the mouth of a cave that would seem to ofl'er a secure asylum. At length, after a thousand dan- gers, and a thousand trials of vari- ous kinds, the Holy Family reached the environs of Jerusalem. Here caution and anxiety were increased in proportion to the imminence of the danger. The fugitives dared no longer approach cities, nor even populous villages, where a troop of spies and informers had their eye * These armed bands, ofteu two or three thousand strong, were commanded by expe- rienced chiefs, who gave both Herod and the Romans enough to do. Some of these had a political object in view, and made a guerilla war ; others were simply a band of assassins, who carried long daggers under their robe, ^ on every stranger. j- They folh^wed the bed of the torrents, plunged into by-ways, or through the damp foliage of the woods, not daring to turn aside for a fresh stock of pro- visions, and suffering at once from fear, cold, and hunger. They had passed Anathot, and were making for Ramla, to descend into the low country ; anxious to escape from a dangerous vicinity, they had bor- rowed some hours from the night, when they saw winding fi'om a gloomy ravine just before them a number of armed men, who blocked up the way. He w^ho appeared the leader of this troop of brigands stepped forward in front of his men to take a view of the travellers. Joseph and Mary stood still, look- ing on each other in terror and alarm ; Jesus was sleeping. The bandit, who was on the look-out for blood and gold, cast an astonished glance on the defenceless old man, with his simple, patriarchal air, and and murdered all obnoxious persons who fell in their way, even in the streets of Jerusalem. {De Bello, b. ii., ch. 5.) f Herod, who pez'fected the spy system in the East, had his spies scattered along all the highways of Judea. (Joseph., Ant. Jud., b. xv., ch. 13.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 191 then on the young veiled woman, - with her infant clasped convulsively to her heart. " They are poor," said the robber to himself, " and, as they travel by night, they must be fugi- tives!" Perhaps he, too, had an infant son ; or perhaps the atmos- phei-e of mildness and mercy which surrounded Jesus and Mary had its effect on that ferocious soul ; how- ever it was, he lowered the point of his lance, and, extending a friendly hand to Joseph, offered him a lodg- ing for the night in his rock-built fortress hard by. This frank offer was accepted with a holy confi- dence, and the brigand's roof was as hospitable, on that occasion, as the Arab tent.* On the following day, about noon, the Holy Family stopped in the shade of a vast forest of palms, nopals, and wild fig-trees, which is situated at a short distance * The site where local tradition places this scene, and where the ruins of the brigand's for- tress are still seen, bears even now a bad char- acter. During the Cr-usades, the Franks, to whom this tradition was familiar, converted the bandit chief into a feudal lord; "it is, never- theless, a rare thing," says Father Nau, with amusing coolness, "for a great lord to turn highway robber." The Crusaders knew what they were about better than Father Nau. There has been added to this legend — which appears from Ramla;f a bed of amaranths, narcissuses, and anemones, received the Loi'd of heaven and earth ; the heat of summer was abroad on the plain, and the warbling of birds, the odor of plants, the thick shade of the fig-trees, and the distant mur- mur of a rivulet, lulled the divine Infant to sleep. After a short and anxious halt, the travellers resumed their journey. There is no knowing why it was that they directed their com'se towards Betlilehem; tradi- tion has preserved the memory of their visit, and Christians have erected an altar in the cave where Mary hid with her child J whilst Joseph went up to the city, either to inquire a,bout the departure of a caravan, or to exchange Mary's gentle, but slow palfry, for a camel. Whatever motive it might have been that drew Joseph and Mary authentic — an embellishment for which we do not vouch, viz., that the hospitable brigand was no other than the good thief in person. f It is a charming spot which tradition points out as one of the resting places of the Holy Family ; the ruins of a monastery are now seen there. I This cave is called " The Grotto of the Vir- gin's Milk," because it is thought that some di-ops of Mary's milk fell on the rock while she ^ nursed her divine Infant. 192 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. into the crater of tlie volcano, it is f certain that they stayed but a few hours, and that they thence hast- ened to gain a maritime town of the Philistines, there to join the first caravan destined for Egypt. According to the learned calcula- tions of chronologers, who admit of no interval in this long journey, the holy couple must have found a car- avan at once setting out from the Syrian coast. This is the more like- ly, inasmuch as the spring equinox was drawing near, so that every traveller would be anxious to out- strip the season when the simoom sweeps over the desert, rendering its sands as treacherous as the ocean -wave.* Excepting only the mortal dread of Herod's pursuit, the latter part of the journey was just as much marked by fatigue, suffer- ing, and even insecurity. On leav- ing Gaza, whose dilapidated towers reechoed the hoarse murmur of the waves, our travellers saw before them only immense wastes of sand, dreary, desolate, and fearfully naked, * The Arabs call the hot wiud of the desert idmoom, or poison ; some idea of it may be con- ceived by standing for a moment at the mouth of a common baking-oven, when the bread is taken out. These fiei-y winds are much more ^ agitated by the scorching wind of the desert, and overhung by a fiery sky. Not a trace of vegetation, save, perchance, an occasional patch of heath stretching here and there across the desolate waste ; no water, except the brackish spring, which the Virgin and Jose[)li, who were tired, poor, and unprotected, were only allowed to approach after the rich merchants, their slaves and their camels, had drained it dry, so that they could barely take up a little of the thick, muddy water, in the hollow of their hand. Accoi'd- ing as they receded from the fron- tiers of Syria, the thirst became greater, and the water inoi'e scarce. At times, there was seen afar off, amid the interminable plain, a large lake, blue and sparkling as that of Gennesaretli ; the sky was reflected in its limpid waters, with one soli- tary date -tree; the camels were hurried on, and Mary raised her head, drooping like the rose of Jeri- cho when bent by the rain.f That blessed lake was gained ; already frequent during the fifty days preceding and succeeding the solstice. (Volney, Voyage en Syrie.) f This rose, whose corolla opens and shuts according to the changes of the atmosphere, is LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 193 was the raging thirst quenched in imagination ; but, oh, misery ! some mocking demon removed the lake some leagues farther, and left in its place only burning sand.* Another optical illusion which frequently takes place in those arid and scorching regions, appears to the distant travellers in gigantic |)roportions. Arab horsemen, cov- ered with their tloating abbas with brown and golden stripes, and armed with the djombie — a dagger with a crooked blade, which every inhabit- ant of the desert wears in his girdle — appeared from afar of the height of lofty towers, seeming as though they moved in the air. The Virgin consulted as a barometer by the Arabs. (Vi- comte de Marcellus, Voyage en Orient, t. ii.) * This is the phenomenon commonly known as mirage. During the expedition of the French to Egypt, in 1798, the soldiers crossing those fiery deserts, consumed with thirst, were often deceived by this cruel illusion. Every object rising from the soil, amid those seas of sand, appeared to them surrounded by water ; thus a little mountain which they perceived afar off, seemed to them to rise from the midst of a lake. Dying with thirst, they hastened thither, but only to find themselves grievously mis- taken ; the lake had fled, and was now farther than ever from their longing eyes. {See De Eellens, du Mirage, Art. 6.) f "I had occasion," says Niebuhr, "to remark a phenomenon which struck me as very singu- lar, but which, in time, became familiar to me. shuddered, and drew Jesus closer to her bosom ; but hei- fears were calmed by the serene countenance of Joseph, though even he could assign no reason for the strange phenomenon.f At the approach of night, the song of the camel-drivers ceased, J the leader of the caravan hoisted the flag which was the signal for halting, and all the travellers gath- ered around the spot. An ani- mated scene quickly followed. The camels, squatting down at the feet of their masters, were freed from their heavy burdens ; bales of goods were heaped up pyramidically ; a circle of stakes was planted around, An Arab mounted on a camel, whom I saw at a distance, appeared to me as high as a tower, and seemed to move in the air ; nevertheless, he was walking on the sand like ourselves. This optical illusion proceeds from the stronger refraction of the atmosphere in those arid re- gions laden with vapors of a very different nature from those which fill the air in temper- ate climates." {Voyage en Arahie, t. i., p. 208.) I It is an almost universal custom in the East for people to enliven their journey or their work by singing. A Mussulman pilgrim has given a very picturesque description of the nightly march of a caravan from Mecca, lit by the lan- thoms placed on the camels, and cheered by the modulated song of the drivers. {Travels of Abdoul Kerim. ) The camel-drivers still sing songs peculiar to themselves, in Syria and in Egypt. {Gorrenp. d' Orient, t. vi.) 194 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. and to these the beasts of burden * were fastened : llic wealtliy travel- lers had tlieir tents erected, and the master of the caravan placed senti- nels, who w^ere to give notice of the approach of the Bedouins — those ])irates of the desert — who were then, and still are, plunderers like Ishniael, and hospitable as Abra- liani. Each merchant, after having taken his repast of dates and milk, lay down to sleep under his tent, awaiting the rising of the moon. The slaves, and the poorer travellers — amongst whom were the Son of God, his divine Mother, and Joseph — seated themselves on a rush mat spread on the ground, with no other covering than the sky, w4th the cold night air falling chill and moist on their shivering and exhausted limbs.* Now and then there was heard a cry of alarm: some band of Arabs was discovered prowling around the sleeping caravan; dis- concerted by the vigilance of the watchmen, a shower of arrows an- * Though at this season it is burning hot during the day, in the desert, yet the nights are extremely cold. (Voln. — Sav ) f On the dome of the sanctuary in the prin- cipal temple of Heliopolis, there was an im- mense mirror of polished steel, which reflected nounced their departure, instantly followed by the groans of the wounded. Then the Virgin, who had bent over her divine Son, so as to make a rampart of her own body, raised to heaven her tearful eyes and her grief- worn brow: she knew but too well that her Jesus was subject to death, like all the children of men ! Wlien the moon shed her mild light over the shadeless and noise- less desert, where no blade of grass waved in the midnight air, the tents were folded up, and the dreary journey resumed, with all its incon- veniences, all its sufferings, all its terrors. At length, the outskirts of that strange and silent region were gained. Egypt — that ancient nur- sery of all know^ledge and of all idolatry— presented itself to the travellers, with its red granite obe- lisks, its colossal pyramids, its tem- ples crowned with burnished steel,f its island-like villages, and its pro- every ray of light. There was just such another on the top of the lighthouse of Alexandria, and the image of vessels coming into port was re- flected in it long before they appeared on the horizon. {Gorresp. d' Orient, t. v. Lettres de Samry.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 195 vidential river fringed with reeds and covered with boats. That conn- try appeared more rich, more popu- lous, more commercial, than Judea, but still it was the land of exile ! Beyond the desert was home^ and there lay the heart of the banished children of Israel. After a journey of one hundred and forty leagues,* the fugitives reached Heliopolis, where there was a colony of their people. In that city arose the Temple of Jehovah, which Onias had constructed on the plan of the Holy House. The or- naments of that Egyptian temple almost equalled those of the other, only, as a token of inferiority, a massive golden lamp, suspended from the roof, replaced the famous * Vid. Bar ad., t. i., ch. 8. The authoi* of Voy- ages de Jesus Christ reckons but a hundred leagues, but he probably overlooks the winding and turning of the roads. f The Arabs, who had gradually forgotten the God of Abraham, at that time adored a multitude of idols, one more fantastic than the other. " The date-tree," says Azraki, " was wor- shipped by the tribe of Khozua, and the Beni- Thekif venerated a rock ; a lai'ge tree, named zat arouat, was adored by the Koreisch, etc. The Persians contemptuously distinguished the Arabs as worshippers of stones." \ We owe this incident to Sozomeues, and it is rather hazardous to bring it forward in this scoffing age, though it is, after all, scarcely a candlestick of Jerusalem with its seven branches. At the gate of that city, which was chiefly inhab- ited by Egyptians and Arab idola- ters, there was a majestic tree, of the mimosa kind, to which the Arabs of Yemen, settled on the banks of the Mle, paid a species of worship.! At the approach of the Holy Family, this idol - tree slowly bent its shady branches, as if saluting the young Master of nature, whom Mary caiiied in her arms ; J and, if we may believe the historian Palladius, at the moment when the divine travellers passed under the granite arches of the gate of Heliopolis, all the idols of a neighboring temple fell prostrate on the ground. § miracle. It is certain that there exists in Arabia a tree of the sensitive kind, which bends its branches at the approach of man. Niebuhr, who is not at all suspected of credulity, found that tree in Yemen ; and the Arabs, who call it the hospitable tree, hold it in such high venera- tion that no one is permitted to pluck a leaf. If that mimosa, by a natural phenomenon, bends its branches at the approach of man, how much more likely is it to do so at the approach of the Son of God? § Palladius is not the only one who relates this miracle : Dorothy martyr, Sozomenes, St. Anselm, St. Bon.aventure, Lira, Denis the Car- thusian, Testat, Ludolphus, Baradius, etc., like- wise attest it. hm; LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Joseph and Mary only passed tlimuirii tin' riiy of ilic sun, and repaiied to Matarieh, a pretty vil- hiiie shaded with sycamores, and having the only fountain of fresh water to be found in Egypt. There, in a habitation like a bee -hive, where the doves made their nest, the persecuted family found rest and peace, being at last free from the power of Herod. That cruel prince, having vainly expected the Magi in his palace of Jericho, ' his favorite residence, learned, at last, that they had re- passed the frontiers of his kingdom, and that, regardless of his injunc- tions, they had returned to Persia, without letting him know the result of their mission. Pale already from the slow fever which was wearing him away, the king of the Jews became paler still with anger. He was himself duped at the very moment when he revelled in the thought of his unrivalled dexterity in deceiving others .... duped by those " uncircumcised dogs" who had so unexpectedly penetrated the * This evangelical fact, which the disciples of Voltaire have called in question, is proved not only by our sacred books, but also by the testi- ^ very depths of his tortuous policy! .... If the Magi had not found the child to whom they were led by the star, they would have come back and told him They had, then, discovered his secret asylum, which must be somewhere about Bethlehem, since they had extended their search no farther Now, how was that dangerous child to be distinguished from all others ? . . . . There was but one way to make sure of his destruction : to include all in a general massacre But the people ! .... At that thought the old king paused a moment ; then a strange, a contemptuous smile curled his haughty lip. '' The people dare nothing," said Herod, " against kings who dare all ! "... . "And sending, he killed all the men- children that w^ere in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, accoi'ding to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men." * According to many grave au- thors, supported by tradition and probability, the Holy Family re- mony of Jews and pagans. (Macrobius, b. xi., ch. 4, den Saturnale^. Orig. Contr. Celn., h. xi., ch. 58. Toldos Huldr., pp. 12, 14, 20.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 197 mained seven years in Egypt.* Traces of their sojourn are still found there ; the fountain where Mary went to wash the Child's swaddling-clothes,! the bushy knoll where she dried them in the sun, the sycamore in whose shade she loved to sit with her Son on her knee, 'I are still pointed out, after the lapse of eighteen hundred years. The pilgrims of Europe and of Asia know these objects well, and they are held in reverence by the Egyp- * Vid. Tromhel, in Vit. Deipn. — Zachariam, in diss, ad hist. eccl. — Anselm. — Cantual. — Euseb. — S. Tho. f This is still called "Mary's Fouutain." There is an ancient tradition to the effect that the Blessed Virgin used to bathe the child Jesus in its limpid waler. In the first ages of Christianity, the faithful built a church there ; in later times, the Mussulmans also constructed a mosque ; and the disciples of both creeds went to Mary's Fountain for the cure of their dis- eases. The fountain is still there ; the pilgrim- ages still continue ; but both the church and the mosque have long since disappeared. ('Savary, t. i., p. 122. Gorresp. d' Orient, t. vi., p. 3. X "Not far from the fountain, I was shown an inclosure planted with trees ; a Mussulman, who acted as our guide, made us stop before a syca- more, saying, " That is Jesus and Mary's Tree." Vansleb, priest of Fontainebleau, relates that the ancient sycamore fell, from age, ir. 1058 ; the Franciscans of Cairo piously preserve in their sacristy the last remains of that tree ; in the garden there only remained a stump, of which the tree we saw was doubtless a shoot. ^ tians themselves. To each of these clings, like the moss to the damp walls of the ruined monastery, some simple legend of other days.§ In Nazareth, Mary had led an humble and laborious life; but in Heliopolis, she descended into the depths of poverty, and saw misery under every aspect. The holy couple were left entirely to their own resources, amongst a people who were parcelled out into national and hereditary corpora- General Kleber, after his victory of Heliopolis, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Family's Tree ; he carved his name on the bark of one of the branches, but that name has since disappeared, effaced by time, or by some envious hand." {Gorresp. d' Orient, t. vi., lettre 141.) § The following is one of the legends brought from Eastern climes by one of our old French barons, the Seigneur d'Englure ; we give it ver- batim, in all its artless grace : — " When Our Lady, the Mother of God, had crossed the desert, and reached this place, she laid Our Lord on the ground, and went all around in quest of water, but there was no water to be found. She went back, sad and sorrowful, to her dear Child, where he lay on the sand, but, behold ! he had stuck his heels into the ground until a fountain of clear, sweet water gushed out. Our Lady was overjoyed at this, and thanked her son. Our Lord. She then washed Our Lord's clothes in the water of this foun- tain, and spread them on the ground to dry, and every drop of water that trickled from those clothes sprang up into a bush, which bushes bear balm," etc. ins LTFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. tions^ and who were by no means * favorable to strangers. " They being poor," observes St. Basil, " it is clear that they had to work very hard in oi-der to procui-e the necessaries of life, .... and even those — were they always able to obtain them?" . . . . "Often," says Landolph, of Saxony — '' often did it happen, that the child Jesus, pressed by hunger, asked his mother for bread when she had none to give him." .... Meanwhile, Herod had died of a horrible and nameless malady, after being literally eaten alive by worms. Occupied to the last with thoughts of how the people would rejoice at the news of his death, he implored his sister Salome — a very wicked woman — implored her with tears to have some Jewish nobles — the flower of their nation, whom he * Joseph., Ant. Jud., h. xvii., cli. 8. The mem- ory of Herod was held in such detestation by the princes of the people and the priests, that they instituted a festival to be celebrated on the 25th of September in joyful commemoration of that prince's death. "There is a feast on the had kept imprisoned for that pur- pose — put to death, in order that the people might be forced to wee}) at his funeral.* He was borne to his castle of Herodion in a golden litter covered with scarlet cloth and adorned with precious stones. His sons and his army followed his re- mains with a dejected air, whilst the people, proud of their deliver- ance, heaped curses upon him as the procession passed along. Apprised in a dream, by the An- gel of the Lord, that Herod was dead, Joseph returned with Mary and the Child into the land of Israel ; " but hearing that Archelaus reigned in Judea in the room of Herod his father, he was afraid to go thither: and, being warned in sleep, retired into the quarters of Galilee." 7th of September," saj's the Jewish calendar, " on account of the death of Herod, for he had hated the wise ; and they rejoice before the Lord when the impious leave this world." (Basnage, t. 1, hv. ii., ch. 8.) CHAPTER Xy. MARY IN NAZARETH. tr^ J how mourn- ful are the days of exile, and how sweet it is to breathe once i^^^^^MmS^ more the air of (;ur native land ! The bread of the stranger, like that of the wicked, is hard to eat, and bitter to the heart ; tlie streams of the foreign land mur- mur not tales of our childish sports ; the song of its birds wants one melodious note ; its scenes, however fair, have not that sweet, that sooth- ing charm which endears every ob- ject in our native land ! How great must have been the joy of the holy spouses on again beholding that land of Chanaan, whose stately hills, waving outlines, harmonious scenery, and endless variety, contrasted so happily and so strikingly with the monotonous splendors of Egypt! Here, a bold and active population, martial, frank and gay, with a pure and holy ; worship ; there, slaves shackled by castes, addicted to theft, mixino* up the most infamous practices in their senseless worship, and lavish- ing their treasures in building tem- ples to the ox Apis, the crocodile, and the sea-onion. One must be profoundly religious, like Joseph and Mary, and love his country as the Hebrews loved theirs, in order to comprehend the deliglitful emo- tions wherewith they greeted the land of Jehovah and their pretty town of Nazareth. The Holy Family retiu^ned to their humble home, after so long an ab- sence, amid the congratulations and endless questions of their friends and neighbors, who celebrated their return as an event of great joy. But the scene was soon and sadly changed. The neglected dwelling of Joseph was scarcely habitable; the roof, in some places broken and falling in, had given free admission to the winter storm and the equi- '200 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. noctial rains;* the lower cliainber f was cold, (lamp, and overgrown wilh weeds ; wild doves made their nests in the sacred and mysteri(5us cell where the "Word was made flesh; the little court was overrun with briers ; everything, in short, in and around that time-honored dwelling had assumed that ruinous and deso- late aspect which rests on deserted houses like the seal of the mas- ter's absence. These needful re- pairs were, then, to be made ; fur- niture and tools, lost or broken, had to be replaced ; and perhaps a debt contracted in Egypt, to defray the expense of the return, had to be discharged. It was, doubtless, at this juncture that the little patri- mony of Joseph was sold till the jubilee. All that remained of what they had possessed before their de- parture was the ruined house, the workshop, and their own arms ; but Jesus was there. Young as he w^as, Jesus took an axe and followed his foster-father to the villages, where * The rainy season, in Judea, is that of the equinoxes, and especially the autumnal equi- nox ; it is also the time of storms, accompanied by violent showers of rain or hail. (Volney, Voyage en Syrie. ) t St. Justin Martyr {Dialog, cum Ti'yphone) work was procured for them;f liis labor, proportioned to his age and strength, was always devoted to his mothef.^ Comfort had long disap- peared ; but they succeeded, by hard work and persevering industiy, in obtaining the necessaries of life. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph led a life of ceaseless toil ; and He who might command legions of angels, asked nothing from God for himself or his but their " daily bread." The interior life of that blessed family, surnamed the earthly trinity, has not come to the knowledge of men ; it is like the streamlet hidden in the long grass, or, more properly, it is the Holy of Holies, with its cloud of perfumes and its double veil. Nevertheless, by studying minutely, and examining one by one, under every point of view, the evangelical facts, what w^e know enables us to guess to a certain extent at what we do not know, and the public life of Jesus Christ throws some bright rays of light on states that Jesus Christ assisted his foster- father to make yokes and plou^-^hs. And Godes- card, t. xiv., p. 436, Vie de la Sainte Vierge, says : — "A very ancient author asserts that, in his time, there were yokes to be seen which Our Saviour had made with his own hands." LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 201 his own hidden life and that of the t Blessed Virgin. That sacred abyss we are about to sound with all the reserve, all the conscientious ap- plication, that so grave a subject requires, Jesus, in whom were hidden all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge,* had no need of human teaching; and the contrary suppo- sition is positively condemned by the Church. St. John also, in his Gospel, mentions that the Jews, contemporaries of Jesus Christ, re- garded him as a man who had "never leai'ned;"f and the surprise of the Nazarenes, on seeing him so profoundly versed in sacred letters, shows clearly enough that he had not been, to their knowledge, brought up, like St. Paul, at the feet of a master. The Talmudists and the Jewish authors of the Toldos maintain, on the contrary, that a celebrated rabbin initiated Jesus in the mysteries of science and of magic ; but, deducing from the second part of the assertion, whiclj is wholly absurd, and viewing the . matter in a purely human light, as * St. Paul, Ep. Golos., ch. ii., ver. 9. f St. John, ch. vii., ver. 15. do the rationalists, this is evidently false, for two reasons. In the first place, Jesus was neither a zealot nor a traditionist, and it is every- where apparent in the Gospel that he openly disapproved of the nar- row views, the captious distinctions, and shallow subtilties of the Syna- gogue. In the second place, Rabbi Joshua Perachia, whom they name as his preceptor, was yet unborn, as he flourished an hundred years later. To place Jesus amid the Rabbins in the capacity of a pupil would be just about as illogical as to try to support an oak by surrounding it with reeds. He taught not as the scribes and Pharisees, says an evan- gelist, J and that is easily conceived, for he derived his wisdom from him- self; and his teachings, even view- ing them in a natural way, seem to emanate from a soul lofty, pure, up- right, and from a mind so vast, and so uniformly sound, that it never could have been perverted by scho- lastic disputes. Strauss admits that all the wis- dom and aU the science of the X St. Matthew, ch. vii., ver. 29. iOft LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGTN MART. perioti would have been unable to ^ form such a man as Jesus Cluist. " Even if Jesus had exhausted," says he, "ail the soui'ces of instruction then to be had, it is no less true that none of these elements would suffice, even remotely, to effect a revolution in the world, and the leaven necessary for so great a work he must have drawn from the depths of his own soul." His eloquence, like his morality, was peculiar* to himself. It was not the emphatic exaggerations of the Rabbins, nor yet the majestic, overwhelming, and violently - con- trasted diction of the ancient pro- phets ; it was, as he himself said, a source of living water, reflecting in its . course the birds of the air, the crops, and the flowers of the field. That eloquence, so simple, pene- trated to the very bottom of every thing, and was easily connected with high and lofty ideas. Every word was a precious seed of virtue ; * "T confess to you," says J. J. Bousseau, " that the majesty of the Scriptures astonishes me, and the sanctity of the Gospel speaks to my heart. Behold the books of our philoso- phers, with all their pretensions ; how small they are, when compared with this ! Can it be that a book, at once so simple and so sublime, every lesson threw afar, over the mysterious wastes of the future, a long train of light, which was insen- sibly to spread into the perfect day of the world's regeneration. Even those who have audaciously denied his miracles, were yet forced to acknowledge that his words were those of a God.* Jesus was endowed with a high and meditative soul, which required a vast space for its expansion. Confined during the day at manual labor, which occupied every moment of his time, he made up by night for his obscure toil, and was again the legislator and the prophet in presence of the starry heavens. Standing on the lofty terrace wliich commanded a view of the moun- tains and forests of the land of Chanaan, he poured out his soul before the Author of Nature, whose Ambassador, whose Son, and whose equal he was. These communings with God, in the silence of the is the work of men ? Can it be that be whose history it records is himself but man ? Is his . *the tone of an enthusiast or of an ambitious sectary? What sweetness! what purity in his morals ! what touching grace in his instructions ! what elevation in his precepts ! what profound wisdom in his discourse 1^' [Eviile, t. iii., p. 365.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 203 night, of tlie desert, and of thought, * were customary with Jesus, as we see in many places of the Gospel. The model-man, the incarnate Word, would thus, we may suppose, in- struct his own to distinguish the pure gold of prayer from the mon- strous alloy of ostentation and hy- pocrisy wherewith the Pharisees of his time were wont to mix it up. The Virgin, who was never either troublesome or exacting, placed no obstacle in the way of her Son's solitary habits ; she knew that he was then sounding the depth of the unfathomable abyss opening under the feet of men, and that the world's redemption was to be the fruit of these silent meditations. Respect- ing the workings of that mighty spirit folded up within itself, and ever looking forward to that glo- rious future which every passing moment brought more near, Mary already beheld heaven opened, death overcome, and the Messiah gather- ing the nations around his standard. .... But all of a sudden she re- membered the prediction of the old man in the Temple, and its image * Tertullian said, in the third century, that Mary earned her living by working ; and Cel- arose, gloomy as a funeral-pall, at the end of that enchanting pros- pect; a shudder ran through every vein of the poor mother, and her heart, so absorbed in the love of Jesus, was torn asunder with an- guished forebodings. A secret voice seemed to cry, '' Blood must expiate sin ! Christ must die ! " Then, leav- ing off the manual toil to which her poverty condemned her,* the daugh- ter of David went to seek her Son ; she longed to see him, to assure- herself, by a maternal embrace, that he was still there, that he was yet living ! At her approach Jesus withdrew his pensive glance from the starry heavens ; his youthful brow, con- tracted by a thought as vast as the universe, became again the smooth, fair brow of the child. Mary then, driving back into her heart every mournful apprehension, advised him to seek repose. Strength must be recruited for the morrow's fatiguing labor The Son of God followed his mother in silence, for he loved and was svhject to her. The entrance of Jesus into adoles- sus, in the second century, said that Mary waa a woman who lived by the labor of her hands. 904 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. cence was marked by an extraor- * dinary incident, which gave Mary's soul a most violent shock. Joseph and Mary, faithful observers of the law of their fathers, went regularly every year to Jerusalem to cele- brate the Passover. This journey, which they made in secret so long as the throne of the Maccabees was tilled by. the son of the enemy of God, had now become more easy since the banishment of Archelaus •and the occupation of the Romans. When Christ had attained his twelfth year, his parents, having the fear of Herod no longer before their eyes, brought him with them to Jerusa- lem. They set out from Nazareth in a crowd ; and, on the way, the Hebrew pilgrims formed themselves into little bands, according to age and sex, and the ties of family or friendship.* With the Virgin were Mary of Cle- ophas, the sister-in-law of Joseph ; another Mary, mentioned in the Gospel as altera. Maria ; Salome, * St. Epiphanius and St. Bernard inform us that, in these journeys, the men went in troops, separate from the women, and that St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin being thus one in one company and one in another, gave themselves at first no concern about the disappearance of ^ wife of Zebedee, come from Beth- saida with her husband and sons ; Joanna, wife of Chus; and a num- ber of Nazarean women, her neigh- bors and friends. Joseph followed at some distance, in grave conver- sation with Zebedee, the fisherman, and the ancients of his tribe. Jesus walked with the young Galileans, whom the Gospel, according to the idiom of the Hebrew tongue, calls his brethren, they being his nearest relations. Amongst this youthful group, who went before the others, the sons of Zebedee might be distinguished ; James, impetuous as the sea of Tiberias on a stormy day ; John, still younger than Jesus, and seem- ing, as he walked beside his brother, the true personification of the lamb of Isaiah dwelling in peace with the lion of the Jordan. Beside the fishermen of Bethsaida, whorn Jesus afterwards surnamed Boanerges (sons of thunder), were the four sons of Alpheus ; James, Jesus, and indeed knew nothing of it till the evening, when all tLe travellers assembled to- gether. See likewise Aelrede, abbot of Reverby, Serm. sen tractatus de Jesu ditod^ni^ Dominica intra octav. Epiphan. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 205 who was subsequently bishop of Jerusalem, an austere and grave young man, with long hair, pale face, and cold, subdued manner. Proud of having taken the Nazarite vow, he put jn provoking airs of superiority towards him whom he then considered as the carpenter's son. In the character of Jesus were seen the virtues and the imperfec- tions inherent in the soil; immov- able firmness, upright and religious inclinations, but, at the same time, a strong contempt for all who were not of the race of Abraham, and an excellent opinion of himself. Jude, Simon, and Jose, the other sons of Alpheus, were youths of a rustic, simple, and warlike mien, already arrived at adolescence, and regard- ing the son of the humble Mary as their inferior in every way — a feel- ing of which they could with difiS- * St. John Chrvsostom, Serm. 44. f The Rabbins have taken occasion to make the most odious insinuations against Jesus on account of the color of his hair ; but what is most extraordinary is that they make precisely the same remarks on David. He was red as Eaau ; he had blood on his head ; the soul of Esau had passed into him. They have only forgotten the evil eye wherewith they endow the prophet- king. J Nicheph., Hist. Eccles., t. i., p. 125. His portrait of Our LoVd, drawn from tradition, is culty divest themselves in after times, as we see by the Gospel.* And Jesus ? Jesus affected noth- ing, neither devotion, nor austerity, nor wisdom, nor science, because he possessed the fullness of all those things, and people seldom affect anything but what they have not. To see him clad so simply — like an Essenian — his long hair, of the color of ancient bronze,f parted on his high sun-browned forehead, and floating gracefully over his shoul- ders, one would have taken him for David as he presented himself to the prophet Samuel, small, timid, attired in a shepherd's dress, to receive the sacred unction. Yet there was something more in the soft brown eye of Jesus J than even in that of his great ancestor, gleam- ing as it was with the brightness of poetic inspiration ; there was some- the most authentic that we now have. The Rev. Mr. Walsh, author of a recent work de- voted to the rare and unpublished monuments of the first age of Christianity, calls attention to a very curious medal, which was known so early as the 15th century. The front side represents the head of Our Lord in profile ; the hair is divided after the manner of- the Nazarenes, smooth to the ears, and waving on the shoul- ders ; the beard bushy, and not very long ; the features fine, as also the bust, over which the tunic falls in graceful folds. 206 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. thing penetrating and divine which laid bare the inmost thoughts and reached the most secret recesses of the soul ; but Jesus then veiled the splendor of his look, as Moses did his radiant brow on going forth from the tabernacle. He walked, then, in wise, yet appropriate con- versation with his young kinsmen according to the flesh, whom he designed to make his apostles ; he discovered, beneath their rough ex- terior, the weight and the value of those unpolished diamonds which were one day to shine with such surpassing splendor, and he loved them by anticipation. He was not deceived in his expectations ; those men, who had had, like the rest of the nation, their dreams of gold and power regarding the Messiah, cast away at his bidding all their preju- dices, both national and religious, and adopted a calumniated doc- trine, whose principles and whose promises, like the maledictions of the old law, spoke only of suffer- ings to endure and persecutions to encounter. They bound themselves to him by ties so strong that neither the princes of the earth, nor cold, nor nakedness, nor hunger, nor the f sword could separate them from his love; they walked in his foot- steps, courageously trampling on the thorns which the world threw in their way, and allowing them- selves to be treated, for his sake, as the very scum of mankind. They were neither ashamed of the Son of man, nor of his Gospel, nor of the folly of the Cross ! And why should they ? It is for impostors to be ashamed ; and the Apostles never preached but from sincere convic- tion. Those honest and simple hearts enforced their testimony by all that could render it credible and sacred amongst men ; they aban- doned all, suffered all, forgave all, and sealed with their blood the Gospel of their divine Master.* But at the period of which we speak, these heroic virtues were not even in blossom, and those young Galileans little thought that they should one day maintain with their life the divinity of their fellow- traveller. After a journey of four days, the pilgrims reached the Holy City, then filled with an immense con- * Pascal said, " I am ready to believe any his- ^ tory the ■witnesses of which Buffer death for it." L LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 207 course of Jewish strangers.* The family of Joseph and Mary assem- bled to eat the Paschal lamb, which the priests took care to immolate between the two evening prayers, f in the court of the Temple ; to this was added unleavened bread, wild lettuce, and all that belonged of right to that ancient ceremony. The festival days being over, the parents and kinsfolk of Jesus met together, in order to return home; as they went back in the same order in which they came, it was not, at iirst, perceived that Jesus was missing. Mary thought him with Joseph, or the two James's; Joseph, on the other hand, thought him with his young kinsmen, or with Mary. At night-fall, the vari- ous companies came together, and the Virgin sought Jesus in vain amongst the crowd of travellers who arrived successively at the inn; no one knew what had become of him. The grief of the holy spouses was inexpressible. " The deposit * The feast of Easter gathered to Jerusalem ^bout two millions, five hundred thousand per- sons. {De Bello, 1. vii., ch. 17.) Cestus, wish- ing to persuade Nero that the Jewish nation was not so contemptible as he thought, caused the people to be reckoned by the priests. At f of heaven, the Son of God!" mur- mured Joseph sadly. "My son!" said the poor young mother, her voice choked with sobs. All that night they sought him and all the following day, asking every one they met along the road, calling him in the woods, looking fearfully down the precipices, now fearing for his life, now for his liberty, and not knowing what was to happen if he were lost. They returned to Jerusalem; ran to the houses of their friends, and, tired of wander- ing through every part of that large city, they, at last, entered the Tem- ple. In the porch, where sat the doctors of the law, was a child who charmed the ancients of Israel by the depth of his observation and the clearness of his answers to questions, even the most difficult; they all stood in a circle round him, every one wondering within himself at his marvellous and precocious wisdom. "It is either Daniel, or an angel," said some one within a the feast of Easter, they killed two hundred and fifty-six thousand six hundred lambs ; there was a lamb for every family. f That is to say, from noon or one o'clock, till sunset. (Basnage, t. v., L vii., ch. 2.) -I SOS LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. few paces of the sorrowful Virgin. "It is Jesus!" said the young mother, making her way through the doctore. Then, approaching the Messiah, with a look of tender re- proach — "Son!" said she, mildly, " why hast thou done so to us ? behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing?" Tlie child had disappeared before the God: the answer was dry and mysterious. "How is it that you sought me ? Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?" The holy couple were silent; they did not, at lirst, com- prehend the drift of this reply. Jesus arose and followed them to Nazareth ; his perfect submission to their will very soon effaced this light cloud. "And his mother kept all these things in her heart ; and Jesus advanced in wisdom and age, ¥ and grace with God and men." CHAPTER XVI. MARY AT THE SERMONS OF JESUS. HERE are two worlds in his- tory," says one of the finest wi'iters of our time : " one be- yond, the other on this side, the Cross." The pri- meval world, old and decrepid at * The pagan Gauls of the 6fch aud 7th cen- turies deified oaks ; they burned torches before those trees, and invoked them as though they could have heard them; the enormous stones the time of Christ's regenerating mission, presented a strange spec- tacle, for the ridiculous went hand in hand with the horrible. The Arab and the Gaul, after having for ages retained the primitive idea of the unity of God, adored the acacia and the oak;* the Hindoo deified the Ganges, and sacrificed human which were found near had their share of the divine honors. (Histoire Ecclesiastique de Bre- tagne, t iv., 7th century. — GapUal. Garoli Magni, hb. 1, tit. 64.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 209 victims to Sactis, goddess of death;* * the Egyptians — wisest of nations — rendered devout worship to the gar- lic, the lotus, and nearly all bul- bous plants ; f the unknown tribes of young America adored the tiger, the vulture, the tempest, and the roaring cataract; J finally, the Greeks and Romans confessedly filled their temples with demons, § and those nations so intellectual, so polished, so prolific of great men, had deified vice under its most hid- eous aspects, and peopled their Olympus with robbers, adulterers, and murderers. Their morals cor- responded with their creeds ; cor- ruption, descending like a vast river from the height of the seven impe- rial hills, overspread all the prov- * See Tableau d'Inde (Picture of India) by Buckingham. f Juvenal's sarcasm is well known : " O sanc- tas gentes, quibus hsec nascuntur in hortis nu- mina." (Sat. xv., v. 10.) J Garcilasso, 1. 1, c. 2 and 12. § Porphyrus, who was so well acquainted with the sources of polytheism, admits that the devils were the objects of Gentile worship. "There are," says he, "unclean spirits, mali- cious and deceitful, who wish to pass for gods, and be adored by men ; these must be ap- peased, as otherwise they might injure us. Some, being gay and playful, are propitiated by games and festivals ; others, of a more gloomy inces. Judea, which had, no more than the others, escaped the conta- gion of vice, was falling Avith fearful rapidity ; its religion no longer con- sisted in fundamental dogmas, but in a multitude of parasitical super- fluities, and the dreams of its Rab- bins had taken the place of the Mosaic law. II And what had become of haughty Reason amid all these deplorable aberrations — of Reason, that queen of intelligences, who takes her own limited horizon for the bounds of the universe, and stretches gods on the bed of Procrustes ? Where did she hold dominion? where had she hoisted her colors, whilst her ram- parts were thus universally attack- ed? If she could, without foreign turn, must have the smell of grease, and delight in bloody sacrifices." II It is a saying amongst the Jews, that the Covenant was made with them on Mount Sinai, not on the iSasis of the written law, but on that of the oral law. They annihilate the former to install the latter in its stead, and finally reduce all religion to tradition. This corruption was so prevalent amongst the Jews, even at the time of Our Lord, that he reproaches them, in St. Mark, with having nullified the word of God by their traditions. But it is now much worse ; they compare the sacred text to water, and the Misnah, or Talmud, to the best wine ; again, the written law is salt, but the Taimud is pepper, cinnamon, etc 210 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. assistance, reconquer the earth * which she had lost, why did she not do it? . . . Alas! she felt that tlie torrent would sweep away her frail barriers ; and, powerless to re- strain it, she contented herself with noting its ravages. Resting on phi- losophy, she mourned over the life- less remains of the social body, whose fall she could not prevent; Christianity came forward, and said to the dead body, "Arise and walk." .... And it was done according to her word. From that day forward a new race, cured of all diseases, cleansed from all impurity in the sacred laver, gathered around the Cross which the Son of Mary had set up over the regenerate world, as the tiiumph of God over hell. That glorious revolution which placed Charity on the throne, at- tended by all the other #^'irtues — that ever -memorable event which changed the aspect of the world, and whose results shall be felt till the end of all things, had its origin in Nazareth : from the hollow of that nameless rock flowed the hum- ble stream of Christianity. "An obscure spring, an unnoticed drop of water, in which two sparrows could not drink, which one sunbeam might have dried up, and which now, like the great ocean of mind, has filled up all the depths of hu- man wisdom, and bathed with its exhaustless \^ters the past, the present, and the future."* Nothing is known of the means which brought about that grand fact which stands pre-eminent above all modern history. From the day of his manifestation in the Temple, the Son of God led a hidden and meditative life with his mother and his adoptive father. This period, lost to the world, was undoubtedly that in which the Virgin spent her calmest and happiest days. It is not when human life rolls noisily on, like a wintry torrent, that it is the happiest; but when it resem- bles the streamlet gliding in silvery ripples through the flower-bespan- gled meadows. Mary, deprived of all the enjoyments of luxury and all the pleasures of affluence, but living near her Son, working for him, studying his tastes, seeing him every hour, offering to him, as it were, the fii'st-fruits of his sacred * M. de Lamartine. Voyage en Orient. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 211 harvest ; the first, the humblest, and the most docile of his disciples, and bending her cultivated understand- ing before the divinity and superior mind of her Son — Mary must then have been a happy mother ! If, at times, whilst Jesus was explaining to her the most profound meaning of the prophecies, he came on some passage which spoke of sufferings to be endured, a dark cloud gath- ered on the modest brow of the Virgin, it soon passed away, and that mild, benign countenance re- sumed its wonted serenity. The storm was still afar off, and their bark was moored in a quiet harbor. Her Son was there; she hung on his look, on his words, on his slight- est gestures. And how she loved to serve that Son ! how joyfully would she sit up all night to sew, or weave his working tunics, his fes- tival robes, and that seamless gar- ment, a masterpiece of art and skill, which was afterwards! .... But as yet the Lord had only anointed His Son with the oil of gladness. The companion of the Spouse, the wise Virgin of the Gospel, left the morrow to provide for itself "and the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, dwelt in her heart and mind." Jesus was perfection itself, the omniscient, the thrice holy, the mighty and the wise ; as God, he could owe nothing to His creatures, but as man he owed something to Mary. She it was who initiated him, from his earliest childhood, in the humble virtues appertaining to humanity, and to her own dmple and poetic tastes. That patient and unalterable meekness which he knew how to unite with the firmness of the prophet and the legislator; that merciful compassion which tempered the wrath of an angry God, and rendered Him — the model man, the Just by excellence — the Advocate of sinful man; that ten- derness so kind, so simple, towards children whom he delighted in bless- ing and caressing during his divine mission; a thousand imperceptible shades, a thousand beams half ab- sorbed in the blaze of light which constitutes the mortal life of Jesus Christ, all bear the seal of Mary.* * Nel vestire il Verbo d'umana came non gli diede ella (la Vergine), punto, o di potenza, o di santita, o di giustizia che egli (Gesu) gia da ^ se solo non possedesse ; ma gli die molto bensi 212 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Tims heaven is pleased to inhale the sweet scent of powers, although the flowers are creatures of the earth. We caiiiiol doubt but that Jesua returned, with interest, all the Vir- gin's tenderness and solicitude; a woman so noble in blood and in heart was entitled to the respect of all, and especially of a Son for whose sake she had imposed on hei*self, in the eaiiy spring of life, so many privations, so much toil, and so many sacrifices. He who takes note in heaven of a glass of cold water given in his name, must assuredly be mindful of the obliga- tions which he owed to Mary ; and, if we see in the Gospel that he sometimes spoke to his divine mother less as her son than as her Lord, it is that at such times he detached himself from all earthly connections in order to promote the glory of his Father, whose interests were ever paramount with him. The Virgin knew too well the sacred mission of her son to be disturbed by this occasional severity; she calmly awaited the moment when di misericordia. (P. Paolo Segneri, Magnificai spiegato.) * the legislator should give place to the young Galilean whom her milk had nourished, and never had she to wait long : the human nature very soon granted what the divine nature had refused. Jesus had just attained his twenty-ninth year when the angel of death summoned away the ven- erable head of the Holy Family. Joseph — that patriarchal man — whose submissive faith and simplic- ity of heart recalled the memory of Abraham and the era of the tent; Joseph, on whom the Holy Ghost himself bestowed the title of Just ; Joseph slept calmly in the Loi-d, in the sweet presence of his adopted son and his chaste spouse. Jesus and Mary mourned him, and kept their melancholy watch by his cold remains ; the night wind only was heard to mingle in the lamenta- tions of the poor family. The great ones of Galilee died not thus ; their death was attended by more show and greater ostentation, although they had not, at the linal moment, the glorious prospects of the car- penter of Nazareth. The obsequies of the son of David ^ were humble as his fortune, but l-^ ^ c^ .>)^' LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 213 Mary slied abundant tears over his funeral bed, and the Son of God was himself chief mourner. Wliat emperor was ever so highly hon- ored ? At length, the time for preaching the Gospel began to approach, and He whom God ordained from all eternity to be its pontiff and apos- tle quitted Nazareth to repair to the banks of the Jordan, where John was baptizing. That parting of the Blessed Virgin and her Son must have been both solemn and affecting. The public life of Jesus was about to commence. Unfriend- ed, poor, of humble origin, without other* resource than his courage, his patience, and that gift of miracles which he never employed for his own personal advantage, he was going to confront an order of things "not strong enough to resist him, but strong enough to cause his death." * The Virgin could not help feeling an emotion of terror on see- ing Jesus commit himself to that stormy sea — the Jewish world — on which so many illustrious prophets had perished. She knew the insur- mountable pride of the Pharisees, * M. de Lamartine, hook quoted. * the narrow and revengeful fanati- cism of the Synagogue, the sanguin- ary whims of Herod Antipas ; she also knew the Messianic oracles which spoke of suffering and igno- miny! .... The daughter of the kings of Juda, who was not of the race of the feeble, and who knew that her son was God, was none the less overcome by that first separa- tion, w^hich seemed the prelude and the image of one much more cruel. With a breaking heart she saw Jesus set out, and when the sound of his footsteps died away in the distance ; when she found herself alone — all alone — in that house where she had passed so many happy hours with her Son and her holy spouse, she hid her face be- tween her hands, and remained long silent and motionless. The absence of Christ was pro- longed ; the Virgin learned with profound admiration, but without surprise, the wonders of liis bap- tism, when the Holy Trinity was, as it were, made palpable and re- vealed to men: the white dove ex- tending its divine wings over the Saviour who was, at the "same time, ^ announced as the Son of God by a 214 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRQIN MARY. voice from heaven. Her maternal joy was, however, replaced by griev- ous apprehension when she heard that Jesus, almost immediately after his baptism, had plunged alone into the deep and perilous ravines of the lofty Mount Quarantine,* to prepare for the work of the world's redemp- tion by fasting, prayer, and medita- tion. What must she suffer as she thought of Jesus wandering through a labyrinth of naked rocks, where the bird found not a particle of moss to- make its nest, or a wild berry to maintain life — where all is rock and fire ! What anguish when the tempest roared without! Where was Jesus ? What was h^ doing, alone and unsheltered, on the high mountains of Jericho, whose * The desert wherein Jesus fasted forty days — whencse it was called the Desert of Quaran- tine — is situated in the mountains of Jericho, about a league from that city, and towards the western bank of the Jordan. Mount Quaran- tine is oue of the highest on the northern side, presenting a profound chasm, hollowed out below, as though to prevent all access to the upper part ; from west to north it displays a series of steep rocks, which open in many places, and contain caverns. The fourth part of the ascent is only gained by a precipitous slope, strewn with stones which roll from under the foot. When one has reached this fourth part of the mountain's height, he finds a very narrow pathway, which conducts to a flight of * steep pathways — full of rolling stones — womid amid frightful pre- cipices, f Certain death awaited him if he missed his foot on the edge of an abyss ; and no aid was near, if, during that fast — so com- plete, so long, so far beyond human strength — he fell fainting on the way. Those forty days were, to Mary, so many ages — maternal anxiety making every minute thus passed an eternity ; but Jesus re- turned to Nazareth with his disci- ples, and his loved presence was, for Mary, like the balmy breath of spring, after the piercing frosts of winter. Just then it was that the' wed- ding took place in Cana of Galilee. The bride and bridegroom, who steps surrounded by fearful precipices ; this must be climbed at the most imminent risk, catching at certain stones which project here and there, and to which one is obliged to cling with feet and hands ; if one of these stones chanced to give way, one would fall into a terrific chasm. ( Voyages de Jesus Christ, Heme voyage.) f The sacred retreat wherein the Man-God spent forty days is a natural grotto, which is only to be gained by cHmbing a path cut in the rock. A niche has been made in one of its sides as if for an altar. Therein are seen some frescoes, almost effaced, representing angels. A thick wall closes up this species of chapel, which is lit by a window whence one cannot look down without a shudder. (Ibid.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 215 were relatives of the Blessed Yir- f gin,* invited Mary, with Jesus and his disciples. All accepted the cor- dial invitation, and the Virgin, ever kind and obliging, undertook to assist in making preparations for the banquet, in which custom re- quired a certain degree of splendor. But the company was large, and the family poor ; the bridegroom had been mistaken in his reckon- ing, and the wine-jars were almost empty, when Our Lord — who would raise marriage to the rank of holy things, purifying it by his presence — entered the banquet-hall, follow^ed by Peter, Andrew, Philip, and Na- thaniel^four young fishermen whom he had impressed with confidence in his genius and power. The wine ran out in the middle of the repast, and Mary, having first perceived it on a sign of distress from the hosts, turned to Jesus, who was sitting * The Eastern tradition, which the Moham- medans have received from the Christians, is, that St. John the Evangelist was the bride- groom at the wedding of Cana, and that, after having witnessed the miracle which Jesus wrought, he immediately quitted his wife ^ follow him. (D'Hei-belot, Biblioih. Orient, t. ii.) — Baronius, t. i., p. 106. — Maid, (in Johan.) also adopts this opinion, for which we cannot certify. near her, and said, pointedly, " They have no wine ! " Jesus answered her in a low voice, and with much emphasis, " Woman, what is it to me and to thee ? My hour is not yet come." f The Virgin, anxious to save her friends a most painful humiliation, was yet not at all discouraged by these words ; she knew that, if the hour of his manifestation were not come, Christ would anticipate it for her sake ; and, with that faith which would remove mountains, she mildly said to the servants, "Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." JSTow there were there six water-pots of stone used for purifications ; at the bidding of Jesus, these were filled to the brim with fresh water from a neighboring spring, and that water was changed into delicious wine. Thus it is that the Blessed Virgin had the first fruits of the miracles f Our Lord's reply to his blessed mother must have been in an under tone, as may even be inferred from the Gospel narrative. It is wholly impossible that Jesus Christ could have given his mother such an answer aloud; the guests, who were not in the secret, would have considered it extremely disrespectful towards her. It is clear that the servants, hearing what the Blessed Virgin said, were ignorant of the ^ f Saviour's a pparent refusal 916 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. of her divine Son, and that her in- * tercession changed the very will of God. The miracle of Cana was soon followed by a number of others, which stamped with the seal of the Divinity the high and providential mission of the Saviour. At his voice, the storm was hushed, human infirmities disappeared, the devils were hurled back to their gloomy kingdom, corpses arose from their coffins, and, all over that spot of earth which his blessed footsteps marked, there was a great ameliora- tion of both spiritual and corporal suffering.* People came to him from Sidon, from Tyre, from Idumea, and from Arabia ; and wiiole multi- tudes, gathering along his way, kiss- ed the hem of his garments, and humbly asked him for health and life — things which only a God can 'give. Mary, whom Our Lord had not as * A Mugsulman poet has described, in graceful verse, the dominion which Jesus exercised over the diseases of the soul ; the following is their substance : " The heart of the afflicted man draws all its consolation from thy words." " The soul recovers life and vigor by the mere bearing of thy nanw?." yet thought proper to associate in his painful and wandering life — Mary heanl these extraordinary tid- ings with great joy, not unmixed, however, with trouble and anxiety. Her fears . were well founded ; for, if the people followed the Messiah, loading him with blessings, the Pharisees, the scribes, and the l)rinces of the Synagogue began to be greatly scandalized — worthy souls ! — ^by the conduct of the Son of God. He remitted sins — blas- phemy ! he consoled and converted sinners — degradation ! he healed the sick on the Sabbath-day — open and shameless impiety I His doc- trine fell from his lips like a benefi- cent dew rather than a stormy rain, so that he was in every way unlike the ancient prophets. He preached humility, forgiveness of injuries, vol- untary poverty, alms given for God's sake alone, universal charity What novel doctrines these were ! "If ever the mind of man can ai*ise to the contemplation of the mysteries of the Deity. " It is from thee that it obtains the lights thereby to discover them, and thee it is who givest it the attraction which leads it thereto." " A Christian," says the learned Orien- talist, D'Herbelot, " could not express his ideas ^ vith greater force. ' jw' LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 217 A host of enemies rose up against him after every sermon, whether in the desert or in the city. He could not attack hypocrisy without of- fending the Pharisees, nor condemn avarice without exciting the ire of the doctors of the law ; the discon- tented — ever ready to engage in dark conspiracies which broke out in rash and bloody revolt — were scandalized because he did not preach up sedition against Caesar; the Hei"odians accused him of as- piring to the throne ; and the Sad- ducees could not bear to hear him announce eternal life. These men, divided in their views, their creeds, and their political interests, made a truce amongst themselves in hatred to the Galilean ; they girt up their loins to attack him, which they did on every side. E^'ery word was a snare, every smile one of treachery. Some openly treated him as an impostor and a Samaritan ; others * The Methnevi-Manevi, speaking of the envi- ous and impotent hatred of the Jews for Jesus Christ, expresses its opinion in these terms con- cerning these attacks — so common against all that obtains success ; attacks which are, in the end, hurtful only to those who make them : — " The moon sheds her light, and the dog barks," says the Persian author, "but the barking of the dog prevents not the moon from shining. ; gently hinted that he was mad ; the whole phalanx of the envious, tired of hearing the people prUise this new prophet, and being unable to deny his miracles, would fain give the honor thereof to Satan. " If he drives out devils," said they, " it is through Beelzebub, the prince of devils ; in Beelzebud, principe dceino- niorimi, ejicit dcemonia."'^ These vague rumors alarmed Mary, and the evil dispositions of her neigh- bors were calculated to do anvthing but. reassure her. Of all the cities of Galilee, Nazareth was the most incredulous, and the most hardened against the divine word ; and of all the families of Nazareth, that of Jesus was the least disposed, it seems, to accept him for the King- Messiah. As the divine maternity of Mary had never been revealed to her relatives, and the miracles which had been wrought during the Lord's infancy had taken place in We throw sweepings into the running water of a river, and that scum swims on the surface of the water without either stopjjing its course or disturbing it. The Messiah, on the one side, raises the dead, and you see, on the other, the Jews devoured with envj', biting their nails and tearing their hair." ( Hussein- Vaez. — D'Herbe- lot, Biblioth. Orient.) 218 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. distant countries, so they saw in the supposed son of Joseph only a young- Israelite without learning, brought up amongst themselves, fed like them, more poorly lodged, more simply clad, and living from day to day by hard work, which brought him chiefly in contact with the lower classes. Christ, who would ennoble poverty by taking it for his portion, incurred the conse- quences of the position he had chosen. "Neither did his breth- ren," says St. John, "believe in him."* The report of the miracles which accompanied the preaching of the Gospel astonished, but could n6t convince, these obstinate Naz- arenes. Knowing that Jesus was saluted all over Galilee by the dan- gerous title of Son of David, and that crowds of two or three thou- sand persons gathered to hear him, they feared that these numerous assemblies might excite the sus- picions of Herod Antipas, and that themselves might be brought into trouble on account of the young prophet. For this reason they pub- licly gave out that Jesus was mad, and swore that they would bring * St. Jobu, ch. vii., v. 5. ^ him back to Nazareth in 'safe keep- ing. Concealing this family plot from Mary, they induced her to go with them to Caphernaum, in order that they might gain access to his presence by the authority of her name, f The Messiah was teaching in the synagogue, in the midst of a silent and attentive audience, when tlie Nazarenes arrived. Ostentatiously displaying an authority which they were quite willing to magnify in the eyes of the crowd, as St. John Chrysostom remarks, they deliber- ately sent word to the Saviour that his mother and his brethren were without, and wished to see him ; but Jesus, knowing the secret thoughts of his relations according to tlie flesh, and availing himself of the occasion to extend the narrow limits of the old law by solemnly and un- reservedly adopting all the great human family, gave this admirable reply to the impudent message of his kinsfolk — "Who is my mother and my brethren?" Then, looking around on his numerous disciples — ■ " Whosoever," said he, " shall do the will of God, he is my brother, and t St. Mark, ch. iii., vs. 21, 31-35. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 219 sister, and mother." After this se- vere reprimand, which the sons of Alpheus could well understand, the Son of God immediately went out, says St. John Chrysostom, to do his mother all the honor that decorum required. When he had saluted Mary, and stopped some time with her on the sea-shore, the Saviour went up into a bark, whence he began to teach the people. The Virgin, lost in the crowd, but profoundly attentive, heard, in religious silence, the par- able of the ^sower. The Nazarenes, petrified by the resistless eloquence and the superhuman dignity of Jesus Christ, asked each other, in surprise, if he were indeed the son of Mary. They experienced that kind of fascination which attracts the snake of the American savan- nahs when he hears afar in the woods the sound of sweet music. They had come with the swiftness of fear, with the eloquence of ego- tism, with the arrogance of superi- ority, to withdraw Christ from his perilous mission, and they quailed under his very look, and could not even open their lips in his presence. This is clearlv indicated by the text * of St. Matthew, which, after having informed us of their hostile inten- tions, gives us nowhere to under- stand that they ventured even to speak to Our Lord. Some time after, Jesus returned to Nazareth, and great was the joy of the Virgin. To see her son seated on the mat where he used to sit in his childish days ; to eat the bread which he had blessed and broken ; to lead him silently to the sick bed of some poor sufferer, whom he healed, with an injunction of secrecy ; to see him mighty in word and work, he who had been so long the man of toil and silence — this was too much happiness in the cup of her existence! And God, who often afflicts those whom he loves, soon mingled gall with its sweetness. On the Sabbath-day, the son and mother went together to the synagogue. A great con- course of people had assembled there to see and hear Jesus; but the curiosity of the Nazarenes had not that character of confidence and respectful attention that Christ had so often met elsewhere. They were there, scandalized beforehand by , what the son of Mary was to do 320 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. and say, and admirably disposed to ^ stone him if occasion offered. There are countries decidedly hos- tile to all that does them honor, until the grass of the grave grows over the object of their envy. Nevertheless, one of the ancients presented the Saviour of men with the book of the prophet Isaiah, and Jesus, unrolling the parchment, read this passage with simple grace and mai-vellous dignity: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me ; he hath sent me to preach to the meek, to heal the contrite of heart, and to preach a release to the captives, and deliverance to them that are shut up: to proclaim the accepta- ble year of the Lord." Having closed the book, he sat down, and, speaking with that lively and natural eloquence which so strongly impressed his auditors, he made to himself the application of the Messianic oracle, and taught, not as a disciple of the synagogue, but as the very master of the syna- gogue. A low murmur ran through the assembly. Some were amazed at the force and the grace of his discom-se ; others, faithful to their ^^ system of contemptuous calumny, said aloud, " Is not this the carpen- ter's son?" And Jesus, penetrating their thoughts, and reading their false and envious hearts, spoke to them those words which have be- come proverbial: "A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country and in his own house." Knowing that they intended to ask him for prodigies like unto those which he had wrought in €apher- naum, he told them plainly that their incredulity rendered them un- worthy of any such, and that, in order to obtain miracles, they must be asked in simplicity and with faith. Thence, alluding to the prop- agation of his Gospel, and to that wild olive grafted on the ancient tree of the synagogue, symbolical of the call of the Gentiles : "In truth I say to you there were many widows, in the days of Elias, in Israel, when heaven was shut -up three years and six months, when there was a great famine through- out all the earth. And to none of them was Elias sent but to Sarepta of Sidonj to a widow woman. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet, and LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIBGIN MARY. 221 none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian." These last words were the drop of water which makes the cup over- flow. Wounded in their national pi'ide, in their hereditary hatred, in their traditional hopes, the assem- bly in the synagogue were filled with fury, and thirsted for blood. They rose up tumultuously, and thrust him out of their city: and they brought him to the brow of the hill whereon theii- city was built, that they might cast him down headlono:;. Seated amongst the humbler wo- men, in a grated gallery, the Virgin had observed, with intense anxiet}^, the rise and progress of the storm. Reading the sinister projects of the Nazarenes in their fierce glances and furious gestures, she hesitated not to brave the danger in order to make her way to her son; but her * Between the steep mountain whence the Jews intended to cast Jesus and the city of Nazareth " there is seen half way," says Father Geramb, "the ruins of a monastery formerly inhabited by monks, and those of a very fine church built by St. Helena, and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, under the name of Our Lady of Terror. According to some, Mary was stand- ing there when the Jews dragged her son along towards the summit of the mountain to cast him * strength was not equal to her cour- age. The Jews ran swiftly — they were always swift to shed blood — and Mary, trembling like a leaf, hardly able to support herself, walk- ed slowly after them, like one in a dream. She sees Jesus at the summit of a steep rock which over- hangs a fearful precipice ; she hears from afar the death -cry ringing; her knees bend under her ; a mist gathers over her eyes ; her voice dies away in a piteous moan ; she falls like a flower stricken down by the wind, and lies prostrate on the ground.* Meanwhile, the ferocious wolves in pursuit of the lamb had been grievously disappointed ; the horn of sacrifice was not yet come for the Son of man, and no one could take his life until he chose to give it up. Striking that murderous crowd with blindness,! Jesus passed unseen thence. According to others, she had hastened thither, on hearing of the diabolical project in contemplation, but had arrived too late ; over- come with terror, she covUd go no farther." f The most ancient heretics — preparing the ■way for modern rationalism, which unwittingly dons their tattered rags — pretended that Our Lord escaped through the illusion of a mist, illudere per caliginem. Tertullian strongly op- poses this supposition. {Adv. Marc, 4, 8.) 222 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VJRQTN MARY. Ihmugh the midst of his enemies, f and returned once more to Capher- naum, where he was soon after join- ed by his mother, Mary of Cleophas, and the sons of Alpheus. After having preached the Gospel in the country bordering on the ftiir lake of Tiberias, whose waves are radiant as the light, and having wrouglit the great miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes in the desert of Bethsaida, Jesus went up the Jordan again, with his disciples, to Ca3sarea Phi- lippi, the ancient Dan of Nephtali (which name had just been changed by Philip, son of Herod) , visiting all the different towns and villages on his way. It was probably at this period — for Euthymius,* who relates this traditional fact, leaves its date undecided — that the waters of the Jordan, already sanctified, beheld another affecting ceremony. Jesus, the Virgin, and thp Apostles set out one morning at sunrise, for that sacred river "which flows through * According to St. Euthymius, Our Lord bap- tized none but the Blessed Virgin and St. Peter, who afterwards baptized the other Apostles. " Some," says this holy abbot, who flourished in Palestine in the 4th century — " some have writ- ^ two lakes," says Tacitus, " and emp- ties itself into the third." f Its banks were robed in a magnificent vegetation ; ivslets, rising here and there from its bosom, sparkled amid its shining waves like baskets of verdure, fruit, and flowers ; blue herons hovered over those flowery isles, where the wood -pigeon and the white turtle still hang their mossy nests on the branches of the wild pomegranate. The dew glit- tered on the green leaves of the willows like a shower of pale dia- monds, and the rushes of the Jor- dan, which sometimes conceal tigers, were gently bending beneath the light breeze which shook the tops of the tall palm-trees, with their clusters of coral-colored dates. Far away, on the opposite shore, troops of gazelles were seen skipping around on the slopes of the gray, mottled mountains ; and over the sandy plain flew some of the fierce children of the desert, mounted on coursers fleet as the wind, and armed with those long spears made ten that Jesus Christ himself baptized the Vir- gin and Peter." f Nee Jordanes pelago accipitur : sed unum atque alterum lacum integer perfluit ; tertio re- tinetur. {Taciti historiarum, lib. v.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 223 of reeds from tlie banks of the Eu- phrates, which they used even in the first ages after the Dekige, if we are to believe the Persian legends.* Clouds of the richest violet hue, or of soft and tender rose-color, floated like flowers in the deep blue sky; and the nightingale, that loves to sing in the lofty sycamores which overhang the sacred river of Pales- tine, was heard to warble its most melodious sti'ains : Nature had don- ned her gala dress for the baptism of Mary. The Virgin was clothed in white, according to the custom of the He- brews when they figured alone in any religious ceremony, and she stood calm and collected by the side of her Saviour and her son ; they both stepped into the river. Rais- ing then, with his divine hand, the Eastern veil worn by his chaste and beautiful mother, Jesus fixed his mild and penetrating eyes upon her with a look of infinite tenderness ; then, pouring on the Virgin's fore- head the sacred water of regenera- * There grows on the banks of the Euphrates a certain kind of reed which almost equals the Indian bamboo. In early times, the Arabs and .Assyrians made lances of them. (Firdousi, Book of Kings. ) * tion, he baptized her in the name of the most Holy Trinity, Himself one of the three divine persons. It was then that the Blessed Vir- gin left off her solitary habits to follow her son in his journeys. She had ministered to him for thirty years both abroad and at home ; she had worked for him, wept over him, suffered for him, and had wor- shipped him, without fail, evening and morning, even when he lay cryinsc in his cradle, as we learn from Albertus Magnus. It was nat- ural that, attaching herself to his persecuted lot, she should abandon the peaceful roof under which he was born to follow his blessed foot- steps whilst he evangelized the Hebrews. Amidst all the trials of that troubled life, the Virgin was admirable as ever. Loving Jesus more than ever mother loved her child, yet never did she intrude into his presence when, by so doing, she might interfere with the duties of his regenerating mission; never once did she speak to him of her fatigue, her fears, her melancholy forebodings, or her personal wants. Mary was not only a sacred dove hidins: in the cleft of a rock ; a pure 224 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIROTN MARY. vii*gin, called to nourish with her milk iind to cradle in her arms a celestial guest; she was also a sti'ong woman, whom the Lord w^as pleased to place by turns in every situation of life, in order to leave the daughters of Eve an example to follow, and a. model to imitate. It was not proper that the Mother of God should follow Jesus and his Apostles alone through all Judea; hence Mary's retinue consisted of Mary of Cleophas, mother of James, Simon, Joseph and Jude, vulgarly called the brethren of the Lord ; Salome, mother of the sons of Zebe- dee, whom most the Saviour loved ; Susanna, wife of the tetrarch's stew- ard, together with some wealthy women of Galilee, who had given up all for Jesus. One of these, a Jew- ess, young, rich, well-born, and sur- passingly beautiful, was the most tenderly attentive to the divine mother of her Lord. This woman — whose noble heart, storm-tossed like the waves of the JEgean sea, had burned with an unholy flame before the eyes of men, and braved public opinion with mockery and disdain . — had come, penitent and submis- sive, to prostrate herself before * Christ, and to ask of him, wliom she acknowledged as God, a cure for the wounds of her soul. And the chaste love of the Lord had absorbed all the vain love, all the worldly attachments of the young lady of Magdalum. She had tram- pled under foot her pearl necklaces, her jewels and chains of gold, and sold her castle by the lovely sea of Galilee ; and now^, without other ornament than a coarse brown gar- ment, and those magnificent dark tresses wherewith she had dried the Lord's feet, the young patrician, rich in her alms, adorned with her new virtues, poured out her penitent tears in the pure and pitying bosom of Mary. The immaculate Virgin had received her with open arms, and having thus won her heart, she J^ cultivated in that fertile, but long- neglected soil, the flowers that bloom for heaven. After many and divers sufferings — many fears and apprehensions, which it were tedious to enumerate — the Virgin entered Jerusalem, the fatal city, in the train of Jesus Christ, to celebi-ate the last pasch which the Lord made with his dis- ciples. She saw the people of the 'm //l^i //A./ .<,„,//,r, LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 225 royal city trooping out to meet the son of David, who came to them full of sweetness, mounted as the young princes of his race were wont to be, and graciously receiv- ing the simple honors so eagerly and so spontaneously offered by the multitude, thirsting for a sight of their proj)het ; for Jesus never re- jected the humble testimonies of love and gratitude offered by his creatures. Trifling as were those pledges of grateful affection, they were yet received with divine good- ness the moment they came from the heart. Magdalen, by turns regarding her Xorc?, and that multitude of people who made the air resound with their hosannas, wept in silence be- hind her veil. Mary's eyes were likewise moist; but her gaze was turned towards the northwest, in the direction of Calvary. CHAPTER XYII. MARY ON OALVA RY. HE branches of f the palm, cast by the HeLrews under the feet of their Mes- siah, were still lying green and fresh on the steep road to Bethany ; the echoes of the Valley of Cedars* were still murmuring the expiring * " Valley of Cedars," the ancient name of the Valley of Josaphat. sounds of the glad, triumphant shouts wherewith the daughters of Sion had welcomed the poor Icing, w^hen Jerusalem was again agitated by a new event of great and melan- choly importance. The chief priests, the senators, and the Pharisees, sought to get hold, even at a golden price, and without shrinking from domestic treachery, of a great criminal, who, they said, was endangering both 226 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. religion aiid the state. Dangerous indeed must this man have been, since those honorable personages had imposed upon themselves an extra- ordinary fast in order to get posses- sion of him,* and had even distri- buted certain alms through the city, by sound of trumpet, with the same intention. The Pharisees — those conscientious Jews who robbed only the uncircumcised, and who would have left their neighbor at the bot- tom of a well rather than draw him out on the Sabbath-day, although they would have quickly taken out their ox or their ass — these had undertaken to spread amongst the people, who are so easily influenced one way or the other, ominous re- ports and vague rumors, which had produced a sort of feverish uneasi- ness that could only end in a vio- lent outbreak. Things thus pre- * This anecdote is found in the Toldos, pub- lished by Huldin, pp. 56 and 60. f This ofl&ce is known to the Gospel, which often speaks of these captains of the Temple, who must be distinguished from the Roman officer who kept guard with his cohort around that sacred edifice to prevent the tumults and disorders which the multitude might cause. These captains of the Temple were necessarily Jews, and descended from sacerdotal families ; to them was intrusted the ward and the keys of * pared, there was seen descending, one evening, from Mount Moria, a well-armed troop, accompanied by some senators, and commanded by the captain of the Temple guards ;f after them came the footmen of the chief priests, and at the head of this batallion marched, with a measured step, by the light of those large lanthorns which the Asiatics hoist on long poles with some flaming torches, a man with a downcast brow, an unsettled look, a mean and unprepossessing countenance, whose belt was stuffed with gold stolen from the poor, J increased, in imagination, by the thirty pieces of silver which he was to gain by de- livering up to the wily Synagogue his Master, his Friend, his God ! For it was, indeed, the Son of David, the Conqueror of the preced- ing days, Jesus of Nazareth, the the Temple in order to provide for the security of the sacred vessels ; this officer, in right of birth, was entitled to a place in all the priestly councils. (Basnage, b. i., ch. 4.) X Then Judas Iscariot, who was to betray Jesus, said, " Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor ? " Now he said this, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and, having the purse, carried the things that were ^; put therein. (St. John, ch. xii., v. 4-6.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 227 great Galilean prophet at whose voice greedy Death gave up his p-ey, and whose orders the winds and seas obeyed ; it was he whom the myrmidons of the chief priests and Pharisees were going to seek on the Mount of Olives, whither he retired at night, after having taught by day in 'the Temple, as St. Luke relates. They did not dare to arrest him in open day, fearing some re- sistance from that multitude of dis- ciples who thronged, from the dawn of day, to hear him in Solomon's Porch. The armed band, led on by Isca^ riot, crossed the ravine through which flows the Kedron, that gloomy torrent* which King David crossed of old when he fled, with a hand- ful of faithful servants, from the re- bellious soldiers incited to revolt by his son Absalom. Whilst the soldiers of the Temple, fierce and silent, followed the course of the torrent, which reflected the light of their torches, in order to .gain the * The Kedron is a torrent which passes through the Valley of Josaphat, between Jeru- salem and Mount Olivet. It has been named Kedron because its course lies through dark and obscure places : its Hebrew name signifies tenebrosus fuit. heights of Gethsemani, and the evening wind rustled in the droop- ing branches of the willows, from one of which Judas was soon to hang — a punishment too mild for such a traitor, but to which the im- perishable contempt of succeeding generations continually adds — a sad and solemn scene was passing in that same Garden of Olives, where the unworthy Apostle was going to seek his Master to destroy him. After having prayed a long time, prostrate on the ground, in that fearful agony which bedewed his divine brow with a bloody sweat, Christ arose in submissive resig- nation to the terrible will of his Father, and ready to drain the bit- ter chalice even to the dregs. He raised his large soft eyes to the midnight heavens, studded with bril- liant constellations, and illumined by the meridian moon, that fair lamp of the firmament whose useful light the children of Abraham bless in their prayers ;f she was then at f The day of the new moon is a festival day for the Hebrews ; the women abstain from work, and the devotees fast on the previous day. After reciting a number of prayers in the sj'nagogue, they keep the remainder of the day as a joyous festival. Three days after, the Jews 328 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MAliY. her full, and cast a sheet of radiant * light over that austere landscape whose dark mountains, rising one above the other, were traced on the clear blue of the sky. Jerusalem, half hid in shade, and in some places brilliantly lit up by the moon's rays, sent afar an aromatic odor from the rare plants of its gardens, and its groves of palm- trees rose stately and grand, inter- spersed with towers of white mar- ble. Silence reigned amid the mountains, but a low murmur arose from the depth of the valley, and Jesus shuddered. "It is they!" he said within himself, and he walked slowly towards the spot whei-e he had left the three Apostles whom he had chosen to share his lonely watch. Alas! either fatigue or the drowsy murmur of the wind through the pale olive branches had gradu- ally overcome those careless senti- nels. Jesus stood looking on them a moment with holy bitterness ; he had told them that his death was assemble on a platform, and fixing their eyes steadfastly on the moon, they bless God in a long prayer for having created, and also for re- newing her, to teach the Israehtes that they ought to become new creatures : " O moon ! blessed be thy Creator, blessed be he who made near at hand, that the hour of dan- ger had arrived, and yet they slept — they, his kinsmen, his friends, his chosen disciples — apparently indif- ferent to his danger and death vanity of favors, of the ties of blood and friendship! They could keep awake on Thabor, at the time of the glorious transfiguration, but they slept in the hour of trial and misfortune ! A confused noise was heard on the hollow road leading to the little village of Gethsemani, and soon after the light of many torches flashed on the trees. Jesus then, bending over his sleeping Apostles, said in a low, deep voice, "Arise! he who is to betray me is near at hand !" He had scarcely spoken these words when Judas and his band arrived. Advancing to Jesus, audacity in his eyes, and the false smile on his lips, he pointed hini out to the hostile troop who came to seek him, giving him, at the same time, that sacrilegious kiss which thee ;" and then they jump three times as high as they can, saying to the moon : " Even as we leap towards thee, but cannot reach thee, so may our enemies rise against us without power to harm us ! " . . . . (Basnage, 1. vii.-, ch. 16.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 229 has since taken his name. This was the signal. Jesus received the traitor kindly, and said to him, with touching sweetness, " Friend, where- to art thou come?" Whereto was he come ! .... He was come to earn the thirty pieces of silver promised by the Syna- gogue. Cupidity — a cold and cal- culating passion — commits tenfold more crimes, and crimes of a darker dye, than violence. Judas had not time to answer this embarrassing question, for all the others, advancing, threw them- selves on Jesus and laid hold of him. Then arose the hot blood of Peter ben Cephas,* Prince of the Apostles ; he drew his sword and smote one of the servants of the high -priest; but Jesus, arresting the only arm that was raised in his defence, commanded the sword to be restored to its scabbard. " That the Scriptures may be fulfilled," said the sacred Victim, '' so it must * Peter hen Cephas (Peter son of Peter). This is tlie name by which the Prince of toe Apostles is linown in the East. f The Garden of Gethsemani, or Olives, at the foot of the mountain of that name, is surround- ed by a wall about three feet high; it is two * be done." The Lamb of God was willing to be immolated for the sins of the world. Thereupon, there was heard with- in the garden a confused sound of hasty footsteps, of breaking branches, and cries of terror; and men were suddenly seen scaling the low fence f which surrounded the garden: these were the disciples making their escape ! . . . . The hostile troop, having bound Jesus like a criminal, retraced their steps to the holy city, bending their course towards the stone bridge which the Asmonean princes had thrown over the Kedron; but the people of Jerusalem, coming in crowds, had it already occupied; and tradition relates that Jesus was dragged across the stream ; where- by the prophecy w^as literally ful- filled, "He shall drink in the way the water of the torrent." The holy marks of the Saviour's feet and of one of his knees are imprinted in hundred paces long by one hundred and forty wide. It contains a rock, forming a reddish grotto, where it is said that the three Apostles slept. ( Voyages de Jesus Christ, 44th voyage). — Its name of Gethsemani is derived from the richness of its soil: Gethsemani, in Hebrew, signifies fertile valley. 230 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. the betl and on the stone margin f of the brook; so, at least, say the Christians of Jerusalem, who still point them out. Having climbed the hill of Sion, they entered Jeru- salem by the Sterquilian gate, and repaired to the house of Caiaphas, the high-priest, where the scribes and the ancients were assembled. The chief priests and the scribes then demanded of Jesus whether he was the Cheist. "If I tell you," replied the Saviour mildly, "you will not believe me." "Art thou the Son of God ?" demanded Caia- phas. "Thou hast said it," an- swered Jesus; "I am." "He has blasphemed!" cried the high-priest, rending his garments. "He has deserved death," said the scribes and Pharisees. Then they spat upon his face, struck him with their fists, and marched him to and fro, crving; out in bitter mockery, "Prophesy unto * Josephus, Ant. Jud., b. xviii., ch. 4. ■f" Before Judea had fallen under the Roman domination, the Sanhedrim had the power of life and death; but the conquerors took that privilege to themselves. It was the custom of the Romans to leave vanquished nations their temples and their gods ; but in civil matters they obUged them to follow the laws and ordi- nances of the Republic. At the time when us, Christ! and tell us who it was that struck thee !" Meanwhile, Peter, who had sworn rather to die than to abandon him, denied him three times in the court- yard of the high-priest ! Next day, the chief priests and the Pharisees dragged Jesus before Pontius Pilate, who was exceedingly unpopular with them since the af- fair of the imperial ensigns which he had introduced by night into Jerusalem;* but as they hated the Son of God still more, and that the Romans alone could condemn him to death,! they submitted to appear in the pretorium of that idolater, taking every precaution, however, to avoid coming in contact with his garments, his banners, or even his judgment-seat, which would have rendered them unclean for the whole day. Having, therefore, done all that depended on them to avert such a misfortune, these scrupulous Christ was condemned, the Romans were abso- lute masters of the temporal jurisdiction, and the authority of the Jewish senate was confined to. matters purely religious. The Talmudists admit the fact, for they acknowledge that the power of judging was taken from the senate forty years before the ruin of Jerusalem — that is to say, three years before the death of Christ. (See Basnage, liv. vii., ch. 4.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 231 men accused Jesus of having per- verted the people by his doctrine, of having prevented them from pay- ing tribute to Caesar, and, finally, of having assumed the seditious title of King of the Jews As many lies as words. Jesus listened in silence to these false accusations. Pilate, convinced of the profound malignity of the accusers, and the innocence of the accused, would have wished to save Jesus, but could not succeed. The Pharisees, skillful in the art of rais- ing popular tumults, worked upon the people, who kept crying out for the death of the descendent of their ancient kings ; and the governor, * They preserve in Jerusalem the sentence pronounced by Pilate on Jesus Christ We give it here, not as an authentic document, but as a local tradition. " Jesum Nazarenum sub- versorum gentis,* contemptorem Csesaris, et fal- sum Messiam, ut majorum suce gentis testimonie probatum est, ducite ad communis supplicii locum, et cum ludibrio regise majestatis in medio duoruni, latronum aflSgite. I, lictor, expedi cruces." — " Conduct to the ordinary place of execution, Jesus of Nazareth, the se- ducer of the people, who has despised the au- thority of Csesar, and falsely announced himself as the Messiah, according to the testimony of the ancients of his nation; crucify him between two thieves, with the derisive title of King. Go, lictor, prepare the crosses." (Ardicom. In descript. Jesus. ) f Pilate undertook to construct an aqueduct * who well knew how to appease the clamors of the Jews when it suited himself, contented himself with faintly defending, against the fury of his iniquitous accusers, the in- nocent man whom he should have firmly protected. Tired of their cries, overcome by their persever- ance, the Roman washed his hands of his sentence, and pronounced it* He then became anxious to make amends, as it were, for his display of clemency towards Jesus, and to regain the favor of the Jerusalemite populace, whom he had recently caused his lictors to cudgel because of a tumult f arising from his mak- ing too free with the sacred treas- with the money of the sacred treasury, to bring water into Jerusalem from a distance of two hundred stadia. The people, violently excited against the Roman governor, whose real inten- tion they penetrated, assembled by thousands in the streets and public places of Jerusalem; the whole city resounded with execrations against Pilate; "and some even provoked the governor," says Josephus, "by violent abuse, as is usual in popular outbreaks." Pilate, who was not so easily intimidated, ordered his men to take large sticks under their garments and surround the mob; when the latter, after a short respite, began again with their clamors and cutcries, Pilate made a sign to his soldiers, who instantly fell on the people, and even went beyond their instructions, beating those who said nothing as well as those who were loudest X in the clamor. " Those poor people having no 282 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. uiy, under pretence of constructing an aqueduct, with which he had nothing to do, — so he ordered the son of David and of Solomon to be scoui'ged, amid the accUimations of the deicide people, who had dared to ta)ve upon their own heads and tliose of tlieir children the dread responsibility of his death. That done, he delivered him up, though regarding him with pity and with admiration,* to the taunts and in- sults of a soldiery whom the princes of the Synagogue, despite their hatred of them, had stooped to bribe, in order to secure their co- operation in the execution of their revengeful projects, f They well arms," adds Josephus, with compassionate sym- pathy for the Jewish riot, " were therefore in- humanly treated ; some were killed, others wounded, and thus the tumult was quelled." (Joseph. Anl. Jud., 1. xviii., ch. 4.) * Tiberius, acting on the report sent by Pilate, proposed to the senate to deify Jesus. Tertullian mentions this as a notorious fact in his Apology, which he presented to the senate in the name of the Church, and he would not have weakened so good a cause by making any statement that could not be verified. (Tert., Apol. 5.) f Salvador would fain exculpate his co-reli- gionists by casting on the Roman soldiers the odium of the treatment inflicted on Jesus in the pretorium ; but it is clear that the Romans only acted as they did on the instigation of the ene- mies of Christ. The following is the opinion of f knew how to hate — those zealots of the law of Moses, who would kill and mock the Christ, /or God's sake ! When Jesus had reached the court of the pretorium, they seated him on a fallen pillar, J and the entire cohort amused themselves by offering him every imaginable spe- cies of insult. It was the season when the dangerous rhamnus§ was ill full bloom — that bush in whose green thorny mass the symbolical ram of Abraham's sacrifice || was, of old, entangled ; one of the sol- diers ran out and gathered a branch to form a derisive crown for Christ ; the fresh green blossoms were soon St. John Chrysostom on this subject : " It was, in reality, the Jews themselves who condemned Jesus to death, although they attribute the act to Pilate. They would that his blood should fall on themselves and their children. It was they alone who offered him all the insults that he received, who tied him, led him to Pilate, and had him so cruelly treated by the soldiers. Pilate had ordered nothing of all this." (Ser- mon 77, in Matth. ) I This pillar, of gray marble, and not more than two feet high, is in Rome, in the Church of St. Praxeda. § The detached thorns of this crown, which are still preserved, are now recognized for the rhamnus spina Chnsli of Linnaeus. II St. Jerome [in Philem.) says that the ram which Abraham saw entangled in the bush was -i the fiq-ure of Jesus crowned with thorns. Xj) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 233 stained with his sacred blood, every thorn making a deep and insup- portable wound. Having stripped him perfectly naked, they threw over his shoulders a purple rag, placed a reed in his hand by way of sceptre, and, with irony and mocking genuflexions, they saluted him as king. His whole body was but one gajDing wound, for the sharp, pointed lashes mangled the flesh, and sent it flying in pieces through the hall ; his sacred face was covered with spittle, and the blood which flowed from his divine brow, which his chained hands could not wipe away ! . . . . The princes of the priests, the Pharisees, and the doctors of the law, regarded this scene with secret satisfaction ; com- passion was a degrading weakness* in the eyes of those honorable men ! When the Pharisees thought that the idolatrous soldiers had suffi- ciently degraded Jesus before the people to destroy the idea of his * Basnage, 1. vi., ch. 17. — The punishment of scoui'ging was very ancient amongst the Jews, and was not considered infamous. According to the Talmud, kings themselves were punished in this way on certain occasions. " Tradition teaches," says Maimouides, " that the king must not have more than eighteen wives ; if he mar- ^ divinity, the approach of the Sab- bath rendering expedition neces- sary, they took their Victim, whom the Roman procurator reluctantly gave up, and, after placing the enormous Cross on his bleeding and mangled shoulders, they spurr- ed him on with the shafts of their lances in his slow and painful jour- ney to Calvary, where they were to crucify him. The streets were thickly lined with the multitude of spectators ; some displayed a ferocious joy, and loudly anathematized the son of David ; others deplored the hard fate of that young prophet who had done nought but good to men, by whom he was now abandoned and betrayed. But these barren proofs of sympathy were scarcely percep- tible ; the good wept in silence ; those whom he had fed with five loaves in the desert, those whom he had cured, those whom he had loved, were there, lost in the crowd, ries one above that number, he is to be scourged. If he have more horses than his chariot re- quires, let him be scourged. If he amass more gold or silver than is required to pay his minis- ters, let him be scourged." (Maimon., Hdach., Malach., ch. 3.) 234 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRQIN MART. and no voice was raised to protest against his execution;* the Apos- tles whom he most loved had dis- owned him ! the others had f1od, with one single exception ! As he painfully toiled down the long street which leads to the Gate of Judgment, a woman made her way through the crowd; she was very fair, and her mild, sweet face wore the stamp of purity, but it was full of unutterable sorrow ; she was pale as death, and trembled in every limb ; her eyes, which could now weep no more, fell with a glance of such mortal anguish on the gaping wounds of the Saviour,. that the daughters of Jerusalem wept as they saw her, murmuring, " Poor, poor mother ! " She silently glided through the people, who made way for her through an in- stinct of sympathy and compassion. Some hardened Pharisees were load- ing Jesus with bitter taunts and f reproaches — he who was bathed in sweat, and almost expiring under the weight of the Cross ; but his mother heard them not : the foreign soldiers who surrounded her Son made threatening gestures at her; she saw them not. But when a number of spears, pointed against her bosom, arose between her and Jesus, all the fire of the blood of David sparkled in her eyes, and she raised her beauteous head with an air of such ma;jestic sorrow, such utter contempt of death, that the astonished soldiers slowly lowered their arms before that holy and heroic woman. Fierce as their martial life had made them, they still remembered their mothers. Mary turned her trembling steps towards the Saviour; she fixed her sorrowful eyes on that humbled form moving slowly along, bleeding and half naked, under a heavy load ; on that imposing countenance, so * We read in the Misnah that, in the days when the Jews were governed by their own laws, when a criminal was led to the place of execution, a herald went before him on horse- back, crying, " Such a one is condemned for such a crime ; if any one has anything to say in his defence, let him speak." If any one came forward, the criminal was brought back, and ^ the reasons advanced in his favor were exam- ined by two judges who walked beside him ; the prisoner might be thus brought back as often as five times. {Misnah, Tract, de Syned., ch. vi., p. 233.) Jesus Christ being condemned by the Roman laws, could not profit by this national custom. ST MARY MAGDALEN. ;hK:D,& j sadlier xc" LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 23" mild and merciful, which she had ' scarcely ever dared to touch with her chaste lips, and which now, swollen and discolored, covered with blood and spittle, scarce retained the image of the Creator. She passed her hand sadly over her brow, as though to assure herself that the whole was not a fearful dream. No groan relieved her op- pressed heart, no gesture of despair betrayed the secret of her agony ; it only seemed that she was going to die, and die she must, in fact, a thousand times over, during that solemn and heart-rending pause, if He who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb had not divinely sus- tained her. Jesus soon perceived the presence of that mute and mo- tionless figure, and bending still lower his already bowed head, he pronounced the name of "Mother." * Tradition, supported by the authority of St. Boniface and St. Anselm, relates that Jesus saluted his mother with the words, "Hail, mother ! " As the Blessed Virgin is known to have been at the foot of the Cross, there is nothing improbable in this tradition of the Fathers. " There is nothing contrary to faith in these traditions," says M. de Chateaubriand ; "they serve to show how the marvellous and BubUme history of the Passion was engraved on the minds of men. Eighteen centuries have ^ At that word, which fell on the Virgin's ear like a funeral knell, a thrill of anguish ran through her heart; she was seen to totter and grow pale; then, sinking beneath the accumulated load of sorrow, she fell prostrate on those rough stones marked with the blood of Jesus.* .... A young Galilean, with a gloomy, dejected countenance, and a young woman bathed in tears, quickly made their way to where Mary lay ; thanks to their tender solicitude, the sorrowful Virgin recovered her senses, together with the conscious- ness of that physical and moral martyrdom which none, according to the Fathers, ever equalled. Doubt- less, John and Magdalen did all they could to keep her away from the bloody scene about 'to be en- acted on the Golgotha; but their rolled away ; endless persecutions and number- less revolutions fail either to hide or eflface the trace of a mother mourning for her sou." There was built in memory of Our Lady's swoon a church, which was consecrated under the name of Our Lady of the Spasm. "It was there," eays M. de Geramb, " that Mary, repulsed by the soldiers, met her Son bending under the weight of the ignominious wood on which he was to die." 236 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. efforts were vain, for, raising herself * with difficulty, Mary began to climb, under a burning sun, the steepest side of Calvary, which, being the shortest way, was that which they had made Jesus take.* They had reached the fatal and sacred place where the Lamb of God was to satisfy the justice of ofiended Heaven, substituting Him- self for all victims, and taking upon him all our miseries. It was there that he was to offer up that great sacrifice, the efficacy of which goes back, on the one side, to the orig- inal transgression, and extends, on the other, through the night of futu- rity, even to the consummation of the world. That little rocky plat- form was the altar whereon the blood of Christ was to flow in waves to wash a^ay the sins of the world, and annihilate for ever the compact of perdition which made us over at our birth to the Enemy of Souls. But what had become of the sacred * This road, which formerly led to Calvary, and by which the Saviour passed, now exists no longer ; it is covered with houses, in the midst of which is seen a large pillar, pointing out the ninth station ; Turkish fanaticism has done all it could to make the place disagreeable, by heaping dung around it so as to shock the sen- Victim ? Where had his execution- ers hid him from the desolate eyes of his mother ? Mary cast an anx- ious glance over the dreary moun- tain ; she saw the expecting multi- tude, the crosses laid on the ground, laborers carelessly digging out the deep holes that were to receive the three instruments of torture But where was Jesus ? He appeared, but in what a con- dition ! stripped of his garments, without a rag to cover his lacerated flesh and his bleeding wounds — ^lie, so chaste and so pure ! His execu- tioners, ignominiously dragging him along, exposed him thus for some time to the ridicule of the people ; then, the Just One stretched him- self on the Cross, that bed of honor prepared for him by the gratitude of men in return for his immense love ! It was a sight too horrible for those who loved him ; Mary was taken some paces thence, to a species of natural grotto,f where she sibilities of the Christians. (De Geramb, t. ler, p. 363.) f Near the spot where Our Saviour was nailed to the Cross there is a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows. It was to this jjlace that the Virgin retired during the doleful preparations ^ for her Son's execution. (Id. ib., p. 151.) remained standing, white and cold as marble. There was heard with- out a humming noise like that made by the bees of Engaddi when the Hebrew shepherd drives them from the hollow oak. At times there suddenly arose, amid that dull mur- mur, a storm of shouts, mocking cries, and hoarse bursts of laughter: the populace of all nations has ever had ferocious instincts, but that of the Hebrews surpassed itself on this occasion. During an interval of profound silence, accorded perhaps to some new act of barbarity which capti- vated the attention of the multitude, there was heard the stroke of a hammer, a heavy stroke falling on wood and crushed flesh. Magdalen, with a shudder, pressed close to Mary, and the beloved disciple leaned for support against the side of the grotto. Then came a second stroke, heavier, duller, more sinister still; it was followed by two or three others, falling at equal inter- vals, and all was done I " They are nailing him to the Cross," coolly observed a Koman soldier. John and Magdalen exchanged a mourn- ful glance; they felt a sensation something like that which rends the heart during a nocturnal storm, when the waves bring to the shore the drowning mariner's piteous cries, without any possibility of our assisting him. But Mary ! .... a cold sweat bedewed her body, a con- vulsive trembling shook her limbs ; she, too, was crucified — poor, feeble woman ! for never did confessor on the rack, or martyr amid the flames, undergo such tortures both in soul and body. Soon was heard the sharp rub- bing of the cords on the pulleys; the Cross arose slowly in the air, and the Son of Man — his face turned towards those western re- gions where the light was so long expected — was hoisted like a stand- ard before the heathen nations : even so was it written. Thereupon, the reprobate people raised a long, hoarse shout of joy. "Hail, King of the Jews! If God loves him, let Him now deliver him ! If thou art the Son of God, Nazarene, come down from the Cross!" And the robber crucified on his left cursed him in the intervals of his agony; the wretch would fain be a Jew to the last. Jesus, maintaining with 238 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. calni and sublime dignity his great character of prophet and Saviour- God, silently sealed with his blood the high doctrines of the new law. No complaint, no reproach escaped him amid the infamous torture which he underwent, in presence of a w^hole city. He looked down on that misguided people with pity and forgiveness, and, seeking to bend the divine justice in favor of those who crucified him, "Father," said he, with his dying voice — "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" "And yet for eighteen centuries the Father has not forgiven them, and they drag their punishment all over the earth, and everywhere the very slave has to humble himself to look at them."* The Virgin left the temporary asylum where she had taken shel- ter, and walked, with her head bowed down, towards the place of execution. At some paces from the infamous tree, rude soldiers were * M. de Lamennais. f It is an ancient tradition that the Virgin herself wove her Son's tunic. \ The cathedral of Treves possesses one of these sacred garments, and at one of its recent annual expositions, the police reports announced * casting lots for the seamless robe which her own hands had spun,f and clamorously contending for the sacred garments which had wrought so many miracles. J A slight con- vulsion passed over Mary's features; she thought of the time when, rich only in the love of Jesus, but free from immediate anxiety, she worked, in the evenings, by his side, fabri- cating that festal robe; now, the remembrance was torture to her heart, for the light which gilded her past days of happiness did but darken the gloom of her present sorrow. She raised her eyes to heaven, seeking there, as usual, the strength to endure, and her eye met that of the crucified God. At that fearful sight, hei' feet were rooted to the earth, and she stood so petri- fied with horror that all she had hitherto suff'ered seemed no more than a dream, a half-efi'aced vision : all was absorbed in the Cross. § Jesus, casting on the Virgin a sweet and mysterious look, seemed the presence of twenty-five thousand pilgrims in that cit}\ § The Fathers and the gre.at doctors of the Church place the sufferings of the Virgin on Calvary above those of all the martyrs. "Virgo universos martyres tantum excedit quantum sol LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 239 to say to her, as he did on the * preceding evening to his Apostles, "Mother, the hour is come!" And what hour was that? It was the most memorable and eventful hour ever marked by the shadow of the sun since time began its course ; the hour when the Son of God was to triumph over the world, death, and hell, and even over divine justice itself; the hour of the fulfillment of prophecies, of the abolition of sacrifices, of the restoration of woman to her prime- val dignity, of the slave's emanci- pation, and of our eternal redemp- tion. And the Virgin fancied she could see the patriarchs, the just kings, the prophets inspired by God, bowing down before Christ, like the sheafs of the sons of Jacob before the mystical sheaf of Joseph. She thought she could see Moses and Aaron laying before the new tree of life the ark of the covenant, the ephod, the rational, the golden plate and the almond-tree branch — symbols of the Hebrew priest- ad reliqua astra," says St. Basil; and St. Aiisehn adds, " Quidquid crudelitatis inflictum est cor- poribus martyrum leve fuit aut potius nihil comparatione tuse passionis." {De Ex. Virg., cap. 5.) . hood whose mission was about to end ; then, David placing his pro- phetic harp beside the sword of Phineas, the sacred knife of Abra- ham, and the brazen serpent. Priests and victims, rites and ordi- nances, types and symbols, grouped around the Cross, awaited their con- summation ; and the book with the seven brazen seals was opened at the foot of the High-Priest accord- ing to the order of Melchisedech, which replaced that of Aaron. The ancient world, receding like the waves, gave place to other images, and Mary seemed at. that moment to behold all the nations of the earth waiting at the foot of the Cross to receive tlie Gospel. Ethio- pia and the isles sti-etched out their hands towards the Messiah; the desert, beginning to rejoice, blos- somed like the rose ; the knowledge of God, filled the whole earth as the great waters cover the sandy bed of the ocean; and a thousand voices seemed to repeat in a thousand barbarous tongues, " Chiist has conquered; blessed be his name!" The noble and generous heart of Mary forgot, for a while, its own , poignant suiferings, to sympathize 240 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. in the triumph of the law of grace, f and in the world's regeneration ; but the vision of glory quickly vanished, and grief returned in all its force; like Rachel, the Virgin mourned for her first-born, and would not be comforted. Meanwhile, all nature seemed to sympathize in the sufferings of its God ; the sky was gradually ob- scured, and the waning light gave a mournful coloring to that grand and sterile landscape so well suited to the crime of which it was the theatre. Every moment the dark- ness increased ; the dew fell, from the sudden interruption of the heat; the eagles screamed as they sought their nightly shelter; the jackals howled on the banks of the Kedron, and Calvary, already so gloomy in itself, assumed the appearance of a great mausoleum of black marble. The people, strongly impressed by this unusual occurrence, were struck * Phlegon relates that in the two hundred and second Olympiad, corresponding with the 33d year of our era, there was the greatest eclipse of the sun ever seen, and that the stars appeared at noon-day; but astronomy proving that there was no echpse in that yeai', compels OS to acknowledge that the cause of this un- heard-of darkness was altogether supernaturaL silent with fear, and only a few voices — those of the chief priests and Pharisees— continued to curse the Christ. Soon, through the gloomy veil which shrouded the face of the firmament, the stars shone out like funeral torches burning around a coffin, shedding over the scene of the deicide a lurid, greenish light, which gave to the mass of specta- tors grouped on the sides of the mountain the appearance of an assembly of demons and spectres. They looked at each other and grew pale. Yainly did the scribes and Pharisees — too far advanced in crime to attempt to recede— en- deavor to account for this prodigy by natural means ; the longer the darkness continued, the less conclu- sive did their reasons appear. Old men, shaking their hoary heads, declared they had never beheld such an eclipse;* and the learned. " We observed," says St. Deuis, the Areopagite, who was then at Heliopolis, " that the moon sud- denly interposed between the sun and the earth, although the time of that conjunction was not in accordance with the natural order of the laws to which the stars are subject," etc. (Seventh Epistle to Polycarpe). LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 241 who were versed in the science of the Chaldeans, maintained, on the other hand, that no eclipse was either foreseen or possible in the then position of the moon. This eclipse, of three hours, was one of the Messianic prodigies which were to signalize the wrath of heaven when Christ was put to death. "It shall come to pass in that day, " said the prophet Amos, "that the sun shall go down at mid-day ; and I will make the earth dark in the day of light." This darkness extended even to Egypt, where St. Denis, the Areopagite, was studying philosophy at Heli- opolis. Struck with terror, the young Greek cried out, address- ing his preceptor, Apollophanes, "Either the world is about to be destroyed, or the God of nature suffers ! " * In the midst of the general con- sternation, Jesus occupied himself with the faithful souls who gathered around his Cross in that hour of ignominy. Touched by the courage of John, and the profound affliction which that young and ardent dis- ciple sought not to conceal, he * Seventh Epidle to Polycarpe. * would leave him a pledge of his divine affection. He could leave him no worldly wealth — he, who had not had a stone whereon to lay his head, and who was even about to receive interment from the charity of a disciple — he had nothing in the world to leave but his mother ! that mother who had clung to him through every trial, and who was now dying, as it were, with him. Her he solemnly bequeathed to his favorite disciple as an earnest of the celestial treasures which he reserved for him in the kingdom of his Father. Knowing how well he was loved by those two holy souls, he foresaw, in his adorable good- ness, the fearful vacuum which his death would make in their hearts, and he would strengthen these two helpless shrubs by intertwining their detached branches. By this arrangement, which gave her a new and dear interest in life, the Virgin was to understand that she was not permitted to follow her Son to the grave, and that the term of her earthly pilgrimage was not yet arrived. She submitted to the divine will through love for us, whom she adopted in the person of 242 LIFE OF THE BLESSED yiJiUJN MARY. the holy Apostle. Mary's sacrifice, humanly speaking, almost equalled that of Chiist. He willingly con- sented to die; she to live! .... Both those noble hearts were con- simied with love for men, and were alone able to understand each other; fbr their thoughts were not as our thoughts, and the gold of their vir- tues was without alloy. The manner in which Jesus be- queathed Mary to the yoimg fisher- man of Bethsaida was dignified and simple, like all the acts of his mor- tal life. "Woman, behold thy son;" and to the beloved disciple, "Behold thy mother." K he used not, in speaking to Mary, a more endearing appellation, it was because he knew the power of the name which he thought proper to omit, and would not re- open wounds already so deep and so painful. Then Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, " I thu-st." "Now there was a vessel set there full of vinegar. And they, put- ting a &ponge full of vinegar about hyssop, offered it to his mouth." Infamous to the last! Jesus having taken the vinegar, said, "It is consummated." Then, in order to prove to the world that he died, not by the power of death, but by a formal act of his own will, he gave a loud cry, bowed down his head and expired ! . . . . At that moment the pagan idols tottered on their pedestals ; the star of Moses, which had shone, but for one single point of the globe, and that but for a season, sank then, below the horizon, and the sim of the Gospel, destined to light the world from pole to pole, and to last through all time, arose radiant from the east. But God owed prodigies to the despised dignity of his Son, and they were not slow in coming. The supernatural darkness, as it began to disappear, was succeeded by the violent shocks of an earth- quake, which destroyed twenty cities in Asia.* At the same in- stant the veil of the Temple was rent asunder, rocks split, and sev- eral bodies of the saints who had * Pliny and Strabo speak of this earthquake. "It was so violent," say both these authors, " that it was felt even in Italy." THE CRUCIFIXION. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 243 slept in death arose and came into Jerusalem, to the great terror of the inhabitants. Then it was that there was a marvellous reaction in favor of Je- sus ; the centurion and his soldiers, who had presided at the execution, cried out with one voice that the Nazarene prophet was certainly more than man; and that immense crowd of people who had heaped blasphemies and insults, mockery and derision, on Christ in his agony, went down from the mountain strik- ing their breasts, and repeating in dismay, "Indeed Tms was the Son OF God!" In the midst of the despairing cries of the people, who fled in all directions without knowing where to turn their steps, and whilst the rocky flanks of the Golgotha were bursting open, there was seen by the pale, lurid light a woman stand- ing completely motionless amid the t convulsions and ruins of nature. She seemed insensible to the gen- eral consternation ; her htinds joined in the attitude of prayer, she was wholly absorbed in the sorrowful contemplation of the crucified pro- phet. And the daughters of Jerusalem wept again, saying with compas- sion, " Poor mother !" Towards evening the Pharisees, unwilling that the sanctity of the Sabbath, which commenced at night- fall, should be endangered by allow- ing the bodies to remain on the Cross, went to ask Pilate's permis- sion to have them removed. The permission obtained, 'they placed ladders against the gibbets whereon the two thieves were still in their agony, and, having rudely torn their hands and feet from the Cross, dis- patched them by breaking their legs and arms. Jesus being quite dead,* a soldier contented himself * According to the Mussulmans, Jesus is not dead. " The Jews," says Mahomet, " did not kill Jesus Christ ; another body was substituted for his, so as to deceive their barbarity ; they did not crucify him ; God took him up to heaven." {Koran, ch. 4.) The Mussulman tra- dition says that when the last trumpet shall sound, Aisa (Jesus Christ) shall come down from heaven and announce to all the children ^ of men the great day of general judgment ; he shall then die and be interred beside Mahomet ; when the dead arise from their graves, both shall go forth together and ascend to heaven. Burkhardt, who visited the great mosque in Medina which contains the three tombs of ^I - hornet, Aboubeker, and Omar, all three of black stone covered with precious stuffs, and sur- rounded with magnificent ex-voio, says that S44 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY: with plunging his spear into his side, whereupon the sacred blood that was to piu-ify the world of its crimes flowed in streams to the ground. At some distance stood two veiled women, one of whom leaned on the other for support with a helplessness that betrayed the most heart-rending grief; both were timidly watching the move- ments of the soldiers ; it was Mary and Magdalen, for Magdalen was also there ; and at a distance were seen the other women of Galilee who had quitted all for Jesus, and who had not abandoned him even in his hour of death and ignominy. "Honor to them!" says Abeilard, "for, when the disciples and Apos- tles fled like cowards over the mountains, these frail but com-age- ous creatures accompanied Christ even to the foot of the Cross, and quitted him not till he was laid in the sepulchre ! " Then came Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy senator who had ob- tained from Pilate the body of Jesus, — whose disciple he was in there was left near the touib of Mahomet" a vacant place, destined to receive Jesus after his death. Abo »'e this space and Mahomet's tomb f secret, — in order to give him decent burial. lie took it down from the Cross and prepared to wrap it up in a shroud of flne Egyptian linen, which he had purchased in Jerusa- lem, when he saw at his feet a woman pale as death, holding out her arms, with all the touching and sublime energy of grief, to receive the crucified God. Her whole frame was convulsed with anguish, and her lips refused to utter the prayer that arose from her heart, but every feature of her beautiful face was expressive of the most earnest sup- * plication. The senator, recognizing Mary, made a sign of compassion- ate sympathy, and laid on her trem- bling knees the divine burden which he had respectfully borne on his own shoulders. Tlius, the Blessed Virgin had, at- length, the mournful consolation of pressing to her bleed- ing heart the disfigured body of her Son, and to lay her bloodless lips on the wounds made by the nails. Magdalen, on her knees, bathed with her scalding tears the bloody feet of her Lord, and moaned like a was hung a splendid brocade canopy, giirnished with diamonds, which was stolen by Sioud when he took Medina. ^Vi)t '\}thfM''hnm^'^]pi^nll t J-.Sadlf!r * C'New'V - LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 24t woimded dove. Behind them stood the weeping women of Galilee.* Meanwhile, some of Joseph's ser- vants prepared the perfumes on the * Some authors hold that these holy women picked up earth soaked with the precious blood of Jesus, aud that this is how it came to be in some French churches, such as St. Denis and the Holy Chapel, in Paris. stone of unctwn,f and others opened the sepulchre, hewn in the rock, which was to receive the mortal remains of the Son of God. f The "stone of unction" is now in the chapel of Calvary. Those in whose keeping it is have been obliged, in order to preserve it, to cover it with white marble, and surround it with an iron balustrade. CHAPTER XYIII. DEATH OF MARY. ALM was begin- ning to reappear, and the signs of divine wrath no longer terrified the Jews who had just shed the Saviour's blood. Like all other ferocious animals, the executioners of Christ had laid aside their savage instinct during the hour of peril. Frightened, at frst, on account of what they had (^one, they feared that the riven locks of Calvary might crush them in their fall, and that the rending earth might swallow them alive into ^ the gloomy depths of the scJieol ; but their remorse vanished with their fears, and according as the sky resumed its wonted serenity, so did their evil nature resume its sway. Unable to deny the prodigies which a whole people had seen with their eyes, and which was still verified by the yawning rocks, the tombs scarcely closed, and the riven veil of the Temple, they ascribed them to magic, and maintained that this Jesus, so mighty in word aud work, was but a son of Belial, who had infatuated the people and com- 246 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. iiiaiuled the elements by the ineifa- ble name of the God of Israel, which he had taken by surprise from the Holy of Holies.* And the people allowed themselves to be caught by this bait thrown out by their chiefs ; for there is no slanderous absurdity which finds not credulous ears to receive, and nimble tongues to spread it. Meanwhile, a vigilant guard, chosen from amongst the sat- ellites of the high-priest, watched by turns around the sepulchre ; for Jesus had announced that he would rise on the third day, and the princes of the synagogue pretend- ed to fear that his disciples might carry him off during the night. The third day was beginning to dawn, but the east was, as yet, scarcely tinted with its roseate flush, when several women of Gali- lee, bearing perfumes and aromatic plants to embalm Jesus, after the manner of the kings of Juda,f ap- peared on the fatal mountain, mov- ing pensively towards the garden wherein was- the tomb of Christ. * See Basnage, 1. vi., cb. 27 and 28. f It is clear that they intended a peculiar sort of embalming for Jesus, since Nicodemus had already wrapped him up in cloths perfumed with mvrrh. f Tradition has it that Mary wjis amongst these holy women. Iler dejected countenance resembled some beautiful ruin prostrated by the fierce wind of adversity; but her look was expressive not only of grief, but of expectation. The deicide city still slept in the balmy breeze of the morning ; the flowers w^ere opening their cups heavy with dew, the birds were singing in the damp branches of the wild fig-trees, and the air was gradually assuming the warm coloring of the daw^n ; nature seemed to assume her robe of light with unwonted joy, and that grand, though gloomy, landscape w^liich surrounds Jerusalem, began to wear a softer and gayer aspect, till then unknown, as though con- scious of some glorious mystery passing near. Suddenly, in the midst of that smiling scene, a shock is felt; the stone that closes the mouth of the sepulchre rolls back as if pushed by some mighty arm ; the guards fall stupefied to the ground, and the w^omen, who stood by Jesus during his long agony on the Cross, now shudder and grow pale, fearing that the terrible prodigies w^hich accom- LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIROIN MART. 247 panied the death of the Son of Man * are about to be renewed. But an angel in snow-white gar- ments, with a face radiant as the lightning, appears sitting on the stone, and reassures the servants of Christ. "Fear not," said he, mild- ly, " I know that you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified ; he is not here ; he is risen, as he told you. Come and see the place Tvhere the Lord was laid." Whilst the pious Galileans looked timidly into the sepulchre, wondering at sight of the shroud and the per- fumed cloths wdiich remained there, the Virgin, her face radiant with a holy joy, stood leaning against an olive-tree at some distance. A young man, in the homely garb of the people, stood conversing w^th her in a low voice. That young man was the first-born amongst the dead, the glorious conqueror of hell, Jesus Christ* No one knew^ what passed during that solemn inter- view", but w^e may believe that * St. Ambrose, who lived in the 4th century, says that the Virgin was the first who had the happiness of seeing Jesus after his resurrec- tion ; and the poet Sedulius, who flourished shortly after St. Ambrose, likewise introduces that tradition into his poems. They both speak ^ Mary, whose strong mind had been so severely tried by affliction, felt then a degree of bliss which we cannot know without dying. Our Lord, during the forty days following his resmiection, frequent- ly manifested himself to the Apos- tles, and talked with them on mat- ters appertaining to the kingdom of God and the regeneration to be wrought amongst men by baptism. Pious authors have supposed that the Virgin was the most favored in these consoling apparitions, and that she found in them a foretaste of the joys of heaven. The bitter waters of her affliction were changed into sources of grace, and the Sav- iour " nourished her with the hiddea manna which he reserves for those who practise the patience enjoined by his law." At length, the hour came when, by the divine behest, the Son of God was to be recalled to heaven ; his redeeming mission was accom- plished, and the Apostles, fully con- of it as a belief general amongst Christians. The Arab historians have preserved this tradi- tion : iemael, son of AH relates that Jesus came down from heaven to console Mary, his weeping mother. An altar has been erected on the site of this touching interview. vinced of his divinity by his resur- rection, had received from him the necessary instructions for convert- ing the nations to his admirable Gospel. At noon, on the fortieth day, he went out with them from Jerusalem towards the heights of Bethany. This dh-ection was not taken by chance ; there was that olive-crown- ed mountain whereon the Saviour, detaching himself from the crowd, had often prayed to his Father, while the silent moon shone bright- ly over the still waters of the Dead Sea, the green valley of the Jordan, and the gigantic palms of the plain of Jericho, for in that elevated posi- tion "all far things seemed near." There was, also, that famous garden where Christ had undergone the first of his agony. It was just that his glory should commence in the same places that had witnessed his generous sufferings, and that those fields, those woods, those shady wilds, where he had so often prayed and meditated, should receive the impression of his last footsteps be- fore he again ascended to heaw3n. Arrived on the summit of that lofty mountaiif, whence he could be- f hold a great part of Judea, and make a farewell sign to those scenes which he had rendered famous by his miracles and his death, the Saviour stopped on an open place, near a grove of olives, whose pale foliage w^as parched and shrivelled by the scorching noonday sun. There, after raising his pierced hands towards his heavenly Father, as though recommending to Him his infant Church, he extended them over his mother and his dis- ciples, as Jacob did over the sons of Joseph; then lifted himself up by his own power and slowly as- cended into heaven. This last act of the Saviour w^orthily sealed his divine mission. During his life, he went about doing good ; on Cal- vary, he prayed for his execution- ers ; and he ascended to heaven blessing the humble friends whom he left behind him on the earth. While his hands were still raised over his prostrate disciples, they saw him enter a white cloud, which concealed him from their view. The ascension of Our Lord had not that gloomy and awful charac- ter which terrified the people in ancient times. The law of Moses LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 249 had been proclaimed with sound of trumpet, amid the thunder's roar and the lightning's flash ; Elias had been taken up to heaven in a liery chariot; but the world's Redeemer was gently borne on a fleecy cloud, with that sort of calm and serene majesty which accorded with the genius of the Gospel and the touch- ing character of its author. The angels — those beneficent spirits who rejoice in the happi- ness of men — were also seen to figure in that closing scene of the great drama of Redemption. Their divine songs had announced to the shepherds the birth of the King- Messiah; their voice had proclaim- ed his resurrection from the dead; it was proper, then, that their words should confirm his glorious ascension. Whilst the disciples were atten- tively watching Jesus as he ascend- ed into heaven, two men clothed in white stood suddenly before them, and said, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking up to heaven? This Jesus, who is taken up from you to heaven, shall so come as you have seen him goi ng into heaven." * Apoc, ch. xxi., V. 4. The Apostles and disciples cast down their eyes, dazzled by the glorious vision ; but did the Virgin cast down hers ? Was she denied the privilege of seeing her divine Son take his place in majesty at the right hand of Jehovah, amid the inaccessible light of the Saints ? Was she really less favored than St. Stephen and the beloved dis- ciple? That is scarcely possible. She who was morally crucified with Jesus on Calvary deserved to be glorified with him ; it was her right, and she had dearly purchased it! Yes, Mary must have been per- mitted to catch a glimpse of that peaceful and happy country into which Jesus obtained admission for us by his blood, and where he him- self wipes away the tears of the just;* then the pearl gates of the heavenly Jerusalem f slowly closed on the conquering God, and the Virgin, separated for a time from him she loved, remained alone on the earth. Forty days after, we find her at prayer in the "upper chamber," where she received the Holy Ghost with the Apostles. ^_^ t Jbid., V. 21. '2:)0 LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Maiy was the luminous pillar t that guided the march of the infant Church. It was to her that the Apostles did homage for the numer- ous ears which they gathered from the barren field of the synagogue into the granary of the Lord. She accepted this tribute in the name of her divine Son with graceful humility, and was continually seen surrounded by the poor, the sinful, and the unhappy; for she always loved in an especial manner those to whom she could do good. The Evangelists came to her for light ; the Apostles, for unction, courage, and constancy ; the afflicted, for spiritual consolation, — and all went away blessing her. The Sun of Justice had set on the gloomy hori- zon of the Golgotha; but the Star of the Sea still reflected his softest- rays over the renovated world, and shed a benignant influence on the cradle of Christianity. The Virgin remained in Jerusalem till the terrible persecution, which broke out in the year 44 of Our Lord, forced her to leave it with the Apostles. Her adopted son took her with him to Ephesus, whither she was followed by Magdalen. Nothing is now known of Mary's sojourn in Ephesus ; this is easily accounted for by the engrossing anxieties of the time. After the resurrection of the Saviour, the Apostles, solely taken up with the propagation of the faith, considered everything as of minor importance that did not immediately bear "on that all-absorbing object. Full of their lofty mission, entirely devoted to the salvation of souls, they forgot themselves so completely, that they have barely left us a few unfinished records of the evangelical labors which changed the face of the globe, — so that their history resem- bles a sublime but almost effaced epitaph, having neither beginning nor end. That the mother of Jesus shared the fate of the Apostles may well be conceived; the last years of her life having passed away, far from Jerusalem, in a strange land, where her dwelling was signalized by no striking incident, have left no durable impression on the fleet- ing memory of man. Neverthe- less, the flourishing condition of the Church of Ephesus, its tender devo- tion to Mary, and the praise which St. Paul bestows on its piety, suffi- LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIBGIN MARY. 251 ciently indicate the fruitful cares f of the Virgin, and the divine bless- ing which followed her everywhere. The Eose of Jesse left a portion of her perfume on the air, and that vestige, however slight it be, is a precious revelation of her passage. The coasts of Asia Minor, covered with opulent cities, rich in vegeta- tion, and washed by a sea which bore thither a multitude of vessels, would have seemed, to ordinary exiles, a splendid compensation for the tall, bleak mountains of Pales- tine. It is doubtful whether such was the opinion of the Virgin of Nazareth : the steps of the Man- God had not hallowed that enchant- ed land, and the graves of her fathers were not there ! . . . . How often did Mary and Magda- len sigh for their native land, as, seated under a plane-tree on the margin of that fair Icarian sea * "We read in some Greek authors of the 7th and following centuries, that, after the ascen- sion of Christ, St. Mary Magdalen accompanied the Virgin and St. John to Ephesus, and that she died and was buried in that city. Such is also the opinion of Modestus, patriarch of Jeru- salem, who flourished in 920 ; of St. Gregory of Tours, and of St. Willebald. The latter, in his account of his journey from Jerusalem, says that he saw at Ephesus the tomb of St. Mary whose waves die away amid myr- tles on the narrow sandy beach, they followed the course of some Greek galley bound for Syria ! The stainless snows of Lebanon, the blueish peaks of Carmel, the spark- ling waters of the Lake of Tiberias, were each, in turn, the subject of their discourse ; the scenes of their own land, embellished by distance, passed successively before them, and seemed a thousand times preferable to that soft, luxurious Ionia which was, in fact, to the land of Jehovah what the lyre of Anacreon is to the harp of David. It was during her stay at Ephe- sus that the Virgin lost the faith- ful companion who, in imitation of Ruth, had left her home and kin- dred to follow her across the sea: Magdalen died, and Mary wept for her, as Jesus had wept for Lazarus.* Of all the ties of kindred and Magdalen. The Emperor Leo, the philosopher, had the reHcs of the saint translated from Ephesus to Constantinople, where they were placed in the church of St. Lazarus, about the year 890. — Another tradition, maintained by some respectable authors, will have it that St. Mary Magdalen ended her days in Provence. We have adopted the contrary opinion, because it seemed more probable, but yet without at- ^i tempting to decide the question. 252 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. affection, St John alone remained | to the Virgin — St. John, the kind and loving disciple whom her dying Son had bequeathed to her. She followed him, it is thought, in his travels, and it was doubtless in his conversations with the Queen of prophets that St. John acquired the marvellous knowledge which he dis- plays in his Gospel. Assisted by light fi-om Her whom the Fathers have compared to the golden can- dlestick with seven branches, the young fisherman of Bethsaida dived deeper than any other into the in- comprehensible mystery of the un- created essence of the Word, and his mind took so bold a flight amid the mysterious heights of heaven, that, compared with him, the other Evangelists seem but to skim the earth.*..,. ,,. ■J » ■ Meanwhile, the sowers of Christ had sowed the good seed of the word over every part of the Roman world ; the evangelical harvest was * The Abb6 Rupert {in Cant. Cant.) states that the Blessed Virgin supplied by her lights what the Holy Ghost, who had given Himself ip proportion to the disciples, had not thought proper to reveal to them ; and the Holy Fathers all agree that it was from the Blessed Virgin St. Luke obtained many of his marvellous and minute particulars of the infancy of Jesus Christ. ^ green, and the laborers of the Lord worked with ardor in the sacred field. Mary considered that her mission on earth was accomplished, and that the Church could hence- forward maintain herself. Then, like a tired workwoman who seeks rest and shelter during the heat of the day, she began to sigh after the cool shade of the tree of life which grows near the throne of God, and for the living, sanctifying waters which flow beneath its branches.f This desire of his mother was known to Him who fathoms the depths of the soul, and the angel who stands at his right hand came to inform the future Queen of heaven that her Son had granted her wish. J At this divine revelation, to which was added, as Mc^phorus tells us, that of the day and hour of her death, the daughter of Abraham began to sigh yet more ardently for her distant country ; she would fain behold once more the lofty f Apoc, ch. xxii., v. 1 and 2. X Tradition relates that the Blessed Virgin was apprised of her approaching death by the ministry of an angel, who made her acquainted with the day and the hour when it was to take place. (Descoutures, p. 235. — Pere Croiset, t. xviii., p. 138.) LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIROIN MARY. 253 mountains of Judea, where the memory of the Redemption still floated on every breeze, and to die in sight of Calvary. St. John, to whom her wishes were at all times laws, made immediate preparations for returning to Palestine. The Hebrew travellers probably embarked at Miletus, which was then famous as the rendezvous of all ships from Europe and Asia navi- gating those waters. While cross- ing the Grecian seas, the Virgin and the Evangelist recognized, in pass- ing, the isle of Ohio, whose people, long possessed of the empire of the sea, were the first to introduce that odious slave-trade which the Gospel was gradually to abolish ; then Les- bos, the land of lyric poets, where the hymn to the most pure Virgin was to replace the burning odes of Sappho and the more masculine strains of Alceus. Seeing the top of the Temple of Esculapius soaring into the clouds — that temple which then attracted whole multitudes of people to the Island of Cos — the * The followers of Mahomet have preserved the remembrance of the miracles of Christ. They pretend that the breath of Our Lord, which they call had Messih (the breath of the ^ * Virgin-mother was reminded of her divine Son, who, of all the children of men, had power instantly to heal the sick and raise the dead to life.* Delos, the birth-place of Apollo, Ehodes, the cradle of Jupiter, rose successively from amid the waters, with their green mountains and their ancient temples, peopled with gods who were soon to be banished to the depths of hell by the God who was crucified on Calvary. At some distance from Cyprus there was seen, far up amid the clouds, a dark point traced on the blue dome of heaven ; it was the mount whereon the prophet Elias had of old erected an altar to the future mother of the Saviour, and where his disciples were then about to place themselves under her special protection. Next day, the galley entered a port of Syria — Sidon, per- haps — its commercial intercoui*se being frequent with Palestine, as the sacred books relate. They returned to Israel after an absence of several years. Mary Messiah), not only raised the dead, but could even give life to things inanimate. (D'Herb., Biblioth. Orient., t. i., p. 365.) S54 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. withdrew to the mountain of Sion, within a short distance of the ruin- ous and deserted palace of the princes of her race, to the house which had been sanctified by the descent of the Holy Ghost. St. John, on his side, went to seek St. James, a cousin-germain of the Vir- gin and the first bishop of Jerusa- lem, to inform him, as well as the faithful who composed his already numerous church of Jerusalem, that the mother of Jesus had returned to die amongst them. The day and the hour were come; the saints of Jerusalem once more beheld the daughter of David, still poor, still fair, still humble ; for one would have said that this admirable and holy creature escaped the de- stroying action of time, and that, predestined from her birth to a complete and glorious immortality, nothing in her was to perish.* Se- rious, but not sick, she received the Apostles and disciples seated on a small bed of mean appearance, suit- ed to her unpretending garments. * St. Denis, an eye-witness of the death of the Blessed Virgin, affirms that, at that advanced period of her Ufe, she was still strikingly beau- tiful * There was in her modest yet noble mien something so solemn and so touching that the whole assembly burst into tears. Mary alone was calm, although the vast chamber was crowded with old disciples and new Christians, all equally anxious to see and hear her. The night had fallen, and lamps, with many branches, seemed to shed, with their pale light, something solemn and mysterious over that sad and silent assembly. The Apos- tles, deeply moved, stood close around the bed of death. St. Peter, who had so tenderly loved the Son of God during his life, contemplated the Virgin - mother with profound sorrow, and his speaking glance seemed to say to the bishop of Jeru- salem, " How much she resembles Christ!" In fact, there was a re- markable likeness ;f and the bowed head of Mary, recalling that of the Saviour during the last Supper, com- pleted the effect. St. James, who had received from the Jews them- selves the surname of Just, and who f Jesus hung his head a little, which took some- thing from his height ; his face had much resem- blance to that of his mother, especially in the lower part. (Nic, Hisl. Eccles., t. i., p. 125.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 255 well knew how to subdue his feel- ings, sternly repressed the tears which moistened his eyelids. The Prince of the Apostles — a frank and impulsive man — was deeply affected, and strove not to conceal his emo- tion ; St. John had wrapped a fold of his Greek mantle around his head, but his sobs betrayed him. There was not, in all the crowd, a heart unmoved, or an eye unmoistened by a tear. Mary, sympathizing in the general emotion, and almost forget- ting the splendor which awaited her on high, in order to wipe away the tears of those who loved her, applied herself to confirm the faith of her children, to revive their pious hopes, and to inflame their charity; she told them with unequalled eloquence of those mighty and sublime things which people hold their breath to hear, which raise man above himself, and render him capable of any undertaking. Her speech, so mild that the Scripture has compared it * St. John Damascene. f Some ancient Fathers, and, amongst others, St. Epiphanius, seem to doubt whether the Mother of God really died, or whether she re- mained immortal, being taken body and soul to heaven ; but the opinion of the Church is, that the Blessed Virgin did really die according to to a honeycomb, became gradually strong ; the daughter of David and of Solomon, the inspired prophetess who had extemporaneously com- posed the triumphal hymn of the Ma^nijicat, soared up to considera- tions so high that the listeners forgot, in their ecstasy, that death was to close that mystic strain. But the fatal hour approached. Mary ex- tended her protecting hands over the poor orphans whom she was about to quit, and, raising her beau- tiful eyes to the stars which shone brightly in the firmament, she saw the heavens open, and the Son of man extending his arms towards her from amidst a luminous cloud.* At this sight a roseate flush overspread her face, her eyes sparkled with ma- ternal love, joy attained its height, adoration became ecstatic, and her soul, disengaging itself without an effort from its fair and virginal cov- ering, fell gently into the bosom of God.f the condition of the flesh, and this opinion is clearly manifested in the Mass for the Feast of the Assumption. The Blessed Virgin died dur- ing the night which precedes the 15th of August The date of her death is very uncertain. Euse- bius fixes it in the year 48 of our era ; so that^ according to him, Mary lived sixty-eight years ; SM LIFE OF THE BLESSED VTROTN AfARY. Mary was no more, but her coun- tenance, which had assumed the ex- pression of a tranquil slumber, was 80 sweet to look upon that it seemed as though Death hesitated to set his seal on that ti'ophy which he was only to retain for a day. The death-lamp was lit ; the win- dows were all thrown open, and the summer breeze made its way into the room with the flickering beams of the stare. One would have said that a miraculous light filled the room when Mary had drawn her last sigh : it was, perhaps, the glory of Grod which surrounded the spot- less soul of the predestined Virgin. When the death of Mary was no longer doubtful, there was nothing heard, at first, but tears and lamen- bnt Nicephorus (b. xi., ch. 21) formally says that she died in the fifth year of the reign of Claudius, that is to say, in the 3'ear of Rome 798, or 45 of the Christian era. Then, supposing that the Blessed "Virgin was sixteen years old when the Saviour was born, she would have lived sixty- one years. Hippolytus of Thebes states, in his chronicle, that the Blessed Virgin became a mother at the age of sixteen, and died eleven years after Jesus Christ. According to some other authors, the Virgin was sixty-six when she died. * " All the host of heaven," says St. Jerome, *' came to meet the Mother of God at the mo- ment of her death, singing hymns and canticles, t tations ; then the funeral chant arose on the stillness of the night ; the angels chimed in with their golden harps,* and the echoes of David's mouldering palace sadly repeated the wail over the tombs of the kings of Juda. On the following day, the faithful brought in, with pious profusion, the most precious perfumes and the richest stuff's for the burial of the Queen of Virgins. They embalmed her, according to the custom of her people, but her blessed remains ex- haled a sweeter odor than the per- fumed bands wherewith she was bound. The preparations being duly completed, the sacred body of the Mother of God was placed in a portable litter filled with aromatics,f which were heard by all present. Militiam ccelorum, cum suis agminibus, festive obviam venisse Genetrici Dei cum laudibus et canticis, earaque ingenti lumine circumfulsisse et usque ad tronum perduxisse." f Coffins, amongst the Jews, in Mary's time, were a species of litter so contrived that it was easy to carry the dead body ; this litter was filled with aromatics. Josephus, describing the interment of Herod the Great, says that his litter was adorned with precious stones, that his body reposed on purple cloth, that he had the jewelled crown upon his head, and that his whole household followed the htter to the ^ sepulchre. LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIHT MARY. 257 and covered with a sumptuous veil, and the Apostles bore it on their shoulders to the Yalley of Josaphat.* The Christians of Jerusalem, bear- ing lighted tapers, and chanting hymns and psalms, followed sadly and reverently the remains of Mary. Arrived at the place of sepulture, the mom-nful procession stopped. Through the care of the holy women of Jerusalem, the tomb was de- prived of its gloomy aspect, and the sepulchral cave presented to the view only a flowery arbor, f The Apostles gently laid down the mortal remains of Mary, and, doing so, they wept. Of all the pane- gyrics pronounced on that occasion, that of Hierotheus was the most remarkable. St. Denis, the Areo- pagite, who describes the scene as an eye-w4tness, relates that as he praised the Virgin, the orator was almost beside himself. J * Metaphrastes relates that the Apostles car- ried the Blessed Virgin to the grave on their shoulders. t Greg. Tur., 1. i., de 01, ch. 4. I Books of Divine Names, chapter 3. These books of St. Denis, the Areopagite, have been rejected by Protestants, but are not the less authorized by a multitude of proofs from the most ancient Fathers and doctors of the Church, For three days, the Apostles and the faithful watched and prayed be- side the sepulchre, where they heard distinctly the sacred concert kept up by the heavenly spirits, § as though to soothe the last sleep of Mary. One of the Apostles, return- ing from a distant country, and not having been present at the death of the Virgin, arrived just then, iv was St. Thomas, the same who had placed his hand in the wounds of his glorified Master. He hastened to take a last look, and to water with his tears the cold remains of the privileged woman who had borne in her chaste womb the Supreme Master of Nature. Over- come by his tears and entreaties, the Apostles removed the block of stone from the door of the sepul- chre ; but they saw within only the still fresh flowers whereon Mary's body had reposed, and her white by the Third CEcuinenical Council of Constanti- nople, and many others. § Juvenal, patriarch of Jerusalem, who lived in the 5th century, writing to the Emperor Marcian and the Empress Pulcheria, says that the Apostles, reUeving each othei*, passed day and night with the faithful near the tomb, min- ghng their canticles with those of the angels, who, for three days, were constantly heard mak- ing the most divine harmony. 958 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. shroud of Eg}T^)tian linen, which shed a delicious fragrance. The pui'e body of the Immaculate Virgin was not a prey for worms. During * A very judicious remark of Godescard comes to the support of the Assumption : it is, that "neither the Latins nor even the Greeks, so greedy for novelty, and so easily persuaded in rsgai'd to relics and legends ; no people, in a word, no city, no church, ever boasted 'of pos- her life earth and heaven had each a share in that wondrous creature ; after her death, heaven took all, and glorified all.* sessing the mortal remains of the Blessed Vii- gin, nor any portion of her body. Hence, with- out prescribing a belief in the corporal assump- tion of Mary into heaven, the Church gives us clearly to understand the opinion to which she inclines." (Godescard, t. xiv., p. 449.) ''' i:. .4 >-?<?-V ^^^ ^ <^i^M> /U^^-t^C^y 7 _ / '- ^ apewElIA KJTnmpL cl ^^~ ^f Mir^m m} Inkni f THE HISTOEY OF THE DEVOTION TO THS BLESSED VIRGIN MAEY ittotl)er of ®otr. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF THE ABBE OBSINI, BY MRS. J. SADLIER. ' PUBLISHED WITH THE APPROBATION OF THE LATE MOST REV. JOHN HUGHES, D. D., AND THE MOST REV. J. McCLOSKEY, D. D., ARCHBISHOP OF NEW YORK. A NEW, ENLARO-ED AND REVISED EDITION. i^w fori: PUBLISHED BY D. & J. SADLIEK & CO., 31 BARCLAY STREET. MONTREAL :— CORNER OF NOTRE DAME AND ST. FRANCIS XAVIER STS. 1873. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, By D. & J. SADLIER & CO., In the Clerk's Office of tlie District Court of the United States for tlie Soutliem District of New York HISTOH Y OP THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIKGIN MAKY, Mot\}tx of (Bolt. CHAPTER I. ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE DEVOTION TO MARY. HE invocation of * Saints, which heretics impute to us as idola- try, and which a Protestant minister has been pleased to set down as "the malady of the Christians of the fourth century," is so far from being of modern date that it may, in truth, be regarded as of Apostolical tra- dition, and of Jewish origin. The Hebrews sought counsel and mira- culous cures of the dead, when those dead had been accredited prophets of the Lord. The prophets were their saints, and saints who read ^ the future clearly, from the depths of the sepulchral cave where they slept beside their fathers. Behold Saul with the witch of Endor; the ghost of Samuel, though conjured up by enchantments which the law of Moses condemns, appeared by God's permission to terrify the reprobate monarch. The prophet, shrouded in his mantle, emerges slowly from the earth in awful majesty ; the sor- ceress utters a cry of terror at sight of the illustrious shade which she takes for a god. Saul, bowing down before him who was so long the supreme judge of Israel, questions him on the issue of the battle which he is going to fight with the Philis- 262 HISTORY OF THE VJ^VOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. tines ; aiid the prophet answers him in a voice which no breath of life accompanies, f . ; his body is at Kamatha, mourned by all Israel: "To-morrow, thou and thy sons shall be with me : and the Lord will also deliver the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines 1" The Jews believed, then, that their saints knew the future. In the fourth book of Kings, we see a dead man restored to life by touching the bones of Eliseus. The saints of Israel, therefore, wrought miracles. We read in the second book of Maccabees that the high -priest Onias and the prophet Jeremiah were seen, after their death, pray- ing for the people ; and we find in the Gemare that Caleb escaped from the hands of his pursuers, be- cause he went to the tomb of his ancestors to ask them to intercede for him, that he might escape.* Hence, the Jews believed that the intercession of the departed just was of some avail. From the earliest times of their settlement in Palestine, the Israel- * Wagenseil, Excerpta ex Oem. f Ecdes., ch. xlix., v. 18. * ites visited the tomb of Rachel, a primitive monument composed of twelve enormous stones, whereon every pilgrim inscribed his name ; the tomb of Joseph, the saviour of his brethi'en — whose bones prophe- sied-f — was likewise a place of prayer. On the dispersion of the tribes, such immense crowds flocked to the sepulchral cave of Ezechiel, on the banks of the Chobar, where he had had his divine visions, that the Chaldeans, fearing lest these vast assemblages might conceal under the cloak of religion some political project, resolved to take the pil- grims by surprise, and disperse them at the point of the sword. A massacre would inevitably have fol- lowed, if the dead prophet had not wrought a miracle to save his peo- ple, by dividing the waters of the Chobar. J This sepulchre of a saint of Israel was surrounded by a superb edifice, and before it burned, day and night, a golden lamp, which the leaders of the captive people ^vere charged to keep lit.§ It is now once more a mere cavern ; but X Benjamin of Toledo, Itinerary, p. 70-80. § Epiphan., de Vitis Prophetarum, v. ii., p. 241 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 268 still it is visited by all the Jews of Asia, who never pass through Bag- dad without turning aside to pray there. At the foot of Orontes, whose rich foliage waves over a thousand silvery streams which reflect the splendor of the Asiatic sun, there is a city — once royal and magnificent — lying extend- ed amid ruined columns, prostrate temples, and mausoleums of red granite with inscriptions written in some language long unknown : it is Ecbatana, the ancient capital of the Medes, now the obscure Hamadan. At one of the extremities of the fall- en city rises a brick monument, the door of which, according to the old sepulchral style of the country, is very small and made of one solid stone: it is the tomb of a young queen, fair and virtuous, who braved * " He built her a mausoleum after the manner of the Iranians (Iran was, before Cyrus, the true name of the vast kingdom which is now called Persia), filled her skull with musk and amber, wrapped her body in Chinese silk, placed her, as kings are placed, on a throne of ivory, and hung her crown above her ; then they painted the door of the tomb red and blue." (Firdousi, Book of Kings, Kei Khosrou. ) •f Travels of Sir Robert Ker Porter in Per- sia and Armenia. The present tomb of Esther and of Mardochai occupies the same ^ death to save her people — the noble Esther, who was laid there on a bed of ivory overlaid with gold, embalm- ed in musk and amber, and wrapped in a shroud of Chinese silk,* beside the great Hebrew patriot Mardo- chai. f This illustrious tomb, which the Jews of Persia regard as a place of peculiar sanctity, and to which they repair in crowds at the time of the Feast of Phurim,J is still, and has been for two thousand years, the term of a pilgrimage. In the Middle Ages, under the Sar- acen domination, the Arabs having threatened the Jews with a general massacre during a grievous drought which prevailed all over Syria and Palestine, if rain did not fall on a day appointed, they gathered in great numbers around the tomb of Zachary, which is still to be seen in place as did the old, which was destroyed by Tamerlane. \ This festival, which was instituted at Suza by Mardochai and Esther, was solemnly cele- brated on the 14th or 15th day of the month of Ader, which is our February moon. The Jews had formerly a custom of making a wooden cross on which they painted Aman, and dragged it through the city, so that every one might see it. They afterwards burnt it, and threw the ashes into the river. The emperor Theodosius forbade them to play this comedy, fearing that it might have reference to the death of Christ. 164 BlSTOLl lUE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. the vicinity of Jerusalem, fasted and ^ piiiyed for Beveral days in sackcloth and allies, in order to obtain from God, through the intercession of that prophet, that he might save them fi-om certain death by making it rain upon the earth. The custom of applying to the liv- ing the merits of the dead, is of He- brew origin ; the proof of this is found in a liturgy of the synagogue of Venice. In the office entitled Mazir nechamot (remembrance of smils), we hnd a prayer conceived in the following terms: "Hear us, Jehovah, for the sake of those who loved thee and are now no more; hear us, for the sake of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sara, Rachel," etc. The invocation of saints is not, then, a CatJwlic invention. Besides the saints, the Jews pray- ed to the angels, whom the ancient Ai*abs also invoked, and to whom * Amongst the Persians, every month was under the protection of an angel ; to the angels was confided the care of seas, rivers, springs, pastures, flocks, trees, herbs, fruits, flowers, and seeds : they also guided the stars ; prayers were oflfered to the angels soliciting their protection in danger. The modem, Persians still sacrifice to the angel of the moon. (Firdousi, Book of Kings. — Chardin, Voyage en Perse.) the Assyrians ofi'ered sacrifice, at- tributing to them charming functions on the earth.* Jacob confesses him- self indebted to an angel for deliver- ance from the evils which threatened him, and beseeches him to bless his children : Angelas qui eripuit me cle cundis malis henedicat pueris istis.f This prayer is addressed to an angel. It is even thought that the Jews carried the worship of the angels too far, since they are suspected of ador- ing them. J This veneration, or wor- ship, never ceased amongst the modern Jews till the time of the pretended Reformation, when they abandoned it in order to conciliate the German innovators. There exists in the Vatican library a Hebrew manuscript, containing a litany com- posed by R. Eliezer Hakalir, wherein is said to the angel Actariel: " De- liver Israel from all affliction, and quickly procure its redemption." t Genesis xlviii., v. 16. X The author of the Preaching of St. Peltr, which is very ancient, cited by St. Clement of Alexandria, makes that Apostle say that wo must not adore God with the Jews, because, although they profess to acknowledge but one God, they adore the angels. (Clem. Alex., ^ book v.) mSTORT OF TEE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 265 Similar favors are asked of Barachiel, * Wathiel, and other princes of the heavenly court. The litany ended by saying to Michael, "Prince of mercy, pray for Israel, that it may be greatly exalted." The tombs of the martyrs were early venerated by the Christians of Asia ; the first to which pilgrimage was made was most probably that of St. John the Baptist, which, after the Holy Sepulchre and the tomb of the Blessed Yirgin, is the most re- spected by Orientals of all creeds. The body of the precursor of the mau-God was at Samaria, where it was visited by St. Paula in the fourth century, and his head, care- fully embalmed by his disciples, was at Hems, whence it was transported to Damascus in the reign of Theo- dosius. It was placed. in a superb church bearing the title of St. Zach- ary, which took, thenceforward, that of St. John. The caliph Abdelmelek took forcible possession of this * St. Augustine speaks of the miraculous cures wrought by dust from the tomb of St. John the Evangelist. There is now seen amongst the ruins of Ephesus, the church of St. John, of which the Turks had made a mosque. f The history of the martyrdom of St. Poly- carp, written in the form of a letter, in the name church, and now the venerated tomb of him who was a prophet and more than a prophet^ is inclosed within a Turkish mosque; but it is neither solitary nor without honor; the Mus- sulmans come there from all parts on pilgrimage, and the celebrated Saadi himself relates, in his Gulistan, that, going to pray there, he met with princes from Arabia. At the close of the first centmy, the faithful of Asia Minor were wont to repair in great numbers to Ephesus to visit the tomb of St. John the Evangelist, the dust of which, carefully gather- ed, was said to effect marvellous cures.* St. Stephen, the first martyr, whose relics wrought so many miracles, as attested by St. Augustine, and who died before the Blessed Virgin, was likewise very early invoked by the primitive Christians, who also ven- erated the blessed remains of St. Ig- natius and St. Polycarp.f St. Aster of Amasia has preserved to us, in a of the church of Smyrna, by those who had them- selves witnessed it, and addressed to the church of Philomel, contains these words : " We took from the fire his bones, more precious than gold or jewels, and we put them in a suitable place, where we hope to assemble every year to cele- brate the festival of the Lord's martyr, to the HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. sermon on the martyrs, the prayer ^ addressed by a Christian of the early days to a saint whose tomb she vis- ited: "Thou didst invoke the mar- tjyrs before thou wert thyself a mar- tyr; thou hast sought and found ; be then liberal of the blessings which thou hast received." Eusebius of Caesarea, who flour- ished towards the end of the third century, defending our sacred dog- mas against the sophisms of the idol- aters, rests on the honors which they paid to their ancient heroes to justify the veneration of saints, and con- tinues in these terms: "We honor as friends of God those who have fought for the true religion ; we go to their tombs; we offer them our vows, professing to believe that through their intercession with God we are powerfully succored."* These words of Eusebius, who, in his double capacity of bishop and historian, must necessarily have been well informed, clearly indi- cate an ancient usage, a custom lap- proved by the Church and generally end that those who come after us may be en- couraged to prepare for similar combats." St. Poly carp consummated his- sacrifice in the year 166, on the 23d of January, on which day the received. On the other hand, Vig- ilantius and Arius, enemies of the veneration of saints, were openly treated as innovators and heretics by St. Epiphanius, St. Jerome, and St. Augustine. Now is it to be pre- sumed that these great doctors would have dared to set down as heretics and innovators men who labored but to establish in its native purity the ancient doctrine of the Church? The word innovators explains all ; and it must not be forgotten that Yigilantius lived at a period so near the times of the Apostles that there was between them and him not more than three generations! St. Cyprian, who suffered martyr- dom in Carthage in the year 261, shows us the Christians of Africa crowding to the glorious tombs of the martyrs, making a funeral re- past there on the day of their anni- versary, and so eager to invoke them that, not even waiting for their death, they went to solicit the pray- ers of those imprisoned confessors of the faith who had as yet survived church of Smyrna kept his festival in the middle of the third century, as we see by the acts of St. Peter. * Prapar. Evang., b. xiii, ch. 7. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 267 their torments.* St. John Chrysos- f torn, on his side, asserts that in his time the tombs of the martyrs con- stituted the fairest ornament of royal cities; that the days which were consecrated to them were days of joy ; that the great men of the empire, and even the emperor him- self, laid aside the proud insignia of their power before they dared to cross the threshold of the sacred places which contained the revered sepulchres of the servants of the crucified God "How much more illustrious," exclaims the great Christian orator, "are the monu- ments erected to old men who were poor and humble while on earth, than the tombs of the mightiest kings ! Around the tombs of kings reign silence and solitude ; here do multitudes throng with prayer and homage."! Behold, then, the worship of dulia (of saints), which Protestants style idolatrous and detestable — behold what it was in those ages which they themselves call the ages by excellence, the pure ages.\ As to the worship of hyperdulia * St. Cyprian, Epist. 28. f St. Chrysost., Horn. 66 ad pop. Antioch. (of the Blessed Yirgin) — which, without being adoration — which God forbid ! — is far superior to that of the saints — it commenced, ap- parently, at her very tomb. The Jewish doctors have preserved to us, in the Talmud, a historical fact long unknown, which establishes the high antiquity of this pious veneration so much blasphemed. A tradition of the Temple, recorded in their Toldos — that book wherein the Virgin is so grossly abused, and which they early circulated through Greece, Persia, and every place where it could at all injure Chris- tianity — relates that the Nazarenes who came to pray at the tomb of the mother of Jesus underwent a violent persecution from the princes of the synagogue, and that a hun- dred Christians, kinsfolk of Jesus Christ, were put to death for having raised an oratory over her tomb.§ This act of barbarous fanaticism of which they boast, being quite con- formable to their treatment of St. Stephen, St. James, and St. Paul, and the oratory erected over a ven- erated tomb being in no way ob- X Dailld, Latin Traditions, b. iv., ch. 16. § Toldos Huldr., p. 115. 168 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. noxious to their customs and tradi- tions, this fact, it seems to us, may be regaitied as authentic, even without any very great stretch of credulity. Tradition, supported by religious monuments, asserts that the devo- tion to Mary is of Apostolic tradi- tion. St. Peter, on his . way to Ah- tioch, raised, it is said, in one of the cities of ancient Phoenicia, an ora- tory to the Blessed Virgin, and gave it a solemn consecration ; St. John the Apostle placed the beautiful church of Lydda under the invo- cation of his adoptive mother; the first church of Milan was dedicated to Mary by St. Barnabas the Apos- tle. Our Lady of the Pillar, in Spain, and Our Lady of Carmel, in Syiia, dispute the priority with these churches, and their claims are bolder, but more contestable. Ac- cording to Spanish tradition,* the Blessed Virgin appeared to St. James, before her death, on the banks of the Ebro, and commanded him to build a church on that spot. According to the Syrian tradition, the prophet Agabus, the same who predicted the fa nine which took * Cronologia sacra . . . cU ano 35 de Cristo. * place under Claudius, erected also in the Virgin's lifetime, that church which is seen from, so far at sea, and where pilgrims and travellers of all religions and of every region receive, in the name of Mary, such affecting hospitality. Without dis- puting the antiquity of these two sanctuaries, very venerable indeed, and justly revered by all nations, we must be permitted to say that it is very unlikely that the Blessed Virgin, the humble&t of the daugh- ters of Eve, would have solicited the Apostles, during her lifetime, to build churches in her honor. That the gratitude of nations and the piety of the Apostles may have erected them after her death, is both simple and natural, but that she gave orders for any during her life, is extremely doubtful. As to the oratory of Carmel, Flavius Josephus, who particularly mentions the disciples of Elias in connection with Vespasian (to whom one of them promised the empire), nowhere says that they were then converted to Christianity, and the contrary is inferred from his recital. This negative authority is very im- portant. Jfirst |Peri0ir d tlje §thihn k Parj. BEFORE CONSTANTINE. CHAPTER II. THE EAST IDOLS. |S we have already * observed, the devotion to the « Mother of God had its origin at her very tomb, and the first lamp lighted in honor of Mary was a sepulchral lamp, aromid which the Christians of Jerusalem came to pray. This, it would seem, did not last long ; the Synagogue — oppressive, like .all dominations be- set by the fear of sudden overthrow, and suspicious, like all who are con- scious of evil-doing — became alarm- ed at the simple homage rendered to the mother of the young prophet whom it had not only refused, after all his miracles, to acknowledge as the Messiah, but audaciously cruci- fied, as a seditious man and an im- postor, between two thieves. It ex- tinguished the lamps, silenced the ^ hymns, and mercilessly kiUed the first servants of Mary, — so, at least, we are informed by the Synagogue itself, and we know that it was very capable of doing it. This was done a little through fanaticism, a little through self-love, and a little through fear. The Jewish authorities would not that that Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had unjustly condemned to an ignominious death, should arise, he and his, from the obloquy of the Golgotha. It was annoying to hear that the Galilean whom they called a son of Belial, and whose miracles they treated as vain illusions, was truly God, and his mother a great Saint; and then it feared that this new worship, con- nected with the religion of the tombs, and supported by the incon- testable miracles wrought by the Apostles in Jerusalem, might oper- ate injuriously on the fickle mind 270 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. of the multitude, and provoke a f dangerous reaction in favor of the crucified ' prophet. In fine, as it fi-ankly acknowledged to Peter and John, it had no wish to be called on by the people to account for the blood of Jesus. For all these reasons, the sena- tors and chief priests took another step on the slippery road of guilt, in order to justify the abominable sentence which they had wrimg from the Roman .^ and they openly boasted of having stifled in the bud the devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Their iniquitous hopes were defeat- ed. The most furious tyrants, even when most implicitly obeyed in the gloomy caprices of their cruel- ty, cannot kill remembrance — that flower of the soul which blooms, mysterious and consoling, in the inaccessible region of ideas, and is but rooted the more firmly by the wind of pei'secution. The memory of the Virgin -mother resisted this Jewish huiiicane; people sang no more in her grotto, but they went there to weep, and the tears which * Most people are familiar with the sarcastic jest of that courtier of Nero, who, being scolded and threatened by an old priestess for having devotion sheds are equal to the in- cense of Saba, which, itself, trickles like tears from the pierced bark. Violently uprooted by the sacri- legious hands of the princes of the reprobate people of God, the ven- eration of Mary was transplanted by the Apostles to the still idola- trous land of the stranger. In their own lifetime they saw it beginning to appear in Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Spain. It is true that this devotion, so ten- der and so poetical, which was to replace the impure and seductive worship of the divinities of Olym- pus, shone, at first, but like a small star on the zenith of a few cities ; for Christianity was, in the begin- ning, only the religion of cities, and of the common people in those cities. Paganism, repudiated by all serious minds, despised by philoso- phers, ridiculed on the stage, where men publicly read "The last will and testament of Jupiter, deceased," and scofi'ed at in the true Voltairian style by the young Epicureans of the imperial court,* retained, never- killed one of her sacred geese, threw her two gold pieces, saying, "There, you can buy both gods and geese." HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 271 theless, an incredible number of partisans; connected with numer- ous interests, defended by prejudice and by ancient superstitions, attrac- tive from the splendor of its festi- vals, and mingled with every glo- rious recollection, it still dazzled, though on its decline. Proud of its advantages, it did not, at first, con- descend to fear "the carpenter's son" and the young " spinner of Nazareth."* How could it fear them? it saw them not. The re- ligion of the poor God and his holy Mother advanced, noiselessly, by the rough and toilsome medium of the people ; it addressed itself espe- cially to the artisan, the woman, the slave — to all, in fine, who were weak and lowly, and oppressed by pagan society — that society so pro- foundly selfish, so avaricious, so ef- feminate and corrupt, and withal brilliant and cold as its marble gods. It was soon perceived that the moral world — that old decrepit Titan — was growing young again under the mighty, though secret, influence of a regenerating charm. What magician had restored to that new * See Celsus. * JEson the fresh, warm blood of its earlier years? What new Prome- theus had scaled the heights of heaven to bring down to man, fro- zen to death by selfislmess, a spark of the sacred fire ? For there was no overlooking the fact that society was pregnant of something strange and grand which was to restore its pristine loveliness and strength; it was becoming again, to all appear- ance, what it was in the days so lamented by Horace, when it de- spised pomp, honored the "gods, and esteemed poverty as an honor. In- visible, but persevering hands seem- ed already to have raised from their ruins, where they lay beneath the grass of ages, the altar of chastity and the austere temples of Faith, Honor, and Virtue. Beneficence, long unhonored with the smoke of sacrifice, in the frantic pursuit of material pleasures, began once more, it seems, to be mysteriously respect- ed. The old equality of the age of Saturn re-appeared here and there on the earth. In fine, Humanity bore in her arms the children whom the elegant matrons of pagan society exposed on the banks of the river, in the depths of the forest, and on 272 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. the verge of the precipice, where the eagles, dogs, and wild beasts tore them to pieces.* Charity, sustain- ing with one vigorous arm the old man panting under his load of toil, extended the other to the infirm creatures abandoned on the steps of the temples. gods of Greece! wandering gods, who were sheltered beneath the cottage-roof of Philemon and Baucis, did you again traverse the earth to restore thereon the fair reign of virtue? Not so, for you were, as • the Scriptures say, deaf gods, powerless gods, blind gods, — or, rather, you were nothing. Behold I In the midst of that so- ciety — luxurious, efieminate, crown- ed with roses, drinking to the gods of Olympus from golden cups — there are seen, here and there, groups of persons with noble aspect and au- stere demeanor, who avert their eyes from those pagan orgies with indig- * Philo gives details of this abominable custom of exposing helpless abandoned children, which are enough to make one's hair stand on end. It was only the Jews who then condemned this barbarous practice. fThe vestals bore the name of Amatce, in memory of Amata, the first Roman virgin who was consecrated to the worship of Yesta. (Aulu- GelL, b. i.ch. 12.) X The austere chastity of the Christian women t nation mingled with ridicule Can these be Stoic philosophers? No; for they give a tear of pity to the supplicating poor, while placing in their hand the liberal alms, con- cealing themselves as they do so. Can that be a vestal, that young maiden who walks, with folded hands and eyes cast down, beside her mother, veiled like herself? No; for she has neither the em- broidered zone nor the purple- bordered robes of the amatce,^ and modesty is her only ornament. Those youthful widows who light no more the hymeneal torch,J whilst the great ladies of paganism reck- on their divorces by consulates, § whence come they? And those young men who bow with reverence before the aged, blush like young maidens, and yet, in war, are brave as lions, who are they? They are not seen in the theatre, they fre- excited the admiration of the pagans themselves. St. John Chrysostom mentions that the famous sophist Libauius, from whom he took lessons in oratory, hearing from him that his mother had been left a widow at twenty, and would never take a second husband, exclaimed, turning to his idolatrous audience, " O gods of Greece 1 what women are found amongst these Christians ! '' {Sancti Chrysosiomi vita.) § Seneca, Treatise on FUvors, b. iii. HISTORY OF TEE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 273 quent not the circus, they figure not in the pagan festivals with garlands of flowers or baskets of sacred fruit on their heads, and pass by the stately temples of Greece and Rome without entering. The sight of a sacrifice makes them fly, and they quickly shake off from their dark cloaks the drops of purifying water which fall on them by chance. Fi- nally, they prefer to die rather than touch the meats offered to the gods. Can these men be impious, they whose hands close with gold the gaping wounds of misery, whose lives are the mirror of propriety? No ; for they assemble thrice in the day, and sometimes in the night,* to pray in common, with uplifted hands, to an unknown God ; and, on the altar of their ancient house- hold deities, where the lamp still burns,f may be seen the graceful * The first Christians met to pray at the house of Terce, Sext, and None, as mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles ; they passed the night in prayer on the eve of great festivals, singing hymns in honor of Jesus Christ, as St. Basil jmd Socrates testify. ■f The gods that were indiscriminately named Lares or Penates were the tutelary gods of houses. They had their own distinct worship. Wine and incense were offered to them ; they were crowned with flowers, and a lamp was kept ^ ; image of a young Asiatic woman, half- veiled in a light blue drapery, J holding in her arms a Divine In- fant. That woman, with the calm, deep eyes, is the Inspirer of chas- tity, modesty, devotion, mercy; the Guardian of honor, the Protectress of home — in a word, that sweet Virgin Mary to whom the Greeks have given the beautiful name of Panagia, which means all holy. Asia claims the honor of having placed the first oratory and chapel under the invocation of Mary. The most ancient of these shrines was Our Lady of Tortosa, which St. Peter himself founded, according to the Eastern traditions, on the coasts of Phoenicia. These early Syrian churches were, at first, but very simple structures, with cedar roofs and latticed windows. The altar was turned towards the west, like burning before their little statues. There was found, under ground, in Lyons, in 1506, a copper lamp with two sockets, the chain sealed in a piece of marble, bearing this inscription : Laribus sacrum. P. F. Eomum — which signifies, Puhliccefelicitali Romanorum. X In the oldest pictures of the Virgin, being those painted on wood, whose high antiquity is indisputable, she wears almost always a bhie veil. 274 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. that of Jerusalem, and during the f day a wooden screen concealed the sanctuary, in memory of the famous veil of the Holy of Holies. There were A'osses in those churches ; and there were also, at a very early pe- riod, pictures of Mary; for tradition relates that her image was painted on one of the pillars in the beautiful church of Lydda, which had been dedicated to her by her adopted son, and that St. Luke presented to the cathedral of Antioch a portrait of the Virgin painted by himself. This image, to which the Mother of God was believed to have attached signal graces, became so famous that the Empress Pulcheria had it brought to Constantinople, where she built a magnificent church to place it in. Edessa, the capital city of that king Abgarus who was on the point of making war on the Jews to re- venge the death of our Lord, and who was only prevented from doing so through fear of the Komans, their masters, as Eusebius tells us, had also, in the 1st centuiy, its church of Our Lady, adorned with a mirac- * The worship of Mithya, before it reached Greece or Rome, had passed from Persia into ulous image. Egypt boasts of hav- ing had, about the same time. Our Lady of Alexandria, and Saragossa, in Spain, then called Caesar Augus- ta, its famous shrine of Our Lady of the Pillar. But nowhere was the devotion to Mary canied on with such enthusiastic fervor as in Asia Minor. Ephesus, where the memory of the Blessed Virgin was still fresh and vivid, soon built in honor of Mary the Miriam, a superb cathe- dral, wherein was held, in the 5th century, the famous council which confirmed her proud title of Mother of God. This example was followed from one end of the immense Roman provinces to the other. Phrygia, having become Christian, consigned to oblivion those Trojan gods sung by Homer; Cappadocia suffered those sacred fii^es to die away which the Persians had kindled side by side with the elegant temples of the Grecian deities ; and the caverns whose gloomy vaults had so recently witnessed the bloody mysteries of Mithra* became, during the religious persecutions — which nowhere broke Cappadocia, where Strabo, who travelled there, says that he saw a great number of the priests mSTORT OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 275 out with greater fury than amongst those Greek colonies — a place of refuge for the Christians and their proscribed God. At length, the gods of Greece, those indigenous deities, sprung from the sparkling foam of the .^gean sea, born under the still-existing palms of the Cycla- des, or cradled in the shade of the woods which crown the lofty moun- tains of Crete — were abandoned for the God who died on Calvary, and the humble Virgin of Nazareth ; so truly, so entirely abandoned, that Pliny the younger, on his arrival iu Bythinia, of which province he had been named governor, wrote to Tra- jan that Christianity had not only invaded the cities, but the rural districts, so much so that he had found the temples of the gods of the empire completely deserted.* Asia Minor possessed, from the earliest times, miraculous images of Our Lady. The two most famous were that of Didynia, where St. of Mithra. The mysteries of Mithra, ifrhich were celebrated in the depth of caverns, were something horrible, according to the holy- Fathers, Human victims were there sacri- ficed, as appears from a fact mentioned by Socrates in his "Ecclesiastical History," viz., that the Christians of Alexandria having ^ * Basil, during the reign of Julian, went to pray for the afflicted Church, and that of Sosopoli, an image painted on wood, from which there oozed out a marvellous oil, which effected the astonishing cures referred to in the second Council of Nice. Greece, that brilliant land of arts and letters, was not more tardy in honoring Mary. In the time of St. Paul, Corinth — where Greek liberty, like an expiring lamp, had given one last brilliant flash — was con- verted almost entirely to Christi- anity. The faithful met, at first, in the spacious halls of private houses, where the Virgin was solemnly in- voked. By degrees the temples of Paganism were deserted, and after the lapse of a hundred years the curious traveller made his way alone up the steep sides of the Acro-Ceraunes to visit the Temple of Venus, whose lofty porticoes, ris- ing above the smrounding sea of discovered a den which had been long closed up, and in which the Mithraic mysteries were said to have been formerly celebrated, they found therein human skulls and bones, which they took out to show to the people of that great city. * Pliny, lib. x., Epist. 97. 276 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. green foliage, were traced on the Grecian sky, so deeply, darkly blue. The protecting goddess of the Cor- inthians had been dethroned by the holy woman who re-established in that effeminate country modesty, so long unknown, and maternity, so long despised. Thanks to her, the pure pleasures of the domestic cir- cle, the touching joys of home, were easily substituted for the shameful disorders, the gigantic orgies, the depraved morals of that small re- public which had ever led the van in the march of corruption. Cor- inth ti-anstigured became a Chris- tian Sparta, and the eulogy pro- nounced on its Church by St. Clement, the pope, towards the end of the 1st century, gives a marvel- lous idea of its fervor. Arcadia, whose forests were peo- pled with rural gods — and where eveiy grotto, every murmuring spring had its altar — likewise ab- jured, though not so promptly, the worship of Pan and the Naiads for the veneration of the humble Vir- gin, whose divine Child was pleased to receive his first homage from simple shepherds. But as ancient superstitions are more difficult to t eradicate from rural districts than from any other places, it was long believed in the Arcadian hamlets that Diana still followed the chase in the depth of the great woods of Menales and Lyceum. Young and credulous shepherdesses, divided be- tween the Christian faith and their ancestral superstitions, sometimes imagined that they saw, by the flick- ering light of the moon, fair white Dryads amongst the trees, Naiads bending pensively over the springs, or playful elves dancing on the but- tercups and daisies in the meadows. But, about the time of Constantino, the Blessed Virgin had definitely prevailed over deified nature; and the numerous churches bearing her name, which still adorn the rustic scenes . of the land of the ancient Pelages, attest the profound devo- tion of the Arcadians to the Virgin- mother. Elida, too, very early built a church in honor of the Blessed Vir- gin on the banks of its romantic rivei*, the Alpheus, and as it was surrounded by noble vineyards, it received the name of Our Lady of Grapes. Macedonia preceded Greece prop- HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 277 er in the veneration of Mary. Thes- salonica had a bishopric even in the time of the Apostles, and its church was a superb edifice with jasper cokimns, dedicated by the pious Macedonians to the Blessed Virgin ; this structure is still to be seen, but the Turks have converted it into a mosque.* Nero, travelling in the Pelopon- nesus, did not dare to cross the fron- tiers of Laconia ; the stern gloom of Sparta inspired him with fear. The mild, sweet Virgin of Galilee was more valiant than Csesar; she passed the Eurotas, which hides its waves under rose-bays, and pre- sented herself to the people of Le- onidas, whose ancient virtue was preserved in the bitter but invigor- ating waters of poverty. She was welcomed with enthusiasm, and that brave people hastened to build the fairest church of Greece in honor of that young foreign Virgin who came to teach the daughters of Sparta to cast down their eyes. Ever since that time Mary rei§ns in Sparta with absolute power ; for her are culled the earliest violets that bloom by the Eurotas' stream ; * Wheeler's Travels. * it is before her image, rudely painted in red and blue on the walls of their dwellings, that the young Lacede- monians nightly light a lamp of clay or bronze ; a pious act which is duly noticed when the Grecian women pronounce the funeral eulogium of the dead. Finally, the inhabitants of Laconia substituted the name of Christ and the Virgin wherever their ancestors introduced the name of Jupiter in affirmation, and this oath has become of such common use that even the Turks of Misistra, prior to the Greek revolution, instead of swearing by Allah and by Mahomet, like the other Mussulmans, swore, like the Greeks of Sparta, by the Blessed Virgin.f Athens, the elegant and learned, celebrated for its monuments, the finest in the world, and its schools, which were frequented by the flower of the studious youth of Europe and Asia — Athens was slower in being converted to Christianity than the other countries of Greece. From the earliest times, however, it had had a bishop and a church dedicated to Mary, Our Lady Spiliotissa, or Our Lady of the Grotto ; but Poly- t Pouqueville, Voyage en Moree, t. ler. 278 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. theism was sheltered under the bril- * liant aBg's of Minerva, and Athens was at the same time full of Chris- tian churches and of idols. It was in one of these churches that Julian filled the office of Lector, by com- mand of the Emperor Constantius ; but it was in the Parthenon that he was to plan the revival of idolatry, while reading Homer. That the devotion to the Blessed Virgin had a powerful influence on the spread of the Gospel in Greece and in Asia, is a fact which the habits and tastes of the Levantines would have rendered probable even were it not attested, before all the bishops of the East, by St. Cyril, at the first Council of Ephesus, in a discourse which is still extant. "Hail, Mary, Mother of God !" said that holy and learned bishop ; " it is through you that, in the cities^ the towns, and the islands of those who have received the true faith, * S. Cyr. Alex. Oper., t. v., p. 2. f Whilst the sun is above the horizon, and as the heat is excessive in their climate, the Arabs most generally prefer to remain under their tents. They go out at the ap- proach of sunset, and then enjoy the charms of a lovelier sky and cooler air. The night is partly for them what the day is for us. Hence their numerous churches have been found- ed!"* Beyond the great sea, several tribes of Arabs were converted to Christianity, and greatly honored Mary, the Sultana of Heaven, as they still call her. Seated in the shade of the date-trees or tamarinds, which flourish best on the margin of brackish streams, and inhaling with delight the freshness which the night brings in those burning re- gions,! the story-tellers of the Chris- tian ti-ibes, by the light of those eternal lamps of God which they suppose fastened by chains of gold to the vault of the firmament, J re- lated the principal facts in the life of the Blessed Virgin, coloring them with that marvellous tint so pleas- ing to the sons of Ishmael. They told, according to the Arab gospel of the holy childhood and the tradi- tions of the desert, how the holy angels came to bring to the Virgin, poets never extol the charms of a fine day ; but the Words, "Leili! leiU! O night ! O night !"aro repeate(f in all their songs. (Sav., note on the 7th eh. of the Koran. ) \ The first sky is of pure silver ; it is from its beautiful vault that the stars are suspended with strong chains of gold. {Koran, the Legend of ^ Mahomet, by Savary, p. 15.) EISTOBY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 279 in the temple where Zachary, her guardian, had placed her, delicious dates, amber grapes, figs sweeter than honey, and odorous flowers gathered in the celestial gardens where limpid streams and green trees abound ; for Paradise, in warm climates, is always composed of fresh waters and cool shades. And there, they recite, in their own pecu- liar style, the prodigies of the birth of Jesus, which they still call (Mus- sulmans as they have since become) al Milad — the hirth by excellence. They placed the scene in the desert, on the banks of a stream and at the foot of a withered palm-tree, which was suddenly covered with leaves and fruit at the bidding of the angel Gabriel, whom God had sent to con- sole Mary. These marvellous tales increasing their veneration for the Blessed Yirgin, they believed, in time, that they might adore in heav- en her whom angels had served on earth, and they offered her, in fact, oblations of cakes made of flour and * Geladeddin, note on the 16th ch. of the Koran. •\ The idolatrous Arabs had several she-camels consecrated to the gods of the Caaba ; the cream of their milk served to make libations. * honey ; hence their name of coUyri- dians, from the Greek word coUyre (cake). St. Epiphanius warmly re- bukes them for this worship, which exceeded the prescribed limits, ex- plaining to them that oblation and sacrifice are only to be offered to God. On the other hand, the idolatrous Arabs had placed the image of Mary in the Caaba, amongst the angels, whom they represented un- der the figure of young women, and called the daughters of God.^ Mary, whom they had made the sister of those pure spkits, came in for a share of the divine honors paid to them. They sacrificed to her vic- tims adorned with leaves and flow- ers ; thay offered to her the first of their crops, together with the first dates from their trees, and, in gold- en vases, the frothy milk of the sacred camels.f The image of the Blessed Yirgin with the Divine Child in her arms remained in the Temple of Mecca till the time of (Savary, in a note on the 5th ch. of the Koran.) The inhabitants of Mecca oflfered one portion of their fruits and of their flocks to God, an- other to their idols. (Geladeddin, note on the 6th ch. of the Koran.) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Mahomet, who had it removed with the genii and the angels. The holy name of Mary began to be invoked amongst the nations who dwell between the Caspian and the Euxine seas; but the shrines of Judea and the scenes of the Redemption were, alas! profaned * by Greek and Syi-ian idols which were only overthrown mider Con- stantino. The statue of Jupiter was sacrilegiously raised on the spot where the weeping Maiy saw Jesus crucified, and it was to Adonis that sacrifice was offered ¥ in the cave of Bethlehem. CHAPTER III. THE WEST THE CATACOMBS. HE sacred vine of Christianity ah-eady flour- ished in Asia so as to extend its branches over a multi- tude of nations;* but it did not' take root so quickly in the West. Rome, thoroughly idolatrous — Rome, drunk with the blood of martyrs, which she shed like water — Rome * protected Polytheism with all her power, and her power extended over an entire world ! In the East, a mysterious sign, which made Satan tremble in the depth of the fiery abyss, announced that the kingdom of God was near; but in Italy and the regions beyond the Alps, Christianity was, as yet, in the condition of a secret society; people were received into its ranks wi% aU manner of caution and * We learn from Arnobus and Eusebius that the Gospel, during the three first centuries, had spread far beyond the limits of the Roman em- pire, amongst the Persians, the Parthian s, the Scythians, and many other nations whom they do not name. (Arnob., Adv. Gentes, lib. ii., chapter 12. — Euseb., Demonstr. Evang. L lii., ch. 5. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 281 even mystery; its members recog- nized each other by certain signs; and, doubtless, the sign of the Cross, the origin of which is unknown, was one of those mysterious signs, which revealed an unknown Chris- tian to his brethren scattered through the crowd. It was not that the Christians were so few in the regions of the West ; they were al- ready sufficiently numerous to form armies; but persecuted by idola- trous governors, tracked like wild beasts, and finding no protection in the Roman laws, which recognized only to punish them, they lived iso- lated "as drops upon the grass, as a dew from the Lord, which waiteth not for man, nor tarrieth for the children of men."* The first Latin churches were domestic chapels, and the first al- tars, portable wooden chests like * Micheas, ch. v., v. 7. f One of these altars, whereon St. Peter was thought to have celebrated the divine mysteries, and which Pope St.. Sylvester inclosed under the high altar of St. John of Lateran. ivaS ex- amined on the 29th of March, 165.8, under Alex- ander VII., by the Chevalier Baromini, in con- cert with the chief sacristan of the church; it is four palms long, by eight wide. Its form is that of a chest. The altar was moved from place to place by means of several ringfs. * the Ark, having the same form and the same kon rings.f Those primi- tive churches of Rome, which were in existence before the an-ival of St. Paul, were composed chiefly of Greeks and converted Jews; but the Roman people soon heard speak of that new law which said that all men are brethi-en, that they are all equals, and ought to love each other. They fomid this holy law both fair and good; they wished to follow it, and came in crowds to receive the regenerating waters of baptism. " It was then perceived," says Tacitus, "that Rome contain- ed an incredible number of Chi-is- tians."J The pagan priests were troubled ; Nero, emperor and su- preme pontifi", took the alarm, and the persecutions commenced. § They assembled, at first, where- ^ver they could, as St. Justin the I Tacitus, Anncd., lib. xv., ch. 44. § This first persecution had for a pretext the burning of Rome, of which Nero accused the « Christians, though it was his own act; it was extremely cruel ; they clothed the Christians ' with garments soaked in pitch, or some other combustible matter; they then set fire to them, so that they served as torches during the night, Nero had a festival on the occasion, in his gar- dens, where he drove his chariots by the light of i those fatal flames. (See .fibc/es. 5w<., v. i., p. 98.) 282 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Martyr said when asked by the pre- * feet of Rome where the Christians were accustomed to meet; but the halls and upper chambers of private houses becoming too small, and the scrutiny of. the senate daily more rigorous, it became necessary 'to seek a ,temple vast enough to con- tain a great multitude of people, and so hidden as to escape the eyes of that host of spies wliich then, in- fested the empire, not unlike on6 of the plagues of Egypt. Somerbold,- hearted Christians proposed the Catacombs, ^'''herein were found ^ vast and gloomy halls, interminable avenues, "where the darkness was so profound," says St. Jerome, " that it seemed as though one went down alive into the, sepulchre, and the walls around • were -- sheeted with mouldering bodies," This labyrinth of cofi&ns, from which there appeare^ ^ no egress, .and where any one ven- tm-ing in without a guide Was sure to perish — those di-ea'ry vaults, where all was silence, fear and ^ death, had no terrors for the first Chiistians of Rome. On the sabbath- day, then fii'st called Sunday, they assembled in that dismal metropoli- tan church to read the writings of | the Apostles or the Prophets ; then, they offered up, on an altar of un- hewn stone, the sacrifice of bread and wine, which was preceded by a sermon, and followed by a collection for the poor." * Some rude frescoes, representing the Saviour or Mary, which are still to be seen, half ef- faced, jn the Catacombs of Naples and of Rome, were the sole decora- tion of this place of prayer, whose congregation consisted of ten dead and one living generation. What a temple! Instead of golden vases, there were wooden cups ! instead of the Roman lamps of massive silver, th^ were fiafiiig torches ! instead of martial spoils, there were the fearful trophies of the angel of death! Behind, before, and all around the spot where the faithful assembled, were endless subterrane- ous avenues, where distant torches gleamed from time to time, and veiled figures were seen moving, looking more like spectres than hu-* man beings ! Beneath was the dust o^^'fgpublic which had carried off its^.virtues in the folds of its great shroud : terror within ; and without, in case of discovery, was the amphi- *Apolog. S. Just. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 283 theatre, red with the blood of mar- tyred Christians! When we come to reflect on these things, we ask ourselves in amaze- ment, what intrepid heroes wei-e they who braved these horrors ? . . . Those heroes, who thus braved death and terror, were ignorant men who had grown up* amid the auguries, the signs, and the thousand super- stitious fears of paganism ; they were timid virgins, wo7}t to hloomfar from the world like solitary roses ; *' fair and rich patricians, s^ved by legions of slaves, who slept on beds of massive gold, eat from tables ^- citron-wood, inhabited apartments ceiled with ivory, and trod but on flags of marble strewed with gold or silver dust ; young men, wrapt up in rich scarlet cloaks, and bearing%uch names as Anicius, Olib7'ius, Probus, Gracchus ^ — in a word, the flower of the lloman patricians ; knight, * S. Ambr., de Virg., lib. i., ch. 6. f See Prudentius jn his two books against Symmachus, According to that author, the family of Anicius was the first patrician family that embraced Christianity in Rome. I Fiavius Clement, cousin-germain of Domi- tian, whose two sons had been appointed by the Emperor himself as his successors^ was put to death as a Christian shortly after ^ who might be known by their eques- ti'ian ring, great ofl&cers of the pal- ace, tribunes of the people, favorites and kinsmen of Caesar, whose sons were appointed to succeed him in the empire. J • • • . Who else? Im- perial princesses who traversed by night, escorted by some feithful slaves, the ati^iuin of their «gilded palace on Mount Palatine, and glid- ed like spirits out of the city of Komulus, to go worship the Galilean in the Catacombs — the Galilean so d.€spised arid ridiculed py the haughty pagan arisfeicracy-^^and to i^ invoke that sweet Virgin Mary for whom the noble descendants of the Gracchi and the Scipios abandoned their favorite temple of Juno Lu- cina. § V If the Tiber overflowed, or the rain failed, or ^ an earthquake hap- frened, and^ the -Koi^an people, to avert these disasters,' cried out, ac- the expiration of his consulate. The princess Domitilla, his wife, a Christian like himself, was banished to an island. (Hist. Eccles., t. i., p. 105.) § The temple of Juno Lucina was frequented in preference to any other by the great ladies of Rome ; prostitutes were forbidden to enter ; it was in -this temple that mothers prayed especially for the advantageous marriage of their daughters. 264 BlSTOlil 01' TUK DEVQTKm TO THE BLESSED VIRQIN MARY. cording to ci stom, " The Christians f to the lions I ' * they brought before the altar coffins filled with bones gathered in the amphitheatre. There- upon, a song of tiiumph, softly chant- ed, arising from the bosom of the earth, went up to mingle with the continued noise of the waters brought in by the aqueducts over the walls of Rome, and the low, sweet murmur of the tall Italian poplars, which sounds like the rippling of streams. Often would the bishop, a saintly old man, leaning on a crooked stick — true emblem of his pastoral charge — rebuke the deserters who came over from the camp of wealth to worship the poor King, for a linger- ing attachment to Roman luxury. He told the great ladies, who stood pen- sively listening, that it became not Christian women to wear in rings and in bracelets " the substamja of a thousand poor." Some days after, a daughter of the Anicii was asked what had become of her j^- els; tTie poor of her neighborhood, both pagan and Christian, might have answered, showing bread and gold! Or perchance he spoke of Blaveiy; and, on the morrow, it * Apolog, Tertullian. was everywhere told in wonder that a prefect of the palace had just set free fifteen hundred slaves. There it was that charity was taught; and what charity that was ! " Alms- giving is a mystery," said the priest of Jesus Christ ;*" when you do it, close your doors." And then, on going forth from these assemblies where fervor was renewed, poor toiling women went and took up from off the banks of the Tiber the helpless infants left there by pagan ladies of rank ; the patriciahs set apart a portion of their palaces tor hospitals ; and the young Christian nobles undertook distant voyages to succor their breth- ren in Africa or Asia. These acts of charity, of abnegation, of devotion, a^t()nished the pagans, to whom they were wholly unaccountable.f The noble matrons of Rome then wore images of Mary engraved on emeralds, cornelians, or sapphires, and, dying, bequeathed them to their daughters as symbols of their faith. Galla, the widow of Syinma- chus, had a superb church erected, long after, to deposit therein one of these precious stones, the relic of a * Lucianus, de Morle Peregrini. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 283 persecuted faith; the workmanship of this stone was so fine that it Avas thought to have come from a hand more than human, and was vener- ated as a gift from heaven.* Besides these religious ornaments which served those Christian women as distinctive marks, they exposed, amid flowers, on the domestic altar where the lares had so long reigned, miniature figures in gold or silver, representing Jesus Christ, the Vir- gin, and the Apostles. These statu- ettes, the discovery of which brought a whole family to the ampBitheatre, were usually so small that they could be put out of sight on the first alarm, and even concealed on the person.f A little later, private chapels re- ceived the bodies of martyrs, which were clothed in costly white gar- * Astolfi, Delle Imagini Miracolose. f M. Kaoul-Kochette attributes the invention of these little statues to the Gnostics ; but the Gnostics themselves make them go back much farther than their sect. According to all appear- ance, this custom was established amougst the patricians of Rome first converted to Christian- ity. The images of Jesus Christ, of the Virgin, and the Apostles, were substituted for those of Fortune and several other divinities, which were placed, crowned with flowers, on the altar of the Lares ; they were small enough to be con- cealed about the person in case of necessity. One of these statuettes, representing Harpoc- ^ ments and inclosed in magnificent marble tombs. During the last persecutions, Aglad, a fair and wealthy Roman matron, sent for these holy relics as far as Bithynia, where the Roman governors — who traded in every thing, even dead bodies — sold them at a high price. J In the interval between one per- secution and another, the Christians gathered their dead into cemeteries outside the walls of Rome, and went thither frequently to pray. The walls of these cemeteries paint- ed in fi'esco, represented Jesus Christ on his tribmial, in the ma- jestic and severe attitude which becomes the -sovereign Judge of men; near him, Mary, veiled in the Roman style, stood ready to implore his mercy for sinners. § rates, god of Silence, has been found in Bro; tagne ; it was of gold, an(f':about two inches in height. — (See Hist. Eccles. de Bretagne, t. iif,, page 358.) We know, moreover, that the ancients hung around their neck, or fastened to their clothes, little imag-es of Fortune. Hence came the custom of wearing madonnas, crosses, and other sacred images in gold or precious stones. Being unable to destroy this ancient cuotom, the Church, in her wisdom, changed its object. I Simplician, governor of Cilicia, sold to the servants of the martyr Bonifaciii*, the body of their master for five hundred gold crowns. § A very ancient painting in the cemetery ol HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO TUE BLESSED VJliGlN MARY During the halcyoi. days of the ^ iciuu of Alexander Severus, the Christians of Home, Imowing that that prince honored Jesus Christ, whose image he had placed in his laraHum, amongst the holy souls,* and counting on the support of his mother, the Empress Mamea, who was a Christian, demanded and ob- tained, notwithstanding the clamor- ous opposition of the pagan priests, permission to erect a church on a waste spot which had long been encumbered with mouldering ruins. This was the first that reared its cross beside the marble fanes of the gods of the empire; it was dedi- cated to Mary, and 'took the name of Om- Lady beyond the Tiber. Christianity, violently oppressed in Italy, was cruelly persecuted in the Gauls, where it progressed but very slowly, according to Sulpicius Severus, who wrote in the 4th cen- tury. Nevertheless, there were a few bishoprics established so early as the 3d century, amongst others that of Lyons, where St. Pothin had intro- duced the veneration of Mary ; and St. Calixtus, in Borne, still represents the Bless- ed Virgin in this costume. * Lamprid., in Alex Sev., ch. 29-31. missionaries, amongst whom were even Roman knights, went all over the Gauls. But these sowers of the Gospel often fell beneath the impi- ous sword of the idolatrous govern- ors — who hmited them like wild beasts f — before their task was lully accomplished. Their labors, how- ever, though unfinished, were not lost; their generous blood fertiliz- ed the soil which they had cleared, and in after times other laborers came in to reap what they had sowed. The fsland of Britain boasts of having preceded the Gauls in its conversion to Christianity, and, if we may believe its most ancient chronicles, it had the first Christian king. Venerable Bede relates that, in the time of the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, a prince named Lucius asked of Pope Eleu- tlierus two Italian missionaries to evangelize the little kingdom which he governed for the Romans. His request was graciously received, and two apostolic men, to whom the Gauls subsequently erected al- f " You have escaped us, then, if yo ii be a Christian," said HeracUus to St. Sj'mphoiiau, " for but few of them now remain." HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 287 tars,* went to preach the Gospel to the native tribes of Great Britain, then divided between Druid ism — still in its prime — and the gods of the Ccesars. God blessed their ef- forts : the Britons, still in a semi-bar- barous state, went forth in crowds from their bee-hive-like huts to hear them. Sometimes, in the midst of the desert and stony heath where they went to seek the sectaries of Esus, collected by the pale moon- light f for some secret sacrifice, a young priestess of the Celts having listened attentively to the divine doctrine, leaning against an aged oak, suddenly let fall the golden sickle that was to have cut the mis- tletoe — that sacred plant which grew out of the furrowed bark of the oak — and bowing down before the minister of Christ, her fair tresses still bound with the sacer- dotal wreath, she cried out in trem- bling accents, " I am a Christian ! " whereupon, the priest, taking water from the still worshiped spring, ad- * Harpisfield, Hist., lib. i., ch. 3. f The Gauls and the insular Britons assem- bled only by night in their temples, when the moon was in her first quarter, or at her full ; this traditional custom dates from the most re- ^ ministered the regenerating sacra- ment of Baptism to the young and stately neophyte, who gave up her proud title of Uheldeda (sublimity) for the sweet strange name of Mary.+ During the persecution of DIocIq- sian, according to the best authori- ties, Christianity crossed the double wall which separated the Britons, politically enervated by their con- querors, from their wild and restless neighbors of the North. The island of Britain, where Roman civiUzation flourished like a pale and forced ex- otic, had cities adorned with baths, palaces of marble, temples radiant with gold, side by side with dreary- wastes of sand and rock, and thick primeval woods; but Caledonia, whither the eagle of the Caesars had not yet penetrated, was still the land of foam and flood, of rock and torrent, having no other worship than a half-efi'aced Druidism, min- gled with German superstitions. All was hazy and indistinct, like mote antiquity. {Hist. Eccles. de Bret., i' iv., p. 540.) \ The Venerable Bede asserts in his Ecclesias- tical History, that, at this remote period, a great number of Druids became Christians. Bluiuiii OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. a landscape veiled in mist. The Druids, having had a misiinder* standing with the great chiefs, had been expelled in the 4th century,* and their notions relating to the one God were gradually almost forgot- ten ; but the people believed in the spirit of the waters, and the spirit of the mountains, and in a certain aerial dwelling where the shades of their ancestors, wandering by night on their cloudy chariots, their white drapery glittering in the moon- beams, and their transparent hands, holding by way of sword, a half- extinguished meteor.f The Chris- tian apostles of these regions, then almost unknown, took possession of the caves which the Druids had abandoned, J and established them- selves on the margin of stieams, in the depth of forests, or on the steep hill -side. It sometimes chanced that the Highland hunter, careless of pui"suing farther over the moor the red deer or the roe, came to seat himself on the gray, mossy stone which marked the grave of a war- rior, in order to converse with the ♦ Poems of Ossian. Dissertation on the Era of t See Ossian. old man of the cave, the Christian Cnldee,^ who told him of Christ and his Mother. With one aim thrown over his unbent bow, and the other resting on the head of his favorite hound lying at his feet, the Scottish chief listened, with respect and at- tention, to the grave discourse of the solitary ; then, when the sanctity of the Gospel had, at length, touched his heart ; when, with clasped hands and kindling eyes, lie said, "I be- lieve ! " his entire clan repeated like a faithful echo, " We also believe 1 " Not content with having spread their doctrine over hill and dale, the priests of Christ would fain pursue the old idolatiy even to its most an- cient and remote sanctuaiies. The isle of lona, one of the islands of the Scottish archipelago, surrounded by a green and turbulent sea, was a sacred place for the lords of the isles and the mountain chiefs, who came to swear peace on an ancient block, which they called the stone of power. The stone quickly disappeared, and in its stead arose, amid the pictur- esque rocks, the most ancient and ♦ X Ibid. § Gxildee, in G-elic, Culdich, a hermit, a soli- tary. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 289 the most venerated abbey in Scot- f land : alas ! its cloisters are now, and have long been, roofless, though they cover the ashes of a race of kings. Four centuries had passed away, and Christianity had already spread from east to west. " We are but of yesterday," said TertuUian to the senate of pagan Rome, " and yet we fill your palaces, your cities, your fortresses, your armies, both by land and sea; we leave you only your temples ! " It was true ; but what torrents of blood had, during all that time, reddened the great standard of the Cross ! The last persecution was meant to eradicate Christianity : Dioclesian either levelled or closed up all the churches, and put Chris- tian cities to the sword,* promising the most magnificent rewards to apostacy, which, however, was very uncommon, notwithstanding the im- perial encouragement, the Christians of those times generally preferring martyrdom. Men thought that it was all over with Christianity : the idolaters clapped their hands in ex- ultation over its approaching down- fall, and hell was heard to bellow out its shouts of triumph ; but the holy angels, looking on with a smile, said amongst themselves : " Christ is about to gain the victory ; bless- ed be His name !".... A young maiden of Bithynia, named Helena, whom the Emperor Constantius Chloris had married for her rare beauty and virtue, had just given birth to a son, who was named Con- stantine. ^ * Eusebius, Eccles. Hist. — Sulpicius Severus. Mr-^. 'tronlr ^nioi of tjjt gthtion U P^arj. FROM CONSTANTINE TO THE MIDDLE AGES. CHAPTER lY. THE EAST THE ICONOCLASTS. N the delightful banks of the Bosphorus, in Thrace, within sight of the dis- tant mountains of Abia Minor, whose lofty summits are at evening tinged with the richest gold and crimson, the coast of Europe is indented by a large bay of incomparable beauty, and over its sheet of bright blue waters rises a vast city, all white and all Christian;* it is Constantinople, which the son of Helena and of Constantius Chloris has just dedi- cated solemnly to Mary; for the master of the world, still treated as a god in idolatrous Rome, be- longs himself to Jesus Christ ; and the cross whereby he has conquered decorates his banners, glitters on * CoDstautine would have it so that there was not a single idolater in Constantinople; he left * his coin, and surmounts the sump- tuous basilica which he has placed under the invocation of St. Sophia, the Virgin, and the twelve Apos- tles. Idolatry is still erect, but it is a withered palm-tree, whose lofty branches are ah-eady lifeless. Nought is seen but deserted altars, over whose steps reptiles crawl; birds begin to nestle in the arches of the temples where spiders spin their webs ; the wild vine spreads its green branches over their walls of polished marble, and the travel- ler profanely cuts a walking-stick in those sacred groves from which it was, formerly, death to pull a single branch. The ceremonies of pagarj worship have ceased in Greece; the most venerated idols serve only for ornament in the pub- idols only in profane places, to serve as orna- ments. • {Eecles. Hist., vol. i., p. 523.) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 291 lie places of Constantinople; but no one is forced to enter the church; for, though Polytheism be a relig- ion essentially bad and supremely absm'd, yet the emperor respects that liberty of conscience which the pagans so badly understood when they abused the dread right of the strongest. Lactantius, one of the brightest luminaries of Christianity, lays down as a principle, in a fam- ous contemporary work, that nihil est tarn voluntarium quam religio.^ It is such moderation as this that gains success for a holy cause. It was not merely by dedicating to her the new Rome that Constan- tine testified his respect for Mary; at his request, the Empress Helena, converted by him, set out for Pal- estine, and covered that holy land with sacred monuments, in which Mary had her full share. The grotto of the Nativity, sheeted with marble and lit up with golden lamps, was surrounded by a mag- nificent chm*ch, which bore the name of St. Mary of Bethlehem. St. Mary of Nazareth, erected on the site of the humble dwelling of the Holy Family, was long consid- ered one of the finest chm-ches in * Asia. The sepulchral cave in tlie valley of Josaphat was consider- ably enlarged, and adoraed with a superb staircase of marble; silver lamps were suspended around the Virgin's tomb. Finally, two sump- tuous churches commemorated the Visitation of Mary and her swoon near the rock from which the Naz- arenes would have cast Jesus. The successors of the first By- zantine emperor showed themselves in general very devout towards the Blessed Virgin. Theodosius the Younger, having learned that a great concourse of Christians from all parts of Europe and Asia, flock- ed to the tomb of the Blessed Vir- gin, had a stately Byzantine church erected there, which was called by the Arabs la Giasmaniah (the church of the body) , Kosrou-Paviz (Cosroes 11.) tluew down this church at the instigation of the Jews, in his in- vasion of Syria and Palestine ; but subsequently repenting of that act of violence, for which he was tear- fully reproached by Sira, his Chris- tian wife, the follower of Zoroaster built a church himself to the Bless- ed Virgin, in his city of Miafarc- * Lactantius, InatiiiU., v. 20. m mSTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. kin.* The Empress Piilclieiia, daughter of Theodosius and wife of the Emperor Marcian, had her- self no less than three -churches constructed, under the invocation of the Panagia, within the limits of Constantinople. Being unable to enrich them with relics of the Mother of God, since the body of Mary is in heaven, she tried to make up the deficiency by some of her garments, sent by the faithful of Jerusalem. The beautiful church of the Blaquernes had her robe, that of Chalcopratee, her girdle ; but that of the Guides obtained the best of all. Therein was placed on an altar glittering with gold and embellished with columns of jasper, a portrait of Mary sent from An- tioch, said to have been painted by St. Luke during the life-time of the Virgin, and to which she had at- tached graces.f This portrait was considered as the palladium of the empire ; and the emperors — amongst others John Zimisces and the Comneni— con- veyed it to the army, whence it was brought back on a ti'iumphal car drawn by magnificent white * D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientate. * horses. In great solemnities, this miraculous image was taken from the church of the Guides, where it was usually kept with the most reverential care. The people al- ways hailed its presence with shouts of joy and canticles of praise. The fate of this image re- mains doubtful. Some hold that it was this image which, after the taking of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204, was brought to Venice by the doge, Henry Dandolo; others maintain that it was the one found by the Turks when sacking the city of Constantino, and by them contemptuously trampled un- der foot, after being stripped of the jewels and gold wherein it was set. Leo the First built, in 460, a superb basilica, which he dedicated to Our Lady of the Fountain, in gratitude for that the Holy Virgin had appeared to him on the mar- gin of a lonely spring, whither he had led a blind old man, and prom ised him the empire, though he was then but a young Thracian soldier. The diadem of the Caesars no sooner encircled his brow, than he set about perpetuatino- by this monu- f Niceph., Mist. Eccles., 1. xiv. and xv. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 293 nient, the remembrance of Mary's protection "•= The Emperor Zeno, son-in-law of Leo L, was not less devoted to Mary than his father-in-law had been ; he built her a church on Mount Gari- zim — the sacred mountain of the Samaritans — and as that restless people, then in open rebellion, had spoiled some images of Mary, he surrounded the mountain with a wall, whereon he placed a garrison of soldiers to prevent the renewal of these sacrileges. The Emperor Justin rebuilt, with increased splendor, in Constanti- nople, the church of Our Lady of Chalcopratee, overthrown by an earthquake. Two churches built at Jerusalem in honor of the Blessed Virgin, St. Mary the New, and another on the Mount of Olives, with a monastery erected on a shelf of Mount Sinai, and in Africa, a sumptuous basilica, with the name * Niceph., 1. XV., ch. 25. This church, built with much magnificence, had windows of stained glass, but not representing historical subjects. At the end of the 5th century, painting on glass was still a new art. ■j" Leo rV., son of Constantine Copronymus, having taken from the church of St. Sophia one of the crowns of gold which the Emperor Mau- rice had consecrated to the Virgin, his death, * of Our Lady of Carthage, were last- ing testimonies of the devotion of the Emperor Justinian to the Mother of our Lord. Not content with building temples to her, the Caesars of Constantinople piously venerated Mary in their private chapels ; they offered her splendid crowns of gold,f and wore on their persons a little figure of her carved in the same pre- cious metal.| . They brought from the monastery Hodegium, to the imperial palace of Constantinople, the celebrated image of the Virgin HocUgetrie (conductress), during the last days of Lent, and it remained there till the second Easter-holiday. It was to the Virgin, too, that Michael Paleologus did homage, when he -had succeeded in expelling the race of Courtenay from Con- stantinople. § The Greek people were not slow in following the example of their emperors ; the lares and the Olympic which occurred soon after, was attributed to that sacrilege. (Blond., 1. xxi., decad. 2.) I The Emperor Andronicus II. usually wore round his neck one of these statuettes of the Blessed Virgin ; it was of gold, and so small that he put it in his mouth, in liexi of other viaticum, at the moment of death. § Antiquities of the chapel, &c., of the King of France. 894 HISTORY OF THE JJEyuiiON TO THE BLESSED VIHUIN MAHl. idols were almost everywhere re- placed by the Paimgia, The altars of Bacchus were overthrown with their green garlands of ivy, and Our Lady of Grnpes received amid the vineyards the homage of the vinta- gers; Ceres herself began to be forgotten in the ruins of her myste- rious shrine at Eleusis, destroyed by the Goths in the third century, together with the temples of Del- phos, Corinth, and Ephesus; finally, Mount Athos, the mountain of Ju- piter, had become, since the time of Constantine, a little colony of hermits and solitaries, of which Mary was proclaimed the queen. The Gospel facts of her life were reproduced in frescoes, grounded on gold, on the ceilings of an infinite number of chapels built in her honor amongst the vines and olives wliich clothe the sides of that lofty mountain, whose shadow extends across the sea to the distant isle of Lemnos. Who would believe that it was amongst those very Greeks, so de- * Lfto the Isauriau was exceedingly cruel. Having failed in imparting his own hatred of images to the learned men charged with the care of the public library, he had them shut up within it, surrounded the building with wood * vout to the Blessed Virgin, that the ideas most opposed to her personal dignity and the perpetuity of her reign had their rise. It was with- in the walls of Constantinople that the heresy of Nestorius was first broached, disputing her right to be called the Mother of God ; and also that of the Iconoclasts, who dragged her images through the mire, and burned them in the streets. Under Leo the Isaurian, who had acquired, it is said, amongst the Jews, a furi- ous hatred for all religious painting and statuary, faithful Catholics were seen thrown in heaps into the Bos- phorus, or beaten to death with rods, for having lit lamps before a domestic Madonna, prayed at the foot of a crucifix, or bent the knee in passing the statue of a saint* Constantine Copronymus, successor of this wicked prince, even surpass- ed him in cruelty, and Leo, his son, walked in the ways of both; but Irene, sincerely attached to Catho- licity, had the second council of Nice convoked, when the veneration and combustible matters, and then set fire to it. Medals, numberless pictures, and more than three thousand manuscripts wore consumed in that conflagration. ■ .*■ HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 295 of images was solemnly reestablish- ed,* and the Empress Theodora, aided by the patriarch Methodus, consolidated the pious work of Irene. If the insult had been great, the reparation was complete ; the Greeks, thenceforward, endeavored to honor Mary by every imaginable means. They decreed her crowns of gold ; they ever after represented her with the imperial purple, the tiara of pearls, and the diadem of the empresses ; f they stamped her image on their coins ; they struck medals in her honor, and fought under her auspices. " Eomans," said Narses, when about to offer battle to the Goths at Taginas, " Eomans, fight bravely, the Virgin is with us ; fail not to invoke her during the combat ; for she beholds our cohorts, and will deliver to us the wretches who dispute her title of Mother of Godr \ It was quickly rumored through the ranks that the Paiia^ia^ to whom JSTarses was very * Protestants have protested loudly against this council, which explains so clearly the vene- ration of images. In the 16th century, they had quite a horror of the Empress Irene, whom they surnamed the furioun, aiRrming that she had established the worship of images. {Letter devout, had promised him victory, and appointed the hour for the attack. Persuaded that Heaven favored their cause, the Greeks dis- played an energy foreign to their character. Totilla was slain ; his army fled, leaving the plain covered with dead, and Italy, delivered in the name of Our Lady of Victory, loudly blessed the Virgin and Par- ses. Mcetes records a historical fact, which proves how highly Mary was honored by the princes of the Low- er Empire. ^' John Comnenus, after gaining a battle," says that histo- rian, "was to enter Constantinople in triumph, as he was entitled to do; all was prepared for the gor- geous ceremony; the streets were hung with silk and cloth of gold, and numerous scaffolds were erected through the streets for the accom- modation of th'e multitudes of spec- tators who had come from all parts of the empire to see that glorious sight. to the Bishop of Angers on the Miracles of Our Lady of Ardilliers, in 1594.) ■{■ It is under this costume that the Blessed Virgin is represented on the medals of Zimisces and Theophanes. I Hist. Arianism, by Father Maimbourg, voL ii, 996 lii.>iuhY OF THE JjrAuLlvN TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. "The trumpeters crowned with laui'el walked in front of the pro- cession; then appeared representa- tions of the conquered cities, to- gether with the vanquished princes, in painting, in sculptuie, in marble, and in ivory, all of the most exqui- site workmanship ; * then the spoils of the enemy — arms, precious robes, vases of gold enriched with jewels, so as to dazzle the eyes of the be- holders ; after these came the cap- tives, barbarian princes of majestic statm'e and of haughty bearmg, walking in chains according to cus- tom, their eyes cast down, and their heads, now bowed in shame, now raised in a sudden fit of fury and despair. After them came the tri- umphal car, drawn by four white horses ; all expected to see the em- peror seated on this car, clothed in a robe of purple or scarlet, richly embroidered, and his lordly brow encircled with laurel; but in his stead there w^as seen an image of the Blessed Virgin, to whom, and not to himself, he considered the triumph due. The emperor on horseback, followed by his brilliant court, closed this Christian proces- sion, happier in the triumph of ^ Mary than if he had triumphed liimself" In order to show how far the Virgin was revered in Asia Minor, it will sufiice to relate, as briefly as possible, what passed in Ephesus during the sitting of the council which condemned the heresy of Nestorius, in 431. The day on which the council was to decide on the divine maternity of Mary, the people, anxious and dis- turbed, blocked up the streets and crowded around the magnificent temple which the piety of the in- habitants had built under the invo- cation of the Virgin. There it was that two hundred bishops were exam- ining the propositions of Nestorius, who dared not come to defend them, so little confidence had he in the justice of his cause or the sound- ness of his arguments. Profound silence reigned amongst the vast multitude who thronged the vicinity of the basilica, and anxiety was painted on every countenance ; the fine expressive features of the Greeks manifesting, as in a glass, every in- * Josephus gives a magnificent description of the representations of cities which adorned the ^ triumphs, HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 297 ward emotion of the soul. A bishop at length appears ; he announces to the mute and attentive crowd that the anathema of the council is launched against the innovator, and that the Most Holy Virgin is glo- riously maintained in her august prerogative. Thereupon, the most deafening shouts of joy burst forth on every side. The Ephesians and the strangers gathered together from all the cities of Asia, surrounding the Fathers of the council, kissed their hands and their garments, and * burned odoriferous perfumes in the streets through which they were to pass. The city was spontaneously and suddenly illuminated, and never was joy more universal. It is thought to have been in this council of Eph- esus that St. Cyril, in concert with the holy assembly over which he presided, composed that beautiful and touching prayer to the Mother of God, which has been adopted by the Church : — " Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of om- death. Amen ! " CHAPTER Y. THE EAST THE HOLY WARS. HE Christians of Asia were no less active than the Greeks in manifesting their devotion to Mary. Be- fore the time of Constantine, a chm-ch bearing the name of the Blessed Virgin arose like a light- house on the lofty promontory of Mount Carmel. Tyre, the deposed but still mighty queen of the Le- vantine seas, was distinguished for her church of Our Lady, composed principally of cedar and marble, and I'ivaling the Byzantine basil- ica of the Cgesars. Damascus, the emerald of the desert, willingly ex- pended two hundred thousand di- ^8 mSTORT OF TEE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VTJIGTN MARY. nai*s of gold in building its splendid church of Mart-Miriam (St. Mary), which was buined by the Mohame- tans during the caliphate of Moc- tader, in the year of the Hegira, 312.*. Antioch had, likewise, a superb basilica of Our Lady, and hung golden lamps before that im- age of her which was soon to be given up at the pious desire of the Empress Pulcheria; for this sacred image the good Christians of Anti- och substituted a small cedar statue of the Mother of God, miraculously found in the time-hollowed trunk of an enormous cypress which over- hung the Orontes.f Lebanon, that lovely mountain, which, "beneath a tiery sky remains faithful," says Tacitus, " to snow and shade ; \ Lebanon, whose cedars were plant- ed by the hand of the Lord, shel- tered in its rocky caverns a crowd of solitaries who had devoted their labor to Mary. Seated on the banks of that river which took, from their vicinity, the name of JToly^ which it still bears, and which flows between two mossy banks picturesquely shaded, those * D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient. f istolfi, delle Imagini miraculose. ^ men of toil, of contemplation, and of prayer, carved, in the majestic shade of the cedars — which let fall on them, through their rich foliage, a light like that which comes down tinged with pmple, blue, .and gold, through the stained windows of our cathedrals, — those little statu- ettes of the Blessed Virgin, called block virgins, which the western pilgrims, who visited the Holy Land during the first ages of Chris- tianity, brought back to Europe to place them either in the domestic chapels, or in chiu'ches which they have rendered famous by their miracles. Mary had also shrines in the rocky solitudes of Mount Sinai. In the depth of a grassy ravine, so profoundly set amongst enormous rocks that the top of its loftiest cedars is never shaken by the wind, there arose, in the midst of a little grove of olives, poplars, and date- trees, a convent placed under the invocation of the Virgin. There was nothing to disturb the gloomy silence of that oasis ; even the storm that shook the aged cedars I Taciti Historiarum, lib. v. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN 3IARY. 299 of tlie moimtain was scarcely heard there ; that peaceful tomb of the living was only animated when there arose from it songs of praise to " Him who was before the moun- tains," and to "Her in whom he hath done great things." In Persia, where the ruins of nu- merous churches and monasteries dedicated to Mary are still seen, the Christians were early distinguished by their zeal in building those places of prayer. Eliseus Yertabed, a highly-esteemed Armenian author who flourished in the 5th century, has preser^^ed for us, in his religious history of the Armenian wars, a dis- course of the king of kings Jesgird — in the west, Isdigerdes : — " I have learned from my fathers," said that prince in a great council composed of satraps and magi, wherein the question of an approaching persecu- tion of the Christians was discussed, "I have learned from my fathers that, in the time of King Chabouh II. (in 319), when the religion of Christ began to spread in Persia, and other Eastern countries, our principal moheds (doctors) advised the king to abolish Christianity in his states ; he tried to do so, but in * vain, for the more he exerted him- self to arrest the progress of that religion, the more it seemed to flour- ish. The Christians of Persia were so bold that they built, in all the cities, churches which surpassed the royal dwellings in magnificence ; they also raised oratories over the graves of their martyrs ; and there was no place, whether inhabited or waste, where they did not put up convents."* The extinction of Christianity was decided on in this council, where the Magi were all-powerful ; but the king resolved to try bribery before he had recourse to violence ; he tried, as the Persians have it, " to infuse deadly poison into the cup of milk." Calling around him the nakarars or nobles of Armenia, who governed by feudal tenure the small principalities hereditary in their families, under the authority of a marzhan or vice-king named by Per- sia, he loaded them with praise, with sweet words, and alluring promises, to obtain from them the sacrifice of their religion. Those who yielded were rewarded with governments, * HtHtory of the Rising of Christian Armenia^ ^ by Eliseus Vertabed, ch. iii. 300 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. honorary titles, fair and fertile lord- | shii>s, or Arab horses superbly ca- parisoned. Never had there gone forth from the royal treasury so manv bracelets of emeralds, so many girdles of beaten gold, stud- ded with rubies and pearls; so many pieces of brocade, grounded on red and gold, and spangled with precious stones — for no cost was spared to gain the desired end. But, alas! the deserters from the true faith to the camp of the Magi were so few in number, and the " king of kings " was so urged to put an end to Christianity, that, suddenly throwing off the mask of moderation which he had at first assumed, he issued a very curious proclamation, wherein, after having praised, according to the ancient formulas of the Persian court, the holy God, " master of the moon and stars," whose power nothing escapes, * " Trust not your chiefs whom you call Naz- arenes," said he to the Armenians, in this royal edict mentioned by Eliseus Vertabed, " they are liars and impostors. What they teach by word, they belie by their deeds. To eat meat, say they, is no sin, and yet they eat it not! It is lawful to marry, they tell you, and yet they will not so much as look on a woman ! They will tell you that it is no sin to gather riches honestly, and yet they are forever preaching up poverty. "from the sun to the darkness of night, from the little sprhig to the blue sea-wave," he went on to ex- pose the fundamental points of his own false doctrine, and to slander that of the Christians.* This royal edict was promptly followed by an- other commanding the Armenians to embrace without delay the worship of fire; to contract marriage with their nearest relations, contrary to the laws of Jesus Chi'ist, which de- clares such marriages criminal, and ending by ordering sacrifice to the siin, consisting of goats and white bulls. The Apostle said, " Be ye subject to the powers that be ; " but God has commanded us to prefer death to idolatry. Hence, the Armenians, instead of conforming to the impious edict of the Persian court, continu- ed to celebrate the divine service in their horse-camps, and to listen to They extol affliction and condemn prosperity ; they despise glory of every kind ; they love to clothe themselves in homely garments, like poor beggars, preferring worthless things to those that are of value ; they praise death and despise life; finally, they have even gone so far as to make a virtue of chastity, so that if their advice were followed, the world would speedily come to an end ! " {Rising of Christian Armenia, chap- ter ii.) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 301 the preaching of the priests who, in imitation of the ancient Jewish Levites, accompanied the army. In vain did Isdigerdes, separating them into small bodies, station them at the most distant and dangerous points along the frontiers ; in vain did he give them for winter-quarters the most unsheltered mountain pass- es, and the most unhealthy localities; in vain did he seek to reduce them by the extremities of hunger and thirst, whilst, on the other hand, poor Armenia, squeezed like the grape in the wine-press, gave to the Persian treasury its last drops of gold. The tree of the faith, amidst all these miseries, remained " green as a stately cypress surmounted by the full-orbed moon." The Christians of Armenia had endured all ; but their patience failed when the " king of kings" madly undertook to destroy the monasteries placed under the invocation of the Saints, and to convert the churches into Temples of the Sun. They rose from one end of the kingdom to the other, and, making up in enthusiasm what they wanted in numbers, all the Persian fortresses were taken, and the tem- ples of the sun burned to the ground. ^ A great battle, in which the Persians were ten to one, was fought on the frontiers of Georgia, on the banks of a small river which flows into the Gour [Cyrus). The Persian army presented the most splendid and im- posing sight; its war-elephants — loaded with towers from whose top the skillful archers darted their long poplar arrows — extended over the wings, and in the centre was the terrible phalanx of the immortals. These numerous squadrons, resplen- dent with gold, moved to the sound of clarions, trumpets, cymbals, and little Hindoo bells ; flags of yellow, red, and violet flaunted like tulips at the end of the spears ; the cap- tains and the satraps drew their In- dian swords from their golden scab- bards, and pushed on their swift Arabian horses with golden bridles and brilliant housings. Clothed in dark-colored garments, and with the cross displayed on their banners — dark like their garments— the Ar- menians, a handful of heroes, hav- ing raised their hands and hearts to heaven, marched to meet the enemy singing a canticle from the psalms. '^ Judge between us and our enemies, Lord ! " sang the 802 HISTORY OF TUE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. insurgent Chiistiiuis ; " take up bow and buckler for us, for our cause is thine; spread terror through the countless hosts of the wicked. Let them fly and be dispersed before the august sign of the holy cross. We ai'e willing to die for thy sake, and if we slay these infidels we shall be martyrs to the truth."* Excited by this prayer, the Arme- nians bm'st with fury on the Persians, and shattered their right wing at the first shock. The conflict was terri- ble ; the air, bristling with arrows, resembled " the ^^lture's wing," and blue swords flashed like heaven's lightning. Enthusiasm, exalted by faith, prevailed ; the Persians were completely routed, and the bodies of nine great sati'aps lay on the field of battle. The waters of the Lomeki were changed into blood, and only a single horseman escaped on his dromedary to bear these disastrous tidings to the Persian court. But this victory, great and un- hoped for as it was, could not be decisive ; the Christians of Armenia had neither gold nor allies; Mar- cian, the Greek emperor, whom they had besought, in the name of Christ and his Blessed Mother, to assist them, basely sent an express ambas- sador to the com't of Persia to pro- test to the " king of kings " that he had nothing whatever to do with the rebellion in Armenia, and was resolved not to interfere. Isigerdes imderstood that Caesar was afraid; and, trusting to his cowardice, he resolved to pursue the extermination of Christianity in Armenia; happily, he did not succeed. The Christians, overwhelmed by numbers, lost a great battle, together with the hero who commanded them, Yartan the Mamigonian, a prince of Chinese origin, who fell after performing prodigies of valor. The Armenians, reduced to the last extremity, would not declare themselves conquered ; they deserted the cities for the for- ests and mountains ; they celebrat- ed the divine office in the caverns of the rocks. The Armenian bishops suffered martyrdom with unshaken firnmess ; the princes, accustomed to the fresh, bracing air of their high mountains, were taken in chains to Korassan, where the sky is fire and the wind is the dread Simoom, which kills like thunder, while the soil is * Eliseus Vertabed, ch. iiL HTSTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO TUE BLESSED TIBGTN MABY. 303 a sea of flaming sand.* There they would have perished miserably had not two confessors, mutilated by the Persian sabre, undertaken to collect alms amongst the Christians of the neighboring provinces for the relief of the captive nobles : this lasted about seven years. One of these angels of charity died of fatigue in the burning deserts of Kohistan, the heat of which has been compared by a modern traveller to that of a plate of red-hot iron ; the other con- tinued alone the same work of mercy. Isdigerdes, overcome by so much constancy and devotion, at length put an end to this hard captivity ; but it was only after fifty years of negotiations, treaties, and fighting, that Yahan the Mamigonian, neph- ew of the great Vartan, terminated this bloody war, commenced in 430.f * The Simoom is a deadly wind which stifles travellers and all sorts of animals, unless they fall prostrate on the ground. Curious details relating to the Simoom are found in Niebuhr's description, pp. 6, 7, and 8, Copenhagen edition. This wind rises between the 15th of June and the 15th of August. It blows with great vio- lence, appears red and inflamed, and kills every living thing that it strikes. But the death which it causes is not its most surprising effec-t : the bodies of those who die by it are, as it were, dissolved, without losing, however, either their If the Christian churches of Persia deserved to be compared to the pal- aces of its kings, of whose magnifi- cence the Arab poets have left such glowing descriptions, J those of the nations who dwelt between the Euxine and the Caspian seas were very poor in comparison. These were, at first, wooden buildings, to which the faithful were summoned, on festival days, by striking two planks, one against the other ; bells were then unknown. The first stone church of the Armenians, built near the sources of the Tigris, was placed under the invocation of Mary ; it possessed, like many of the shrines of Syria and Asia Minor, a mirac- ulous image of the Virgin, which was intrusted to the care of pious w^omen. § The cathedral of Mtzkhetha, the shape or color, so that it would seem as though they were asleep. If one touch these bodies, the part which is touched remains in the hand. f Continuation of Eliseus Yertabed, by Laz- arus Parbe, ch. iii. % Antar's description of the palace of Cosroes resembles that of the Thousand and One Nights : he gives it halls of marble and of red cornelian, fountains of rose-water, basins from which arise emerald pillars surmounted by birds of bur- nished gold, with topaz eyes, &c. § Ancient Geography of Armenia, Venice, 1822 804 SISI\J.^1 HIE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. ancient capital of Georgia, was the first Christian church of that coun- II \ : the Georgians dedicated it to the Virgin. In it was formerly kept the famous khiton^ one of the torn garments of Jesus Christ. Often thrown down, but as often elegantly reconstructed in the highest Geor- gian style, it is still rich in marble and green jasper. An inscription, written on one of the pillars in let- ters of gold, announces that this di- vine and venerable temple of Mary, Qneeii of the Georgians, Mother of God, and ever Yirgm, was rebuilt at the expense and by the care of a princess of Georgia, named Peban- pato. The metropolis of the Mingrelians was likewise dedicated to the Vir- gin ; one of her robes was venerated there, and was kept in a casket of ebony, adorned with silver flowers. This robe, composed of a precious stuff, of a buff color, ornamented with embroidery of various colors, was exhibited in Chardin when it was taken through Mingrelia on its way to Persia. In the Caucasian regions, which abound in convents dedicated to Mary, it wa^ always on the loftiest * heights that the most beautiful mon- asteries were seen : they were often even defended by strong castles. That of Miriam-Nischin, in Georgia, was built on a rock of the Cauca- sian chain, in the midst of a lovely mountain lake, which rendered it inaccessible by land ; it was protect- ed by a fortress that was considered impregnable. The castle and the monastery were besieged by Melik- Scliah, in the reign of Alp-Arslan, his father, second sultan of the Seljoucides line. Just as the army of the Mussulman prince was pre- paring to embark to commence the siege, and the garrison, decimated by hunger, regarded the approach- ing attack with fear and sad fore- bodings, a terrible earthquake took place, and the monastery of St. Mary fell shattered into the lake.* This strange catastrophe was con- sidered miraculous. "The Virgin," said the Georgians, " would rather see her sanctuary destroyed than desecrated." Before the principal gate of Djoulfa, an ancient and commercial city of Armenia, situated near one of the most convenient fords of the * D'Herbelot, BiOlioth. Orient. r/:, cxi; HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 305 Araxes, there stands a solitary peak, on whose narrow platform there was built, in the first ages of Christian- ity, a monastery in honor of the Blessed Virgin. The declivities of this steep rock, still adorned with the pretty blue hyacinth and the fragrant marjoram, are covered with rich tombs and ancient tumuli ; but the living — where are they? One day it came into the head of a cer- tain Asiatic despot* to erase Djoulfa, a city of forty thousand inhabit- ants, from amongst the cities of the globe, and he sent Thamas-Kouli- Beg with an order for the citizens to evacuate it in three days' time : he was obeyed. The inhabitants hastily concealed their treasures in secret places, hoping — vain hope! — that Schah- Abbas,' when the storm of his wrath had blown over, would permit them to return to their city. At the end of the third day, when they were forced to set out, and the last moment of respite had passed, each one, taking the keys of his house, followed the priests, who carried those of the churches. Arrived at the foot of * Schali-Abbas totally depopulated the city of Djoulfa, in 1605. the rock where Mary's shrine still overlooks the ancient tombs of their fathers, their despair broke forth in heart-rending sobs. Forced to con- tinue their journey, the unhappy exiles cast a parting glance on their poor deserted city ; and, after placing their churches and dwell- ings under the special care of the Blessed Yirgin, they threw their keys into the river. The Egyptians, who had never bent the knee to strange gods, and who seemed inclosed, as it were, in their beastly region (as Jose- phus called it while still flourish- ing), had abandoned their grazing divinities^ and giving back to the waters of the Nile the hideous crocodiles which had had their devotees for food,f they had come to adore the God of Calvary. The descendants of the ancient people of the Pharaohs had built, at an early period, a beautiful church in the small Egyptian village where the Holy Family had taken refuge from the fell designs of Herod, and they had given it the name of Our Lady of Matarieh; a pretty foun- t Josephus against Appio, b. ii. ^06 HISTkRY of the devotion to the blessed virgin MARY. tain, where of old the Blessed Vir- f gin used to wash the clothes of the infant-God, had received the name of Mary's Fountain, and that foun- tain, together with a gigantic syca- more which had often shaded the Mother and Child, was the object of numerous pilgrimages. The me- tropolis of Egypt was also dedi- cated to Our Lady; The church of Alexandria, which shone amongst all the churches of the Christian world like a beacon on a lofty eminence, had attached to its patriarchal see, in the fourth century, a kingdom almost unknown to the Romans, and of which Pliny related the strangest things ; * this was Abyssinia, whose people, Jews, Sabeans, or fetichists, according as they pleased, were governed by kings descended from Makeda, the beautiful black queen who filled Jerusalem w- ith jewels and perfumes, and who had a son by King Solo- mon. A young Tyrian merchant, a trader in jewels, having been shipwrecked on the African coasts * According to Pliny and some other ancient geographers, Abyssinia was peopled with men who had neither nose nor mouth to their face, and whos-e eyes were placed in the pit of their stomach ; men were seen there without a head, ^ of the Red Sea, was first plundered and then conducted , to Axoum, the ancient capital of the Queen of Saba, where he was presented as a prisoner of note to the Neguz (emperor), that prince "at w^hose name the lions bow down;" he succeeded so far in conciliating the Neguz that he made him his treas- m-er. After the death of the black prince, the education of his young son, Abreka, w^as confided to the Tyrian, who secretly instructed his pupil in his own belief, and con- ceived the magnificent hope of be- coming the apostle of those half- savage regions. In order to succeed in this, he repaired to Alexandria, where St. Athanasius consecrated him bishop of Axoum. On his return, Frumentius, who was sur- named Ahha Salama (the father of salvation), baptized Abreka, with the principal personages of his court; a great part of the nation followed the example of its chiefs. This religious revolution was effect- ed, as all religious revolutions and others with asses' heads, &c. Pliny, who relates (b, vi. eh. 30, and b. v. ch. 8) these pro digious things, leaves the subject unfinished, and modestly stops, for fear, he says, of not being believed. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 307 should be effected, without shed- ding a single drop of blood. Ab- reka and his brother Atzbeka, who reigned together in edifying har- mony, preached the Gospel them- selves to their subjects,* and built a great number of churches in hon- or of the true God, under the invo- cation of Mariam [Mary). One of these ancient churches took, from the woods by which it was sur- rounded, the pretty name of Mari- am- Chaoiiitou, Our Lady the Green. Christianity then spread over the opposite coast of the Eed Sea, into Yemen, the inhabitants of which adored the stars and the trees ; amongst them there were a good number of Jews ; a prince of that nation, who had usurped the su- preme power in Arabia, persecuted the Christians, and, in 520, ban- ished St. Gregentius, an Arab by birth and Archbishop of Taphar, * " Hail, Abreka and Atzbeka, who reigned together with the greatest harmony, who preach- ed the rehgion of Christ to the children of the Mosaic law, and erected temples to the honor of God." {Abyssinian Liturgy, Commemoration of the dead.) f The following is a prayer addressed to the martyrs of Nagran by the Abyssinian Church : — " Saluto pulchritudinem vestram amoenam, bidera Nagrani ! gemmae qui illimiiaatis muudum, metropolis of that country. St. Aritas, Governor of ]N"agran, the an- cient capital of Yemen, would not give up his faith; he was taken and conducted out of the city, where he was put to death on the banks of a rivulet. His wife and daughter likewise perished in the midst of- torments, together with three hundred and forty Christians ; f and as Dunaan continued to sacri- fice all those who would not apos- tatize, Caleb, King of Abyssinia, marched against him, in 530, and gained a complete victory over him. Some time after, the same Caleb, disgusted with the throne, sent his crown to Jerusalem, J abdicated in favor of his son, and shut himself up in a monastery, taking with him only a cup and a mat. The African troops whom he had sent to the assistance of the Christians of Asia, seduced by the beauty and fertility Conciliatrix sit mihi ilia pulchritude, et pacificatrix. Coram Deo judice si steterit peccatum meum, Ostendite ei sanguinem quem effudistis propter pulchritudi- nem ejus.'' (Abyssinian Liturgy.} X " Hail, Caleb ! who gave up the sign of your power when you sent your crown as an offering to the temple of Jerusalem : you did not abuse your victory when you destroyed the army of the Sabeans." {Abyssinian Liturgy.) 808 nrsTOii ) ITE DEVOTION TO THE ^LESSED VIRGIN MARY. < >f that tutjtpy land, resolved to settle * till re. These were the black Chris- tians, who, commanded by the Gov- ernor of Yemen, carried on, against the Arabs of Mecca, that war known as the elephant-war, Arabia Felix, however, did not long remain in their hands; it was wrested from them in 590, by the Persians, who weie themselves conquered, and ex- pelled by Mahomet's captains. At the time of the conversion of Abyssinia, the doctrine of Nestorius was agitating the Church. It is generally known that the opinions of that bishop, who refused to Mary the title of Mother of God, were con- demned by the Council of Ephesus. The Abyssinians, in their exagger- ated enthusiasm for the Blessed Vir- gin, did not content themselves with rejecting the heresy of Nestorius ; to the title of Mother of God, they add- ed that of Mundi Creatrix, to testify their boundless veneration for Mary. Nothing, in fact, can exceed the love and respect of which she is the object all along the Blue Nile, and * The first day of the mouth of August was called in the Syrian calendar saum Miri- am, Our Lady's Fast, because the Christians even as far as the Mountains of the Moon. The errors of Dioscorus and Eutyches, which the Abyssinians have unhappily adopted, have made no change in this respect. The old East seemed to grow young again through its devotion to Mary ; it loved to do her honor, and pompously solemnized her fes- tivals, which were, -for the most part, of apostolic origin. The Feast of the Annunciation was regarded, in the time of St. Athanasius, as he himself tells us, as one of the great- est festivals of the year, and for that of the Assumption — which was cel- ebrated with splendor from the Nile to Mount Caucasus, under the name of Our Lady's Easter — the people prepared themselves by a fast of fifteen days.* All seemed to promise that the Gospel was about to spread from one end of Asia to the other, and it was already beginning te be announced to the idolatrous people of the Celestial Empire, w^lio heard without surprise of that Holy One, teenth, which they named Jithr Miriam, that is to say, the end of the fast, or our Lady's Pasch. (D'Herbelot, Bihliolheque Orientale, t. of the East fasted from that day till the fif- ^ ler, p. 2.) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 309 born of a Virgin, whom the earth f expected, according to the disciples of Confucius, " as drooping plants expect the dew ; " but, alas ! a storm more furious, more destructive, more irresistible than the burning wind of the desert, and born, like it, amid the sandy wastes of Arabia, came to trample down Christianity with a force derived, doubtless, from Satan himself. At first, there was heard but a confused clashing of arms along the sea of reeds ; Arab fought. Arab with savage fury, and the idol-trees fell to the ground as well as the Christian temples ; then, all was silent in that region, and myriads of horsemen wearing abhas striped in black and white, cast themselves * The ancient Romans had bound up the fate of their empire with that of the temple of Jupi- ter Capitohnus, which was burned precisely on the first appearance of Christianity ; the Per- sians had ancient traditions which announced the fall of the Magian empire when their famous standard should fall into the hands of the enemy. The empire did, indeed, fall at the same time that its standard feU into the power of the Mussul- mans, in the battle of Kadesia. This banner was at first a blacksmith's apron, which was hoisted in a war of independence against the tyrant Zohak, and accepted as an omen of suc- cess by Feridoun, one of the greatest kings of Iran (ancient Persia) ; it was covered with brocade and adorned with a magnificent image ^ on Syria like clouds of locusts, de- stroying with the back of their scim- itars fourteen hundred Christian churches ! Thence they swept on to Persia, which gave way before them, leaving in their hands the famous banner of Kawed, on which the fate of the empire of the Magi was thought to depend ; * the flames of the superb library of Alexandria lit them on their devastating course through Egypt; a little time and they leaped on the African coast, where Carthage ruled of old, and conquered all before them. Arrived at the place where the ancients had planted the pillars of Hercules, the haughty conquerors pushed on their stately coursers into the waters of the Straits of Gibraltar, crying out, of the sun, wrought with jewels ; a globe of gold, representing the moou's orb, surmounted this image, and around it floated broad bands of red, yellow, and violet-color. This standard was called Kaweiani direfsh (the standard of Kawed). From the time of Feridoun, the kings of Persia made it a point to adorn it with precious stones, and. in order to make room for them, they had been obliged to enlarge this famous banner be- yond all proportion, so that it had obtained a dimension of twenty-two feet by fifteen, when it fell into the hands of the Arabs, who tore it in pieces and divided it with the mass of the booty. (Price, Mohamm. History, volume i., page 116 ; and Hvft Kalkoum, volume iv., page 126. ^ liU) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. us they proudly waved their flashing * dejected heads beneath the brutal scimitars, "God of Mahomet, thou seest it is the land that fails the conquests of the true believers / " * and ferocious yoke of Islamism, and the shades of ignorance soon thick- ened and settled down over the Africa and Asia had to bow their ^ splendid regions of the East. CHAPTER YI. THE WEST THE MADONNAS. ONSTANTINE, af- ter having raised within the very walls of Rome — that goddess city which Paganism placed amid the stany heavens f — the superb Lateran basilica, had closed the Pagan temples ; but his hand was not strong enough to pluck up the deep roots of idolatry. It is certain that the greater num- ber of the Roman patricians re- mained obstinately faithful to the ancient idols of the empire; the * riorian. Precis hintorique sur les Maures. f " Hear ine, O magnificent queen of the uni- verse — Rome, admitted into the starry skies," said Rutilius, a famous heathen poet of the last * senate itself was divided into two parties, the one Pagan and the other Christian, which made St. Ambrose say that there was, as it were, two senates. It was of the idolatrous senators that Prudentius said : " The successors of the Catos, sunk in shameful error, still invoke the Trojan gods, and in the privacy of their homes venerate the exiled lares of Phrygia ; the senate — I shame to say — the senate still hon- oi's two-faced Janus, and celebrates the feasts of Saturn." As to the great mass of the peo- age of Roman letters. " Thanks to thy temples, I am not far from the heavens." Rome was, in fact, a deified city, and had its priests and its temples. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 311 pie, by far the greater number were sincerely devoted to Christ, and, despising the altars of Jupiter, thronged around the tomb of the Apostles.* The Italian peninsula was divid- ed, like its capital, between Jupiter and Jesus, Juno and Mary; the darkness of error struggled with all its might against the increasing light of truth. The heathen priests ascribed to the desertion of their gods the calamities which befell the empire. If the famine were unu- sually great in Latium, it was be- cause Caesar, ill-advised by the Christians around him, had sup- pressed the privileges of the Ves- tals ; if the frontiers were ravaged with impunity by the Barbarians, or if the Goths penetrated to the very heart of the empire, it was because the altar of Victory had been destroyed. "We demand back the religious state which has so long served to maintain the repub- lic," said Symmachus, prefect of Rome, to the Emperor Yalentinian II. ; " we demand peace for the gods * "All this populace, inhabiting the upper sto- ries of the houses and living on the bread of the rich, visits, at the foot of the Vatican mount, * of our country; our religion subju- gated the world, it repulsed Hanni- bal from our walls, and drove the Gauls from the capital. Whatl would Rome reform in her old days what has all along been her safety ? The reform of age is tardy and de- grading ! " Paganism was vanquished by St. Ambrose in this struggle, but it continued, notwithstanding, to rear itself up against the new religion, which it overwhelmed with sarcasm, calumny, and haughty contempt. It was with transports of joy that Rome restored, under Julian, the altar of Victory, which, neverthe- less, did not prevent the Barbarians from sacking the city several times. Panic-struck to see the enemy at its gates, it became again more than half Pagan ; ceremonies for- bidden by the laws of Gratian and Theodosius were publicly perfoi'med ; the prefect of Rome called in the aid of Tuscan diviners, and the last of the consuls revived the augurial rites by another parody on the day of his installation. "It was too the tomb which contains that precious pledge, the ashes of St. Peter, our father." (Pruden- tius contra Symmachum.) i- 812 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. much," says Bt^ssuet ; " God remem- bered, at last, all the bloody decrees of the senate against the faithful, and the furious shouts wherewith the Roman people, in their thirst for Christian blood, had so often filled the amphitheatre ; he gave up to the Barbarians that city which was drunk with the blood of the martyre. . . . That new Babylon, the imitator of the old; like her, inflated with her victories, glorying in her riches, defiled with idolatry, and persecuting the people of God, falls, like her, with a great fall ; the glory of her conquests, which she attributed to her gods, is taken ft-om her; she is the prey of the Barbarians, taken three, four times, pillaged, sacked, destroyed : the sword of the Barbarians spares only the Christians. Another Rome — entirely Christian — rises from the ashes of the former, and it is only after the inundation of the Barba- rians that Christ finally triumphs over the Roman g)ds, who are not only destroyed, but wholly forgot- ten." Idolal ly was dead at last ; its marble fanes were rc-opened and purified, and the most beautiful * were dedicated to the Blessed Vir- gin, before whom all Italy bent tlie knee with a faith and a fervor which, thank God, still remains un- shaken. The i)atricians built innu- merable churches or chapels, and ornamented them with a munificence which testified their piety; the al- tars of Mary were incrusted with gold, silver, and precious stones ; * lamps no less splendid gave them light ; nothing was spared to have the splendor of religious decorati(m commensurate with the dignity of the Saint. The people, having no gold at their disposal, paid her a homage more touching, more tender, and move picturesque. On the smiling sea-side hills, in the fertile fields of the Campagna^ amid the gorges of the Apennines, in the glaciers of the Alps, and amongst the arid heaths of the Abruzzas, humble altars were here and there raised to the Madonna. These little prim- itive chapels, shaded with a net- work of ivy or green vine-leaves, * The counter-tables of some <jf the altars of Venice were of solid gold ; that of the Virgin's altar, iu the Church of St. Sophia, in Constanti- nople, was composed of jewels and gold, cast tosfether in the same crucible. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 313 were sheltered by the old forest boughs, and their shade was cast over many a stream in the fervid heat of noon. This devotion, so fresh, so simple, so appropriate to the gentle heart and simple habits of Her who is its object, exists even now in all its religious poetry. Vic- torious over time and political com- motions, the Madonna still shades her little mystic lamp beneath a canopy of foliage or of creeping jasmine. Still at evening does the shepherd of the hills, the laborer of the valley, and even the fierce brigand, devoutly light the flicker- ing lamp, which shines like a pro- tecting star far up on the moun- tains, and serves as a beacon amid the woods. The little nook wherein it stands is sacred ground : there the most ferocious bandit of Cala- bria would not dare to draw his dag- ger ; and there even he goes to pray when the distant bells chime forth the Ave Maria ; it is the last link which binds him to humanity, and rarely, indeed, is that link broken.* * The respect entertained by the Italian banditti for the Madonna is a well-known fact ; one of them allowed himself to be taten without offering any resistance, because the These little solitary chapels, lost amid the rocks or in the depth of the woods, awake in the soul of the traveller, be he ever so reckless, a thousand delightful emotions, like the long-forgotten perfume of home- flowers, suddenly greeting us in a strange land. A modern author, who is anything but partial to Cath- olicity, gives a charming account of the emotions which he felt on see- ing one of these Madonnas, hidden in the mountains of the Tyrol. " At a turn of the path," says he, " I found a small niche hollowed in the rock, with its Madonna and the lamp, which the pious mountaineers light every evening, in the most re- mote solitudes ; there was, at the foot of the rustic altar, a bunch of fresh garden-flowers ; that lighted lamp, those blooming flowers, miles and miles in amongst the bleak mountains, were the offerings of a devotion more simple and more touching than anything I have ever seen of the kind. Not more than two paces fi'om the Madonna was a sbirri attacked him on a Saturday, and he had vowed before the Virgin's altar never to make use of arms on that day, even in defence of his Hfe. {See Father de Barry.) mSTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. precipice, along the verge of which ^ \x\\ the only path out of the defile ; the Virgin's lamp must tlms be of great service to the nightly trav- eller." During the revolution of 1793, and when the French had just taken possession of the kingdom of Naples, there was a report circulated that they were about to close the church- es and " abolish the worship of the Blessed Virgin." On hearing this the Calabrian peasants seized their long muskets ; all the bells of that wild region rang out the alarm, and the brigands themselves, bearing the image of the Madonna, sus- pended by a red ribbon, enrolled themselves in the regular army, and fought like lions. These Calabrian troops were the last to lay down their anns.* From Italy the veneration of the Mother of the Saviour passed into Gaul. The Olympian gods had found their way thither in the train of Caesar's conquering legions, and the temples of Augustus and of Ju- piter arose beside the dolmens^ the menhirs., and the more modern altars * Italy, by Lady Morgan, voL iii., ch. 24. Travels m Italy, by M. E. C. of Belenus. The idols of the empe- rors, basely accepted by the Gallic- Roman population of the large cities, failed not to disappear after the con- version of Constantine; but it re- quired ages to destroy the Druidical worship of trees, rocks, and springs.f In vain did the active virtues, the unctuous meekness, the angelic ab- stinence of the hermits excite the admiration of the Gallic tribes ; in vain did the ingenious charity, the spotless integrity, the mild, compas- sionate religion of the bishops at- tract their souls to the crucified God ; the sight of the gigantic men- hirs^ standing like dark spectres amid the arid heaths, the aspect of a mossy oak, or of a deified fountain, destroyed in some moments the tedious work of the Christian pas- tors. In this state of things, so calcu- lated to wear out the most tried patience, the clergy of Gaul showed themselves worthy of the religious and civilizing mission which they had received from their divine Mas- ter. They were by nature charita- ble and humble of heart; necessity f See Histoire Ecclesiastique de Bretagne, In- troduction. HISTORY OF THE IVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 315 rendered them skillful. l^»t)le to break the superstitious habilwvhich were closely intermingled wfth the deep roots of the old Celtic tree, they sanctified what they could not abolish, and turned the very prac- tices of heathenism to the glory of God. The menhirs of the heath, where the children of Teutates went often to pray by the silvery light of the moon, which they called the fair mute^^ were surmounted by a gigan- tic cross, which suggested a Chris- tian thought amid the dark rites of Paganism. The oaks of eight centuries, where the Druids cut down with their golden sickles '' the spirits' branch,"! received in their hollow trunks the sweet image of Mary ; and it was also Mary and the saints whom the heathens found on the naargin of their " fairy springs." % This change, which manifests, in those who made it, a profound knowledge of the human heart, took place not only in the Gauls, but also among the Belgians, the Spaniards, and the Britons : everywhere it was crowned with success. In time the * Bensozia, Ben. bel, sos, mute or silent. Hist. Ecdes. de Bret., t. iv., p. 496. ¥ mysterious superstitions of Druidisni descended from the songs of bards to popular legends ; the daisies of the meadow, the lilies of the valley, the odorous stems of the honey- suckle, were no longer stripped of their leaves over the stream in honor of the deified fountain ; they were laid on the rustic altar of Mary, and the little lamj) of her chapel replac- ed the torches of resinous wood burned by the Gauls around those aged oaks, which they then called the oaks of the Lord. In the invasion of the Barbarians the Christians, in order to hide from the profanation of those fierce war- riors the cherished objects of their veneration, carefully concealed the little statues of the Blessed Yirgin in the wildest and most inaccessible parts of their forests. There those sacred images remained, not be- cause they were forgotten, but be- cause the sword of the Goths, Huns, and Yandals cut down the native tribes, as the mower does the grass of the meadows, so that, in the most fertile and populous countries of the Roman world, the traveller might f Le gui. Hist. Ecdes. de Bret., t. iv., p. 564. X Id. ib., t. iv., p. 561, and i i., p. 293. »c MART. tlKfl j witbix appeared wiA i^ple: jlh^a, a«s o^rdm^ to tiK old ck.v»^^««:r% Span- ish. Bc^iaii, and VnaA, tibeir di^ eoveiy was aBwipairied bj wr- acks Al one timer a biig^ 1^1 atteacled bj m^ m. SptauA kanter or a Pfrenean ^^herd to m bash, where tiie Imds warbled sveedr aQ tbe daj long; al anotber, Acre was an ni^ of Mary ioiiiid bidden amongst tiie iowos of a IhoniT ^hmb, nsdoient witb the perfinaes of Ae wild wood. Xow it was tihat <f ^me sbephcrds^ seeio^ Aeir dieep b»id tiie knee bcfive a ^ras^ knoll, eiyrered witih wbite Tioieis^ dog abont die spot, and foond, to &eir mexpresaUe sarpriae^ m small slatner md^ carred in wood, bat in a pofeet slate of pieaaia tiop, rqvesenln^ tte Bfessed Tiigin. Again, it was fidfin^-stars. ilimMiiMr le n%ht with a lo^ train of radi- ance^ and an eoneeaAntii^ tiieii raTs on Ae same sfti^ tiiat pointed oat to the ^panidi troops^ enooqied onder the waDs of some Moqr^ cit«v the place wkere^ in tiie time of Sodrjgov sflrie hofy monks had con- eealed, on a ni^ht of fear and fiigbt. a miracoloas imager in order to save it finom tbe sacril^ioas hands of die At anoiher time^ it Takraos kni^ls or iilBsbnos^ dames wbo^ ndin^ with &leon on arm, fliraag^ die green fiiresis of France or of Lnsitania^ disoofered. in die hollow of some old, moe&- grown oak, or in tiie bricr-liidden creTiee of a ro^ a litde hidii^ Mndonna-t AldBsag^lheproad baron or flie noble ladv crasBed thiwfcsilfe^i deiuati!^, descended in haste from dieir palfr^^ km^ on die grass beiore the Madonna^ and Towed to boild her m chapeL Oar Ladf of tte Hossomed Thorns was foond on a bnshj rodk, nnder marrelloas c ii e aofci ancegL Thefol- t em. of Fntti^gil, •ff Omc Jjmir d (be Fcma. l-i) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIBOIN MARY. 317 lowing is the nari-ative, as told by a f simple legend of the past : "Xot far from the highest peak of Jm^, but a little downwards on its western slope, there was still to be seen, about half a centmy ago, a heap of ruins which had once formed part of the monastery of Our Lady of the Blossomed Thorns, built by the widow of a knight, the last of his race, who fell lighting for the Holy Sepulchi-e. The noble lady, walking one winter evening in the long avenue of her ancient castle, her mind occupied in pious medita- tion, reached the thorny bush which subsequently marked the site of the monastery, and was no little sur- prised to see that one of those shrubs was ah*eady adorned with the garb of spring; a calm, clear light, like that of the rising day, displayed the bush in full flower, and beneath its verdant screen, spangled with little white 'shining stars, was a statue of the Virgin, simply sculptured in rough wood, painted by no very skillful hand, but clad in robes of some value ; it was from this image that the mi- raculous light proceeded. The sa- cred image was conveyed with great u. pomp to the castle chapel ; but the next day it was not to be ft and. The Queen of Angels preferred the modest shade of her favorite shrubs to the splendor of the baronial chapel; she had returned to the fi*eshiiess and solitude of the woods. In the evening all the inmates of the castle went thither and found her still more radiant than before. They fell on their knees in respect- ful silence. "Mighty Queen," said the lady, "blessed and holy Mary, this is thy chosen dwelling; thy will shall be done." And a short time after a stately Gothic abbey arose on the spot where the mirac- ulous Madonna had been foimd. The nobles of the kingdom enriched it with their gifts, and the kings endowed it with a tabernacle of pure gold. Bretagne abounded in oaks con- secrated to the honor of Mary ; the most famous of these flourished by the sea-side, on a hill which rises at some distance from Lesneven. Our Lady of the Gates was there honor- ed, and her silver statue was, from time immemorial, an object of pro- found veneration for the faithful of Armorica. The shrine is now bereft 318 EISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. of its Madonna, which was stolen f by the incorruptible agents of the Republic; but it is still frequented by numerous pilgrims, with long, flowing hair, and goat-skin gar- ments, who come to ask the Mother of God for fine weather, abundant crops, or the recovery of some sick relative. To see them in this primi- tive costume, anterior to the Roman conquest, kneeling devoutly in the shade of the woods, in view of the green, restless ocean, and the dol- mens of ancient heroes who marched to the conquest of the Capitol, you would fancy yom'self transported to the Gallia Comata of Pliny, and the illusion would be complete if they chanted a hymn to the Virgin in the ancient and sonorous idiom of the Celts, their own peculiar lan- guage. Le Berry had also its celebrated Madonna of the Oak, whom a Sire du Bouchet, seeking his hawk amid the woods, had found in the hollow of one of those old trees, sacred amongst the Gauls, on which the hunter-bird had perched, as if to attract his master thither. The oak that spread its branches over the fair statue of Mary, around which the ivy entwined like a Gothic frame, stood on a small islet covered with fine, thick grass, and surround- ed by a small lake, which had been named — I know not why — the Bed Sea. This oak became the terminus of so many pilgrimages, that a causeway was made to give access to it, and it was subsequently en- circled by a religious edifice. The image, too richly adorned by the piety of the faithful, was stolen by the Protestants during the civil wars ; but the Count de Maur had another carved from the wood of the oak which had so long sheltered the Madonna, and this new one might say, like the perfumed earth of the Persian poet : " I am not the rose, but I have lived near it."* In Picardy, a small Madonna was deposited in the hollow of an aged oak, on the high-road from Abbe- ville to Hesdin ; this miraculous image, shaded by the fragrant hon- eysuckle, overlooked a patch of soft verdure on the side of the dusty road, which offered a pleasant shel- ter to the passing traveller and the high-born pilgrim, who went bare- foot, like St. Louis and the Sire de * Saadi, Gulistan. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 319 Joinville, to some sacred place, in fulfillment of a vow made by himself or some one whom he loved. The bandit of the feudal times muttered an Ave to himself as he took off his coarse woollen hat before Our Lady of Faith ; and the noble dame, after praying at the feet of the Madonna, opened her alms -purse, adorned with heraldric devices, and dropped her alms into the trunk of the old oak, where the Christian modesty of the faithful of those days secretly deposited, for the poor, the funds which the latter took without the shame of asking, and which no other ever touched.* The traveller, his devotions ended, sat down, with his feet stretched out in the soft, cool grass, which refreshed him after his long journey ; he inhaled the perfume of the flowers, listened to the murmur of the neighboring spring, and enjoyed the exquisite sense of repose, so precious when contrasted with his late fatigue. But, alas ! he was at length forced to depart, and how reluctantly he turned away I The shade was so * These trees, wherein travellers deposited the alms which the poor came at dusk to take away unseen, were so venerable, says M. de ^ refreshing, the grass so soft, the gurgling of the fountain so sweet- ly soothing ! Crossing himself, he murmured a parting prayer to the Virgin, slipped an alms into the hand of the poor invalid who knelt hard by, and whose blessing follow- ed him on his way : " Worthy trav- eller, may Our Lady save you from hurt or harm ! " At the bend of the road he turned his head to take a last look at Our Lady's Oak. Anjou, where the pilgrimages m honor of Mary are of so old a date, had, near the village of SabM, its oak, contemporary with the Plan- tagenets, furnished with a Madonna no less ancient. At the foot of the Yosges, on the borders of Lorraine, a huge old Gallic oak, which the peasants still call, through custom, the fairy tree^ had, in its mossy bos- om, a white and mysterious image of the Virgin, before which Joan of Arc, that pious maiden, went to pray with all her heart against the English, who were so soon after to fly before her victorious banner. Hainault had also its old oaks and Marchangy, that none, save those who really required it, would dare to take a farthing. 820 HISTOBT OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIROIN MARY. miraculous images ; Spain and Por- * tugal were not without theirs ; and England, so late as the reign of Charles the Fii*st, saw her Catholic children still kneeling to invoke the absent Madonna. Evelyn tells us that these trees were known by the name of procession-oaks.* But of all the monmnents of the vegetable kingdom ever consecrated to Mary, there is none to be com- pared to the oak of AUouville, in the District of Caux. The circum- ference of this ancient tree is thirty- four feet at its base, and twenty-six at a man's height from the ground. It has the broad, open top of the cedar, and its vast branches, which spring from the trunk, about eight feet from its base, extend horizon- tally, so as to cover an immense space. The interior of the tree is hollow throughout ; the central part being destroyed many years ago, it is only by its bark and the inner coats of sap that it still subsists ; and yet it is every year covered with acorns and adorned with an abundant foliage. In the hollow of * So late as the reign of Charles the Second, there were found in many counties of England, sertain old oaks which were commonly called this oak, Avhich is, at least, nine hundred years old, and has seen the fall of the Druid-groves, pious hands have constructed a charming little chapel, lined with marble, and decorated with an image of Mary. A grating closes the front of the shrine, without concealing the sa- cred image from the eyes of the pilgrim or the traveller. Over the chapel is a cell, a fitting habitation for some new stylite ; it is reached by a spiral ladder which winds around the trunk. This aerial dwelling, covered with a pointed roof, forms a steeple surmounted by an iron cross, which rises in a pic- turesque manner above the branch- es of the oak.f On certain festivals of the year, and especially on the patronal feast, the chapel serves for the religious ceremonies of the day, and the people of the neighboi-ing villages repair in crowds to the feet of the Gallic Virgin, who seems to wrap them with maternal tenderness in her fresh, green mantle. These good people love their Madonna, and jjrocHHuion-oakH. (Evelyn's Memoir.) f See Ducatel's Norman AnliquUien {Antiquit'es Normandes.) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 321 have proved it well. In those dis- astrous days when all that belonged to religion was proscribed, when the slightest manifestation of Cath- olicism was punished with death, a band of revolutionary bravos from Rouen marched towards Allouville, with the avowed purpose of burn- ing the venerable oak, with the Madonna whom it sheltered. The peasants of Normandy, though much less susceptible of enthusiasm than the Bretons, assembled in arms around the oak, and defended it so valiantly that the republicans were completely foiled in their de- sign, and had to retire in disgrace. When the Reign of Terror was at its height, and the sound of hymn or psalm was no longer to be heard in . France ; when a misguided peo- ple, worshipping Marat on the altar of Christ,* vociferated, " There are no longer Saints^ nor God^ nor im- mortal soul!'' the iron cross of the hermitage was still seen tapering above the branches of the oak of Allouville, and on the front of its little chapel was still read the calm * "It was during the festivals of Reason," says Laharpe, " that the bust of Marat was placed on the altar, when all who were suspected of fanati- and touching inscription: "To Our Lady of Peace." Under the successors of Constan tine the Great, Gaul, where Pagan- ism daily lost ground, became almost entirely Christian. In the time of Theodosius, it contained seventeen archbishop's sees, nearly all dedi- cated to Mary, and one hundred and fifteen bishoprics governed by men of great learning, of rare piety, of boundless charity, and of illustrious birth, which added much to their influence. Christianity was then seeking to restore the primitive gravity of manner and austerity of morals amongst those Gallic tribes so wholly given up to the sports of the circus, their chariot-races, and. the seductive pleasures of the the- atre — enervating and pernicious amusements which heathen Rome, in her corruption, had cast, like flowery chains, over the primitive nations whom she could hardly sub- due — undermining, by these means, their martial courage. The bishops, who havd been too rashly accused of tampering with Paganism, be- cism — that is to say, of believing in God — were forced to bend the knee before Marat." (See Du Fanaticisme dans la lanque revolutionnaire, p. 51.) 822 HTSTOnr OF THE DEVOTION TO THE .'dLESSED VIRGIN MARY. cause they were unable to eradicate these noxious Pagan practices, used every endeavor, on the contrary, to extirpate them, and flattered them- selves that they were succeeding, when, all at once, amid profound peace, and whilst Gaul lived from day to day, careless of the morrow, secure in the legions who occupied her great cities, and the sixty for- tresses which protected her frontiers against the barbarians, behold ! the sound of trumpets is heard beyond the river which divides it from Ger- many Hostile battalions suddenly precipitate themselves on the plains whose echoes are still murmuring the Gallic songs ; fire and sword devastate the country; rivers tinged with blood, cities giv- en up to pillage, the marble temples of the old imperial gods laid pros- trate on the ground, Christian churches desecrated, announce the dread approach of those ferocious wan-iors of the North, whose' gods bear the ominous titles of depopu- laters and fathers of carnage ; they burst on Gaul like a mighty ava- lanche ; the warrior has no time to seize his arms, fear deprives him even of the power of thinking ; wealth and poverty share the same fate A thick, gloomy cloud overcasts the fair Roman province, and nought is to be seen save the flow of blood and the flash of steel ; from the Rhine to the Pyrenees, from the Mediterranean to the ocean, Gaul, lately so flourishing, is but one vast scene of carnage and desolation. This disastrous period, which witnessed the final over- throw of the Roman colossus, and changed the form of Western Eu- rope, was the gulf which swal- lowed up the ancient civilization ; and Robertson, the great English historian, hesitates not to say that, were he asked to point out the most deplorable period of the world's history, he would name that which elapsed between the death of Theodosius the Great and the establishment of the Lombards in Italy. + C^irb |Peri0lr d t\t Jehtion U THE MIDDLE AGES. CHAPTER YII. THE BARBAROUS TIMES. " HE invasion of the Barbarians was, for relig- ion, as for the nations who lived enervated and civilized under the shadow of the Roman eagles, a period of mourning, of terror, and of tears — a night of blood, illumined by the distant glare of conflagrations, resounding with the clash of arms, and crossed by warlike chiefs who took to them- selves the fearful title of Scourges of God. When the sound of this great passage of men had ceased, and it became possible to distinguish objects through the smoke of con- flagrations and the dust of battle- fields, it was found that Europe had changed its face. The Saxons oc- cupied fertile England, the Franks had taken possession of Gaul, the Goths of Spain, and the Lombards of Italy. There remained not a single vestige of the sciences, the arts, or institutions of the mighty people of Romulus ; barbarism had invaded all and swept away all before it. New forms of govern- ment, new laws, new customs were everywhere observed ; one thing only had resisted the general trans- formation — Christianity, which was to console the conquered and hu- manize the conquerors. The devotion to Mary, impeded for a while by Arianism, which was fatally predominant for some time after the invasion of the Goths and Yandals, flourished again under the victorious banners of the Franks. Clovis, the only Catholic king of his time, conceived the design of building, at the eastern extremity of the city, under the invocation of Our Lady, a metropolitan church, of 324 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. which he himself laid the first stone, * and which was completed by his son Childebert.* Tliis church, built on the site of an ancient Druid tem- ple, was adorned with marble col- umns, frescoes on a golden ground, and a mosaic pavement. The poet- bishop Fortunatus gives special praise to its windows, which filled the interior with a flood of light; these windows were a luxury im- poa^ted from Greece and Italy, and were then first introduced into the Gauls.f Clovis the First also founded Our Lady of Argenteuil, where the Prin- cess Theodrade, daughter of the Emperor Chai-lemagne, took the veil after having accompanied her father to Italy; this abbey, which was then in the midst of the woods, was destroyed by the Normans, and magnificently rebuilt by the pious Queen Adelaide, wife of Hugh Ca- pet, who delighted to adorn its altars with the finest works of her hands. * Felibien, Hisl. de Paris, t. i. f The most ancient author who speaks of stained glass windows is St. Jerome, in his Com- mentary on Ezechiel, quoted by Ducange, verho vUrce. After St. Jerome it is Gregory of Tours, then Fortunatus. Paul the Silent, a contempo- Tlie other Merovingian pi'inces, not even excepting Chilpcric, the sanguinary spouse of Fredegonde, dedicated many chapels and abbeys to the Virgin. Radegonde, daugh- ter of Berthaire, king of Thuringia, the holy and deserted wife of King Clotaire, requested witli tears, in her last moments, that they would bury her in the unfinished Abbey of St. Mary, which she was then building at Poictiers. This same pious princess, who refused to ac- cept the regal crown offered to her by her fierce and inconstant hus- band, founded in Neustria, near a Druid spring which the Gauls of that time still obstinately perse- vered in secretly worshipping, the church of Our Lady of Cailliouville, which was adorned with so many sacred images that it was often compared to Paradise. Of the Me- rovingian church nothing now re- mains, but the fountain still pours forth its limpid stream, and people come from afar to seek health in its rary of Fortunatus, to whom we are indebted for a minute description of the church of St. Sophia, such as it then was, has also described the beautiful windows of colored glass which ornamented the dome of the Byzantine basilica. (See VHist. de Byzance by Ducange.) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 325 waters. When the water is calm * and undisturbed, the image of St. Radegonde may still be seen ooa the flag at the bottom, with the legend, " Pray for us!" Another wife of Clotaire the First, Queen Waltrade, with the Princess Engeltrude, a daughter of that king, founded at Tours, about the year 600, a noble abbey, with the title of Om- Lady of the Casket, prob- ably because those princesses em- ployed their jewels in forwarding the work.* Several ladies of high birth shut themselves up with them in this monastery, which was de- stroyed by the Normans. Gregory of Tours mentions that there was then in the capital of Touraine a church of Our Lady which was held in profound ven- eration. On solemn occasions, oaths were taken by placing the hand on the Virgin's altar, and those who perjured themselves were supposed to die within the year.f The royal' spouse of Clovis II., Bathilda, that fair and holy prin- cess, who was the pearl of those barbarous times, founded the su- perb abbey of Chelles, whither she * Gallia Christiana, t. iv. retired when her glorious regency was at an end. This abbey was placed under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin, and was situated in the midst of the dense forest where Chilperic had met his death. A great lady of the Merovingian court, Lutruda, wife of Ebroin, that fam- ous mayor of the palace who was surnamed the Marius of the Franks, founded, after the death of her dreaded spouse, the splendid abbey of Our Lady of Soissons, which was inaugurated by St. Dronsin. Six Carlovingian princesses gov- erned this abbey in succession, for a period of an hundred and forty- five years. During all that time Om' Lady of Soissons was regarded as the flower of Frankish monaster- ies, and the daughters of the high- est houses took the veil there. Its affluence became so great that it was, at length, necessary to place it within bounds ; on the prayer of the Abbess Imma, Charles the Bald fixed the number of nuns at 216. That prince also prescribed the es- tablishment of an hostelry for trav- ellers and an alms-house in front of the abbey gate. All was redolent t Gregory of Tours, de Gl. M., c. 19. 826 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. of piety ill this opulent house ; the f divine office was uninterruptedly kept up, and the nuns watched by tui'ns, night and day, before the Blessed Sacrauient. When the king was with the army, or his life ex- posed to any dangei:, a large num- ber of the holy sisters passed the night in prayer. According to the custom of the feudal times, this monastery was bound to send to the army its quota of men-at-arms. Its importance declined with that of the Frankish empire ; but nu- merous pilgrims were attracted thither from all countries during the Middle Ages by two relics of the Blessed Virgin. Now, there is nothing to be seen of this Mero- vingian cloister but a few broken arches. An Austrasian princess, Plec- truda, wife of Pepin of Heristal, likew^ise built, under the first dy- nasty, the church of Our Lady of Colfgne, which still exists. But of all the pious foundations in honor of the Blessed Virgin, which date from these remote times, there is none more worthy of note than that of Our Lady of Treves, in the ancient country of Tongres, the fatherland of the Franks, which then made part of the duchy of Austrasia. Who does not remem- ber t'he popular legend of Genevieve of Brabant? That moving tale, sung by so many troubadours and minstrels in the baronial halls of the feudal times, and told by the cottage hearth for a thousand years and more — this story of the Barbar- ous Ages, attested by a monument, commemorates a most tragical event — a true drama from which Shaks- peare perhaps drew (for he loved to draw from ancient chronicles) the two most powerful characters that his fancy ever produced — lago, the traitor and calumniator, and Othello, the hero with the credulous mind and jealous heart. Sigfred, palatine of Treves, reluctantly tears himself from the arms of a beloved w^ife to go fight the Moors under the glorious banner of Charles Martel. Golo, the master of the prince's household, to whom he had con- fided the care of his ' young wife, a model of virtue and a pearl of beauty, conceived a shameful pas- sion for the princess, and was not slow in declarir g it. Repulsed with the contempt which his treason mSTORT OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 327 merited, the unworthy favorite, who had deliberately planned his lord's disgrace, hesitated not to calumni- ate the woman whom he could not seduce : for all vices are sisters. Sigfred believed him; he was far away from home, he loved his wife madly, and was jealous ; in the first burst of what he considered his just indignation, he condemned Gene- vieve to die, together with her child ; but the servants charged to execute this fatal sentence, in the depth of a dark forest, had not the heart to do it, and the Belgian princess was left, with her new-born infant, in that gloomy forest, peo- pled only with wild beasts ; the child was suckled by a wild doe. For six long years did the innocent and injm-ed wife live on roots and wild fruits, constantly begging of God that her innocence might be recognized. The compassionate Vir- gin, touched by so many tears and so much misery, came to her one day, as she sat by a spring, and promised her that her wishes should be accomplished. S-oon after, Sig- fred, who still loved his wife, and was inconsolable for her loss, being Dn a hunting-party, found Gene- * vieve in a cave, covered with rags, her long hair hanging over her shoulders like a veil. Golo con- fessed his crime, and was torn asunder by four wild bulls from the Black Forest. This act of stern justice being done, Genevieve had a church built in honor of Mary amid the woods where she had so long wandered, and on the very spot where the Mother of God had ap- peared to her. Hydolphus, arch- bishop of Treves, consecrated this church in the year 746.* Notwithstanding these marks of respect bestowed on the Blessed Virgin, it would be falsifying his- tory to represent the devotion to her as having attained its highest pitch under the first French dy- nasty ; the truth is, that it was then only in its dawn. Local devotions absorbed both the nobles and the people : St. Martin of Tours, St. Denis, St. Germain, and St. Hilary, were each the object of such exclu- sive veneration that, excepting only Our Lord himself, all else was in the shade. It was the altars of those saints that were plated with gold ; it was their tombs that were * Add. ad Molan de Belgic. ^838 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. covered with beaten silver; it was f under the arches of their Roman churches that robes of golden tis- sue, embroidered with pearls, were hung, ex voto,*^ The fair image of Mary, the grand figures of the Apos- tles, the army of martyrs, all fade away before the first Gallic bishops. Thus, an impostor of the name of Didier, who would fain found a sect in the sixth century, announced him- self, with cool eff'rontery, greater than the Apostles, and almost as great as St. Martin.f This distorted vision, which causes us some sur- prise, proceeded from the gradual extinction of light; legends began to take precedence of the Gospel, and ignorance, ever more produc- tive of evil, did not always stop at the threshold of the Christian tem- ple; the successors of the Basils, of the Ambroses, the Chrysostoms, unhappily deserved what Alfred the Great said of them, wuth sadness of heart : " From the Thames to the Humber, they no longer understand the Pater, and in other parts of the island it is still worse." J Gaul was not entirely converted * See Life of Dagob"t, by the Monk of St. Denis. f Gregory of Tours. to the Gospel under the Merovin- gian kings; the Franks had com- pletely abjured their fierce German deities, but there were still some vestiges of polytheism amongst the Romans of the cities, who continued to draw omens from the flight and singing of birds, to feast on Thurs- day in honor of Jupiter, to swear by Neptune, Pluto, Diana, or the genii ; in fine, who dared to light lamps and hang up offerings in the de- serted temples of the idols, for which St. Eloi reproaches them in his Homilies. These frail shoots of Greek and Roman idolatry soon withered of themselves on an ad- verse soil; but the religion of the Celts, as we have already said in a preceding chapter, stoutly resisted the sacerdotal axe, and it was ages before it died away. So late as the fourth century the image of the goddess Berecynthia, representing cultivated ground, was borne through the fields. In the fifth, it is decreed by a canon of the Second Coimcil of Aries, that if a baron permits lamps to be lit before trees, rocks, or fountains, he shall be cut off J Robertson's History of the Emperor Charles V., voL I, p. 186. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED YIROIN MARY. 329 ii'om the communion of the faithful, after being first admonished and solemnly warned. At the end of the sixth century, the Council of Auxerre forbids vows being made to bushes, trees, or fountains.* In a Council of Nantes, the date of which is fixed by Flodoard at the year 658, the bishops are advised to uproot the trees which the Bre- tons still persist in worshipping, and from which they would not, on any account, cut a single branch. The priest Paulinus represents these same Gauls as having relapsed into their former idolatry, placing meats on the sacred stones at the foot of these trees, and beseeching a ven- erable oak (which was probably the sepulchre of some old chief Druid), with the humble funeral offering of a handful of beech-nuts,f to protect their wives, their children, their ser- vants, and their houses.J The bish- ops of Charlemagne's time likewise pronounced severe penalties against * This canon is conceived in these terms: " Non licet inter sentes, ant ad arbores sarcivos, vel ad fontes vota exolvere." f They first raised the bark and then made a square hollow in the trunk, wherein they placed the body of the Druid; the aperture was closed with a block of green wood, and then the bark ^ these superstitions which had out- lived the Merovingian dynasty, § and they must have been still of some account when the church passed laws against them, so late as the opening years of the ninth century. It was especially in the two Armoricas, east and west, where the Gospel was late sown and of slow growth, that the native wor- ship, favored by forests as old as the world itself, long held its ground despite of councils and bishops, who, nevertheless, strained every nerve to root it out. The desert of Scycy, in the Cotentine penin- sula, was peopled, even in the sev- enth century, by Pagan Gauls, who lived there, as we learn from the canons of some of the councils of those times, positively like wild beasts. But if idolatry was obsti- nately sustained by the scalds and bards, and some Druids wandering in the woods, the zealous Christian had the ardor which secures victory, was restored to its place. The sepulchral tree still lived on. In some of these trees bones have been found almost reduced to ashes, and with them some beech-nuts, in good preserva- tion. X Paulinus, lib. i. Paschdis Operis, oh. 2. § Capitul. Caroli Magni, lib. i., tit. 64. 830 BISTORT OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VTROm MART. and pi*oved it well. In the depth f of those remote solitudes, said to be the haunts of demons, where sti-ange things were indeed revealed, — when the torches of the Gauls, who re- paired by night to some forbidden rite, flashed on the foliage of the mighty oaks, or formed a fiery cir- cle aroimd some dark dolmen plant- ed on the moonlit heath,* — hermits, often of high birth, took up their dwelling in clay huts, covered with brambles, some hidden by a coat of mingled moss and ivy. Their beds were of dry leaves, sometimes the bark of trees ; then* food consisted of fruits, berries, and wild roots; their garment, a toga or gown of white, coai*se wool.f Makinir their way through the tall, tangled ferns of those primeval forests, whose secret ways they knew not, these * The most solemn assemblies of the Druids were those of the new and full moon; that of the new moon commenced when that planet gave sufficient light to iUximine the country on the sixth day; the moonlight did not prevent the worshippers from bearing torches, (See Hist. Ecdes. de Bretagne, In trod., p. 184.) ■fEven in the sixth century the clergy still wore the white toga of the Roman people. In d28 Pope Celestine blamed the ecclesiastics of Vienne and Narbonne, who, instead of the toga, began to wear a cloak and girdle. He shows them that it is only the love of chastity which good shepherds sought out in every direction the sti*ay sheep of Christ ^Tien the good odor of the sanctity of one of these solitaries spread abroad through the old Neustrian woods, other hermits hastened to place themselves under his guid- ance. Then they set about clearing the hard, dry earth, choked up for ages with briers and brambles; then the yellow crops began to wave on the fair hill-side ; then, at the calm evening hour, when the bii-ds sat warbling on the trees, the hymns of Sedulius, in honor of the Virgin Mary, arose in grave, sweet tones, from the very places where the victim doomed to die under the stone-knife of the sacrifices, to ap- pease the Gallic gods, had of old chanted his death-song.J Woman — ever ready, notwith- is recommended when the Gk)spel tells us to gird our loins; that the discipline sanctioned by so many holy bishops must not be corrupted by superstition; that the clergy are not to be dis- tinguished from the faithful by their garments, but by their knowledge and the pui-ity of their liyes. (Fleury, MoBun des Chretiens, eh. 4L Ibid., t. iL, p. 185.) X M. Pitre-Chevalier has inserted in his inter- esting and patriotic work on Brittany, a very curious bardic song attributed to the victim on the dolmen. — " Hail, thou whose wings pierce ^c the air, thou whose son was the protector oi HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 331 standing her natiu'al timidity, to brave all dangers, when occasion requires — woman would fain con- tribute her share to the overthrow of Paganism, and bravely advance to attack it, even in its ancient strongholds, under the protection of Mary. St. Fremond, a nobleman who had grown disgusted with the world, and who was forced to re- ceive the episcopal crown in his humble cell, founded a monastery of nuns in his beloved solitude, and this convent is one of the first in Neustrian Armorica of which there is any record ; the holy bishop added to it a handsome church which he dedicated to the Mother of God. This monastery, built about the year 674, was destroyed by the idolatrous Romans, but was rebuilt with increased splendor by then' Christian descendants. The proximity of the British Isle, which the Anglo-Saxons, the con- querors of the native Britons, had great privileges, the bardic herald, the minister, O father of the abyss ! — My tongue shall sing my death-song within the rocky circle which incloses the world. — Trust of Brittany, He whose brow beams forth light, support me ! There is joy around the two lakes; a lake sur- rounds me and the circle; the circle is sur- ^ plunged back again into idolatry, was fatal to the Neustrian pastors ; for the idolators of Great Britain, making common cause with the Gauls, strengthened them in their resistance. The Gospel, favored by a Merovingian princess, once more penetrated into the island of Britain about the end of the sixth century, and obtained a permanent footing there, thanks to the wise measures of Gregory the Great ; but this dis- puted triumph was only partial ; Edwin, one of the most powerful princes of the Saxon heptarchy, had the glory of making it secure. Having, like Clovis, made a vow * to embrace Christianity if he ob- tained a victory over the perfidious kings of Wessex, who had tried to assassinate him, and, having gain- ed it, he convoked the Wittena- gemote, or great council of the sages, lords, and warriors of his little kingdom, and, having explained to them his reasons for abjuring rounded by another marked by strong planks. A fair asylum is before; high rocks hang over it ; the serpent approaches on the outside, creeping towards the sacrificer's vases with the golden horns. These golden horns in hia hand, his hand on the knife, the knife on my head." * 382 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRQIN MARY. his ancient gods, he demanded their * opinion. It was a strangely-imposing sight tc see that Anglo-Saxon senate de- liberating on the proposed change of religion. The king, young, hand- some, and of noble presence, pre- sided over the assembly, his crown on his head, a naked sword in his hand, according to the custom of those times, and clothed in a long cloak fastened at the shoulder; ranged on either side were the sages of the nation, old men without aims, wearing long robes and cloaks, with Phrygian caps on their heads ; then the warriors, in short, tight-fitting garments, their round helmets, with- out visors, adorned with a drooping plume; on their arms shone heavy golden bracelets; from a narrow belt, which passed over their shoul- dei, hung their sword and battle- axe ; in one hand they held a lance, and in the other a round shield studded with golden nails; in the background were the Christian priests and the high- priest of the idols. The result of this national confer- ence exceeded the hopes of the bishops. The Pagan pontiff was the first to declare that his gods were utterly impotent. A warrior noble, a thane, compared the life of man to the wing of a little bird as it flies across a room (perhaps he saw one at the moment). " We see the door by which it enters," said the Saxon chief, " the window by which it goes out ; but whence did it come, and whither does it go? This is the emblem of om' existence. If the new faith removes this uncer- tainty, let us hasten to adopt it."* Thereupon, the king declared him- self a Christian ; the entire assem- bly solemnly renounced the worship of idols, and the people soon fol- lowed the example of the senate and the king. This religious revolu- tion took place in the year 620. The German gods were over- thrown in Great Britain, but not so Druidism ; it lived in the old insular forests where the Britons still tattooed themselves, like the savages of America, even in the middle of the eighth century, al- though it had been decreed by councils that this strange custom, which gave to the Scots or. North Britons the name of Picts or painted * Hist. d'Anglet., by M. de Roujoux, t. ler. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN 2IARY. 333 warriors, was of diabolical inven- tion.* King Edgar prohibited, by an ordinance dated 967, the super- stitious assemblies called frithgear^ held around the Druid stones which were still adored in Northumber- land, Cumberland, Yorkshire, Devon- shire, Somersetshire, and especially on Salisbury Plain, f w^here stood the famous stone-henge (the chorea giganteum of the ancients). This prohibition was not strictly adhered to, it would seem, since Canute, or Cnut the Great, a celebrated sea- king, was obliged, so late as the eleventh century, to forbid the wor- ship of trees, rocks, and fountains. As to the Anglo-Saxons, they were absolutely converted, so that not a trace of their ancient worship remained, and no sooner had they exchanged the white horse of Hen- gist on their banners for the Cross of Christ, than there arose simulta- neously, all over the country, con- * This tattooing was condemned in 787 by a Northumbrian Council, as a Pagan supersti- tion and a diabolical rite. (See Goncil. Labbe, t. vi.^ f See Camden's Britannia. I Hist. d'Anglet., by M. de Koujoux, t. ler. § Sir James Hall, in his Esmy on Gothic Archi- tecture, traces up the stone mullions, so light and so elegant, of the great pointed windows, f vents, cathedrals, churches, hermi- tages, and chapels in lienor of the Blessed Mary, sometimes alone, sometimes associated with one of the Apostles or the Saxon saints, when they came ti) Lave any. Nothing could be more simple than the greater part of these first Anglo- Saxon chapels. Their walls were formed of huge trunks of trees, taken from the neighboring forests and cemented with moss or green sods mixed with clay; the interior of the walls was rough-cast with a slaty earth which took a kind of polish, and on this were traced col- ored figures, in barbarous designs.^ At the farther end of the little building, where wind, rain and light were all admitted through the osier lattice which served for glass, § there stood over a tomb -shaped altar, covered with a red cloth with a deep fringe, || an image of the Blessed Virgin in the costume of to the imitation of these osier lattices. (See Edinburgh Phil. Trans.) II It must be remembered that the ancient altars of Christianity were the tombs of martyrs; the stuffs, often very rich, which covered the altars, were red, in imitation of the color of blood ; covers were sometimes brought from the tomb of SS. Peter and Paul in Rome. ( Hist. ^ Eccles. de Bretagne.) 83i HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. a Saxon lady. The straw roof of the chapel was surmounted by a little bell. In front of this primi- tive monument, there was seen a cross formed of tsvo trees fastened together by branches of willow, and crowned with a wreath of box or ivy ; this was the sign of the change of worship, and the trophy of Christ's victory over Zernebock and Hertha. A little later, the Anglo-Saxon bishops brought fi*om Rome painters, glaziers and build- ers ;* but the cathedrals and abbeys, which they built under the invoca- tion of Mary and the Saints, were all in the heavy, cumbrous style which prevailed at that time. When William of Normandy made the conquest of England, the. Anglo- Norman churches, with their bold steeples, their splendid belfries, and their lofty towers, suddenly started up, in the pride of their fairy archi- tecture, by the side of the heavy churches and rude chapels of the Saxons. But the latter, notwith- standing their want of elegance, still retained a charm which exer- ♦ "Misit legataries in Galliam, qui vitri fac- tores, artifices videlicet Britanniis ea tenus in- 3ognitos, ad cancellandos ecclesiae porticus f cised a powerful influence over the conquered nation : it was there that the vanquished came to weep and pray. The Virgin, whom they had venerated in happier days — the Vir- gin who, according to the custom of those times, wore their national costume — seemed to them more at- tentive, more indulgent, more dis- posed to help them, in those places where she reigned over the graves of their fathers and the sculptured saints of Old England. Christianity, which, according to old Spanish tradition, was brought into Spain by St. James, four years after the death of Our Lord, made rapid progress in that country, and flourished there, mixed up, it is true, with the tares of Arianism, from the invasion of the Goths and Vandals ; the veneration of Mary was already common, though somewhat eclipsed by that of St. Vincent, the great martyr of Caesar- Augusta, now Sar- agossa, whom Prudentius has cele- brated in his hymns. Our Lady of the Pillar, which was at first, it seems, but a poor chapel, built of et ccenacularum ejus fenestras, abducerent." (Ven. Bede, Lib. de WiremiUhensi monasterio, c. 5.) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 335 clay and round stones, was already a Roman church, frequented by nu- merous pilgrims, where the statue of the Blessed Virgin seemed to smile on the kneeling Spaniards from the height of her rich marble column. Our Lady of Toledo, the metropolitan church of Spain, the foundation of which is referred by some Spanish historians to the first ages of Christianity, was au- thentically consecrated in the year 630, under the Gothic king Recar- edo, the first king of Spain who merited the title of Catholic, since he expelled the Arians from his kingdom, after having their errors condemned by a council held in Toledo. But the shrine of Mary most frequented by the Spanish people, in those remote ages to which we now refer, was that of Our Lady of Covadonga, in the xisturias. The reason was, that, under the natural arches of this Asturian cave, consecrated to Mary by the ancient hermits when they were waging war against Druidism* in the depth of the Spanish forests, * The twelfth and sixteenth Council of Toledo, of which one was held in the year 681, and the other in the year 693, teach, by their eleventh where it long manitained itself, the flag of independence — the sacred banner of the Cross — had taken refuge, as a last resource, after the battle of Xeres, which delivered Spain to the Caliphs. Abandoning forest after forest, mountain after mountain, and retiring with heroic slowness to Mount Autiba, which commands a view of the Cantabrian Sea, the last boundary of Spain, Pelago, a young man of the royal blood, the only hope of his country, found shelter for a short time, with a handful of brave followers, in this inaccessible cavern, which the piety of the Asturian mountaineers had consecrated to the Blessed Virgin, whose sweet image was placed on a rock that served for an altar. On entering this rude temple, the Span- ish hero conceived all sorts of hopes, and, kneeling with his companions before the sacred image, he solemn- ly placed himself and the shattered fortunes of Spain under the protec- tion of Our Lady of Covadonga, took the Vu'gin's name for his war- cry, and fortified himself on her and twelfth canons, that those who pay religious worship to stones or trees, or other inanimate objects, sacrifice to Satan. / 886 mSTORT OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIROIN MARY. mountain. The Mother of God gra- f ciously heard the Gotliic prince, and was pleased to manifest her protection by giving the Spaniards a great victory over the Moors com- manded by the Mussulman governor, Alcama.* Atti-ibuting this unhoped-for vic- tory to the Blessed Virgin, Pelago, to show his gratitude, founded near the natural grotto, which was in the side of a steep rock, at whose base flowed the Auseba, a fair church with the title of Oiu' Lady of Cova- donga [of the cave), where all Spain went to pray.f The descendants of Clovis the Handsome — le chevelu, as he is styled in the introduction to the Salic law — had sadly degenerated from the valor and prudence of that prince. The lamp of the Merovingians, al- most consumed, was wasting away without emitting a single flash of light ; the sluggish kings, who were no more than empty shows, were scarcely seen by the people more * According to Father Mariana, this army- consisted of sixty thousand men. Sebastian, bishop of Salamanca, and Ambrosio de Morales, represent it as still larger. f The church of Oui Lady of Covadonga was preserved till the year 1775, when it was con- than once a year, and then they appeared seated on a chariot be- decked with flowers and green branches, drawn by four oxen, who moved with a slow and heavy gait towai'ds the Champ de Mai, there to exliibit to the public gaze those phantoms of princes whom the breath of Charles Martel could de- stroy if it deigned to do so. Yet they were pious, and built monas- teries ; but piety alone will not sufflce to sustain a sceptre ; that of France is heavy, and requires a sti'ong arm, a fearless heart, a clear head, and a prudent mind. The mayors of the palace had all that, happily for Christian Europe, which was soon to be confronted with Islamism.J The Moors, being masters of Spain, had looked with a longing eye from the top of the Pyrenees over the land of France, the fairest kingdom of the West ; it seemed to them good to introduce Islamism there, and to change its churches sumed by fire; the pious Charles III. wished to rebuild it with great splendor, and had the work actually commenced, though it is not yet finished. This shrii)e is situate in the province of Oviedo. I The word Islamism signifies consecration to God. i HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 337 into mosques. The project was no sooner conceived than executed. The rich plains of the South were quickly covered with a numerous army, which pillaged the shrines as it passed along, and dashed from their ancient pedestals the statues of the Virgin and the Saints, con- temptuously treating them as idols. All France quaked with fear, from the Pyrenees to the Rhine ; the churches could scarcely contain the multitudes who came to implore the assistance of God and the Blessed Virgin ; the bishops took up arms ; the mitred abbots marched to battle under the flag of their abbey; the abbot of St. Denis hoisted the ori- flamme^ which was then peculiar to his own convent ; Aquitaine dis- played the image of St. Martial, and Charles Martel the cloak of St. Martin of Tours, which was then the royal standard of France. It was truly a holy war ; and we consequently see that those who fell in this contest were numbered amongst the martyrs. The battle wherein the Moorish scimitar and the Frankish battle- axe were to decide the destinies of the world, and secure the ti'iumph f either of the Koran or the Gospel, was fought on the plain of Poic- tiers. The two armies viewed each other at first with equal surprise. The French could not help admiring the brilliant Eastern cavalry, proud of so many victories, and laden with the spoils of Africa and Asia. The ground shook beneath the fiery tread of their Arab coursers as they impatiently pawed and pranced, seeming as though they would cry " Forward ! " like their type im- mortalized in the sublime descrip- tion of Job ; the eye was dazzled by the gorgeous flowing robes of the Saracens, the splendor of their jewelled turbans, and the meteor glare of their breastplates and scim- itars. The army of the Franks, ranged in angular form for the battle, pre- sented to the sons of Ishmael a sight no less sti-ange or imposing. Those agile warriors, clothed in short garments, and exceeding the swiftest horses in the celerity of their movements, — -that formidable infantry, which united in its man- oeuvres the ancient tactics of the Eoman legions and the wild ferocity of the Germanic races, — that brist- M8 mSTORT OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VTRGIN MARY. ling triiuigle of spears and axes, * advancing eagerly but steadily to pierce the Moorish squadrons, struck the Arabs with surpiise, and soon convinced them, say the ancient chronicles, that they had no longer to deal with the degenei-ate Goths, and that Charles was a different person from Rodriguez. The battle of Xeres, which deliv- ered Spain to the Moors, had lasted eight whole days; the battle of Tours, which delivered France from them, lasted but a single day. The Arabs charged the Christian army several times, pouring in one bat- talion after another, like the over- whelming billows of the ocean ; but their insatiate fury broke in vain against the solid phalanx of the Franks, whom a Portuguese bishop, Isidore, their contemporary, com- pares to a wall of ice, against which the Arab host dashed itself to pieces. At length the ferocious Abderama, lieutenant of the Caliph of Bagdad, whose authority extend- ed even to Spain, fell under tlie crushing axe of Charles. The shades of night separated the com- batants, and next day, when the Christian troops rushed on the Afri- can camp, in order to complete the ruin of their enemies, they found it empty — the Moors had fled! Then, each of the victorious battalions, as they marched into the grateful city, was greeted with the merry sound of bells and the music of jo}'ful an- thems ; and the whole city resound- ed with the cry of " Praises be to Christ, who loves the Franks, pro- tects their armies, and watches over their kingdom I " CHAPTER YIII. THE NORTHMEN. HE last of the Merovingians had exchanged the white and blue dalmatic, the tiara of gold adorned with jewels, and the golden wand bent in the form of a crozier, which formed the sceptre of those princes, for the brown habit of a monk; it was a phantom the less. For many a long year the mayors of the pal- ace had been the real kings, and the disappearance of the last de- scendant of Clovis made so little noise in the world, that the chroni- cles of the time merely state, so very concisely that contempt ap- pears through indifference, that the Franks assembled at Soissons de- posed Childeric, and transferred the crown to Pepin. This Austrasian prince, who so boldly assumed the crown of France, violating, by the consent of the nobles, all the laws of monarchy, had a sword able to * defend it, and a head strong enough to wear it. His valor was un- doubted, his prudence proverbial, and he showed himself more pious than his father, Charles Martel, of glorious memory, who pillaged the church after having saved it. Pepin, who • was remarkable for his devo- tion to the Blessed Yirgin, was con- secrated by Boniface, archbishop of Mayence, in the famous abbey - church of Om* Lady of Soissons, where Gisele, one of his daughters, the beloved sister of Charlemagne, afterwards took the veil. It was this prince who granted to the Merovingian monastery of Our Lady of Argenteuil a part of the immense forest which lay near it. Pepin the Short also founded, in the old Ger- man forest, since so famous and so dreaded as the Black Forest, a charming rustic chapel in honor of Mary. This he did on the fol- lowing occasion: One day, as he was hunting with his lords in those immense woods, he heedlessly de- 340 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. tached himself from his suite, and lost his way. Not knowing what to do, he stood hesitating which path to follow, when the soft sound of a hermitage-bell was wafted to his ear on the autumn breeze. Turning his horse's head in the direction of the sound, the prince soon reached a sequestered spot, where a poor Scottish monk had built himself a cell and a small oratory by the side of a limpid brook. This lowly edifice, • con- structed without the aid of art or the mason's trowel, was yet not without its own magnificence: the brier had interlaced its rich brown branches through the narrow open- ings, adorned with dark green leaves, whilst the gold and purple foliage of the wild vine seemed to fix on the ruined wall the rich tints of the setting sun. The kings of that time, though arrogant by nature, everywhere di- vested themselves of pride in pres- ence of a Christian emblem. On seeing the black cross of the her- mitage, the Frankish prince bent his head as humbly as the poorest shepherd would have done ; then, * Astolfi, Dtlle Imagini miracolose. f tying his horse to a tree, he entered the humble sanctuary. The utter nakedness of the holy place, through whose broken roof were seen the waving pine and the passing clouds, cooled in no degree the simple piety of the valiant prince. Having pray- ed for a little time before a Ma- donna, so rudely sculptured that it would now frighten a child and make an artist shudder, the king, w^hoUy unprovided, yet unwilling to leave the little chapel without some token of his visit, laid before the altar his jewelled cap. Returned to his palace of Heristal, Pepin did not forget, amid the cares and pleasm-es of royalty, the little her- mitage of Mary, which he rebuilt with splendor, and richly endowed.* Charlemagne, or Karl the Great, as he is styled in the old Frankish chi-onicles, rejected not the religious inheritance of his father's piety. There is on record one of his pious visits to Our Lady of Marillais, in Anjou — a pilgrimage which dates, it is said, from the fourth century, and which was then one of the most popular of the Christian world, f During his stay in Italy, his rich * f Grandet, Hist. Eccles. d' Anjou. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 341 gifts to St. Mary Major dazzled the Roman people, accustomed as they were to splendor and magnificence ; Germany was enriched by him with three clmrches bearing Our Lady's name ; nor was this all. Having exhumed the mineral city of Granus, the remains of which he accidentally found beneath the moss and weeds of the fair valley which skirts the Rhine and the Meuse, Charles, having chosen it for the seat of the Frankish empire, erected there, by the side of his vast pal- ace, under the invocation of the Virgin, a chapel or oratory of octag- onal form, ornamented with Italian marble, lighted by windows incrust- ed with gold, and secured by brazen doors. This chapel, which equal- led the basilica in extent, and sub- sequently afforded a magnificent asylum to the mortal remains of the great emperor, soon became so famous, that the German city, whose glory it was, esteemed it a high honor to bear its name. From the Emperor Louis the First, till the year 1556, thirty-six kings and ten queens were crowned in this sanc- tuary of Our Lady. This shrine was so much frequented, that in f 1496 there were reckoned, in one day, an hundred and forty-two thou- sand pilgrims. The court of Charlemagne imi- tated him in his tender and pro- found devotion to the Blessed Virgin. When he declared war against the Mussulman king of Cordova, and summoned the lords of southern France to fight under the victorious banners whereon was emblazoned the figure of the Archangel Michael, the great patron of the French of that time, the famous paladin Ro- land, his nephew, before crossing the Pyrenees, which were to be so fatal to him, made a pilgrimage, in company with many high and mighty lords, to Our Lady of Roc- Amadom*. The Carlovingian prince, after having piously invoked Mary, offered her the weight of his hrac- mar (sword) of silver, and conse- crated to her that sword which had already acquired so much renown. As he was returning to France, covered with glory, the vanguard of the French army, commanded by him, was surrounded and attacked on all sides in the valley of Ronce- vaux. In vain did the French brave the danger with unflinching r 842 mSTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. courage; they were cut to pieces; * not one would surrender; all per- ished, both chiefs and soldiers. To perpetuate the memory of this dis- astrous event, there was erected on the spot, over the collected bones of those chivalrous warriors, a chapel dedicated to Mary, in which was placed an inscription bearing the names of Thierry of Ardennes, Rioles du Mas, Guy of Bourgogne, Ogier the Dane, Olivier, and Ro- land. This chapel, situated near the abbey of Roncevaux, was adorned with frescoes representing a combat, and for six centm-ies none but Frenchmen were buried there. The last thought of the pal- adin Roland, ere he expired on the field of battle, was an act of respect towards the Blessed Virgin ; he de- sired that his sword might be borne to Our Lady of Roc-Amadour, and it was done as he had commanded. Louis the Pious, or the Good, son of Charlemagne, always wore the image of Mary about his person whether in the chase or on a jour- ney. When, straying a little from his com-t, he found himself alone in the woods, he hastily unfastened his gauntlets studded with golden nails, ,, and, drawing from his bosom the venerated image, he placed it at the foot of an oak and knelt to oifer up a prayer. He afterwards depos- ited it in the superb abbey of Hil- desheim, which he founded in honor of the Blessed Virgin,* and where he planted a rose-bush with his own hand, which lasted nearly as long as his noble monastery. Under Charles the Fat, a craven and deceitful monarch, whose dis- turbed and unhappy reign prepared the fall of the race of Charlemagne, the Normans, conducted by Sigefroy, came to lay siege to Paris. That ancient capital of the Parisii was no larger then than it had been in the time of Caesar: the cathedral of Notre-Dame, built by king Chil- debert, to the east ; two large tow- ers to the north and south ; and to the west, the king's palace, formed the four points of its circumference. The Seine encircled it with its blue waves. The river-side, towards the north, was covered with wood, and the octagonal tower which stood at the corner of the Cemetery of the Innocents served as a watch-tower to keep off the incursions of the * Triple Or., No. 75. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 343 robbers from the forest. In the present quartier des Halles, in the neighborhood of St. Opportune, was a hermitage called the Hermitage of Our Lady of the Woods, because it stood at the entrance of the forest. The mountain of St. Genevieve, was thickly covered with vines, and the faubourg St. Germain, noted for its beautiful meadows, was a small ab- batial village. Sigefroy at first demanded per- mission for the troops whom he was leading to Burgundy to enter Paris as they passed ; the Parisians re- fused to open their gates to him, and the Norman swore that his sword should break them open. Eudes, son of Robert the Strong, shut himself up in Paris, and re- solved to defend it against these barbarians, who, not content with pillaging the houses and churches, robbed even the venerated bodies of the Saints.* The siege was long and bloody. Seven hundred N'or- man barks blockaded the Seine ; battering-rams, balistas, and cata- pults were employed on both sides, and either party darted against the other fiery arrows and burning * See Antiq. de Rouen, p. 102. * brands. The Norman towers were placed over against the towers of the besieged ramparts, and the enemy approached the walls under covered galleries, which the Paris- ians often succeeded in burning, or crushing beneath the weight of beams and stones. From the very beginning of this desperate and heroic conflict, Paris had placed itself under the special protection of the Blessed Yirgin. It was her statue that the clergy bore in procession around the ram- parts during the siege, and many a Norman arrow was aimed at it in vain ; it was Mary whom the archers invoked aloud as they hurl- ed stones and other missiles fi'om the height of the towers ; it was in her honor that, as often as they repulsed the Northern pirates, the city was splendidly illuminated with white wax tapers. " It is she who saves us," said Abbon; "it is she who deigns to support us ; it is by her help that we still enjoy life. Amiable Mother of our Saviour, bright Queen of Heaven, it is thou who hast vouchsafed to shield us from the threatening sword of the Danes!" 844 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Some yeai's after, the Blessed Vir- f gill assisted by a miracle in recover- ing the city of Nantes from the Normans, and expelling them from Bretagne, which they had invaded. Alain, afterwards surnamed Baihe- Torte (Twisted Beard), who had taken refuge in England with the flower of the young Breton nobility, then undertook to regain his coun- try; he was but twenty years old, an exile, and had little else than his sword and the protection of Mary ; but a sword is something in the hands of a brave man, and Mary's protection is worth whole squad- rons. He landed with some Bre- tons at Cancale, and, from stage to stage, tracking his way w^ith Nor- man corpses, the Breton hero at length arrived under the walls of Nantes, where the plundering North- men had taken refuge, as a last resource. Repulsed with loss by the Normans, who had collected niunerous bands around the city, Alain, driven to the extremity of the mountain with his troops, stretched himself on the ground, "grievously tired," says an old Breton chronicle, "and tormented with thirst. He, thereupon, began to moan pite- ously, and, with humble supplica- tion, to implore the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Our Lord, beseeching her to open a fountain of water, so that he and his exhausted knights might quench their grievous thirst. Which pray- ers being heard by the Virgin Mary, she did graciously open a fountain, which is still called St. Mary's Fountain, from which he and his did drink, and being sufficiently strengthened and refreshed, did mar- vellously recover their vigor, and returned as valiant as ever to the battle. Falling again on the Nor- mans, they slew them and cut them to pieces, excepting only those who lied with their booty to their ships." Alain found the city of Nantes sacked and burned. All covered wdth dust and blood, the young lib- erator had long looked in vain amid the piles of smouldering ruins for the stately chm-ch of St. Felix, the roof of which, covered with fine tin, was so clear, says a contempo- rary work, that, when shone upon by the sun or moon, it resembled burnished silver. Alas ! that roof had disappeared, and the sky was the only covering of the ancient HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 345 church, whose altars were broken and its tombs laid waste. In order to reach the place where the high altar had been, Alain was obliged to clear away the briers with his sword. Yet the Te Deum of victory and the canticles of praise to the Virgin were chanted with no less fervor amid the ruins of that tem- ple; and, before he arose from his knees, the young Breton duke, recog- nizing the tutelary support of the Blessed Virgin, promised to dedicate to her that cathedral which now bears the name of Our Lady of Nantes. It was in the reign of Charles the Simple that a whole army of the bold Northern pirates who had so long ravaged the western coast of Europe was converted to the faith, though at the expense of the fairest jewel in the Frankish crown. Neus- tria, a rich and fertile province, * "For seventy-four years," says Eouault, "the Cotentine had the misfortune to be pro- faned by the pagan ceremonies of the North- men and the idolatrous sacrifices offered to their idols even in the city of Coutances." {Ahridg. Lives of the Bishops of Coutances, p. 151. ) f A Danish army, which had landed on the coast of Brittany to pillage the rich and famous abbey of Rhedon, was so terrified by a storm which burst on the camp, that, instead of sack- which they had overrun for nearly a century, and had even forced to conform to the savage worship of their gods,* was made over to them with the sovereignty of Bretagne, on condition that Rollo, their chief, whose progress through France had been marked by fire and blood, should become a Christian. The condition was accepted; the Nor- man pirate married a Carlo vingian princess (who lived but a short time), and was thoroughly con- verted. Strangely enough, the re- ligious element had been always strong amongst these fierce North- men, who several times sent pres- ents and tapers to the very abbeys which they had come to pillage, when a storm rising at sea, in sight of the holy place, induced them t(3 believe that the Christian sanc- tuary was guarded by some celes- tial power.f The first question put ing and burning the abbey, the pirates, con- sidering that it was forbidden by a God worthy of their respect, gave rich presents to the abbey, illuminated it with tapers, and placed sentinels around it to prevent pillage. Sixteen soldiers having infringed on the commands of Gode- froy, their chief, and taken something from the abbey, were punished with death the same day. (Mabillonius, in Adis S. S. Ord. S. Bened., sect, iv., 2d part.) 846 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. by the new Duke of Normandy to f Franco, archbishop of Rouen, who was instructing him in the mys- teries of Christianity, was to ascer- tain who were the most renowned saints of France and Neustria. The prelate immediately named Our Lady, and enlarged upon her great power. "Well," said the Norman prince, after a moment's pause, " as she is so powerful, we must do something for her." And he there- upon made a large concession of lands to Our Lady of Bayeux. The city of Rouen had dedicated to Mary its metropolitan church, burn- ed by the Normans of Hastings, and repaired as well as possible some time after; the Duke was baptized therein with most of his Danish captains, and set on foot to enlarge and beautify it — works which his successors magnificently continued.* Our Lady of Evreux, one of the most ancient churches of Normandy — if we believe the * This prince was interred in the cathedral of Notre Dame, which he had then rebuilt. " He ended his days at Rouen, as a good Catho- lic," says Taillepied, " and was inhumed with g^eat pomp and funeral state in the great church of Notre Dame, towards the south side." {AniiquUks de la vUle de Rouen, p. 107.) annals which relate that St. Taurin, first bishop of Evreux, founded it about the year 250, and consecrated it to the worship of the true God, under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin — likewise received rich gifts from Rollo, who gave, even to his last moments, the most signal marks of sincere devotion towards Madame Sainte Marie, as she was respect- fully called by the princes and no- bles of that period. These Norman dukes, by nature gay, generous, and brave, were in general very devout to the Virgin ; it was before her altar that they were invested with the regalia of that fair duchy which they proudly styled their kingdom of Normandy. There it was, too, that they slept their last sleep, under the gray flags of her chapel, hung with tapestry of silk and gold, representing the principal events in the life of the Mother of God, and wrought by the duchesses of Normandy, f Robert f " The Duchess Gonnor, second wife of Rich- ard Sans-Peur, duke of Normandy, gave great wealth to the churches," says Taillepied, " and especially to Our Lady of Rouen, to which she gave many splendid ornaments made by skillful artists and embroiderers ; she likewise made ^ tapestries of embroidered silk, representing HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 347 the Magnificent had, himself, no less than three churches built in lionor of Mary, and bearing her name: Our Lady of Deliverance, to accom- plish a vow made during a storm whilst his bark was tossed about in the dangerous waters of the Norman Archipelago; Our Lady of Grace, near Honfleur ; and finally. Our Lady of Pity, under the ducal castle which defended Honfleur. This prince, so devoted to Mary, resolved on going to Jerusalem to visit her tomb and the Holy Sep- ulchre; he set out on horseback, accompanied by the richest and no- blest lords of his court, all radiant with gold, sparkling with jewels, and surrounded by a crowd of var- lets, squires and pages, as though they were going to some great tour- nament. As they passed along, the people came forth in crowds to see them, and their entry into Rome was something remarkable. The Romans regarded with admiration those Northern barbarians who had made even Italy itseK tremble, and sacred histories, with pictures of the Virgin and the Saints, to decorate the church of Our Lady of Kouen." {Antiq. de Rouen, p. 112.) * See La Normandie, by M. Jules Janin. ch. 2. * whose tall statm-e and noble mien reminded them of their ancient he- roes. Seeing their lordly bearing, their brilliant armor, their long gold-hilted swords, and their point- ed helmets, whence their fair tresses escaped, they asked each other who were these princes from the North who came thus as humble pilgrims to visit the tombs of the Apostles ? The Pope gave them a distinguished reception, bestowed on them his pastoral blessing, and with his own hands placed the pilgrim's staff on the shoulder of their princely chief. Thence they continued their route to Constantinople, the city of Mary, which they dazzled with their mag- nificence. They scattered gold and pearls through the streets as they passed along; Robert's mule was shod with gold, and when a nail fell out, not a Norman deigned to stoop in search of it; it was for the Greeks to gather from the dust the golden nails lost by the Nor- man's horse.* On approaching the holy places, the Christian spirit made itself felt ; those same travellers who had crossed or braved, without acknowl- ^ edging any right of toll, so many 848 HISTORY OF THE DEVijTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. well defended rivei's, and so many * embattled walls, those bold com- | panions who always took care to | let the point of their swords be seen underneath the pilgrim's robe, they who were so lately proud even to insolence, could now be scarcely recognized, so humble, so modest, so collected were they made by the mere proximity of that Holy Land whose arid, rocky soil they trod barefoot. Robert, so justly styled the Magnificent, visited, with the most edifying devotion, the holy sepulchres of Jesus and Maiy. Christians and Mussulmans alike received from him such munificent alms that the Emir of Jerusalem, excited to emulation, refused to ac- cept the ti'ibute due to him by these splendid pilgrims. Robert left a liberal donation at the Holy Sepul- chre ; Richard 11., duke of Norman- dy, had already made an offering there of an hundred pounds of gold. The pilgrimage accomplished, the Duke set out by land on his return to his fair duchy, which he was * A Norman pilgrim, having met the Duke, whom some Arabs were carryii^ in a litter, Badly approached the dying prince, and said, " What tidings shall I bring home of your lord- never more to seel He died at Nice, in Bithynia, jesting on the aspect of death, like the sea-kings bis fathers,* and commending him- self to Madame Sainte Marie, as his Christian predecessors had done. The Norman nobles, who began to dream of kingdoms under the radiant sun of Italy, were no less devoted to the Virgin than their princes. The famous Tancred and Robert Guiscard were lords of the small maritime village of Hauteville, where not a stone remains of their castles, but where the old church in which these Norman lions received baptism is still seen, without a spire, all covered with moss and weeds; — they sent from the depth of Puglia, where, with five hundred Norman lances, they drove back sixty thousand Saracens, the half of a treasure which they had found, to Geoffrey de Monbray, bishop of Coutances, to build, under the invo- cation of Holy Mary, the beautiful fairy fabric which forced even from Vauban himself that cry of wonder ship ? " * Say," replied Robert with a smile, aa he pointed to his bearers, "that you saw me taken to heaven by four devUs." HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 349 and admiration, "Wliat sublime madman was it that reared this noble building to the clouds?" Precisely at the same period, a brother of Robert Guiscard, Count Roger de Hauteville, founded in conquered Sicily the famous cathe- iral of Messina, which he failed not to dedicate to the Virgin, according to the custom of his house. This sumptuous building, which was con- secrated in the year 1097, partook a little of all the styles of architec- ture then known; the Byzantine mosaic was there joined with the arabesque of the Saracens, and the graceful gothic spires adorned with * This letter, which was first translated from the Greek by Lascari, who was suspected of having invented it, was subsequently found also in Syriac in the old manuscripts of the bishop of Mardin, in Syria, and was translated into Latin by D, Joseph Allemani, a noble Maronite, in- terpreter of Oriental languages for the Vatican library. We do not pretend to examine the value of this document, which is placed amongst the apocryphal writings, notwithstanding many protests ; we give it here as a curious and an- cient document. *' Maria virgo, Joachim et Annse filia, humilis ancilla Domini, Mater Jesu Christi, qui est ex tribu Juda, et de stirpe David, Messanensibus omnibus salutem, et a Deo Patre omnipotente benedictionem. " Per publicum documentum constat vos mis- isse ad nos nuncios, fide magna ; vos scilicet credere Filium nostrum a nobis genitum esse # statues of saints and angels wonder- fully well gilt. In the sumptuous treasury of this cathedral is pre- served a letter of the Blessed Vir- gin, in which the devout inhabit- ants of Messina take no small pride,* and on which several Sicil- ian bishops have written volumes, in order to prove its authenticity, which is somewhat doubtful. In the same cathedral is celebrated every year the feast of the Farm, destined to perpetuate the memory of the Saracen defeat by the Nor- man heroes. The Virgin, repre- sented by a young maiden, figures in this festival, seated on a magnifi- Deum et hominem, et post resurrectionem suam ad coelum ascendisse ; vosque, mediante Paulo, apostolo electo, viam veritatis agnovisse. Prop- terea vos vestramque civitatem benedicimus et protegimus, et defendimus eam in ssecula sgecu- lorum. " Data fuit hsec epistola die quinto, in urbe Hierusalem, a Maria virgine, cujus nomen supra, anno xlii. a Filio ejus, ssecnlo primo, die 3 junii, luna xxvii "La chiesa metropolitana de Messina fu dedicata alia beatissima V. M. della Sacra Lettera e vi si celebra tutti gli anni una grande festa. " L'antica e pia tradizione della sacra lettera della gran Madre di Dio sempre Vergine Maria, scritta alia nobili ad exemplare cita di Messina, illustrata con nuovi documenti, ragioni e veri- simili congetture, dal P. Maestro D. Pietro Menniti, abbate generale di S. Basilio Magno." 850 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. cent triumphal car, "w Mist the Mus- f sulmans vanquished by Count Roger are represented by hideous colossal figures. From Normandy came the relig- ious light which dispelled the hea- then darkness of the North, and it was Mary who received in her fair cathedral of Rouen the first-fruits of that sacred harvest. Harold II., king of Denmark, who came with an hundred galleys to the succor of Richard Sans-Peur, abjured Pagan- ism there ; and Olaiis, king of Nor- way, who had joined his forces with those of Normandy in a war which Duke Richard 11. maintained against Eudes, king of Blois, was converted by Robert, archbishop of Rouen, to Christianity, which he soon after- wards introduced into his states. This holy king had the courage to throw down with his own hands the statue of Thor, tutelary divinity of Norway, in the ancient temple of Drontheim; this statue had been * The Scandinavians sacrificed prisoners to Odin in time of war, and criminals in time of peace ; but they did not always confine them- selves to these classes, and in great calamities even kings were sacrificed to appease the gods. It was thus that the first king of Vermi- land was burned in honor of Odin in the time encircled by the Norwegian pirates with a golden chain, and hence they were wont to swear by the armlets of that warrior-god whose club was so dreaded by the giants of tJie frost. Olaiis sent into Sweden Christian missionaries, who were well receiv- ed, and the gilded walls of the tem- ple of Upsal, disencumbered of their idols, cleansed from their human sacrifices,* were adorned with the blessed images of Chi-ist and his Mother. It was not the fault of the princes of Christendom that the sun of the Gospel rose so late on the horizon of the Northern kingdoms; in the middle of the seventh century, the Saxon Willibord had labored in vain to convert Jutland ; renewed efibrts were made with as little success, in the course of the eighth century, by missionaries sent by "Witikind, the convert of Charlemagne ; the ninth, opened under more favorable auspi- ces. Driven from his states, Harold of a great famine ; and we learn from the history of Norway, that kings spared not even their own children. Haquin, king of Norway, offered his in sacrifice to obtain a victory ; and a king of Sweden sacrificed his sons to Odin in order that that god might prolong his life. (See Wormius, ^ Monument. Danic. et Sax. Grammat., 1. x.) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 351 Klack, king )f a part of Jutland, came to take refuge at the court of Louis the Gcod, where he embraced Christianity. A contemporary an- nalist, Ermold the Black, abbot of a Frankish monastery, gives a pic- turesque description of the sea-king and his Danish fleet. " What do I see," says he, " shining in the morn- ing ray, and covering the waves afar ? What ships ascend the proud Rhine in warlike pomp ? How those white sails glance in the sunlight over the mirror of the waters and the dancing waves ! " This conver- sion of the Jutland prince was almost alone, notwithstanding the exertions of Anschar, the apostle of the North;- and those glittering ships, so admired by the brave and simple Franks, remembered but too well the way to Western Europe. The conversion of King Harold did more for the Christian religion than that of the Jutland prince. On his return to his own country, he forbade sacrifices, shut up the temples of the false gods, built Christian churches, and did all in his power to promote the propaga- tion of the Gospel. His son, Sueno, a cruel and fero- cious prince, declaring himself the champion of idolatry, treacherously killed his father, re-opened the tem- ples of Odin and Thor, and destroyed the Christian churches. After his death, which happened in 1014, Christianity again raised its head and resumed its onward career. Still the transition from one worship to the other was not sudden, as amongst the young and impetuous conquerors of England and Gaul; the Christian churches of Denmark arose for a century side by side with the stone of sacrifice. If Christ and his Mother were venerated, the gods of Walhalla were not forgotten ; Thor still kept his place on the altar, with his club in his mailed hand, and if a hymn wxre sung to Mary in her chapel, the hymn of Odin was still chanted in the battle, and to Odin were thanks returned for victory, by a sacrifice of birds of prey. It seemed hard for the warriors of the North to abandon all at once those warlike deities whose tombs they possessed, and who had made their fathers so mighty in battle. They admitted that Christ was God, and were willing to adore him as such; but how could they 852 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. dethrone the ancsent gods of their f countiy, to make place for the God of the stranger? Could not all reign together ? The Walhalla was full of virtuous women, it might receive the Virgin Mary. Under favor of this last exception, Pagan- ism was more formidable than ever, and the first Christian neophytes made a monsti'ous mixture of both worships by way of reconciliation.* This state of things continued till the reign of Canute the Great, who established the supremacy of the Christian religion. The devotion to the Blessed Vir- gin contributed much to the estab- lishment of the Gospel amongst the Scandinavians. From time imme- morial they had deified virginity in the person of Falla, whose fair tresses were bound with a golden band, and Gesione, who, after their death, admitted virgins into her Muntev. Muntev., Hid. Denmark. — Mallet, Hisi. Denmark. f "When Rogwald was killed," says the famous Northern Scald, Regnier Lodbrog, in his Epicedium or Dirge, " all the crows of the air mourned for him." Apparently because he gave them many sumptuous feasts of dead bodies. J The religion of the Scandinavians was whoUy corrupt ; it no longer insisted on the worship heavenly train. Three virgins, seat- ed under the sacred oak, disposed of the fate of men, and those white ladies were also virgins who glided over the lakes like a pillar of mist, sat at midnight in the freezing shadow of the pines, and sang with a soft, low voice the Runic hymns which the Scalds had engraved with the point of their swords on the rocks that overhung the sepulchral mound of the heroes whom the ravens of the air mourned.f It was hard to set aside those charming Northern fairies, who introduced themselves invisibly into the peas- ant's cot and the Jarrs (earl's) for- tress, and whose coming was sure to bring good fortune. These super- stitions, equally cherished by the high and the low, J could never, perhaps, be totally eradicated with- out the Blessed Virgin, who became the protectress of cabin and pal- of one Supremie God ; the intelligences who had emanated from him seemed no longer to depend on him, and, as a consequence of that almost in- vincible inclination which has ever prompted men to multiply the objects of their adoration, they had acquired an equal right to the govern- ment of this world. The belief in fairies and genii, omens and divinations, had gradually be- come an essential part of the Northern religion. ^ (Mallet, Hist, de Danemark.) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 353 ace. The influence of the Queen of * Heaven on the conversion of the Scandinavians, is proved by a fact which none can dispute: it is, that Christianity owed its success among those nations to the mothers of fam- ilies who afterwards gained over the warriors. * The first Christian kings of Den- mark were faithful servants of Mary. St. Canute, duke of Sleswick, dedi- cated to her three superb churches. Waldemar 11. placed her image on his shield, and having learned that the Kussians, leagued with the Esthonians, threatened the rising church of Riga, he solemnly pledged himself to pass the following year in Esthonia, as well for the honor of the Blessed Virgin as for the remission of his sins.f It was in this war, commenced under the patronage of Mary, that the Danes, surprised in their camp, lost their national banner. As they began to give way before the Pagans, the Blessed Virgin, whom they had piously invoked before leaving Es- * Mallet, Hist, de Danemark. ■f Livonian Chronicle, p. 122. I Mallet, who disputes this legend, acknowl- edges, nevertheless, that no Danish historian thonia, gave them, it is said, a sen- sible mark of her powerful protec- tion ; a red flag with a white cross fell from heaven, according to an- cient chronicles, and with that flag victory returned. J The devotion to Mary flourished long in the three kingdoms of the North, as is proved by the great number of cathedrals, hermitages, and monasteries which they dedicated to her. When the scorching wind of the Reformation had blighted that fair flower of Catholicity, this devotion was still secretly maintained ; and fifty years after Luther, Mary was still vener- ated in the subterraneous chapel of the cathedral of Upsal.§ This consoling devotion ended in those far northern regions as it began in Rome, amongst the tombs. It was under the influence of Mary that Prussia, with all the coast of the Baltic Sea, received the light of the Gospel. The Knights Hospitallers of the Blessed Vii'gin, better known as the Teutonic Kiaights, civilized those barbarous he has consulted explains in a satisfactory man- ner the origin of this banner, apart from the prodigy. § M. Marmier, Ldtre a M. Salmndy. 854 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. countries whose principal deities were Hell (Poklus) and the thun- der-god [Perlcon las) . Amongst the nations of Sclavonic origin, who substituted Chiistianity for their bloody rites, and polished their manners under its civilizing influence, no people were so devout to the Virgin as the Hungarians. Towards the beginning of the eleventh century, St. Stephen, first Christian king of the Huns or Hun- garians, founded Om' Lady of Albe- Royale, in thanksgiving for a vic- tory obtained over the prince of Transylvania. This fair Sclavonic basilica vied in magnificence with the most sumptuous churches of the East. Its walls adorned with su- perb sculptures, its marble pave- ments, its altars overlaid with gold and incrusted with fine jewels, its vases of silver, gold, and onyx, were marvellous to behold. Over the Virgin's altar were perfuming-pans of silver, in which two old men, whose cradles had been rocked to the exploits of Attila, had the rarest perfumes of Asia burned. Proces- sions came several times in the day to honor the Mother of God in her sanctuary. All this splendor was not suffi- cient for the piety of the Hungarian prince; descended though he was from the Scourge of God, it was his pleasure to hold his crown in sub- jection to the Virgin, whom he de- clared sovereign of his states. Thus, as often as the name of Mary was pronounced thi'oughout the extent of that vast kingdom, there was not a Hungarian noble, no matter how high his lineage, who did not bend the knee and bow down, as a vas- sal, before his liege lady.* Within the fortified walls of every castle, there was a small chapel lit by sev- eral brass or silver lamps, which burned night and day before Mary's image. The prince-palatines even carried that same image to battle, and raised an altar for it in their tents. The devotion to Mary was kept up with no less fervor on the banks of the Vistula. Dating from the day when Dumbrowka, the fair Bohemian princess, converted King Micislas, and made him break the idols which his fathers had raised to Pagoda {calm air), to Poehwist (the cloudy sky), and to the gloomy * Bonifacius, Hist. Virg., b. iL, ch. ii. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 355 deities of the abyss, the Poles be- came essentially Catholic, and built numberless chapels of larch-wood in honor of the Mother of God. Pagan banners, taken on twenty battle-fields, were the only orna- ment of these primitive churches, nestling amongst the ever-green pines of the Sclavonic forests ; but when, during the celebration of mass, the minister of Jesus Christ read the Gospel to those Northern heroes, kneeling before an altar as poor as the crib of Bethlehem, every sword was seen haK drawn from the scabbard, in token of protec- tion and defence.* Nor was this * This custom is traced to the time of Micis- las, the first king of Poland. {Hist, de Pologne, par M. L. S., t. ler, p. 43.) ■f The Virgin Mary was Queen of Poland; hence, whenever the Poles marched against the Tartars, her image adorned the national banner. {La Pologne Historique et LUteraire, t. ler, p. 396.) * an idle show : Poland was long the bulwark of Christianity; were it not for John Sobieski, the Crescent would, perchance, have crowned the battlements of the cities beyond the Khine. Poland was early consecrated to the Blessed Virgin ; Mary was sol- emnly invoked under the title of Queen of Poland long before John Casimir renewed that consecration. As often as the Polish army moved against the Tartars, it was Mary's banner that led its stately cohorts ;f the name of Jesus twice repeated was their battle-cry, and a hymn to the Virgin their war-song.J J In the tenth century we see St. Adalbert, bishop of Guezne, composing sacred songs for the Polish troops, who were fighting the paga.n Prussians and Pomeranians. A hymn of St. Adalbert, Boga-Rodziga (Mother of God), was long the war-song of the Poles. (Alb. Sowin- ski, A Historical Survey of Religious and Popxdai Music in Poland.) CHAPTER IX. CHIVALRY. [HE gigantic em- f pire of Char- lemagne had vanished like a brilliant phan- tom; the last of the Carlo- vingians had been stripped of his kingdom, already reduced to noth- ing by the thoughtless extravagance of his fathers, and the dukes of France, who were also pretending to the throne, as descendants of Charlemagne, having twice tried on the royal mantle, had at length taken possession of it. Before they appended the impoverished crown to the great fief wherewith they en- riched it, the counts of Paris had given striking proofs of their devo- tion to the Blessed Virgin. When that mysterious and dreadful mal- ady called feu des ardents, after ravaging the southern pai-ts of the kingdom, reached the Isle of France, Hugh the Great supported at his own expense the poor sick ^ pilgrims who sought (and never failed to obtain) their cure from Our Lady of Paris.* Hugh Capet, foun- der of the third dynasty, had a sin- cere devotion for the Blessed Vir- gin ; and Queen Adelaide of Aqui- taine, his pious spouse, enriched with her gifts the fair Abbey of Our Lady of Argenteuil, which thence- forward possessed the sacred relic which is still exposed there to the veneration of the faithful, Robert, who proclaimed Mary the Star of his kingdom, built monasteries in her honor at Poissy, Melun, Etampes, and Orleans, as we learn from Hel- gaud. The church of Orleans was called Our Lady of Good Tidings, and was built on the spot where Robert, when heir-presumptive to the throne, was informed that his father, Hugh Capet, had escaped death. Worthy son of a king ! In the reign of Philippe the First, grandson of Robert, a prince who showed himself more disposed to * Felibien, Hist, de Paris, t. ler. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 357 pillage the churcli than to enrich ^ it, a great event took place, which gave the kings of France those of England for vassals. William the Bastard, son of that Robert the Magnificent who died returning from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, con- quered England in a single battle, and established the Norman rule in that country. "William, like his father Robert, held Mary in the ut- most reverence ; that conqueror, so brave, so politic, at whose frown all England quaked, was no sooner attacked by fever than he humbly clasped his hands and recommended himself to the Blessed Virgin. Hav- ing fallen sick at the Castle of Cher- bourg, a small town then defended by moats and towers, he made a vow to build a fair chapel to the Virgin, if by her powerful inter- cession he quickly recovered his health. He was cured, and relig- iously kept his vow. He recon- sti'ucted at his own expense the superb Abbey of Jumieges, where the student found learning and the * This precious tapestry, contemporary with the conquest of England, remained in some degree unknown for six centuries. Exposed only on certain days in the nave of the cathe- dral, tradition had given it the name of Duke ^ poor bread, on condition that its church, dedicated by Queen Bath- ilda to St. Peter, should be placed under the invocation of the Mother of God. He assisted in person, with the Duchess Matilda and all his great Norman barons, on the 1st of July, A. D. 1068, at the dedi- cation of this church, and some years after he crossed the sea to be present at that of Our Lady of Bayeux, with his sons William and Robert, Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, and Thomas, arch- bishop of York, on the invitation of Bishop Philippe d'Harcourt, who had rebuilt it. It was doubtless on that occasion that the Duchess Matilda made an offering to Our Lady of Bayeux of that famous his- torical tapestry on which her pa- tient needle had wrought the great epic of the conquest of England.* "This tapestry, embroidered with images and Scriptural scenes," was hung throughout the whole extent " of the nave on the day of the ex- position of relics and during their William's Toilet. It was Montfaujon who found out that it was at Bayeux, and enriched his Monumens de la Monarchie Frangaise with de- signs from this tapestry, till then so little known. 858 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. octaves," says an inventory of the f treasui'es of Our Lady of Bayeux, drawn up in 1476. But this monu- mental tapestry was not the only mark of her devotion to the Blessed Virgin left by this fair and pious princess, whose memory was so re- vered that the Saxon wife of her son, Henry the First of England, changed her pretty name of Edith for that of Matilda, "in order to please the Norman chivalry." She w^as walking, towards the end of October, in one of those beauti- ful Norman meadows, the grass of which resembles an immense car- pet of green velvet, painted with flowers. She was accompanied by her two young sons — two future heroes, the eldest of whom was to immortalize himself by his chival- rous exploits in the taking of Jeru- salem — and some ladies of her court, when a courier from Duke William, riding with all speed towards Rouen, drew up on perceiving her, and bounded into the meadow. " What news from my lord and the Norman ai-my?" cried Matilda, pale with emotion "The battle?" " — Is gained, noble lady," replied the cornier, as, bending his knee, he placed in the trembling hand of the young duchess the letter with its pendant seal, which confirmed the truth of his words — "The per- fidious Harold is defeated ; his body, which ought to have no other tomb than the sand of the sea-shore, now rests in the choir of the Saxon abbey of Waltham ; England is the vassal of Normandy." The Norman princess joyfully blessed herself, and made a vow to raise on the spot where she had heard these good news, a commemorative church, un- der the name of Our Lady of the Meadow, since changed into that of Our Lady of Good Tidings. She commenced it some years after, and her son, Henry the First, having had it finished, endowed it munifi- cently.* In his last war with France, William the Conqueror delivei-ed Mantes to the flames ; but that fire which destroyed the church of Our Lady shed such a lurid and terrific * In the time of the Archbishop Godefroy, Good Tidings, near Eouen, which his deceased Bling Henry (first of the name) of England built mother, Matilda, had commenced with the the Priory of the Meadow, called Our Lady of y, bridge of Rouen. {Antiq. de Rouen, p. 136.) HISTORY OF TEE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 359 light, that the king of England's horse took fright, began to rear and prance, and threw his rider, who was mortally wounded. Attribut- ing the fatal accident to the burn- ing of the Virgin's beautiful church, he bequeathed a considerable sum for the purpose of rebuilding it. Being conveyed to an abbey near Rouen, the conqueror of England was roused at the dawn of day, on the 7th of September, 1087, by the sound of a matin-bell. "What is that ? " he asked, raising his head with difficulty, his face pale and emaciated, though still retaining a portion of that proud, masculine beauty which even the Saxon chron- iclers ascribe to him. Being told that it was the bells of St. Mary's church ringing Prime^ " Blessed Lady Mary I " said the Norman hero, raising his hands, "to thee I com- mend my soul ; mayst thou recon- cile me to thy Son, my Lord Jesus ! " and with these words he expired. Henry the First, his son, who usurped the crown from Robert, his elder brother, whose eyes he caused to be put out, was devout only in theory. Although he affected much piety, and made many splendid f foundations in England, where he introduced the Norman architecture, yet he burned several churches in Normandy. For instance, he burn- ed, in 1120 (the date is memorable), the cathedral of Lisieux, with the city itself. This ancient cathedral, which dated from the first ages of Christianity, was dedicated to the Virgin, like most of the Norman cathedrals. The punishment of this sacrilegious offence quickly fol- lowed ; at the end of the same year, the vessel which carried Henry's only son. Prince William of Eng- land, with two of the king's ille- gitimate children, foundered at sea, during a calm moonlight night, not far from Barfleur. From that time forward, Henry was never seen to smile. The Empress Matilda, daughter of this prince, had a signal proof of the Virgin's protection, and her power over the elements. Whilst at war with Stephen of Blois, she was forced to embark for Normandy in unsettled weather, which very soon became stormy, and was overtaken in the very shoals where her brother William had perished, by one of ^ those frightful tempests which are 860 HISTORY' OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. only seen on the angry ocean. The * horizon was sheeted with a vast black cloud, which reached from sea to sky like a funeral pall ; the mountain billows reared themselves up with ominous slowness, to dash with terrific crash against the, sides of the royal bark, which they raised high in the air at one moment, to hmi it, the next, into the yawning abyss. The sailors shook their heads despondingly, whilst the En- glish lords, crossing themselves de- voutly, recommended themselves to God and the Blessed Virgin, and to St. George, the patron of chivalry. Matilda was standing on the deck, and her composed countenance, though pale, belied not the race of heroes from whom she sprung. " Be of good cheer, my lords," said she, turning to her faithful nobles, " Our Lady is kind and powerful; she will save us. I will sing her a hymn of thanksgiving as soon as we desciy the coast; and I pledge myself to build her an abbey wher- ever we shall land." Scarcely had the Anglo-Norman princess spoken these words, when the waves were seen to grow smooth, the winds were suddenly hushed, and the ves- sel flew swiftly over a calm sea. A dark speck was soon discerned on the blue sky, as the clouds cleared away ; it grew larger and larger still ; it was a lofty hill, whose bare summit was crowned with a hermi- tage, and a vast forest was seen stretching far and away in the backgroimd of the picture. Then was heard the hoarse cry, so im- patiently expected from the man at the mast-head, " Cante, Keyne I vechi terrel" (Sing, Queen I here is the land !) and Matilda instantly began to sing her hymn to the Vir- gin, which was joyfully repeated by the English barons, with clasped hands and bare heads. The bark, miraculously preserved from shipwreck, soon cast anchor in r the little bay of Equeurdreville, in Lower Normandy. Matilda's first care on landing was to point out the site of her monastery, which she named the Abbey of the Vow, and before quitting the neighbor- hood, she herself laid the first stone. Matilda did not live to see the Church and Abbey of the Vow fin- ished; it was her son, Henry IL of England, who accomplished the work. We read in the necrology HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 361 of this abbey : " On the fourth day of the ides of September died the Empress Matilda, foundress of this monastery; a Libera is to be said for her, as for a canons Let not our age, so cold in all that relates to God and the Saints, scoff at those vows made to Our Lady during a storm; the most incredulous believe in something when in danger of perishing at sea, as is proved in the case of Volney. He was out on a pleasure- party with some friends in Balti- more, when the wind suddenly arose, and the small American craft, freighted with the flower of the unbelievers of both hemi- spheres, seemed twenty times on the point of being lost. Every one on board was already praying, Volney as well as the rest, when the storm began to subside. Some one who had seen Yolney during the danger lay hold of a rosary and recite his Ave-Marias with edifying fervor, approached him when the calm had returned. " My dear Sir," said he, with an arch smile, " to whom were you praying, just now ?" — " Oh ! " replied Yolney, somewhat embarrassed by the question, "one * may be a philosopher in his study, but not during a storm." The Empress Matilda desired that her mortal remains should be in- terred in the most famous of the Norman abbeys, Ste. Marie du Bee ; her son Henry, who was as yet only duke of Anjou and Normandy, had a tomb raised to her memory, which he covered with plates of silver. When he became king of England, he continued to protect and to hon- or, in reverence to the Virgin and his mother, that abbey which was partly erected by his royal munifi- cence. In 1178, it was consecrated anew by Rotrou, bishop of Rouen ; Henry the Second assisted at that pious ceremony, with his son Henry. Richard the Lion-hearted, son and successor of Henry H., built before his departure for the Crusades, Our Lady of Good-Haven, in the diocese of Evreux, and assisted with his brilliant chivalry at the dedication of that monastery, which took place in 1190.* When his eventful life was drawing to a close, being mor- tally wounded by an arrow at the inglorious siege of a fortress, he dic- tated his last will, and decreed that * Gallia Christiana, t. iv. 862 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. his heart should be borne to Our * Lady of Rouen, on account of the great devotion which he had for said place, and that heart, the ; bravest, perhaps, that ever beat under knightly cuirass, was decent- ly placed in the side of the choir, towards the revestiary, in a silver case, which was afterwards taken f( r the ransom of St. Louis, king of France, who was taken prisoner by the Saracens, and in place thereof was made one of stone.* This mighty champion of the Cross, whose name is never pro- nounced by the Saracens without a pious anathema, was, by his own orders, interred beside his father, in the abbey-church of Fontevi-ault. By his side reposes his wife, Be- rangeria of Navarre; their statues, painted and gilt, were laid on their tombs, and amongst the ornaments of Queen Berangeria is a large square medal, whereon is seen the Blessed Virgin, surrounded by many tapers. The famous Eleanor of Aquitaine, mother of King Kichard, retired to this abbey some years after, and her tomb is one of those * Antiquum de la Ville de Rouen, p. 137. t According to the Saxon annalists, King John ^ ale, in a Bernardine priory at Swineshead. royal monuments which adorn the fair abbey-church of Our Lady. John Lackland, who died of indi- gestion in a Saxon abbey f — (what an English death 1) — was buried, by his own request, with great pomp, in the beautiful Anglo- Norman cathedral of Our Lady of Worcester; but if we may believe the ancient chronicles, the body of that base and cruel prince, who had steeped his hands in the innocent blood of his lawful king, Arthur of Bretagne, and who had had a mind to turn Tm'k in order to conciliate the Moors of Spain, did not long pollute the sacred dwelling of Mary. They relate that strange noises were heard by night in that dishonored tomb — blasphemies, fearful shouts of laughter, revelry, and all manner of terrifying sounds — which caused the monks of "Worcester secretly to exhume the body of the reprobate prince, and transfer it to some less holy place. The Plantagenets distinguished themselves by their devotion to the Virgin, and covered England with those fair gothic churches of Maiy died of indigestion, after a feast of peaches and HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 363 which still exist in every county, and constitute its chief archaeolo- gical treasure : Oui* Lady of York, 3ompared to a vessel under full sail, because of the stately beauty and lightness of its aerial architecture ; Our Lady of Salisbury, another ar- chitectural gem, fashioned in the noblest style, which was covered with Flemish tapestry, and filled with light and flowers on the solemn festivals of Mary ; Our Lady of West- minster, " where there was an image of Mary," says Froissart, " in which the English kings had great faith, and by which many miracles were wrought;" the superb gothic abbey of Our Lady of "Walsingham, the favorite pilgrimage of Edward L and his chivalrous court; the fair cathedral of Wells, the Lady-chapel of which is, according to connois- seurs, the pearl of the gothic monu- ments of Great Britain : these are all there to prove the devotion of those princes towards the holy Mother of Our Lord. The Anglo-Saxons, who formed * The custom of dressing the statues of the Blessed Virgin, which still exists in France, Spain, and Italy, was likewise practised in En- gland in former times. The countess of War- ^ wore rings of great price, the poorer classes, with the mer- chants and burghers of England, were no less devout to the Virgin Mary than the continental princes, who ruled them by right of con- quest. Differing from their con- querors on almost every point, they were in perfect harmony on that of religion, and both races went like brethi'en, staff' in hand, on their pil- grimage to Our Lady of Radcliff, a fine old abbey, full of Saxon monu- ments, and to Our Lady of Wor- cester, where Lady Warwick, wife of the king-maker, offered sumptu- ous robes for the use of the Blessed Yirgin, after praying at one time for the Red Rose, at another for the White, according to the party with which her valiant spouse was con- nected at the time.* The fast of Saturday, in honor of the Blessed Yirgin, was observed by the English people from the time of William Rufus. There was in those days a certain famous robber — a Saxon, without doubt, since St. Anselm, the Norman prelate who wick frequently presented her richest veils and robes to Our Lady of Worcester, and we see, in Leland's History of Ireland, that those statues 864 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRG N MARY. relates the anecdote, calls him a f robber without any circumlocution — and he, one morning, entered the cottage of a poor widow with intent to rob her. Finding nothing to his taste, he coolly seated himself on the only spare stool in the little dark room, with its earthen floor, where the widow was sitting at her wheel, and addressed her with a winning smile : " Well, Gossip, have you had your breakfast?" — "Is it I, good Sir," replied the poor woman, pausing a moment in her work; "God forbid! Is it not Satm-day? I fast every Saturday throughout the year." — "Every Saturday!" re- peated the astonished robber ; " and why?" — "Why, in honor of the Blessed Virgin, to be sure. Do you not know that that is the reason why she prevents you, and others like you, from dying unshriven ? " — " K that be so," said the robber, " I am very glad to know it, and from henceforward I make a vow to fast myself." He kept his word ; and the Blessed Virgin, on her side, did not fail him at the hour of his death. Being mortally wounded on a perilous expedition, she miia- culously prolonged his life until he had time to make his peace with God. St. Anselm also informs us that the bold and haughty Norman knights piously honored Mary, whilst oppressing, with all their might, the conquered Saxons. One of them, a great lord, had for var- lets and pages a troop of vaga- bonds always ready for mischief, and for steward an incarnate devil, who constantly persuaded the poor baron now to outrage one, now to plunder another, and again to kill that other, so that not a day passed without some detestable crime. In the midst of all this wickedness, he kept praying devoutly to the Virgin night and morning, saluting her with seven Aves and as many pro- found genuflections, for which rea- son his infernal steward could not strangle him as he intended, and he finally obtained the grace of a sincere conversion.* The Saxon outlaws who took refuge in the depth of the forests (where they became the most skill- ful archers in England), in order to escape the capital punishment * St. Anselm, in his book of The Miracles of Our Lady. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 365 decreed by the Norman law for * crimes appertaining to the chase, regretted but one thing in their wild retreats, their being unable to pray at Mary's altar, when the bell of an old Saxon abbey rang through the woods "where the lark gaily sang and the king's deer ran." Those ancient English ballads in black letter, " which are now worth their weight in gold," says an En- glish antiquary, represent Eobin Hood, " the forest-king," risking his head, after recommending himself to the Yirgin, in order to perform his devotions in the monastery, whose distant bells seemed to sum- mon him thither.* Ir. summer when the shaws be sheyne, And leaves be large and long, It is full merry in fayre foriste To here the fouly's song. To see the dere draw to the dale, And leave the hilles hee, And shadow hem in the leves so grene Under the green wood tree. It befel on Whitsuntide, All on a May morning, The sun up fayre did shine, And the birddis merry did sing. * See Robin Hood : Ballads and Songs relat- ing to that celebrated Outlaw, with Anecdotes of his Life. From Kitson and others. This is a merry morning, sayd Little John, 'Fore Him that died on the tree. A more merry man than I am one Lives not in Christiente. Pluck up thi hert, my dere mayster. Little John did say, And thynk it is a full fayre time, In a morning of May. Now, one thynge grieves me, sayd Eobyne, And does my hert myche wo. That I may not so solemn day To mass nor matins go. It is a fourtnet and more, sayd hee, Syn I my Saviour see ; To-day I'll go to Notyngham, With the might of myld Mary. Then Robyne goes to Notyngham, Himself moiinynge allone ; And Little John to merry Scherewode, The paths he knowe alkone. Whan Robyne came to Notyngham, Sertenly withouten layne. He pray'd to God and myld Mary To bryng him out safe agayne. He goes into Seynt Mary's Chirche, And kneyled down before the Rood, AU that ever were the chirche within Beheld wel Robyne Hood. Spain, no less devout to Mary than the Island of Britain, had raised numerous shrines to her, and fought under her standard. In 1212, Alphonso IX. having obtain- ed, under the banner of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows, his great vie- 3GC HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. tory of Las Navas, where the Moors experienced one of their most signal defeats, built Our Lady of Victory in Toledo, to deposit therein that sacred banner of Mary. St. Ferdi- nand, that holy prince who could not endure to increase the taxes of his people, and who was more afi-aid, he said, of the curses of one poor woman than of all the Moorish host, attributed to the protection of the Blessed Virgin his conquests of Cordova, Jaen, and Murcia. Finally, Alphonso the Wise com- posed canticles to the Mother of God, and founded an order of knighthood in her honor.* Portugal walked in the same way, with an ardor no less great. In 1142, after having defeated, through the protection of Mary (to whom he had recommended himself before the battle), five Moorish princes, whose five standards he captured on the plains of Alentejo, Alphonso I. founded, in honor of the Blessed Virgin, the superb monastery of Al- * El rey don Alonso el Sabio dedico varies libros de poesias a la Madi*e de Dios ; y con respect© a algunas ordino en su testamento que se cantasen en sus Estados. (See Poetica EspaSiola, p. 162.) ^ cobaga; deeming that insufficient, he did homage for his kingdom to Our Lady of Clairvaux, and ordain- ed that every year, at the Feast of the Annunciation, a rent of fifty maravedis of gold should be paid, in token o£ vassalage, to the Suzeraine, in the person of the abbots of Clair- vaux.f One of the successors of this prince, Don Juan I., after a victory, offered to Our Lady of the Olive the weight of himself (armed cap-k-pie) of silver, and hung from the roof of Mary's chapel, as ex voto, his lance and his brilliant suit of armor. J About the same time, the kings of Denmark undertook crusades against the Pagans of the North, in honor of the Blessed Virgin ; and the Poles fought those of Prussia and Pomerania, singing the famous Boga Rodziga (Mother of God), a battle- hymn addressed to Mary, composed in the tenth centmy by St. Adal- bert, bishop of Guezne.§ The kings of France had no mind f Angelus Manrique, Annal. Cisierc, ch. 5, ad ann. 1142. X Pere Paul de Barry, Paradis Ouvert, etc § See last note of chap. viii. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 367 to give way to other princes in devotion to the Queen of Angels. Louis the Young and Philip Augus- tus, of glorious memory, contributed liberally to the rebuilding of Our Lady of Paris, which Maurice de Sully, a very great bishop of ple- beian extraction, was reconstructing on the site of King Childebert's old Merovingian cathedral. Attributing to the Blessed Virgin his splendid victory of Bouvines, Philip Augustus founded on the skirt of the forest of Chantilly, and on the banks of the deep Oise, a magnificent royal abbey. Guerin, bishop of Senlis, minister of the king, and his companion in arms, who had ably filled the office of adjutant-general during the battle; Mathieu de Montmorency, who im- mortalized himself by taking full sixteen of the enemy's banners ; Enguerrand de Coucy and Guil- laume de Barres, who had formed a rampart around the king that day which the whole Anglo - German army could not force, would all have their share in this commemorative foundation, made in reverence to the Sacred Virgin Mary, as she is called in the Cartularies. Blanche of Castile, the celebrated regent of France, founded two fair abbeys in honor of the Blessed Virgin : the abbey of Maubuisson, which she called Notre Dame la Royale (Our Lady the Royal), and JSTotre Dame du Lys (Our Lady of the Lily). These two royal monas- teries has each a share of her mor- tal remains, according to her last behest. King Louis the Ninth, the holiest and most righteous prince that ever wore the crown of France, the best of kings and the model of knights, distinguished himself by his tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin. He contributed to the completion of Our Lady of Paris, and, after hav- ing that exquisite gem of art — the Holy Chapel — built by Pierre de Montereau, the most famous archi- tect of his time, as a shrine for the sacred crown of thorns, he solemnly dedicated the lower part of it to Our Lady, whose statue, placed under the porch, wrought a charm- ing miracle, one day, in behalf of a little girl who was very wise, if we' may believe the tradition. As the pious child, mounted on a stone bench, destined for the use of the HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. poor, stretched herself up on her little feet and reached her arms as high as she could, to place a wreath of white roses on the head of the Madonna, the kind Virgin gra- ciously bent her fair marble brow towards the little earth - angel ; " wherefore it is," says a monk of the time of Louis XTLL, " that she has still her head bent forward." St. Louis recited every day with his chaplain the Office of the Bless- ed Virgin, even in his travels, and forbade any one to interrupt him ; he fasted on bread and water on the eve of Our Lady's festivals, and gave great alms on Saturday in her honor. "When he thought of under- taking his cmsade, he came to Our Lady of Paris," says an ancient chronicle, " accompanied by his barons, all barefoot, with scrip and staff, and there heard mass wath great devotion." On his arrival in Egypt, the king found a Mussulman army drawn up on the shore to oppose his land- ing. The air was darkened with the clouds of arrows aimed at the French barks by the Saracens, whose lances gleamed through the clouds of dust raised by their horees, * like lire behind a dark curtain. Their chief bore " arms of fine gold, so dazzling," says Joinville, in his simple style, " that it seemed, when the sun struck thereon, as though it were actually that star himself." Their standards were surmounted by that ancient golden crescent which had been the emblem of the Turkish kings long before the days of Cyrus,* and their war- music "was terrible to hear, and very strange unto French ears." But Louis IX. and his warriors were not easily frightened. Having come within a short distance of the shore, the holy king, after commending himself to God and the Blessed Vii'- gin, throws himself first into the sea; the foaming wave covers him even to the shoulders ; a shower of arrows falls around him ; neither wave nor dart arrests his course ; buckler on arm, casque on head, sword in hand, he makes for the Saracens with fiery haste ; the whole army hastens after him, and the Africans are quickly routed to the thrilling cries of "Mont-Joie, St. Denis!" When the Egyptians had disappeared on the wings of fear, * See Firdousi, Moeurs den Rois. >HE SHALL CRUSH THY HEAD AND THOU ^"/^'•y LIE IN WAIT FOR HER HEEL'. Lrrrt.. //?. /o 1..&-. J. SADLIh:H &; Cc HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 369 the gates of Damietta, the key of the Delta, had to open to the cru- saders, whose first care was to chant the Te Deum of victory in the Mus- sulman mosque, which was conse- crated by the Roman legate under the title of Our Lady of Damietta. The rumor of this glorious event soon reached Syria, w^here the honor was attributed to the protection of Our Lady of Tortosa, a famous Syr- ian Madonna, which the Mohamme- dans themselves came to invoke ; she was said to have left her shrine in order to protect the descent of the French crusaders.* The disastrous end of the Egyp- tian crusade — so brilliantly com- menced — is but too well known. After paying an enormous ransom, St. Louis turned the prow of his vessels towards Syria. The Chris- tians, who had taken possession of Palestine in 1099, had at that time only a few strong places there ; * Sire de Joinville, who repaired, while in Asia, to Our Lady of Tortosa, relates that, in his time, that famous Syrian Madonna wrought a miracle in favor of a poor man who was pos- sessed of an evil spirit. This man was brought, one day, before the altar of Our Lady of Tor- tosa ; " and so," proceeds the Sire de Joinville, " whilst they were petitioning Our Lady for his f amongst which was Nazareth, the birth-place of Mary, which they had ti'ansformed into a feudal fortress, its first French lord being the hero of heroes, Tancred, immortalized in the deathless lay of Tasso. St. Louis rebuilt the walls of the Ga- lilean fortress, and, happening to be there on the Feast of the Assump- tion, he had the offices of the day sung with an instrumental accom- paniment in the church of St. Mary, where he solemnly communicated. As King Louis IX. was leaving the Holy Land with Queen Mar- garet, the vessel which bore them was driven by a sudden squall un- der a lofty promontory which cast its shadow far out on the sea. The tempest having subsided, they cast anchor before that Syrian mountain, which was crowned by a monastery, and in the silence of the night, scarce broken by the murmur of the hushed waves, the sound of a dis- cure, the devil answered from within his body, ' Our Lady is not here ; she is in Egypt, assist- ing the king of France and the Christians, who are now entering the Holy Land on foot, against the infidels, who are mounted on horses.' " The Seneschal adds that, on the very day when the devil pronounced these words, the French army landed in Egypt. 870 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. taiit bell came over the waters with f the sweet perfume of marjoram and thyme fi*om the woods. "What is that?" demanded the king, quickly. He was told by some Thoenician sailoi's, who were on board, that it was the convent of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The holy king went ashore at the first dawn of day to hear mass in Mary's monastery, the monks of which, clothed in Arab costume, lived on fruits and vege- tables, fasted half the year, kept a rigorous silence, and lived by man- ual labor ; the fervent and cenobitic spuit of the ancient solitaries still reigned there. Penetrated with re- spect for their austere piety, St. Louis brought with him six of these monks, who were named the Brothers of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and established them in Paris, on the banks of the Seine. They subsequently removed to the Place Maubert, and their new church, consecrated under the title of Our Lady of CaiTaelites, was chiefly built by the mimiticent donations of Joan of Evreux, third wife and widow of Charles IL, sur- named the Fair. This princess pre- * Felibien, Hid. de Paris. sented to the Virgin of Mount Car- mel her crown of jewels, together with her zone, embroidered with pearls, and the bouquet of golden lilies studded with precious stones, which the king had given her on the day of her coronation. Fifteen hundred gold florins accompanied this royal gift.* The kings of France, no way sparing of their person in the bat- tle, placed themselves habitually under the protection of the Blessed Virgin, when danger became immi- nent. Philip the Fair having " in- voked Mary at a moment of exti'cme peril, during the bloody battle of Mons-en-Puelle (where he displayed the valor of a paladin) , made splen- did offerings to Our Lady of Paris, after his brilliant victory, and grant- ed to Our Lady of Chartres, in per- petuity, the territory and lordship of Barres,f with the rent of an hun- dred livres. After the taking of Cassel, Philip of Valois, say the Great Chronicles of St. Denis, came to this abbey to return the oriflamine which he had taken thence to march against the Flemings, and then proceeded to f Sebastian Rouillard, c. 6. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 371 Our Lady of Paris ; arriving there, he resumed the arms which he had worn at the battle of Cassel, mount- ed his charger, and thus entered the church of Notre-dame, thanked the Blessed Virgin most devoutly, and presented to her the charger on which he sat, with all his own equipments.* The king redeemed his horse and armor, from the chap- ter of Notre-Dame, for the sum of one thousand livres, and had an equestrian statue of himself erect- ed in front of Mary's altar. It is worthy of remark that these two great victories of Cassel and Mons- en-Puelle were gained between the Feast of the Assumption and its octave. After having fought the Flemings at Rosbecq, Charles VL, who was then but fourteen years old, and was called the little king^ likewise sent to Our Lady of Char- tres his richly- ornamented armor and his royal sword.f The queens of France, on their side, on their * We read in the old Pariff breviaries {lectio quinta) : " Quod intelligens gloriosae meniorise rex Philippus Valesius, cum opitulante Deo per merita Beatse Virginia Matris, insignem victo- riam de rebellibus Flandris obtinuisset, qu8B contigit anno 1328, acturus Deo et sanctas Vir- gini gratias, triumphans et equitans ecclesiam f first entrance into the capital of the kingdom, transferred to Our Lady the magnificent crown which they received from the city of Paris. That offered by Isabella of Bavaria was of gold and jewels.^ It was under Philip of Yalois that the English wars commenced. King Edward III. of England de- clared himself the rightful heir to the throne, in right of his mother Isabel, sister of Philip the Fair, as the latter died without heirs, and he was his nephew, whereas Philip of Yalois was only his cousin-germ an. The French peers and barons de- clared for Philip of Yalois rather than the princess Isabel, not be- cause of the Salic law, which speaks not of the exclusion of women, but by the authority of existing cus- toms, which had acquired the force of law. Edward, in reply, advanced a most singular argument, which is found in a letter written by him to the Pope. "K the son," said he, Beatse Mariae Parisiis, ingressus est, non vana os- tentatione elatus, sed Deo, per quern de ancipit bello evaserat, profunda humilitate subjectus." {Brev. Ecdesice Paris., festa Augusti, anno 1584.) •}• Essais Hist, sur Paris, par M. de Sainte Foix, t. iv., p. 162. J Froissart, t. n. 872 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. "be debxrred from ascending the throne because his mother could not, Jesus Christ had no right to the inheritance of David, seeing that he was only descended from that king by Madam St. Mary^ his imther" This unhappy notion of reigning over France, which in an evil hour crossed the minds of the English monarchs, and which deluged the kingdom of the lily with blood, was firet aroused by a chivalrous ap- peal, made in the name of the sweet Virgin Mary^ who showed herself, in the sequel, no way disposed to favor it. A " false traitor," Robert of Artois, whom the king of France had " disobliged " (says an English historian), revenged himself by re- kindling the all but extinguished flame of resentment in the mind of the young English king, who then thought of little else than feasts and tournaments. He presents himself one day with a heron in the hall where Edward was entertaining the great barons and noble dames of his court. Walking to the upper end of the hall, where sat the king under a white canopy fringed with silver, " I bring," said he, " the most ^ cowardly of all birds, and I will give him to the greatest poltroon amongst you. In my mind it is thou, Edward, who permittest thy- self to be wronged of the noble kingdom of France, to which thou art lawfully entitled." The king's eyes sparkled with anger. The idea of any one suspecting his courage was worse than death : he blushed with shame, and swore a tremen- dous oath, that before six months he would declare war ao:ainst that count's son who wrongfully as- sumed the title of King of France. When the king had thus pledged himself, the Count d' Artois present- ed the heron to the English lords, who, each in his turn, swore to make war on the French, calling on the "honored Virgin, who bore a God in her chaste womb," to bear witness to their rash oath. The first exploit of the English was the naval battle of Eel use. Sea-fights then had little or no re- semblance to what they are now ; the combatants were hand to hand ; the crews of the hostile ships endeavored to shatter the enemy's sails with arrows and long sickles, whilst divers pierced the hulls under HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 373 water in order to make them sink, t The ne 2)lus ultra of skillful manoeu- vre consisted in driving the enemy on shore, or dashing him against the rocks. Edward, who commanded his fleet in person, was wounded by an arrow at the beginning of the action, and yet continued to tight, prefacing every thrust of his lance with one of his favorite ejaculations, " Ah, St. Edward !— Ah, St. George ! Ah, St. Mary ! " and around his blood-red banner, whereon was em- blazoned a golden dragon,* the En- glish nobles shouted their piercing war-cries. Our Lady of Arundel! — Our Lady of Arleton ! — St. George I for at that chivalrous period every warrior of note had a patron saint, whom he invoked aloud during the contest. Edward disgraced his vic- tory by hanging from the yard-arm one of the French admirals who had bravely defended himself ; the other, who died arms in hand, found a grave beneath the waters. In the midst of that scene of blood and tumult, some fair ladies from En- gland, who came in the royal bark in search of pleasurable excite- ment, were heard applauding their *■ Stowe's Chronicle. * knights; — not one asked mercy for the vanquished! and twenty thou- sand French corpses reddened the blue waves of the German Sea. The king of England, who did not forget to invoke Mary during the combat, had no sooner landed in Flanders than he went on foot to thank her (says Froissart) , with the flower of his chivalry, in her shiine of Ardenburg. Tliis, then, was the opening of that famous war which lasted for a century, during which time the English carried their victo- rious banner from the Garcmne to the Rhine, and from the Ocean to the Mediterranean. During this long struggle, inter- rupted only by some truces when the combatants paused for breath — • their hand on the dirk, and their feet in blood — the Blessed Virgin, whose abbeys were often unscru- pulously plundered by the English, was still the object of their pro- found veneration. After having de- stroyed an entire city, and retired loaded with booty, they sometimes left one of her statues perfectly safe on its pedestal ; and when the in- habitants, finding them gone, ven- tured to return in search of their 374 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. ruined dwellings, they crossed them- selves devoutly, and cried, "A mira- cle!"* It was indeed a miracle to see such an act of respect amid a scene of frightful devastation. The shrines wherein it had pleased the Queen of Heaven to manifest her power, were held as neutral and sacred ground ; each of them was, as it were, an oasis of peace, towards which jom-neyed knights and soldiers, from every country, who were nothing more than pious pilgrims from the mo- ment they fastened a little image of the Madonna to their steel hel- met or serge hood. We read in the manuscript chronicles of Quercy, that certain English soldiers, having been arrested by those of Cahors, were restored to liberty, with kind and encouraging words, as soon as they were found to be pilgrims of Our Lady. The feasts of the Blessed Virgin were scrupulously observed by the English troops, who even stopped * Our Lady of Vassiviere was thus respected amid the ruins of that strong city "vhich the English had pillaged and destroyed. (See Du Chesne, ch. 9, § 10, nomb. 6.) t See Froissart, voL ii., p. 112. t on their march to celebrate them In 1380, Buckingham, who made his way through the heart of France, sweeping all before him, halted with his army in the Forest of Mar- chenoir to celebrate the September Feast of Our Lady. The English knights heard mass devoutly in an abbey which they found in the w^oods; and their long Bordeaux blades were innocent of French blood that day.f An English captain, named Nor- wick, whom Prince John, duke of Normandy and heir-presumptive to the throne, had suddenly besieged in Angouleme, where provisions failed him, skillfully availed him- self of that devotion to the Virgin, which was common to both nations, in order to escape the necessity of suiTcndering at discretion. On the eve of the Purification (one of the great festivals of Our Lady, kept in France from the time of Pepin the Short), he goes forth from the walls and demands speech of the prince. The latter, coming forward, asks, "Do you come to capitulate?" — "No!" replies the Englishman; "you and I are both devoted to i the Blessed Virgin ; I crave, then, HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 375 of your courtesy, a suspension of hostilities, and that, during the twenty -four hours consecrated to this festival, the soldiers on both sides be forbidden to use their arms on any pretence whatsoever." — " Be it so," said the prince ; " I am well content." Next morning, by the earliest daw^n, Norwick marches out with the garrison and all its stores ; the French sentries, stopping him, ask what he means by this sally. "I mean to profit by the truce," he replies, "to let my soldiers take a walk." When Prince John was informed of the fact, he said, " I vow to God, the stratagem was a good one ! Let them go and welcome, since we have the city."* Notwithstanding all the testimo- nies of respect which she received from the invaders, the Blessed Vir- gin turned from them to protect the invaded. As an oppressed country, France had found favor before her, as was proved by more than one miracle. In Poictiers, the mayor's servant, who had sold the city to the English, and promised to admit * See Froiasart, vol. ii., p. 112. them on a dark, moonless night, could nowhere find the keys, which he was astonished to see next day in the hands of an ancient statue of the Virgin, in her own cathedral of Notre-Dame. At Rennes, which the duke of Lancaster had long besieged in vain, the English, de- spairing of taking the brave city by storm, made a mine in order to blow it up. The Breton city sleeps calmly over a volcano, unconscious of its danger ; but Our Lady watches. When the mine has reached the cathedral of St. Mary, and the enemy is about to set fire to it, the tapers in the chapel of Our Lady of St. Saviour are seen to light of themselves in the midst of a dark night ; the bells, put in mo- tion by invisible hands, suddenly peal out; and when the inhabit- ants, awoke from sleep and has- tily clothed, come flocking to the strangely - lighted church, asking, "What is the matter?" the Virgin slowly extends her stony arm from the side of the gothic nave, and points to the place where the mine is about to explode. The city, warned in time, was saved. Many other examples might be given, S76 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MA BY. showing how Mary protected France * during that disastrous period. "We sliall content ourselves with giving, on the authority of contemporary writers worthy of credit, the most striking of these numerous prodi- gies. It was after those two lamentable days which France will never cease to mourn — Crecy, where the flower of the French chivalry fell, and Poictiers, where King John was made prisoner, with eight hundred of his barons, by the Black Prince. The nobles were ruined ; the young Regent without troops ; the most fertile fields were overrun with briers ; the cities, threatened with the horrors of a siege by the stran- ger, who camped at their gates, were internally rent asunder by factions. When man has nothing more to expect on earth, he kneels and raises his suppliant hands to heaven. This is w^hat was done by all good people in town and coun- try, in the cities and the villages. They boldly demanded a miracle from God, through the intercession of Mary, so that these calamities might have an end. Their faith was great, and their woes inexpres- sible their prayer was therefore heard. Abusing his powder, and taking advantage of the utter pros- tration of France, Edward III., when in treaty with the young Regent, aftei'wards Charles the Wise, pro- posed conditions so hard, so dis- graceful, so intolerable, that France, exhausted as she was, raised her head with generous indignation, and said " No ! " At this unexpect- ed refusal, Edward crosses the sea and lays siege to Chartres. The English army pitched their tents a short distance from the walls, and in front of that splendid cathedral so magnificently rebuilt by Fulbert with the gifts of the faithful, high and low. Placed on a height which commands the city, the fair gothic church — with its lofty spires, which may be seen at a distance of ten leagues — looked like a sacred citadel, with the city reposing in its shade. In that sanc- tuary, so universally revered, there was a reliquary of precious w^ood, overlaid with thick plates of gold, and incnisted with diamonds, ru- bies, and pearls ; in it was kept one of Mary's precious garments — her wedding -robe of Babylonian HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 377 stuff, flowered with bxue, violet, white, and gold. One day, the Nor- mans were besieging Ohartres, and the inhabitants, well disposed to de- fend their temple, took this sacred relic for their standard. The Nor- mans, beholding it, instantly fled. It was then customary to touch with this reliquary the doublet of fine Breton linen worn by the no- bles on the day of their receiv- ing knighthood. Eichard Coeur de Lion, to whom it was brought all the way to England, offered in re- turn to Our Lady of Chartres a rich jewel of gold and precious stones, containing relics of St. Edward. The Madonna of Chartres was, therefore, held in high veneration by the English knights, and, doubt- less, there were many of them who secretly blamed the king for expos- ing to sacrilege and pillage the holy things of Mary's cathedral. The city, summoned by the En- glish king to surrender, simply re- plied that it would not; and Ed- ward's messengers saw nothing but the massive gate, strongly plated and studded with iron, above which, in a charming gothic niche, deco- rated with carved foliage, was a white Madonna, with this inscrip- tion engraved on stone — "Tutela Oarnutum ! " The siege of the ancient capital of the Carnuti was of long dm-ation, and the fertile fields of France were bristling with English swords in- stead of ears of grain. The Dau- phin tried, by negotiation, to save the favorite city of Mary; but Ed- ward was deaf to his offers and representations. The French en- voys, rudely repulsed, had no longer the shadow of a hope, and the city seemed all but lost, "when there took place," says Froissart, " a mira- cle which much humbled and broke down the courage of the English king. A thunderbolt, a storm so great and so horrible, descended from heaven on the king of En- gland's army, that it seemed as though the end of the world had indeed come ; for there fell from the sky stones so large that they killed both men and horses, and even the boldest were struck with fear." "If thou sowest in the garden of life the seed of wrath," said the ancient sages of Iran,* "thy star * Iran was the name of Persia before the time of Cyrus. 878 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. shall have to mourn." The king f of England must have had some such thoughts, when the sun arose like a golden lamp to show him the disasters of the previous evening. His whole camp was devastated; the canvass of the tents hung in tatters, and, all over that immense plain where the green grain had been trodden down by the English cavalry, seven thousand horses lay dead beside their masters. There is no historical fact better attested than this extraordinary event. Ed- ward was so awed by it, that he was long before he recovered the shock, as he himself confessed t.) the continuator of Nangis. Some time after, conformably to the promise which he had made, in his fright, to the powerful pa- troness of Chartres, he signed the peace concluded at Bretigny, a small town of the Chartresian dis- trict; and his haughty nobles, lay- ing aside their arrogance for the time, came as peaceful and humble pilgrims to kneel before the Virgin's shrine. But Mary's intervention in the despcn-ate affaii's of France did not stop here ; she raised up one of those strong men whose iron arm is alone sufficient to sustain a fall- ing kingdom ; she inspired with, a hatred of the British, a young Bre- ton, who made his first achieve- ments in arms under her auspices, and took her name for his war-cry. The troops that followed the red flag of Albion were scattered like straw before the wind at the cry of "Our Lady of Guesclin!" When the insanity of the unfortu- nate Charles YIL — that prince so brave, so beloved by the people, and so devoted to Mary — had re- vived the failing hopes of the Eng- lish kings, and Henry of Monmouth, yielding to the temptation of uniting the diadem of France to his own ill- acquired crown, crossed the sea to do a hundred times worse than ever Edward had done, the Virgin op- posed to him only a pure-hearted young maiden, who dropped the shepherd's crook to assume the sword of battle. It was while light- ing mystic tapers before the vener- ated image of Our Lady of Bermont, and dressing with flowers the her- mitage of St. Mary,* that Joan of * Deposition of the witnesses in the investiga- tion of Vaucouleurs on the habits of Joan of Arc. HISTORY OF TEE DEVOTION TO TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 379 Arc, hearkening to the interior voice that prompted her, conceived the bold project of ridding France of the " English people," and of having the young Dauphin, Charles, consecrated at Rheims. Thus did the Virgin decree, and the inspired shepherdess announce. St. Mary of Rheims, whither the kings of France of that time went to make the vigil of arms with the young lords of their court,* before they re- ceived the knightly spurs, joyfully opened its ponderous gates to admit the true king of France — he who * could alone be anointed as the chosen of the Lord. A flight of birds was sentf to tell the angels these happy tidings; and near the kneeling prince, at the altar where Clovis bent his haughty head be- neath the baptismal water, " the daughter of God, the high-hearted maiden," the chaste heroine sent by the Virgin, unfurled, with a counte- nance at once modest and joyful, her banner of white mohair, where- on were emblazoned, in letters of gold, the two sweet names — the saving names — "Jesus! Mary!" CHAPTER X. THE ORDERS . HE star of chival- ry, which shone from the time of the Crusades over the zenith of Europe, be- gan at length to descend towards the horizon; but, * Froissart. t At. the consecration of our kings, from time immemorial, two or three hundred dozens of majestic even in its decline, it con- tinued to shed a brilliant light, religious as well as martial. Those were, indeed, better and happier days than ours, when religion was respected, and its holy laws obeyed, from the palace to the cottage, and the veneration of Mary was at its birds were set at liberty. (Essais lEstoriques sur Paris, par M. de Sainte-Foix tome v., page 26.) ;;so HISTORY OF TEE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. height — when all was done through her and for her. " It is very natu- ral for all to invoke her," said the warlike ti'oubadours of Germany, " since her bidding is done in heav- en." And so she was universally invoked ; and although each paladin took for his patron either St. James, St. George, St. Michael, or St. Mar- tin (whom, in their simple respect for the inhabitants of the heavenly kingdom, the feudal lords distin- guished by honorary titles), yet the honored Virgin, who contained with- in herself all the beauty, the sweet- ness, and the angelic purity which became a sovereign lady, was the object of a homage far superior to that paid the baron St. James, or the good knight St. George. Tour- naments were proclaimed and feasts performed in honor of Madam St. Mary ; kings and knights made the vigil of arms in her chapels ; her name, translated into every Euro- pean language, was the war-cry of the Norman, the Danish, and the English barons, as well as of Du Guesclin. In the battle of Trente (the site of which is still pointed out amid the heath of Lower Bre- tagne by a mutilated piUar), Beau- t manois recommends himself to God, Om- Lady, and St. Yves. Seeing that his companions redden the grass with then* blood, and that the English have the advantage, he knights a squire of noble birth, named Jean de la Hoche, in Our Lady's name, and fortune, quickly changing sides, declared for the Bretons.* Having commended themselves to Mary, they fought one to ten with that conlidence in the support of heaven which trebles the strength of man ; a good cause, a clean con- science, and the Virgin's aid, suf- ficed to effect a marvellous featj and to obtain the most signal victories. In 1388, an army from Brabant entered the duchy of Gueldre, and destroyed all with fire and sword. The duke had neither men nor money to repulse the invaders. His counsellors were of opinion that he should shut himself up in one of his fortresses ; but he rejected their advice with indignant contempt. " Neither in town nor castle will I enclose myself," he exclaimed, "and leave my country to be burned ; I would rather die manfuUv on the * Froissart, vol. xiii HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 381 open field." Having made this chiv- alrous answer, the young duke arm- ed himself for the fight ; but before he left Mmegue, he went and pray- ed devoutly before the image of Our Lady, in whom he had great trust, and consecrated himself and his knights to her. This done, he mounted his horse, and set out, at the head of four hundred lancers, to fight an army of forty thousand men. At sight of the enemy, the advisers of the Flemish prince, frightened by the fearful odds, sought again to dissuade him from coming to an engagement ; but the duke, laying his hand on his heart, replied, " Something tells me that the day is mine. On, then; unfurl my banner quickly, and let all who are true knights advance ! I will do it in honor of God and Madam St. Mary, of whom I took leave on my departure ; to her care I commit all my affairs. Forward! forward!" And the brave young duke charg- ed the enemy at full gallop, crying, "Our Lady of Gueldre !" The army of Brabant was completely routed, and lost seventeen banners, " which may be found," says Froissart, " be- fore the image of Our Lady of Mm- * egue, to the end that the victory may be kept in perpetual remem- brance." After the battle, the Flemish knights held a council on the field. Some proposed to enter a neighboring city, to place their prisoners in safety, and to dress the wounded. " Not so," said the duke ; "• I gave and pledged myself to the department of Nimegue, and to-day I consecrated myself, at the begin- ning of the battle,, to Our Lady of Nimegue ; I will and ordain, there- fore, that we go back thither to see and to thank the Royal Lady who has helped us to obtain the victory." So saying, he galloped back with his knights to return thanks to Our Lady, and to hang up his spoiled and broken arms, as ex voto, in her chapel.* In 1363, King Louis L of Hun- gary, finding himself, with only twenty thousand men, in presence of eighty thousand infidels, conse- crated himself with all his army to the Queen of Angels, whose image he always wore. In order to thank Our Lady for the brilliant victory which he gained, he built around the chapel of Afiieuz, in Carinthia, * Froissart, vol. i., p. 112. 382 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. a very beautiful church, wherein * he deposited the sacred image to which he attributed his victory, and the sword wherewith he had fought* In the fourteenth century, Louis, duke of Bourbon, surnamed the Great, resolved on quitting France for a time (it was then in a most disturbed state, owing to the minor- ity of Charles VI.), in order to put down the audacious piracy of the Saracens of Africa, which totally impeded the commerce of Europe. Genoa and the French ports de- manded an expedition against these robbers. Louis of Bourbon heard the appeal, and resolved to make a crusade on that side, in honor of the Blessed Virgin, whom he held in supreme veneration. He sum- moned his chivalry, and was . soon joined by the Dauphin of Auvergne, John of Beaufort, son of the duke of Lancaster, the Count d'Harcourt, Walter of Chatillon, William of Hai- nault, Philip of Artois, Count d'Bu, tlie Sire de la Tremouille, and Philip * This Carinthian church, now known by the name of Maria-Zell, is still one of the most fa- mous pilgrimages of Catholic Germany. The Emperor Mathias went thither to return thanks for a victory obtained over the Turks in 1601. de Bar. All these warriors, before they set sail, solemnly pledged themselves to the Blessed Virgin, and took for their flag the duke of Bourbon's banner, " which was then emblazoned with the fleur de lys of France, a white image of Our Lady, the mother of Jesus Christ, repre- sented as sitting in the midst ; un- derneath the feet of said image was the escutcheon of Bourbon." f The duke of Bourbon put to sea with a fleet of eighty vessels "under the keeping of God, Our Lady, and St. George." They arrived about midsummer, in front of a city to which Froissart and others give the name of Africa, and which is thought to be Tunis. The crusaders of the Blessed Virgin laid siege to this place, which they tried four times to take by assault, but could not succeed, the Turks making a vigorous resistance. The arrival of the Christians had been the signal of a holy war for the Mussulmans of Africa ; the kings of Tripoli, Mo- rocco, and others, sent their troops Ferdinand III. had the church finished, such as we now see it; and Maria Theresa, we are cred- ibly informed, made her first communion there, A. D. 1728. f Froissart, vol xi. p. 266. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 383 to succor the besieged city, and the Christians had to guard against the ambuscades and nocturnal assaults of the barbarians. But their strat- agems were all defeated without the aid of sentinels or lights, in a manner which excited the gratitude of the crusaders for their divine protectors. A large dog, which had no known master, kept watch every night around the Christian camp, so that it was impossible for the Turks to elude his vigilance. The soldiers, seeing something extraordinary in the unfailing instinct of this animal, called him Our Lady^s dog. This African expedition, com- menced under the auspices of the Blessed Virgin, was accompanied by prodigies, according to Frois- sart. He relates that "the Saracens, thinking to surprise the French by a nocturnal attack, stealthily ap- proached the Christian camp, when they perceived before them a com- pany of ladies, robed in white, and, especially, one at the head who was fairer than all the others, and car- ried in her hand a snow-white flag with a red cross. The Saracens were so amazed and confounded at the sight, that they had, for the f time, neither the power nor the courage to advance."* Whether it was that Mary wished to protect the chivalry of France, trusting in her protection, by plac- ing herself and her heavenly train between the Christians and the Mussulmans, or that a hallucination caused by the doubtful light of the stars and the waving banners of the knights was the sole cause of the prodigy, the camp was none the less saved from a night attack. Owing to the excessive warmth of the climate, an epidemic broke out amongst the Christians, which decimated their army, and forced them to raise the siege of Tunis, after nine weeks of unavailing ef- forts ; but, before they retired, they twice gave battle to the Saracens, and defeated them, notwithstanding their numbers. The banner of Mary was gloriously borne by the chiv- alry of France ; and the Christians achieved under that flag such prodi- gies of valor, that the king of Tunis, thoroughly frightened, was but too happy to conclude a treaty, where- by he engaged to give up the Chris- tian slaves, to leave the navigation * Froissart, t. xi., p. 266. 884 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. of the Mediterranean undistiu-bed, and, finally, to pay ten thousand gold pieces to defray the expenses of the war. The good cities of the kingdom, in times of calamity, placed them- selves under the special protection of the Blessed Virgin, as well as the sovereigns. In 1357, after that fatal battle of Poictiers, which mowed down the flower of the French no- bility, and in which the king was taken by the English, the merchant- provost then made a vow, in the name of the city of Paris, to offer eveiy year to the Mother of God, in the cathedral church, a taper whose length should equal the circumfer- ence of the city walls. This offer- ing was actually made down to the time of the League, when it was in- terrupted for twenty -five or thirty years. In 1605, the city substitu- ted for this immense taper a silver lamp with a large wax taper, which burned continually before the altar of Our Lady till the year 1789 * * Sauval, Mem. MS. There is found in the ac- counts of receipts and expenses for the corpora^ tion of Paris, k. d. 1488, an item concerning this taper : " To the Widow Gerbelot, the sum of 27 livres, 19 sols, 8 deniers ; to her likewise due by said city, for 11 7^ lbs. of wax, made into a large Rouen, where the image of Mary formerly adorned every street and square, the foimtains and the public monuments, placed itself by solemn vow under her protection in 1348, on the appearance of that famous black plague which ravaged the whole earth, and which struck its victims so fiercely that they died, say the chronicles of the time, while looking at each other. When the intercession of the Virgin had put an end to this frightful pestilence, there was founded in the Norman cathedral one of the most maa:nifi- cent chapels in the world, imder the title of Our Lady of the Yow. The istatue of Mary, in white marble, crowned with white roses, sur- mounted the altar erected to her by public gratitude, and over this sacred image the magistrates of Rouen suspended a massive golden lamp, which was kept lit, night and day, tiU the sixteenth century, when it was extinguished by the Protestants.f taper, and placed on a wooden tower by said ■widow, duly delivered on the 12th February, at the price of 4 sols, 8 deniers per lb. ; amount for Our Lady's candle, 53 livres, 11 sols, 8 deniers." f Amiot, Hist, de la Ville de Rouen, t. ii. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 385 Tlie cities of France were not then alone in consecrating them- selves to the Blessed Virgin. Ge- noa the Proud had inscribed on each of her gates, " Citta di Maria" (the City of Mar}^) ; and Venice the Beautiful had adorned her grand Council Hall, in 1385, with a mag- nificent work of Guariotto, a disci- ple of Giotto, representing Chi'ist crowning his mother Queen of Venice. Underneath this painting, which has perished in the lapse of ages, were written these four lines from Dante: L' amor che mosse gia I'eterno Padre Per figlia aver di sua Delta trina, Costei che fa del Figlio siio poi Madre Deir universo qui la fa regina. The doges of Venice were obliged to leave in the ducal palace a pic- ture in which they were painted kneeling before the Blessed Virgin, so as to make them remember that she was their sovereign, and that of the republic* This devotion of Genoa and Ven- ice to the Mother of God was, how- ever, eclipsed by the fervent hom- age rendered to her by the small republic of Parma, which was also * Delices de Vltalie, t. 1, p. 60. * consecrated to Mary. There was no day more solemn amongst the citizens of Parma than the 15th of August, the Feast of the Assump- tion of the Virgin, patroness of their cathedral, and sovereign of their republic. This festival stood on a par amongst them with that of Easter, and was so respected that the Holy See, when placing Parma under an interdict, always exempt- ed the day of the Assumption from the excommunication. On that day the heads of families, with all the members of their household, re- paired to the splendid cathedral of Mary (the roof of which was subse- quently painted by Corregio), with banners flying and the singing of hymns, and laid flowers and rich offerings on her altar. " An inhab- itant of Parma, who failed to ap- pear in the cathedral, would have been disgraced," says Turchi, "and held up to public scorn." At this solemn festival, in which all ranks were mingled, there were neither grades nor distinctions ; it seemed as though the members of one fam- ily had joyously met to do honor to their mother. Truly it is a fervent and sincere 886 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. devotion that can stifle party feuds ! Such was that of the Parmesans for the Mother of God. In the year 1323, on the day of the Assump- tion, the Guelphs, exiled from Par- ma, laying aside their old animos- ity, presented themselves under the walls of the city, and, with clasped hands, begged to be admitted, for the Holy Virgin's sake. The peo- ple within the city, hearing Mai7's name thus humbly invoked on the day of her solemn festival, were moved with compassion, and, by a spontaneous movement, each ran to open the gates. Guelphs and Ghi- belines embraced each other with tears of joy, and the exiles were conducted, amid the vivas of the citizens, to the famous cathedral of Our Lady, where peace was sworn at the Virgin's altar. That peace lasted fifty years.* To appease these fiery factions of the Guelphs and Ghibelines, which divided each of the Italian cities into two camps, and made their streets and pubUc places fields of battle, it was thought best to create * Chronic. Farm, in med. ann. 1323. — Chronic. Parm. apud Muratori, 10, Ber. f In 1191 the Pope approved of the institu- an order of knighthood of a purely pacific nature — the Frati Gaudenti, or Knights of the Virgin, who, with- out renouncing the world, applied themselves to restore peace and concord in the Italian peninsula, in the name and for the sake of the Mother of God. This devotion to Mary, which re- stored the peace of cities and in- spired waiTiors with courage, was the soul of the military orders— those great, aU- conquering. Mediae- val armies, which were generally founded on faith in the Mother of God, and achieved their heroic deeds in her name. In that austere and religious section of chivalry, the love and honor of absent ladies was represented by a particular de- votion to the Blessed Virgin. Thus, the Knights of St. John of Jerusa- lem invoked Mary when receiving their sword — an invocation which is still practised by the Knights of Malta, the last phase of that cele- brated order. The Teutonic knights took the name of Knights of the Virgin.f The territories which they tion of these knights, under the title of Brothers Hospitallers of the Blessed Virgin, and placed them under the rule of St. Augustine. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 387 wrested from the Pagans of North- ern Europe they called "Mary's lands." The Virgin was their heav- enly Lady, as she was, in fact, " the Lady of the world," according to the simple legends of the Middle Ages. These orders — subject to a mighty organization, which participated in the discipline of a camp and the severity of a rule — conquered, in Mary's name, provinces which they collected into kingdoms. The order of Teutonic Knights became, as every one knows, the Prussian mon- archy; and under the name of the Knights of Rhodes, the Hospitallers governed one of the fairest islands of the Levant. To these religious and chivalrous orders, who extended the devotion to Mary by prodigies of valor, were added the Royal Or- ders, which were like them, in gen- eral, under the patronage of Mary. It was in her honor that King John founded the knightly order of Our Lady of the Noble House, better known as the Knights of the Star. Those knights fasted every Satur- day when they could, and, when they could not, they were to give fifteen pence to the poor, in mem- ory of the fifteen joys of Om* Lady. They were allowed to carry a banner, spangled with stars, with an image of the Blessed Virgin, whether in making war on the en- emies of the faith or in the service of their liege lord. They were sworn to die rather than surrender, and not to retreat more than four acres, when forced by superior num- bers to retire. • Charles VI., that poor prince whose precocious valor gained, when he was but fourteen, the famous victory of Rosbecq, likewise instituted, in the first years of his reign, an order of knighthood in honor of the Blessed Virgin, in con- sequence of a vow made by him in Languedoc, During his stay at Toulouse, he frequently went hunt- ing with Olivier de Clisson, Pierre de Navarre, and a number of other lords, in the ancient forest of Bou- conne. Having one day separated from his suite while too ardently chasing a wild deer, night surprised him alone in the wildest recesses of the old Druid forest ; to increase the dangers of his situation, the shades gathered deeper and deeper J around him, so that not a single S8S HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Btar was visible. Terrified by the * dread loneliness of the place, and not knowing whither to tui'n, the prince made a solemn vow to Our Lady of Hope, and humbly put himself under her protection. Im- mediately a light wind dispersed the clouds, and a brilliant star shed its trembling light on a beaten track, which conducted the young monarch aout ot the woods. Next day, Charles, followed by his lords in complete armor, except their head, went to accomplish his vow in Mary's chapel. To perpetuate the memory of his perilous adven- ture, he founded, shortly after, the order of Our Lady of Hope, and ordained that its emblem should be a star.* In the year 1370, Louis H., duke of Bourbon, instituted the order of the Knights of Our Lady's Thistle. This order consisted of twenty-six * The institution of Oui- Lady of Good Hope is proved by an ancient painting which is seen on the walls of the Carmehte cloister in Tou- louse, near the chapel of Our Lady of Hope, where the king of France is represented on horseback, tending before an image of the Vir- gin. Some lords are also painted there, all armed, except the head. Their names, written below, are almost effaced; but those of the duke of Tooraine, the duke of Bourbon, Pierre de knights, who wore a girdle of sky- blue velvet, embroidered with gold, and having the word Hope embla- zoned thereon ; tlie buckle was of fine gold, enamelled with green, and represented the head of a this- tle. On the day of Our Lady's Con- ception, which was the grand fes- tival of the order, the Knights of the Thistle wore a sumptuous robe of flesh-color damask, and a sky- blue cloak embroidered with gold, whereon they wore the grand collar of the order, composed of golden lozenges and fleurs de lys, with the word liope on every lozenge. From the end of the collar hung an oval medallion bearing the image of Mary, under which was seen a this- tle's head, enamelled with gi-een and eUilied with wJiite.f Devout and chivalrous Spain had also, in the Middle Ages, royal or- ders founded in honor of Mary. Al- Navarre, Henri de Bar, and Olivier de Clisson, may still be distinguished. All these figures are of full length. The background of this painting is filled with bears, wol' es, boars, etc At the top, on a sort of fi-ieze, angels bear streamers, whereon is thrice written the word "Hope." (Dom. Vaissette, Hist, de Languedcc, t. iv., p. 396.) ^ f Pavin, Hist, de Navarre, 1. viiL HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 889 plionso, or rather Don Alonzo the Wise, founded an order of chivahy, which he placed under the patron- age of the Virgin ; and Don James 11. , king of Arragon — to reward the valor of the inhabitants of Montesa, whose castle, built on the top of a high mountain, had several times repulsed the Moors — founded, in 1319, an order of knighthood, under the title of Santa Maria de Montesa, to which he generously gave, with the Pope's consent, the property which the suppressed order of the Templars had possessed in the king- dom of Valencia. A little later, about the middle of the fifteenth century, Christian the First, king of Denmark, founded, in honor of the Holy Trinity and the Blessed Virgin, the royal order of the Elephant, the members of which entered into divers pious engage- ments ; for instance, that of defend- ing the Catholic faith at the peril of their life ; the elephant was sym- bolical of the virtues of the order. But it was not only the royal and military orders that took Mary for their patroness ; the religious mili- tia, which gains its battles by pray- er under the shield of Faith, would ^ also move forward under the Vir- gin's banner, and distinguished it- self by another kind of heroism. In the West, the first religious order founded especially in honor of Mary, was that of Citeaux, the founder of which was St. Robert, a young Nor- man gentleman who had been des- tined by his family for the profession of arms, but who chose rather to gain the kingdom of heaven than any of this world's gifts or honors. In the year 1098 he founded, in a desert place, given him by the duke of Burgundy, the famous abbey of Citeaux, and caused the twenty monks who accompanied him thith- er to assume the white habit, in honor of the Blessed Virgin, and, according to the annalists of Ci- teaux, on a special revelation from her. In order to merit the protec- tion of Mary, Robert and his monks condemned themselves to a life the most detached, the most laborious, the poorest, and the most austere that it is possible to imagine ; they banished from their cloisters all that had the least appearance of luxury. Their abbatial church had but one wooden cross ; the censers and can- ^ dlesticks were of iron, and the chal- 390 niSTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. ices of gilt copper ; the ornaments were of coarse stuff; the abbot's crozier was merely the wooden crutch then used by old men. In oi-der to avoid all that might dis- turb retreat and recollection, it was agreed that no prince or noble should henceforward keep his court in their church or in their monas- tery, as had been hitherto the case on high festivals. These rules were made by degrees; most of them were enacted by Abbot Stephen, who succeeded Alberic, the suc- cessor of Robert, in 1109. There was so great scarcity of provisions in the abbey during the following year, that the abbot was obliged to mount an ass and go out to beg with one of the brothers. The rigorous austerity practised in the abbey caused Citeaux to be desert- ed ; no one presented himself to re- place the monks who died, and the abbot began seriously to fear that this new institute must perish in its cradle ; but Mary, its patroness, would not permit it to fall to the ground, and made it a magnificent present in the person of St. Ber- nard, who retired thither, with sev- eral of his kinsmen, in 1113. He * was then scarcely seventeen; at nineteen he was sent to Clairvaux, in the capacity of abbot, and ap- plied himself to clear that place, then overgrown with brushwood. Whilst St. Bernard was laying the foimdations of Clairvaux, La Fert^, Pontigny, and Morimond — the three other daughters of Ci- teaux — were being peopled under favor of the Blessed Virgin. The wild, dreary spot whereon arose the abbey of Morimond, the most austere of all the Cistercian abbeys, was a pious donation from Olderic de Grammont, and Adeline, his wife.* These fom' abbeys were the first and the mothers of several others, which we need not mention in detail, all equally austere and regular, all worthy of their heavenly patroness. The monks went to work in the woods and fields, sowed and reaped grain, mowed hay, felled trees and carried them on their back. On returning to the convent, they thankfully received what was given them to eat — that is to say, a pound of coarse black bread, with a potage of beech - leaves. Their * Annales Cisterciennes, a R. P. Manrique, ^ aun. 1115, ch. 1. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 391 bed was of straw, their bolster a * bag of oats, and, after having slept some hours, they rose in the middle of the night to sing the praises of the Lord. Such was the life of these monks of the Virgin, whom their conduct honored according to the expres- sion of God himself in the sacred books ; hence she was pleased to give them the most striking proofs of her approbation. The annals of Citeaux relate that, when these good monks, whose life was so austere, whose heart so pure, and whose hands so occupied, were toil- ing and sweating in the heat of a harvest day, without daring to quench their thirst in the neighbor- ing stream, or to refresh their ex- hausted frame by a few moments' rest in the cool shade of the woods hard by, the Virgin wiped away with her white veil the sweat that bathed the pale and fmTowed brow of the brothers.* Men of high birth thronged to Citeaux: Prince Henry, brother of Louis the Young, became a monk of Clairvaux in 1149. St. Malachy, * Annates Cisterciennes, a. d. 1199, ch. 5, and 1228, ch. 6 J ann. 1121, ch. 6. * who was descended from the kings of Ireland, and was himself primate of that island, exchanged his ponti- fical robes for the serge and fustian of these austere monks. One of the first lords of the Scottish court, and much beloved by the king, who was his relative, abandoned the world and its glories to shut himself up in a Cistercian monastery. The king had often noticed that the young nobleman withdrew from the exciting pleasures of the chase to read and pray amongst the tall ferns or the blooming hawthorn bushes. "We must make him a bishop," said the pious monarch, one day, with a thoughtful air. The young man anticipated him, and became a monk at Wardon. In 1129, Everard, count du Mans, gave up his princely coronet for the Cistercian cowl. He presented himself in disguise at one of the houses of the order, and was en- trusted with the care of one of the flocks. He might have remained unknown had not some lords of his acquaintance met him while mind- ing his sheep on the border of a wild heath. Another young noble- man, of very high bu'th, having 1 892 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Uiken the Cistercian habit,* wajs charged to conduct a flock of swine every day to feed in a neighboring forest, where they fared sumptu- ously on the acorns and beech-nuts. One evening, when the novice neg- lected to pray as usual, he heard the voice of Satan, the father of Pride, whispering in his ear that his was certainly a strange trade for the son of a powerful baron. The young lord, hitherto so pious, bit his lip, and all his fervor fled like a dream. Night came ; he re- gained his monastery, and retired to the chapel. Any one who saw him kneeling before Our Lady's altar, buried in profound medita- tion, would have said, "There is a saint whose thoughts are in heav- en." Yet his thoughts did not take so lofty a flight; for he was think- ing of his father's castle, and be- gan to entertain the idea of flight. "The night is dark," thought the novice, as he looked through the open door of the chapel ; " the wind is high ; it is just the time to make my escape Herding swine, indeed ! and I the son of one of the first lords of the court ! Why, it is ♦ AnTiales Cisterciennes, a. d. 1207, ch. 4. f a shame ! " He arose, and crossed the nave with a firm step. He was about to pass the threshold, when, lo ! a woman stood before him ! At first he thought it was but a dream. But no ; there she was I a woman of majestic mien, and beautiful as an angel. With a graceful motion of her hand, and a sweet smile of compassion, she made a sign for him to follow, and was mechanic- ally obeyed. The unknown direct- ed her steps towards the cemetery, as it lay ghastly and cold in the light of the half- veiled moon ; the huge yew-trees, agitated by the wind, seemed to mourn for the dead, and the night-birds mingled their doleful cries with the tumul- tuous voice of the tempest. A cold shudder began to creep over the young monk. His fair and calm conductress extended her hand, and, behold ! the turf coverings of the graves began slowly to open, and the dead arose, cold and pale, in their shrouds. The novice was sinking to the ground with teiror; but the unknown, regarding him with an eye of tender compassion, said, in a sweet and penetrating voice, " Yet a little while, and thou HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIBGIN MAEY. 393 glialt be dead like these ! Whither, * then, would st thou go, and of what art thou thinking ? This is the end of all earthly glory !" Saying these words, the Virgin — for she it was — vanished from his sight ; the graves closed again, and the young novice, who thought no more of quitting the convent, became a model of humility and virtue. The order of Citeaux, which ex- tended itself into every country of Christendom, was suppressed in France at the beginning of the Revolution. The order of Fontevrault, founded in 1100 by Robert d'Arbricelle to honor the holy obedience of Jesus Christ to the orders of his mother, and the filiation of John with re- gard to Mary, could only have its origin in the chivalrous Middle Ages. In that order — whose nuns were high and noble ladies, and its abbesses princesses of the blood royal — the women governed the men, and the abbots dared not treat the abbess as a sister, but were bound, in all humility, to call her mother,* she being absolute * The monks of the abbey of Fontevrault were commanded by an act of Parliament to 4 sovereign of the order. The foun- dation of this order raised some storms at the outset. Marbode, bishop of Rennes, and Godefroi, bishop of Vendome, alarmed by the strangeness of this reversed obedience, declared against Fonte- vrault ; but the order, nevertheless, existed till the time of the Revolu- tion. It was in this abbey that the princesses of the royal family were brought up. Seven merchants of Florence also founded, in the second period of the Middle Ages, the order of Servantes, or Serfs of Mary, which gave to the church St. Philip Benizzi, author of the touching devotion of the Seven Dolors of the Virgin. Finally, the sweet name of Mary was given to the order of Om- Lady of Mercy, destined to redeem Christian cap- tives from the hands of the infidels. This order, founded on the 10th of August, 1218, is one of those holy works which do honor to humanity ; its rules were extremely severe, and it formed the most perfect link be- tween the military orders and those that were purely monastic. call the abbess their mother, and not their sis- ter, {^ee ih.& Anncds of Fontevrault.) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. If the other religif)iis orders of t ehivah'ous times were placed less directly than those of which we have spoken, under the immediate patronage of the Blessed Virgin, all united in honoring her, and were founded under her influence. The ancient Carthusians dedicated to Mary their first chapel, which still exists amongst the rocks where it was first built, and it retains the commemorative name of Om* Lady of Cottages.* The cradle of the Franciscan or- Sacellum beatce Marioe de Casalibus. This chapel, which the Carthusians have preserved with all respect as the cradle of their order, is der was a small chapel, very old. and in bad repair, built originally by four hermits of Palestine, who gave it the name of St. Mary of Josaphat, because they had in it some relics from the tomb of the Blessed Virgin. The Dominican order had its ori- gin in Our Lady of Prouille. St. Norbert reformed the Premon- stratensions by order of the Mother of God, and he obliged his monks to recite the office of the Virgin every day, under pain of mortal sin. still in existence. Tastefully ornamented, and hidden in the depth of the woods, it has a very pleasing effect. Jfourtlj iperioir d tlje §tiidm\ U Parj. PROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO OUR OWN TIMES. CHAPTER XL THE REVIVAL. |T the opening of the 15th cen- tury, Catholic Europe was still kneeling before Mary, Avhose cathedrals, al- ready secularized, were being fin- ished with admirable constancy. At that time " Poor Companions," made their tour of France, offering their hammers and trowels wherever the piety of the faithful was raising churches ; most of them asked no payment ; they got bread and roots to eat, and slept on the bare ground. One hundred thousand men were seen working in this way for two centuries, at the cathedral of Stras- burg, which Bishop Werner had dedicated to Mary. Some of these workmen were wholly devoted to the construction of chapels in honor of the Blessed Virgin ; they wrought for the love of God, and refused all other em- ployment. Amongst these were some who imposed on themselves the daily fabrication of a certain number of oak leaves, trefoil or ara- besques ; this pious task was called the stone-cutter^ s beads. The enthu- siasm reached even the weaker sex ; women were seen taking up the chisel to carve Madonnas ; the statue of the Blessed Virgin, which may be observed over the portal of the cathedral of Strasburg, with a crown on the head and a chalice in the right hand, is the work of Sabi- na, daughter of Ervin, herself a famous architect, like her father and brother, whose great work she continued when they had worn away their lives. Those artists who wrestled like giants with the idea of the infinite to translate it into stone, acquired 896 mSTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. no wealth by their colossal under- takings; they would have deemed it a disgrace. Their labor was more suitably rewarded ; after their death, the stately basilica which tlioy had built, raising its flags of black marble, took them respect- fully to its bosom, and one might fancy that its tall, tapering steeples, piercing the clouds like the just man's prayer, went up to plead their cause before the Eternal. The carvers of wood likewise consecrated their work to the Vir- gin ; the choir-stalls of the ancient churches were adorned, for the most part, with those sculptures where the artist delighted to concentrate, in a narrow space, some graceful scene from the life of the Blessed Virgin. The cathedrals of Auch and Evreux, both dedicated to Mary, are so fortunate as to have preserved many of these carvings, whose loss would be irreparable. Under the vaulted roof of the cathedral of Paris, that dread peri- odical press which does so much good and so much evil, according to the passions which set it in motion, was then springing into life like a timid dove that feai's to venture * from the parent nest. A great iron branch, with tubes running hither and thither, as far up as the eye could reach, was fastened to one of the walls of Notre Dame, close by one of those side-doors which are master - pieces of the locksmith's craft. On a level with these tubes, garnished with tapers of yellow wax, was hung by a flexible fast- ening, a hollow tablet, coated with wax. There, every morning, on the advice and responsibility of the di- rectors or chief editors of the period, the bishop, the mayor, or the sheriff, the printer in wax inscribed with his pen the official announcement of whatever was most interesting to the people of the good old times, the arrival of a bull, the gaining of a battle, etc. Every lettered indi- vidual was then free to come, by the light of the tapers (which the stained glass windows rendered necessary, even in daylight), and read to the assembled crowds that daily gazette — daily in the fullest sense of the word, since the news of the morrow effaced that of the day before. Confraternities in honor of the Virgin were then founded all over i HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 397 Europe — still Catholic fi-om one end to the other. The princes of Germany gloried in wearing her scapular, and the English kings of the Lancastrian line were conse- crated with a miraculous oil " more radiant than fine gold, which the Blessed Virgin had given expressly for them — the Lancastrians — to St. Thomas a Becket during his exile." * In France, the students of the great colleges (where so many gra- tuitous burses were given in Our Lady's name) arose at the dawn of day to say the office of the Vir- gin in common. Princes recited it also, at regular hours, with some other offices of the Church. A small space, something like the do- mestic chapels of the Romans, was reserved in their apartments for these morning devotions. The duke of Orleans, uncle of Charles YL, though his life was far from being * Boucher, Annates de V Aquitaine, t. iv., p. 3. f Felibien, t. ler, p. 654. — Sauval, Mem. MS J The rosary was instituted in 1208, by St. Dominick, but he was not precisely the in- ventor of it. In the year 1094, Peter the Her- mit devised wooden beads, whereon the sol- diers of the Crusade, for the most part unable * edifying, had nevertheless, in the Hotel St. Paul, an oratory, adorned with gothic sculptures in Irish oak, on the door of which was read, "Eetreat where Monsieur Louis ol France says his offices." f The beads J were the favorite or- naments of great and small, the magistrate and the warrior. Kings of France substituted them for the knightly collar, the fashion of which had been brought by the crusaders from Eastern lands, famous for their gorgeous costumes. A costly rosary was put in every wedding casket; and the great ladies of the period of the Revival, as well as those of the Middle Ages, were often repre- sented on their stone monuments with a rosary in their hand. This prayer, originally invented for the poor, had become the prayer of all classes. Burgesses and gentlemen said their rosary going out to the country or returning to the city, to read, might recite a certain number of Paters and Aves, accordingjfcb the solemnity of the feasts. Even before his time, some ancient historians relate that devout persons said a aeries of Paters and Aves on knotted cords, per cordulam nodis distinciam. {Regies de la Gonfr. du Rosaire. Astolfi. — Gabriel Pennotus, in Hist. ^ Tripart.) "OS HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. clients in coui-t while awaiting their lawyei-s, and Christians of every grade when going to churches at a distance to gain indulgences. Kings themselves set the example. Blanche of Castile said her rosary every day. Edward III., king of England, gave his beads, enriched with pearls, to Eustace de Ribeau- mont, a French knight, who had twice defeated him. In the inven- tory taken after the death of Charles v., there were, as La Sage tells us, ten gold rosaries. The Swiss, at Grandson, found in the ducal tent of Charles of Burgundy his Pater . (beads) , whereon the Apostles were represented in solid gold.* It is weU known that the famous con- stable, Anne de Montmorenci, was accustomed to say his beads while riding at the head of his men-at- arms. " Sometimes, leaving a Pater unfinished, he commanded some mil- itary expedition, or gave the signal for attack ; then " he carefully re- sumed his Pater or Ave," says a * History of Louis f The chaplet ow kM. Lisken, p. 91. origin to a young monk of the order of St. Francis. Before taking the habit of the Friars Minors, this young man made it a practice to crown an image of Our Lady e\erj iay with a wreath of flowers. Be- * contemporary historian, "so devout was he." The chaplet, which takes its name from the crowns of flowers called in the Middle Ages chapels or cha- peaux, was the spiritual crown of Mary. People said then — and it was a graceful and poetical idea — that there was beside every person who recited it devoutly, an angel, sometimes visible, who strung on a golden thread a rose for every Ave, and a golden lily for every Pater, and that after laying this garland on the brow of the devout servant of Mary, the angel disap- peared, leaving behind him the sweet perfume of roses.f The kings of Scotland and their great vassals wore chaplets of golden beads " to preserve them- selves from all evil." The bold troopers of the borders provided themselves with others, simpler and less costly, consisting of filberts browned by the autumn sun ; " and never did they recite them with ing unable to continue this pious practice in the convent, he was on the point of giving up the habit ; but Our Lady appeared to him, and ordered him to substitute the spiritual crown of the chaplet for the wreath of flowers, (P. Alex. Salo, Meth. ad. pour hon. la V. M., p. 672.) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 399 more fervor," says Leslie, "than in * their expeditions against the En- glish." The golden chaplets disap- peared with poor Queen Mary, the last of the Catholic sovereigns ; but those which the borderers gathered in the woods long withstood the shock of the Eeformation. It was the last Catholic practice kept up in Caledonia ; with it fell the an- cient religion of Bruce, of Wallace, and of David I. — the religion to which England and Scotland both owe, according to Cobbett, all that they have of greatness both in men and things. The Georgians and the nations of Italy fabricated beads for them- selves with as little expense as the Scotch : they made them of the nuts of the azedarah, still known among the Italians as Valhero dei paternostri (the paternoster tree). The tender and sincere piety of our ancestors for the Blessed Virgin then manifested itself in forms the sweetest and most touching. Ber- ries from the shrubs and fruit from the bushes sufficed to form a reli- gious garland ; flowers, heath, the plants of Europe and of Asia, were honored with her name, and kept her memory alive amid the woods and fields. The narcissus, with its purple - tinted bell, received tlie name of Mary^s lily ; the rose of Jericho, the seal of Solomon, be- came her rose and her seal; the lung-wort, spotted with white, was Our Lady's milk; the Scotch toolv for their emblem her blessed thistle ; the Christian Arab gave the name of St.. Mary^s smoke to a sort of wormwood, with a white flower, which grows on his sandy wastes ; the mountain shepherd designated as St. Mary's grass the Alpine mint, the rosemary, and the persicaria ; the Mussulmans of the East call the fragrant cyclamen hokour Miriam (Mary's perfume), and the same plant bears in Persia the name of tchenk Miriam (Mary's hand) ; a vernal plant of Europe received the name of Our Lady's cloak: the plant that bears the blue sweet wortle- berry was her signet, the sherbets of the Alps her pears ; and the bed of wild thyme, whereon the wearied bee reposes, had likewise her name. In some northern countries, on the other hand, they scrupulously avoided giving the Virgin's name, 100 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. not only to things but to persons, fearing lest that name might event- ually be ti'eated with irreverence, or unworthily borne. Amongst the Poles, no \s'oman was called Mary, and this prohibition extended so far, that Ladislaus lY., when marry- ing Marie Louise of Nevers, would have a clause inserted in the mar- riage contract to the eifect that the new queen should give up her name of Marie, which was displeasing to the Poles, because of their respect for the Mother of God, and that she should retain only the simple name of Louise.* bi the first years of the fourteenth centm-y, Pope Innocent XXII., justly alarmed by the conquests of the Mussulmans, instituted a prayer to the Blessed Virgin, under the name of Hail, Mary! This prayer, for which the sweetest and most mys- terious hour of the day had been chosen, that is, the close of day,f was said in France and England at the first toll of the curfew-bell. All Catholics thenp^said three Hail * Dovendo Ladislao IV. prendere per moglie la figliuoladel duca di Nevers, chiamata Maria Alo- isa, messe questa special condizione che la reina, per riverenza della Vergine, si chiaraasse nell' ave- nire solamente Aloisa. {IIP. Pao.Seg.t.\ii. p. 571.) * Marys for the success of the Chris- tian arms, and besought the Blesseil Virgin that peace, union, and pros- perity might prevail in every Chris- tian kingdom. Louis XL, in 1475, instituted the Angelus, as it now is, in honor of the mystery of the In- carnation, and desired that, to the evening prayer offered up for the general peace of Christendom, one might be added at noon for the particular peace of his kingdom. His decree is thus conceived : " It is hereby ordained, that all French- men, knights, men-at-arms, and clowns, do kneel on their two knees at the stroke of noon, cross them- selves devoutly, and ofier a prayer to Our Lady for the maintenance of peace." The decree was executed with an exactness which proves how popu- lar was the devotion to Mary. During the fifteenth century, at the first stroke of the Angelus, there was not a single Frenchman in the houses, in the streets, in the fields, or on the highways, who did not t Polidorus Virgil attributes the institution of the evening Ave Maria to Pope John XXIL, and that of the morning to Theodoric, archbishop of Cologne. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 401 prostrate himself to invoke the ' Blessed Virgin. That duty dis- charged, the wayfarer and trav- eller arose and went on his way.* In those immense processions, the head of which was at St. Denis when the end was still on the steps of Notre Dame,f the Virgin's ban- ner of mohair, embroidered with gold, was borne high over all the other sacred ensigns, and was car- ried immediately after the Cross. Kings, queens, bishops, and bur- gesses of high degree, were all members of Our Lady's confrater- nity, J and in pious assemblies the gold embroidered hoods of princes were seen side by side with thfe blue and red hoods of the Parisian citizens. At every corner of the streets, a little statue of Mary, rudely carved in oak, blackened by time, and cov- ered with a veil of antique lace, raised its guardian head above a pile of flowers, which the good peo- * Alex. Monteil, Vie privee des Frangais, t. 1. f Capef., Hist, de la Ref. I This confraternity, the most ancient belong- ing to Our Lady in Paris, was established in 1168. It was named the Grand Confraternity of Our Lady of the Lords, Priests, and Citizens of Paris. The king, the queen, and the bishop ^ pie renewed every morning when the trumpets announced the dawn from the towers of the Chatelet.§ Sometimes these flowers, placed there secretly before daybreak, were taken for the gifts of angels, who came, it was said, to teach Chris- tians to honor their Queen. During the night lamps burned continually in these little grayish niches, which on Saturday were illuminated all day long. II This was the first light- ing of streets ; and though it was less brilliant than that now in use, it had, at least, one great advantage — it was connected with a pious thought, calculated to excite reflec- tion amongst a believing people. The mystic lamps of the Madonnas, shining here and there like a light chain of stars, through the perfumed stems of flowers, seemed to say to the nightly wanderer, intent on crime, " There is on this slumber- ing city an eye which never closes, but watches for ever over those of Paris, were members, and none but the most exemplary persons were received into any of the three orders of the confraternity. (Le Maire, t. ii., p. 19.—Traii. de la Police, t i., p. 372.) § Alex. Monteil, t. i. ]1 Hist, de Notre Dame de la Pair, par le P. Medard, Capucin. 402 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIROIN MARY. silent and doserted stref^ts — the eye of God!"* These little corner - Madonnas, though not so richly adorned as those which figured in massive sil- ver over altars of marble and gold, were none the less dear to the peo- ple. Young men and women came there from all sides — in procession, barefoot, and crowned with flowers — singing the Litanies of the Bless- ed Virgin ; every one followed them, let the time be what it might, and the crowd was sometimes so dense that the street was completely blocked up. A little cedar statue, about a foot high, which had be- longed to the house of Joyeuse, and which stood between two pointed turrets over the gate of the rever- end Capuchin fathers in the Rue St. •Honor^, came near being the cause of a civil war, on a small scale, between two of the wards of Paris. Some persons of more zeal than j)rudence would fain carry oif the miracle-working Madonna, to enrich * It is still the only lighting of several towns in. Italy. The following are the words of an author who wrote in 1803 : " II popolo e divoto alle Madonne, per cui ve ne sono in ogni an- gollo delle strade con fanali accessi di notte. ^ their own parish. The people of the neighborhood came to hear of their intention, and forthwith took up arms, mounted guard day and night before the tutelary Virgin and made up their minds to chain the street across. Tranquillity was only restored by the formal trans- lation of the sacred image to the very church of the convent. f The Queen of Heaven, who in- spired the armies of the Middle Ages with the confidence of vic- tory, reigned over the fleets and merchant vessels of that fifteenth century, which was justly styled the age of discoveries. Christopher Columbus undertook the discovery of the New World, under the aus- pices of the Virgin, whose office he read on board his ship, from a pre- cious manuscript given him at his departure by Pope Alexander VI., and which he bequeathed at his death to the republic of Genoa, his native country. Don Henry of Por- tugal, who presided over and pro- Essi tengono illuminate le strade, e cosi la divozione supplisce alia polizia." (Descrizione di Napoli, p. 269.) * See Hint, de Notre Dame de la Paix. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 403 moted the discovery of the East Indies, raised a church at Belem in honor of Our Lady, accompanied by an hospital for Portuguese sailors. John Gonsalvo Zares, his first and ablest navigator, had a church built to Our Lady in Madeira. When the Portuguese, under the direction of Yasco de Gama, landed for the first time on the coast of Coromandel, where they expected, on the faith of some old tradition, to find some of St. Thomas' Christians, they were conducted by the natives to the temple of an Indian goddess, whom they had the simplicity, notwith- standing her four arms and her long golden ears, to take for the Blessed Virgin, and prayed to her accord- ingly. One of them, however, be- gan to have some doubts, and cried out, as he looked at the hideous- features of the idol, resembling nothing less than the fair, sweet Virgin of the Christians, " If the devil be worsliipped here, which is very possible, it is well understood that we are only addressing our prayers to the Mother of God!" After establishing themselves in the Indies, the Portuguese, faithful in their devotion to Mary, dedicated '^ to her in Goa, a superb church, wholly gilt in the inside, styled Our Lady of Asara, or Mercy. Several other churches, such as Our Lady of Cranganor and of Meliapour, arose, by their means, in several parts of India, even to the mouth of the Ganges, the sacred river of Hindostan. There was then among them a pious practice of offering to Mary the tenth part of the booty obtained from the heathen, and thai custom caused the construction of many private chapels in her honor. Even in our days their vessels never pass in sight of the Virgin's chap- els, situated along the coast of their superb Macao, without saluting them with discharges of all their guns.* The Spaniards, no less de- vout than the Portuguese to the divine Mother of the Saviour, bore on their gold- laden galloons her statue in massive silver, before which the brave Castilian mariners of Isabella the Catholic said their morning and evening prayers. At a somewhat more recent period, the buccaneers of the Island of Tortua, having taken one of these images in a naval engagement, the Span- * Annals of the Propagation of the Faith. 404 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. iards, robbed of all they possessed, thought only of recovering their revered Madonna. The governor- geneiul opened a negotiation with the pii'ates, solely to save the Santa Senora from the profanations to which she was exposed amongst those lawless men, who gloried in living without any religion, but they refused to give it up. Italy — then conspicuous amongst all Catholic kingdoms by the revi- val of the arts — consecrated the pallet of her painters, the chisel of her sculptors, and the pen of her poets, to celebrate the greatness of Mary. From Cimabue, who founded the Italian school about the year 1240, to Carlo Maratti and Salvator Rosa (who are considered its last mas- ters)— that is to say, for a period of five centuries — religious painting produced a series of master-pieces to which the history of the Blessed Virgin contributed the largest share. Raphael, then fine, poetical, and pious as an angel, was the first to divine, in bis admirable sposalizio, the noble jet simple bearing, the * There are still to be seen in the domestic chapel of ]VIichael Angelo, in Florence, large * fair and serious countenance, the celestial attitude of the Mother of divine Love and of holy Mercy. One would say, that on a day of fervent prayer Mary appeared to him seated on the clouds, with her angelic train, and that he painted her in her glory, such as he saw her. How many men of genius fol- lowed in the footsteps of that great master! Michael Angelo, Corregio, Titian, the Carraclii, Spagnoletto, Dominichini, that austere Carlo Dolchi who consecrated his pencil to the Blessed Virgin, and the fierce Salvator who made pilgrimages to Our Lady of Loretto. What rich- ness of imagination ! What super- human conceptions ! What a pro- found sentiment of the holiness of their art amongst those great Ital- ian masters ! Those wondrous men, who disinherited the future and ef- faced the past, feared not to show themselves faithful servants of the Blessed Virgin ; they lit tapers before her images, took ofi" their beretta as they passed before them, said their beads like every one else,* and their greatest ambition rosaries which belonged to him, and which he took with him on his travels. HISTORY OF TEE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 405 was to adorn a Christian church with some sacred painting, for w^hich they prepared themselves as a holy work. "Sound the trum- pets, ring the bells," wrote Salvator Rosa to Dr. Ricciardi ; "after thirty years' residence in Rome, after six whole lustres of blighted hopes and a life of continual tribulation both from man and heaven, I am at last called on, for once, to paint a pic- ture for a high-altar!"* This, we see, is downright ecstasy. But, on the other hand, how Catholicity loved, encouraged, and protected the art which enriched its temples with so many master-pieces! — how the Holy See honored and exalted the man of genius ! — how it levelled heights and effaced social distinc- tions, to honor illustrious talents and to raise their possessors to a level with the rich and nobly born ! Giotto, the peasant who left his flock in a romantic valley of Tus- cany, to work in the school of Cim- abue, was the jiTotege, of Pope Clement Y.; and it was the suc- cessor of St. Peter who first sought out the artist. Michael Angelo, in- * Leitere di Salvator Rosa al dott. Giov. Batista Ricciardi, Lettera 20. * tended by his father for a weaver of w^ool, w^as honored with some- thing more than the favor, he pos- sessed the confidence and the friendship of Julius II. To Ra- phael, the son of a poor and obscure painter, there was offered on the one hand a cardinal's hat, and on the other, the hand of a cardinal's niece. Lanfranco, that Parmegiano so pop- ular in the eighteenth century, was the intimate friend of cardinals, a knight of the Holy Roman Empire, and the special ^rofe^e of the Pope. Caravaggio, the son of a mason, received the cross of the order of Malta, a superb gold chain, which the grand -master himself hung around his neck, and two slaves to wait upon him. Claude Lorraine, who was first a cook and then a grinder of colors, was the friend of the elegant Cardinal Bentivoglio, and the distinguished favorite ol Urban YIIL The Roman cardinals expend- ed part of their fortune on master- pieces of art which are still the or- nament of the churches or of their splendid galleries, and, following their example, the Catholic princes all encouraged the arts, and adorned the altars with religious paintings. / i06 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VTROTN START. Behold what Catholicity has done for painting! ' Protestants acted in a very different manner. Calvin, who despised poetry, and even set down church-organs as foolish van- ttiesy^ protested with no less bitter- ness and vehemence against idol- atrous painting ; hence, religious pictures were unmercifully lacerated l)y his ferocious followers, and this aversion for that most noble art lasted so long that, in the acts passed by the British Parliament in 1636, it is ordained that all the pictures in the Royal Gallery which represent the Virgin, or the second person of tlie Trinity^ shall be pub- licly bm-ned.f What more could the Caliph Omar have done ? It is worthy of remark, that the two chiefs of the Protestant sects, whilst exclaiming against Catholic pictures, were quite willing to sit for their own portraits, as often as theii' partisans desired to have them. " Luther," says an English writer, * The Scotch Covenanters despised poetry, which they deemed a profane and useless art. This rough fanaticism lasted • so long in some parts of Scotland, that Wilson, author of a poem called The Clyde, being appointed, some thirty years ago, to teach a school in Greenock, was obliged to give a written promise that he would * "was always well pleased to nnil- tiply his portrait and that of his homely rib. J His statue, erected at Wittenberg, is exposed to the veneration of the Lutherans of Ger- many, and M. Lerminier himself compares this veneration to that which Catholics bear to Our Lady of Loretto. Calvin, possessed by the same strange mania, drew on the Huguenots of France that judi- cious question of Saconay : " Why are ye so much opposed to paint- ings and images? Does not your own Calvin take pleasure in having his likeness multiplied, carved in Geneva with so much skill that his hollow eyes and countenance are vividly represented, and he is show^n to the life, ungainly as he is."§ Statuary also arose, grand and majestic, under the inspiration of Mary. Greece had seated, erected, and reclined her statues; but she had not devised the suppliant pos- ture of Our Lady of Dolors; she renounce poetry. The Scotch Puritans gave organs the contemptuous name of whistling chests. (Sir Walter Scott, Border Minstrelsy.) f Journal of the House of Commons. \ Memoirs of Salvator Bosa, By Lady Mor- gan, § Archives Curieuses. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 407 had not placed innocence and purity kneeling before God; she confided to Bacchantes, or to old Silenus, her fair marble children. Mary, bearing the infant Jesus in her arms, came to reveal both to art and to society the religion of maternity, and open- ed to sculpture tlie unexplored career of moral things. Sculpture revived, like her sister, in the classic land of art — fair, sunny Italy ; like her sister, she was protected there by the princes of the Roman Church, who had preserved the noble pro- ductions of the great masters of an- cient Greece. A bull had been issued by the Yicar of Jesus Christ, forbidding the mutilation of ancient statues ; and if the modern sculptor can yet study those master -pieces, he owes it to Martin Y. Benvenuto Cellini, one of the greatest artists of the time of Leo X., and one of the most dangerous bravos of Italy, had, nevertheless, a profound faith in the Virgin ; vin- dictive as he was — and there was no one more so — he would not dare to draw his richly- chased stiletto from his silken sleeve in presence of a Madonna. One day, when he had been cast into prison for his * misdeeds, he thought he saw the Virgin, in the midst of the sun's disc, holding her divine Son on her knee, and looking down on him with the sweetest smile. "I saw her," says he, in a letter which is still extant — "I saw her clearly and distinctly, and I glorified God aloud." Amongst the great Italian poets of the Revival, the most illustrious were distinguished by their devo- tion to Mary. Dante sang her praise in the magnificent verse of his Paradiso. ''0 woman!" he ex- claims, " thou art so great, thou hast so much power, that he who solicits a favor without having recourse to thee, sends up his aspirations with- out wings."* In the romantic sol- itudes of Vaucluse, Lintenno, and Arqua, where Petrarch shut himself up to await the poetic inspiration which is repelled by the tumult of cities, we still behold the spire of his little domestic chapels adorned with a superb Madonna of Peru- gino's. It was at the feet of this fair Madonna that he composed his Invocation to Mary, his last can- zona, so humble, so tender, so * Dante, II Paradiso, c. 33. 408 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIROIN MART. Christian, wherein "he prostrates f his heart" before the "sweet and pious Virgin," to the end that she may guide him back to the way from which he had wandered, and recommend him to her divine Son at his last moment* Tasso, being on his way from Mantua to Rome, turned aside to acquit himself of a vow to Om* Lady of Loretto; he arrived, overpowered with fatigue, and without money to finish his jom-ney; but happily one of the Gonzagua princes, who was much attached to him, happened to be there at the same time, and amply provided for all his wants. Recov- ered fi'om his fatigue, he fultilled with the most feiTent devotion all the duties of his pilgrimage, and composed the finest canticle ever written in honor of Our Lady of Loretto.f Stretched on his bed of death, in the convent of St. Onuphre, Tasso asked of the yoimg Rubens — who had taken him from the dungeons of the duke of Ferrara — a small silver Madonna, which he had him- self given long before to the father of that great painter. "Thou wilt * Le Rime 'id Petrarca (Fireuze), t. iii., c. 8. take it back," said he, " when I am dead." Rubens instantly obeyed, and the author of Jerusalem Deliv- ered, after having burned some poetical sketches written during the delirious hours of his crael and unjust captivity, began to say his prayers in a low voice, clasping in his convulsed hands the sacred im- age which encouraged him to hope till the last. When the body of the great poet, so cruelly neglected dur- ing his life, was borne triumphantly to its last resting-place, Rubens could not bring himself to join the funeral procession ; he hastened to take shelter in the most obscure corner of St. Peter's, in Rome, where, prostrate before the Virgin's altar, he prayed with great fervor, holding in his hands the little silver Madonna which he had taken from the icy hands of Tasso. Music, purified by the tender and inspiring breatli of the Blessed Vir- gin, was then beginning to revive under her auspices. In the fifth century, Sedulius, whose verses were considered very pleasing to her, had sung her praise in his Carmen Pas- cliale. In the twelfth, a monk oi f Such is the opinion of Ginguend. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 409 St. Victor composed the Litanies, which accorded so well with the lofty arches of the cathedrals, the majestic tones of the organ, the white veils and scarfs of gold-bro- cade, and the roses scattered by the hands of innocent children. These Litanies were sung, during the Middle Ages and those which immediately followed, by the pil- grims as they journeyed to some shrine built on the sandy beach, or far amid the granite and basalt of the mountains. That long series of divine titles and graceful appel- lations, broken only by the simple and most touching words, "pray for us," went floating on the wind to awake the slumbering echoes of the valleys, or to die away on the distant wave in many a plaintive cadence. One would have thought that the angels of God, who, when Mary lived on earth, kissed her shadow as they passed her by, as the Spaniard, Zorilla, poetically says, 'sowed her praises in the fields of air." The Christmas carols — those joy- ous hymns so full of the memory of the Virgin of Bethlehem — sung by torch-light through the snowy fields, or by the antique cribs adorned with verdure and winter- flowers, were then the favorite song of all the French provinces. Our church -hymns have impressed on the music a noble and severe char- acter, which fills the soul to over- flowing, and plunges it into the in- finite. The Christmas carols, more simple in their effect, gave it a tinge quite Arcadian. It is a bird- like" song, which goes up gaily to God to celebrate a joyous mystery ; it is a woodland perfume, which embalms the altar of the Saviour's youthful mother. The fresh and simple lays connected with these charming airs, all breathe the cool- ness of the woods, the smell of the white -thorn, the perfume of the hive, and the bleating of lambs. It is the song of the people, the song of the shepherds, the song of Nature itself. In the carols, Mary is always rep- resented as a youthful Virgin, fair and pure, wrapping up in her linen veil the King of Angels, and too much absorbed in her joy to heed the bareness of the stable or the straw in the crib. The people, in- ured to privations of every kind, CIO HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. dwell not on the poverty, but on * the happiness of the Mother of Christ; it is like one of Claude Lorraine's paintings — all light. In the Stahaf^ — that hymn of the thir- teenth century which the Italians have so poetically styled II pianto di Maria (Mary's wail) — there is no longer aught of the joys of the Nativitv, but all the terrors of the Golgotha. It is a strain burdened with the deepest sorrow, and break- ing forth at times into heart-rend- ing cries of anguish ; it is the pierc- ing recital of the sufferings of a mother, who sees an adored son ex- piring before her eyes. To under- stand the inconceivable sadness of that hymn, and the mournful mys- teries Avhich it reveals, it must be heard, as we have heard it, in one of those vast Italian churches where people pray with faith and sing with soul; one would say that the majestic voice of the organ is choked with sobs, and that the angels are weeping for their Queen. No re- ligion, since the world began, ever * It is thought that the Stahat Mater Dolorosa was composed by Innocent IIL, one of the greatest Popes that ever ruled the Church, and the founder of two great orders, the Dominicans furnished such a theme for poetry and music as the Stahat. The sor- rows of Mary at the foot of the Cross call forth all the power of harmony and all the inspiration of poetry. That theme, although most effective as it now stands, is still far from perfection ; to give it as it onglit to be, or 7m(/ht be, w^ould be the last and most sublime reach of art. At the period of the Revival, those competitions in poetry found- ed in honor of the Blessed Virgin during the ages of chivalry, were still kept up with great pomp and splendor, in Rouen, Dieppe, and Caen, under the name of puys or palinods. The meeting w^as held in one of Mary's churches, and the suc- cessful competitor received from the prince of the puy a golden palm.f This was the germ of the French Academy. A little later, that of the Floral Games, w^hich aw^arded a sil- ver lily to the best piece of poetry on the Virgin, was established in Toulouse, where it still exists. and the Franciscans; others attribute it to Ja- copone de Todi, St. Gregory, and some to St. Bernard. f Antiq'dit'es de la Ville de Rouen. HISTORY OF TEE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 411 In the fifth century, it was said of Mary that she was honorum poeta- rum magistram ; in the fifteenth, she was still the queen of all the poets of the Christian woi-ld. The Britons, who had substituted the dialogue- ballad for the dread and mystic songs of the Druids, almost invariably introduced an invocation to Mary. The cantadours of Gui- enne, the bards of Provence, never passed a shrine of hers without go- ing in to sing there (accompanying themselves with the lute or hand- organ) some pretty hymn composed in her honor, and it was said by those wandering sons of song tha-t the Madonna sometimes rewarded their simple strain by a smile or a graceful inclination of the head, which made them happier than the golden cups given them as guer- dons by princes whose victories they sang. The descendants of the English bards — who sang, like the birds of the air, now in the shadow of the cloister, anon in the shade of the woods, to the sound of the Saxon harp — had no song sweeter or more admired than the ballads wherein they related some miracle of the Blessed Virgin. Italian song, * so highly extolled, began with the raadriale^ the hymn to Mary which the gondolier of Venice sang on his lagoons, the Neapolitan contadino in the shade of his vine, and the Sicil- ian fisherman in his light bark. Spanish poetry had, even in the Middle Ages, signalized its awak- ing by songs consecrated to Mary. In the thirteenth centmy, Gonzalo de Berceo, the first Spanish poet on record, styled himself the Blessed Virgin's poet ; and Louis of Leon soon after created Spanish lyric poetry, the better to celebrate her name. In Germany, the Tudescan poets early softened their rude idiom for Maiy, whom they sang, even in the sixteenth century, with admirable faith and charming sim- plicity. " Thou canst not choose but hear us," sang the most popular poet of Germany, Walter de Wol- gelweide ; " we delight so much in honoring thee!" Conrad de Wurz- burg was no less devout to Mary. In the northern kingdoms, the Vir- gin's hymns superseded the fierce and warlike songs of the Scalds, of which .none now remain except the funeral hymn of Regnier Lodbrog, that wild sea-king, who wrote, on 412 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. tlio dark walls of his dungeon, the sanguinary exploits which he had committed on the gloomy shores of the Baltic and the stormy German Sea, whose waves he had made "red as the fresh wound of a warrior." In Lithuania, with difficulty con- verted to Christianity, the hymn to Mary replaced the canticles of Milda, the goddess of beauty, spring and roses ; and the bartinilcas, those roving minstrels of White Russia, who were regarded as inspired, and who presided at the musical cho- mses of the feast of crops and the still more joyous feast of flowers, abandoned, in the fifteenth century, the god Sotwaros, their eastern Apollo, to seek their poetic inspira- tion from Mary, who was proclaim- ed Grand Duchess of the Lithuan- ians.* The Virgin, who vivified the arts, watched ever and always over the preservation of empires, and the sweet Queen of Heaven had still for her vassals the kings of Cath- olic Europe in general, and those of France in particular. In 1478, * Sketch of Ihe Pagan Religion and tfie Popular Traditions of the Lithuanians, by Felix Wrot- nowski. f King Louis XL detached the earl- dom of Boulogne from Artois, and transferred it to the Virgin Mary, whom he declared Countess of Bou- logne. In payment of his feudal debt, he laid on her altar a golden heart of the weight of thirteen marks, and engaged that his suc- cessors on the throne should be bound to renew the homage and the off'ering to the Virgin suzeraine. It is well known that this cruel, but politic prince, disdaining pomp even so as to fall into the opposite extreme, wore no other ornament in his public audiences than a small leaden Madonna in his royal hat. He was accustomed to say that he thought more of that little bit of lead than of all the gold in his kingdom. He was buried, according to his orders, in the church of Our Lady of Clery. So particular was he about the execution of this com- mand, that Pope Sixtus IV., at his request, forbade any one, under pain of excommunication, to re- move the body of Louis to any other place. Anne of Brittany, who was twice queen of France, built chapels to HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 413 the Blessed Virgin, and wished that ^ her scapular might be placed in the golden box wherein her heart was to be sent to the Bretons. The tomb of Francis IL, last duke of Bretagne, having been opened in the year 1727, there was found in the vaults, between the coffin of that prince and that of Marguerite de Foix, a small leaden chest contain- ing a golden box shaped like a heart, surmounted by a royal crown, and encircled by the cord of the Franciscan Order, all of exquisite workmanship. This box, which had inclosed the heart of Queen Anne, then contained only a little water, and the remains of the scapular which the pious princess had worn in honor of Mary. Francis L, having learned that a certain Huguenot had had the au- dacity to strike off, in the very heart of Paris, the head of an image of Our Lady, made a solemn act of reparation to the Mother of God, walking barefoot and bareheaded, with a taper in his hand. The lords of the court and the members of Parliament walked in procession after the monarch, who replaced with his own hands, on the altar where the mutilation had taken place, a magnificent statue of the Virgin.* In Spain, the work commenced by Prince Pelagius, under the ausr pices of Mary, to deliver the penin- sula from the Moors, was consum- mated by the taking of Grenada. The first war-cry of Spanish inde- pendence was " Mary ! " in the cave of Covadonga. This victory was gained under her banner, by Fer- dinand the Catholic, who had en- graved in gold, on his good Toledo blade, the guardian image of Our Lady; and on his banners was in- scribed, "Ave Maria." * p. de Barry, Paradis, etc. CHAPTER KII. THE LATER HERESIES. HERE is; in the Caramanian des- ert, towards the Pci-sian Gulf, a shrub which the Persians call^?/Z Md samoun (tVe flower that poisons the wind) . Her- esy sprang up in cold Germany, like the poisonous plant that impreg- nates the warm breeze of the Per- sian summer with a quality so dead- ly that it kills those who inhale it; the only difference is, that the fatal breath which went forth from the Germanic countries commenced by killing souls, which it did by thou- sands ! Then it was that the cheer- ing rays of the fair star which re- flected the uncreated Sun so benign- ly on the zenith of the Christian worli were lost amid the thick fogs * Those who follow the Confession of Augs- burg honor the saints by hymns, images, and festivals ; but they do not think themselves bound to invoke them. Stuyter, minister of Eibergen, wrote a very beautiful poem on the vir- * of error which obscured the North- ern sky, while its light was sensibly diminished even in the faithful coun- tries which it continued to illumine. The sectaries of the sixteenth cen- tury were outrageous against the images of Mary and the Saints ; the patrician sect of Luther, it must be confessed, showed somewhat more moderation in this respect;* but the fury of the Calvinists exceeded all belief. Opposed to arts and letters as much as to Catholicity, concealing a destructive radicalism under the mask of religion, assailing by in- flammatory pamphlets, now the pope, now the prince, that small minority, laboring with all its might to impose its doct^'ine and belief on the vast majority of the people, by whom it was held in abhorrence, tues and prerogatives of the Mother of God. It is not so with the other sectaries, who despise the Blessed Virgin, or look upon her as no more than any other woman. {Du Culte des Saints et de la St. Vierge, par I'^veque de Castorie, pp. 2 and 3 ) SIS TORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 415 covered France with ruin and mourning. " These good reformers," says a Count of Lyons, an eye- witness of their atrocities, " began by reforming public peace and tranquillity." In Tours, in Blois, in Poictiers, in Bourges, in Rouen, they completely sacked the church- es, mutilated the statues of the Saints, and dragged the images of Christ and his Blessed Mother through the mire, singing the Lit- anies in derision.* Li Gasoony they buried Catholics alive, cut infants in two, ripped priests open and tore out their bowels. The dead them- selves were not respected in their dusty sepulchres ; the Huguenots tore Louis XI. from his tomb, burn- ed what decay had spared, and audaciously flimg to the winds the ashes of a king of France whose race still occupied the throne. The ancestors of the kings of Navarre and the princes of Conde were no better treated than Louis XI. ; the tombs of the house of Angouleme (the reigning house) shared the same fate. The lords of Longue- ville were taken but half decayed * Archives Curieuses de I'Histoire de France, — Capefigue. — Astolfi, f from their coffins, and thrown to the dogs.f The Count-Canon Saconay, who lived near the time of the Hugue- nots, of whom little good was then to be told, has left us the relation of their doings in the churches of Lyons. "Ruffi, one of their prin- cipal preachers," says he, " with a two-handled sword, which he wore while preaching, like a painted St. Paul, entered with his satellites into the great church of St. John, where he beat down and demolished a cnicifix of great height, which was in the middle of said church, partly of solid silver, and the rest overlaid with the same precious metal. Hav- ing thrown it down, Ruffi fell on it with great fury, setting his feet on its head ; and seeing some of his soldiers and ministers drawing near- ' er than he wished, fearing lest they might secure (lie silver^ he drew his huge sword, and brandished it five or six times. ' What ! ' said he, ' am I not to be respected? shall any other have the honor of smiting this great idol before me?' So say- ing, he struck off the head of said f Archives Curieuses, etc — Capefigue, Hid. de laBef. 416 BISTORT OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. likeness of Jesus crucified, and held it up, sa}ing, 'Behold the head of the idol.' But what was not of solid silver, he left to the others. " The lesser thieves must needs have then* share of the plunder: they scraped the gold or silver im- ages so as to get a mouthful for themselves before they handed them over to the greater thieves. From an angel they took a wing, from a saint an arm, from a virgin the head, etc. They melted 'down a massive silver cmcilix which was in the church of St. Stephen, saying in derision that the poor crucifix had been a long time cold, being naked, but that they would give it such a warming that it should never be cold again. They likewise melted the copes, and other ornaments of the altars, which were of knapped cloth of gold, and could not but make great profit of the same, which were of the value of ten thousand crowns. Truly theirs was a hot and a fiery gospel " * Archives Curieuseii. fThe chapel of Our I/ady of Beth- Aram, which had been destroyed by the Huguenot!-', was rebuilt in 1615, by John de Salette, bishop of Lescar ; but the miraculous image is wanting. * The hermitages, whose little round spires invited the belated traveller to turn aside, promising him, in the A^ii'gin's name, a lodging for the night, a frugal meal, and a kindly welcome ; these were demolished by the Calvinists, who had the cruelty to shoe, as they did their horses, the pious old men who inhabited those calm retreats.* The priests fled with the relics, the crucifixes and the statues of Our Lady, as in the time of the Norman invasion ; one of them went all the way to Gallicia (where it still re- mains) to hide the image of Our Lady of Beth -Aram, which shep- herds of the olden time had miracu- lously found in the woods.f In Paris, under the very eyes of the court which then protected them, they massacred in St. Medard, dur- ing the sermon, a crowd of imaimed Catholics. The parishes, frightened by the insolence of these sectaries, • who went to their conventicles dag- ger in hand and harquebuss on shoulder,J petitioned to have artil- J The Calvinists went to meeting armed to the teeth ; they were met journeying thus in hostile array, twelve cavaliers, accompanied by twenty footmen. — (Archives Gurieuses.) These evan- # gelical people, who came forth from their con- HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. ■iV. lery placed at the entrance of the churches as a means of defence, and the day was seen when the ceremo- nies of Catholic worship could no longer be celebrated, in the most Christian kingdom, without the pro- tection of a row of cannon.* " It was then that they commenced in Paris," says M. Capefigue, " a war of popular pamphlets destined to annihilate all the old belief; they posted placards against the Eu- charist, and especially against the Mass, even in the palace of the Louvre. The walls of the chm'ches and posts in the squares, displayed every morning that thirst for pros- elytism which distinguished the Reformers.:|- After having gone to the most unheard-of excesses, so as to exas- perate the Catholic population to the last degree, the Huguenots pub- lished a number of hypocritical apologies, wherein they set them- selves forth as martyrs. '^Protest- venticles with fierce looks and threatening gestures, according to the testimony of Eras- mns, were always ready to take up arms, and as ready to fight as to dispute. * Arch. Cur., etc. fOapefigue. X M. de Chateaubriand, Ess. sur la Lift. Ang. t. i. antism," says M. de Chateaubriand, " cried out against the intolerance of Rome whilst slaughtering Catho- lics in England and France, throw- ing to the winds the ashes of the dead, kindling funeral-piles in Ge- neva, perpetrating all manner of atrocities in Munster (Germany), and dictating the vile penal laws which oppressed the Irish, and do, in great measure, oppress them still, after three centm-ies of perse- cution ! '.' \ Kings were not more quiet than the people, and the throne was no less menaced than the altar. ^' These people are disturbers of the public peace, " said Henry YIE., sending them to the stake with the i:jnglish Catholics. " I see anarchy through their banner," said Francis 1. In fact, Luther established the prin- ciple that it is lawful to make war on sovereigns for the propagation of Protestantism ; § and the Calvinist preacher, Des Hosiers, laid down in §This was also the opinion of Calvin, who added : " The powers of the earth give in their resignation when they oppose the progress of our doctrine It is better to spit in their face than obey them." The Huguenots under- stood their apostles so well, that Catherine de Medici found, in her very chamber, a notice as HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO Till: BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. his pamphlets this maxim, which he ^ subsequently applied to Catherine de Medici : " It is lawful to kill a king- (i- (jiui'ii who opposes the reformation of the Church." * This insolence and these subver- sive theories, duly caiTied out, drew down on the authors of our civil dis- cord, the heaviest and most severe reprisals ; the policy of a prince ex- asperated to the last degree by an that she should be stabbed if she did not dis- miss all Catholics from about her pereon. — (Ca- pefigue. Hid. de la Ref.) *Ibid. f It must be acknowledged that if Charles, our king, was cruel to the Huguenots, it was not without just cause. The affair of Meaux, in particular, gave him great offence: the others might all be excused by some covering of rehg- ion ; but that one might be truly called an at- tempt on the person of the king, his brother and the queen, whom they would gladly have put to death, if they could. Hence, the king often said that he could never forgive them for that, and well for him, he said, that he made a good show of defence amongst his Swiss, to whom he often said that he would rather die a king than live a captive and a slave. The transactions of Shrove- Tuesday likewise touched him to the heart, and excited him still more against the Huguenots for having corrupted Monsieur his brother, and the King of Navarre, and inducing them to make war on him while he lay dangerously ill "They might at least," said he, "have waited for my death; this was the worst of all." — {Vie de Charles IX., par Br., p. 16.) It is to be remark- ed that the author was a cotemporary of Charles IX., that he lived at his court, that he boldly attempt of the Protestants on his person,f threw the court into an extreme party; it believed, what was really true, that the question was whether the kingdom was to be or not to be, and hence it was that a bloody page was added to our history. St. Bartholomew's day saved the house of Valois from the fate of the Stuarts, J and Catholicity from imminent danger. Still, it called the affair of St. Bartholomew a base slaughter, and that he nowhere assigned religion as its motive. I Hear how Swift, a great politician and a distingfuished member of the English Church, judged the Calvinists in 1732: "The Puritans, who had, almost from the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, been a perpetual thorn in the Church's side, joining with the Scotch enthu- siasts in the time of King Charles I., were the principal cause of the Irish rebellion and mas- sacre, by distressing that prince, and making it impossible for him to send over timely succors. And after that prince had satisfied his parlia- ment in every single point to be complained of, the same sectaries, by poisoning the minds and affections of the people, with the most false and wicked representations of their king, were able, in the compass of a few years, to embroil the three nations in a bloody rebeUion, at the ex- peiise of many thousand lives; to turn the kingly power into anarchy; to murder their prince in the face of the world; and (in their own style) to destroy the Church, root and branch." — (Swift's Works, Queries relating to the Sacramental Test.) At the battle of Phillip- haugh, in Scotland, when Leslie, the chief of the J J Coven anters, defeated the Marquis of Montrose, HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 419 was an inhuman step, which the religion of Christ must ever con- demn, and the guilt of which she indignantly denies. Catherine and Charles dealt themselves with her- esy; they annihilated the conspir- ing faction. The Catholic bishops protested against that act of intim- idation and violence by sheltering the Calvinists in their palaces.* This is the only fact omitted by these sectaries, who took good care to the Presbyterians massacred many of their pris- oners in cold blood; others, as Wishart relates, "were cast from a bridge into the Tweed," whilst a Presbyterian minister, who presided at the execution, rubbed his hands and cried : " Bravely done !" — {Border Minstrelsy.) Under Cromwell the Church of England was declared malignant, and the Puritans, who had so loudly demanded freedom of conscience for themselves, shut up all the Anghcan churches when they came into power. It is related by Evelyn that they went on Christmas Day, armed with mus- kets, into the English cathedrals, and insulted the Anglicans who were preparing to take the Supper. Hence Swift said of them: "There is one small doubt I would be willingly satisfied in before I agree to the repeahng of the Test; that is, whether these same Protestants, when they have by their dexterity made themselves the national reUgion, and disposed of the Church revenues among their pastors or themselves, will be so kind as to allow us dissenters, I do not say a share in employments, but a bare tolera- tion by law ? ^ The reason of my doubt is, be- cause I have been so very idle as to read above fifty pamphlets, written by as many Presbyte- rian divincSj loudly disclaiming this idol tolera- * magnify and exaggerate their losses in every possible way. Ferdinand the Catholic, unwilling that the pernicious weed of heresy should make its way into the fair land of Spain, or dry up that truly Christian soil, debarred its entrance from the very outset by raising up the Inquisition, which arrested its audacious march at the foot of the Pyrenees. Italy, then torn asunder by civil tion: some of them calling it (I know not how properly) a rag of Popery, and all agreeing it was to establish iniquity by law. Now, I would be glad to know when and where their success- ors have renounced this doctrine, and before what witnesses." Under the first Hanoverian princes, they began once more to cry out against Anglican persecution, and were answered with cutting sarcasm: "If the dissenters will be sat- isfied with such a toleration by law as has been granted them in England, I believe the majority of both houses will fall readily in with it; far- ther, it will be hard to persuade this House of Commons, and perhaps much harder the next For, to say the truth, we make a mighty differ- ence here between suffering thistles to grow among us, and wearing them for posies." — {Ibid.) * The bishop of Lizieux, Jean Hennuyer, boldly prevented the execution of the king's or- der, by opening the doors of his palace to those Calvinists who insulted and outraged the Nor- man bishops. Several other prelates, and es- pecially those of Bayonne, Valence, Vienne, Oleron, and Uzes, incurred the displeasure of the court by extending their protection to the Calvinists. 420 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. wars, was not so fortunate as Spain, * and Protestantism there manifested all its horroi-s in the sack of Rome. The Constable de Bourbon had pointed out to his heretic soldiers the capital of the Christian world as a rich and defenceless prey, which they might plunder almost without a blow. From the spirit which animated the leaders of these disorderly hordes, we may form an idea of that of the soldiers : the Lutheran Colonel Frunsberg, who accompanied the constable to the siege of Rome, had a chain made of solid gold, taken from the churches, " for the express purpose," he said, "of strangling the Pope with his own hand."* Rome, without a single ally, and attacked unawares, still defended itself bravely, and, at the first as- sault, the Constable de Bom-bon was mortally wounded by an arque- busade. He had scarcely time to order that his body should be cov- ered with a cloak in order to con- ceal his death from his troops. But the precaution was useless. The ominous news quickly spread; "and the heretic soldiers," says a co- * Brantome, Capilaines etrangers, t. ii. temporary historian, who gathered his materials on the very spot — " the heretic soldiers thenceforward fought only in the diabolical spirit of revenge, to the furious cries of " Sangre ! sangre ! Bourbon ! Bour- bon!" Nothing could resist these imperial bands, mad with rage and thirsting for blood ; the ramparts were scaled ; the Romans gave way, and the fatal victory of impiety went on from street to street with so great fury, that it seemed as though hell loere undud'iied and fought under the banners of the Prince of Orange, who had the mel- ancholy glory of accomplishing this criminal enterprise. "The arque- busades," says Brantome, in his Life of Constable de Bourbon, " the shouts of the combatants, the cries of the wounded, the clashing of arms, the shrill sound of the trum- pets, the incessant roll of the drum urging the soldiers to the fight, kept up such a noise that the very thun- der itself could not have been heard." So hotly did the victors pursue the vanquished that the lat- ter had barely time to lower the' gates of the castle of San Angelo, the stronghold of modern Rome, HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 421 where the pope had hastily taken * refuge with some of the cardinals. Even that could not have been done but for the chivalrous devotion of three young Roman nobles, descend- ants of one of those rare patrician families which authentically date from the time of Augustus. When all Rome lay at the mercy of the ruthless marauders, and the princes of the Church rode for life or death towards the citadel, pursued by the lansquenets, three of the Orsini, Juannino, Antonio, and Yalerio, 'brave and valiant lords," says Brantome, and Jerome Mathei, ral- lied with "two hundred chosen men" at the head of the Sixtine Bridge, to keep back the Imperials and leave the passage free. The Prince of Orange, at the head of his heretic battalions, set upon them, " and the contest was right valiant- ly sustained on both sides. But, at length, the prince made such a furi- ous charge that the Romans were forced tg abandon the bridge which they had defended so bravely," yet not before they had seen the iron gate of the citadel close behind the illustrious fugitives. "Rome being thus vanquished," pursues the same ^ historian, "the lansquenets, who w^ere recently imbued with the new religion, began to rob and massacre, not sparing even the sacred relics in the temples, the convents, or the ornaments of the Madonnas; their cruelty extended itself even to mar- bles and ancient statues. Accord- ing to the usual practice of the Hu- guenots of those days, they mingled sacrilegious buffoonery with those scenes of blood and pillage. Robed as cardinals, they made sham pro- cessions through the city, reciting the Litany of the Blessed Virgin in derision. After having polluted themselves with crimes shameful either to tell, or to hear, these mis- creants," observes Brantome, "went, nearly all to die at the siege of Na- ples a short time after, having pre- viously lost, in one way or another, the gold sacrilegiously taken from temples and altars; which made the Spaniards say that el diablo los avia dado, y el diablo los avia llevado — that is to say, the devil gave and the devil tooky In Great Britain, where the ven- eration of Mary, once so popular, was abolished by Henry YIII. and the fratricide Somerset, the people ■[•12 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. long regretted the Mother of Mercy, and often went back to pray, by tlie glimmering light of the stars, aiiiid the desolate ruins of her plun- dered shrines. The Welsh peasants — the Armoricans of England — who had embraced Christianity before the invasion of the Saxons, could by no means reconcile themselves to the absence of the saints with whom they had adorned their an- cient oaks, their Druid stones * and fountains. "Watched and harassed as they were by the last Tudors, and afterwards by Cromwell, they could not profess Catholicity, and gradually returned to a state bor- dering on paganism. Not many years have passed since the Angli- cans talked of going to convert these gross idolaters who, for want of sympathy with arid and multi- form f*rotestantism, had fallen back on the worship of trees and brooks, as practised by the ancient Britons in the time of Caesar.f * In Brecknockshire, there is still to be seen a menhir of gigantic size which bears the name of Mayen y Marynnion, or the Virgin Mary's stone. — (Camden's Britannia.) f Gor Ion's Modern Geography, p. 217. X The beautiful lake of St. Mary (situated at the rise of the river Yarrow, on the Scottish The people who dwelt along the Scottish frontier were just as un- willing as the Welsh to embrace the new doctrines. The border was, more than any other part of the kingdom, under the immediate pro- tection of Mary, whose name was given to the clearest lake,|* the most sparkling fountains, and the most picturesque sites. There stood Jedburgh and Melrose, two stately abbeys dedicated to the Blessed Yirgin, and raised by the faith that worketh miracles, in a poor country continually torn by foreign and in- ternal warfare. Who, of all the border troopers, had not asked and freely obtained hospitality at Jed- burgh, in the Virgin's name ? Was there a highland chief who did not doff his blue bonnet with its eagle's feather before the Yirgin of Melrose, the most famous and the most fre- quented of the four great shrines of Scotland ? The flags of its vast chapel covered all that the land border), which is often covered with numerous flocks of wild swans, took its name from a pretty chapel of Our Lady, which was formerly a fa- vorite pilgrimage of the Scottish nobles of the border. The chapel has been destroyed, but the lake has still its sweet name and its snow- white birds. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 423 had ever owned of brave and noble ; lieroes whose effigies reposed on their tombs, with their hands de- voutly joined as though still invok- ing Jesus and Mary, two names which Catholics always unite. The Blessed Virgin reigned there over the living and the dead. By day, the place resounded with sacred songs, and by night, when the tem- pest roared and the flickering light of the moon illumined at intervals the richly-stained glass, set, as it were, in the light stone tracery of the windows, it seemed as though all the petrified wreaths and all the knightly banners which adorned the church quivered in the blast, and that the old Scottish lords, rising armed from their tombs, * Who knows not Sir Walter Scott's charm- ing description of the ruins of Meh-ose Abbey — a description marked by the exquisite taste of a painter arid the research of an antiquarian: — If thou would' st view fair Melrose aright, Go visit it by the pale raoonlight ; For the gay beams of lightsome day Gild but to flout the ruins gray. When the brokea arches are black in night, And each shafted oriel glimmers white ; When the cold light's uHcertain shower Streams on the ruin'd central tower ; When buttress and buttress, alternately, Seem framed of ebon and ivory; When silver edges the imagery, And the scrolls that teach thee to live and die ; When distant Tweed is heard to rave, And the owlet to hoot o'er the dead man's grave ; Then go — but go alone the while — saluted the Blessed Mother of the Eedeemer.* Before the revered altar of Our Lady of Melrose, the English and Scotch, laying aside their hereditary hatred, were nothing more than humble and peaceable pilgrims. Chiefs of dans came there to pray for the souls of those who had fallen beneath their dirk or claymore in the course of a mountain-war or foray.f Sinners there bewailed their crimes before the Comfort of the Afliicted; and, rising full of con- fidence in her merciful intercession, went thence to found expiatory monuments whose name perpetu- ated the memory of their remorse. J The Calvinist preachers, enemies of the arts as they were of the To view St. David's ruin'd pile ; And home returning, soothlj' swear, Was never scene so sad and fair ! {Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto II.) ■f There is still extant a treaty of peace be- tween two hostile clans, whereby the chiefs of both bind themselves to make the four pilgi-im- ages of Scotland, for the repose of the souls of those who had- fallen on either side. These four pilgrimages were Scone, Dundee, Paisley, and Melrose. — (Introduction to Border Minntrelsy.) I These monumental penances were frequent along the borders; some of the buildings still remain, for instance, the Tower of Repentance in Dumfriesshire, and, according to vulgar tradi- tion, the church of Linton, in Roxburghshire. — {Border Minstrelsy, Introd.) A24 mSTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. saints, destroyed Melrose and Jed- burgh, with a considenible number of shrines of lesser note. Of all the splendor that once surrounded the Virgin of Melrose, there was left but one shattered fragment of an altar, which was soon overgrown by the rank grass and the wild shrub, springing up amid the ruins. For some time after the destruction of the abbey, a dark shadow might be seen by night gliding beneath the broken arches of the chapel, and a murmur of human voices was heard to mingle with the voice of waters from the neighboring Tweed. It was a monk stealing back to cel- ebrate the divine mysteries for the few who were yet faithful to the old religion. These visits became at length so hazardous that the clergy were forced to give them up; but * See Dr. Johnson's Tour in the Hebrides. The Highlanders of Scothind even now bury their dead in the old Catholic cemeteries. One of the most picturesque islands in Loch Lo- mond, called Nun's Island, is the buritd-place of several clans ; the tombs of the MacGregor chiefs, and some other noble families, who claimed kindred with the ancient kings of Scot- land, are still to be seen around the ruins of the abbey-church, destroyed by the ferocious follow- ers of Calvin and Knox. t This policy was not only put in practice, but openly avowed by the Anglicans themselves. nothing could prevent the people from burying their dead in the lone- ly cemeteries of the old abbeys, and through a sense of propriety highly honorable to the Scotch, none but women were interred, for a long course of time, within the precincts of those grounds where the virgins of the Lord reposed.* The first attempt of the Calvin- ists on the Scottish Highlanders was so discouraging in its result that they resolved on leaving the clans to their fate, hoping that the want of instruction, the privation of the Sacraments, and the total absence of all religious ceremonies, would eventually throw them into the net of Protestantism; which really came to pass in the course of time.f Even in the reign of James VL, Swift recommends it as the best course to pur- sue, in his celebrated pamphlets on Ireland : " Their lands," he says, " are almost entirely taken from them, and they are rendered inca- pable of j)urchasing any more ; and for the little that remains, provision is made by the late act against Popery, that it will daily crumble away : to prevent which, some of the most considera-ble among them are already turned Protestants. Then the Popish priests are all registered, and without permission they can have no successors : so that the Protestant clergy will, perhaps, find ^ it no difficult matter to bring great numbers HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 425 the Highlanders were so cool to- wards the doctrine of Geneva, that it was on their warlike clans the king chiefly relied in his numer- ous disputes with his democratic Church.* A hundred years after, they still prayed at times near the fountains that gushed out before the ruined chapels of Mary and the Saints, and the water from those springs was carried far and near to restore health to the sick.f The associations connected with the veneration of Mary still live in the valleys and glens of the High- lands, and are found in the histori- over to the Church." — (Swift's Works, Letter con- cerning the Sacramental Test. ) The Scottish borders were Hkewise subjected to this negative system, and if the people came not forth victori- ous like the Irish, they, at least, did not yield without a struggle ; and if Protestantism finally prevailed, it was only after having destroyed the churches, and extinguishing, one by one, the lights of the ancient faith. * " Never," says a Scotch writer, " could the Calvinist clergy forget that they owed their ele- vation to the fall, or at least to the depression of royalty. In Scotland, the Eefoi-med Church was, for nearly two centuries, either the declared enemy or the ambitious rival of its prince. The disciples of Calvin could hardly divest them- selves of a tendency to democracy, and the re- publican forms of their ecclesiastical administra- tion were often held up as a model for the state to follow. The theocracy, haughtily proclaimed, was rigorously exercised ; the offences commit- cal ballads sung by the peasantry. At one time it is a knight treacher- ously slain on some lonely moor, whose wounds are washed at Our Lady's fountain, and his corpse waked in Our Lady's chapel ; again it is a noble baron who is buried at the foot of St. Mary's Cross, and at whose tomb Christians shall come to pray, whilst Scotland invokes Our Lady^s name. The bard who thus sang, doubtless meant forever ! At another time, knights are de- scribed as leaving their golden ro- saries as a pledge of their faith, etc. In every danger, God and Our Lady ted in the king's household fell under the inso- lent jurisdiction of the ministers. The prince was formally reprimanded for having neglected to say grace before or after meals, and for tol- erating the amusements of the queen. A solemn malediction was pronounced against man, horse, or lance, that should assist the king in his quar- rel with the Earl of Gowrie, a conspirator. The monarch's courtiers, present at the sermon, were compared to Aman, the queen to Heiodias, and the prince himself to Achab, Herod, and Jero- boam. This excessive zeal was far from being agreeable to James VL — (Sir W. Scott, Hist, of Scot, and Border Minstrelsy.) Charles II. often said to his courtiers in confidence that Calvin- ism was not the rehgion of a gentleman. t A Calvinist physician of the seventeenth cen- tury bitterly censured the people along the bor- ders for having recourse, even in his time, to sev- eral consecrated fountains, to procure water for ^ the sick. — {Account of the Presbytery of Pentfoni. ) 426 mSTOHY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. are invoked : never one without the t othtM*. The scattered remains of Catho- licity took refuge in the north of Scotland, and there, protected by interminable heaths and ramparts of wild barren mountains, they maintained themselves in some soli- tary castles along the shores of the North Sea. There they prayed for many a long year for the restoration of the Stuarts, invoking that Virgin whom the Stuarts honored. Cardi- nal York, the last branch of that unfortimate family, had followed his brother to the tomb, and yet they l)rayed on, nay, there is little doubt but some of the simple mountaineers are praying still, unable to believe in the total extinction of that an- cient race.* Ireland, thoroughly Catholic, re- mained faithful in its devotion to the Blessed Virgin amid persecu- tion the longest and most oppres- sive that the world ever saw. Un- der pain of losing house and home and the means of subsistence, the * It is related by a famous Scotch writer, that, long after the death of Cardinal York, the res- toration of the Stuarts was prayed for in the Catholic castles of Scotland. Many of the Scot- tish Highlanders cannot yet persuade them- poor Irish were forced to pay the ministers of a religion which they did not profess, while every means w^ere tried to induce or compel them to embrace its doctrines. Yet still they remained heart and soul attached to the faith of their fathers. Disinherited of their churches, they went stealthily to assist at the di- vine ofl&ce in the secret vaults of their old castles, amongst the ruins of the monasteries, or in the gloomy caverns where the Druids had, of old, celebrated their bloody rites. They planted sentinels on the heights to protect the proscribed prayers and the priced head of the priest; for Protestant bloodhounds, who were known by the name of priest-hunters, attracted by the bait of the twenty pounds sterling given for the head of any ecclesiastic be- longing to the communion of the Church of Rome, tracked the papists through the woods and mountains as though they had been wild beasts. Happily those fearful times are past, and the faithful Ii'ish peo- selves that the race of their ancient kings ia extinct, "It is not that the Stuarts are dead," said one of them to a French traveller, "but that loyalty is dead." HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 427 pie now freely invoke Our Blessed * Lady in that Green Isle of the ocean, so well deserving of its glo- rious title : The Island of Samts. It was not in Britain alone that the devotion to Mary, swept away by the tempest of Protestantism, left numerous traces of its exist- ence. The mournful and pictur- esque ruins of monasteries dedicat- ed to Mary still occupy the fairest sites of Germany; many cities of the North still bear her name ; so too with some of the gulfs of Den- mark; and Styria, Austria, Illyria, Switzerland, the Tyrol and the Grand Duchy of Baden still possess shrines whither the Catholic people from beyond the Rhine come to invoke Our Lady. By these ruins — still so majestic — of a devotion once so general, we may judge the extent of its former influence, even as we estimate the greatness of the shipwreck by the number of broken masts and tattered sails that float on the water. The devotion to Mary regained in the New World what it had lost in the Old. Spanish and French mis- sionaries, embarking with an image of Our Lady, whom they invoked during their perilous voyage, under- took, with the assistance of Mary — who rendered them strong, the} said, as an army in battle array — to civilize and convert the two Amer- icas. . Landing on the unexplored coasts of the Western continent, they placed their Madonna beneath some arching canopy of palm-branches. Warriors, when undertaking the conquest of foreign countries, take with them all that is necessary for the work of blood and destruction : arins, soldiers, parks of artillery; devastation precedes, and mourning follows them on their way. The Catholic missionaries marched to the conquest of the New World with an image of Mary, a rosary, and a cross. Thanks to their al- most superhuman labors, whole tribes came forth from the caves of the mountains and the shade of the great woods, and formed little colonies wherein Christianity was once more seen to flourish pure and fresh as in the first ages of the Church. These religious, who enriched botany, history and geography with numberless valuable discoveries, became artists, and even mechan- i2S HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIIiOIN MARY. ic8, in oixier to instruct their neo- pliytes, and led them on in the way of ai*t and science as well as in that of salvation. Savages, who but a short time before feasted on human Mesh, might then be seen t^^king hold of the architect's compass, the sculptor's chisel, the painter's pal- let, and raising with their own hands temples to God and chapels to Mary. The saying of the ro- sary was the most suitable practice of piety for a hunting people ; thus, at evening, when the shade of the tulip-tree and the magnolia length- ened over the glade or along the savannah, you heard the Angelical Salutation, repeated in every sav- age tongue, throughout the Amer- can wilds. Mary was the mother of the Indian as well as of the European, and she was not more piously invoked in the temples, glit- tering with gold which the first Spanish conquerors built in her honor in Mexico and Peru, than in the rustic chapels, dedicated to her by the pious missionaries under the title of Our Lady of Loretto and Om* Lady of Sorrows, on the banks of the great Amazon river and the river of the Hurons. ♦ But the conquests of these faith- ful servants of God and of Mary did not end here : they explored . the burning regions of Africa and con- verted the black princes of Guinea and Monomotapa. At the same time they penetrated to Ceylon, the Indian peninsula, Japan, and China; and wherever they went, Our Lady's image was treated with respect and veneration. The Mongolese ladies, bowing down before the Mother of Jesus, called her the holy, the glori- ous Mary ; the Prince of Cashmere sent her tapers and other gifts, and the Grand Lama had a temple raised to her under the title of the Annunciation. The ladies of China offered her flowers and perfumes, and the Japanese, who, alas! paid dearly for their energetic devotion to the true faith, said the rosary on their long crystal beads, while walking through the streets of the idolatrous cities full of bonzes and pagans.* These triumphs gained in far-off lands were not, however, the only consolations of Mary's faitliful serv- ants for the outrages of Protestant- * Leltres Edijiantes. — Anncdes de la Propagation ^ de la Foi. J_ HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 429 ism. Scarcely had Calvin gone down to the grave when the naval battle of Lepanto was gained by the Spaniards, under the banner of the Blessed Virgin.* John Sobieski likewise did homage to the Mother of God for his famous victory over the Turks at the siege of Vienna, and his first care, on entering the delivered city, was to throw himself, ^'prostrate on the ground," before the altar of Our Lady, where he chanted aloud a Te Deum of thanks- giving. The magnificent standard of the Mahometans was sent to Our Lady of Loretto,f and the Polish hero reserved to himself a trophy which he said touched him more than all the others : it was an old picture — apparently very old — which had been found in the ruins of the village of Wishau. It repre- sented Our Lady with two angels supporting her crown, and in their hands were scrolls bearing the Latin inscriptions : " //i hoc imagine * The pope sent this blessed banner to Don Juan, who had it hoisted on his own ship. f The length of this banner was twelve feet by eight in width. The border was green and the centre red. It was of cloth, the ornaments being embroidered in silver, and the Arabic inscription in letters of gold. In the middle of this Mussul- ¥ MaricBj vinces, Johannes. — In hoc imagine Marice, vidoi^ ero., Johannes, By this image of Mary, thou, John, shalt conquer. — By this image of Mary, I, John, shall be the victor." This image was regarded as mi- raculous ; John Sobieski intended it for his royal chapel at Zolkiew, and in the mean time it followed him through all his campaigns. Li the year 1647, the Emperor Ferdinand III. solemnly consecrated himself, his family, and his empire, to the Queen of Heaven. A lofty column was erected in the grand square of Vienna in honor of the Immaculate Conception of the Bless- ed Virgin Mary, and her statue was placed on the top, with the moon under her feet, and her heel on the serpent's head. Calvinism still agitated France, and its freezing influence, penetrat- ing the masses, slowly but fatally cooled the religious sentiment ; pro- fane speech and impious scoffing man flag, laid by the Polish hero at the Virgin's feet, vpas seen these words, strikingfly contra- dicted by the Christian banners whereon the Crescent fell before the Cross : " There is no God but one, and Mahomet is his prophet." — (See History of Poland, by Leonard Chadz^ ko.) 130 mSTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. have at all times a bad effect on the t people, who cannot reason on their faith, and therefore lose or recover it according to the arguments which captivate their attention. The bare altars and devastated churches had no longer that holy prestige impart- ed by splendor and long traditions of homage. The Madonnas, stript and cast down from their pedestals, arose so poor and naked, that the heart and the feet turned away from their shrine. The clergy, calumni- ated, ruined, diparaged, had fallen into disrepute amongst the people, who, at heart impressed with a rev- erence for high birth, never respect their own equals. Finally, the ab- beys having passed into the hands of military owners, they took care to give them superiors who would merely act in the capacity of stew- ards over a community whose sav- ings were no longer applied to the use of the poor, but to that of the officer or courtier who was the legal proprietor. This vile system, which would, of itself, have been sufficient, without the aid of revolutions, to ruin all the monasteries of France, continued even through the reign of Henri lY.,* notwithstanding the just ^ complaints of the clergy, and was only abolished under Louis XIII. From the reign of Louis XL to that time, the historian must glean one by one the facts which attest the devotion of the kings towards the Blessed Virgin. Louis XIL, never- theless, made a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Loretto, and Henri HI sent the Duke de Joyeuse there in 1585, with a magnificent equipage, to offer gifts and pay homage to the holy Madonna. The same prince, having founded the order of the Holy Ghost, made it one of the statutes that every knight should recite daily a decade of the heads. The beads were then the distinc- tive mark of Catholics. One of the conditions imposed by the Holy See on Henri lY., after his abjuration, was to say the rosary every Satm- day, and the beads every Sunday. Even in the end of the sixteenth century, people fasted, all over Catholic Europe, on the eve of the feasts of the Blessed Yirgin, and no one failed to observe that pious practice. The profligate generals of Charles IX. and Henri EL took great pains to excuse themselves * See the Memoirs of James Sobieski. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 431 for having broken the abstinence on the vigil of the Assumption ; some having done it, by mistake, going through Italy. One of the boldest and least scrupulous histori- ans of the time deems it necessary to suppress their names, in order to save their credit, and protests that those gentlemen were wholly for- getful of the feast of the morrow. The devotion to Mary — -for some time on the decline — revived in all its splendor under Louis XIII. That prince, in order to thank the Bless- ed Virgin for the advantages he had gained over the Protestants, and hoping to obtain, through her inter- cession, an honorable peace with the European powers who then made war upon him, declares, in an edict dated from St. Germain-en- Laye (February 10th, 1633), that " taking the most holy and glorious Virgin for the special protectress of his kingdom, he consecrates to her his person, his States, his crown, and his subjects, beseeching her to defend France against the power of her enemies, whether in war or peace." And, as a memento of this consecration, Louis promised to have the hi.2:h altar of the cathedral of Paris reconstructed, and to place thereon an image of the Virgin, holding in her arms her precious Son taken down from the Cross, having himself represented kneeling at the feet of the Mother and Son, offering to them his crown and sceptre. He also decreed, that every year, on the day of the Assumption, there should be a commemoration of his edict, at high mass, in all the churches of France ; and, after ves- pers, a solemn procession, in which the magistrates and other function- aries of the different cities were to join. Louis XIV. inherited his father's devotion to the Blessed Virgin. It was he who engaged Custou in 1723 to execute the group known as the Vow of Louis XIIL, together with the two figures in marble placed on either side, representing Louis XIII. and Louis XIV. offering their crown to the Virgin. That prince presented to the Church of Boulogne a sum of 12,000 livres, in place of the ex voto of gold which the kings of France, from Louis XL, offered as a tribute to the Blessed Virgin. He did his utmost to prop- agate the doctrine of the Immac- 432 mSTOIiV OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. ulate Conception, and obtained, in * 1657, from Pope Alexander VU., a bull, which was conlirmed by Clem- ent XI., in 1668, ordaining the cele- bration of that festival throughout the realm of France. It was also at his solicitation that, in 1670, the Pope granted indulgences for the recital of the Angclus. It was his wish to receive confir- mation on the feast of the Immac- ulate Conception. This fact is at- tested by that inscription in the chapel of the Louvre : — Hac Sacra Die Immaculat^e Con- CEPTiONis, LuDOVicus XTV., Rex, SUSCEPIT HIC SANCTISS. CONFIRMATIONIS SaCR AMENTUM. Beneath is the following : — Immaculata Domina, Salvum fac REGEM. Louis XIY. inherited from his mother, Anne of Austria, a great veneration for Our Lady of Liesse ; he went there in 1652 and 1673, and twice with the queen in 1680. The pious Spanish princess, Maria Theresa, who never gave her royal husband other grief than that of Iwr death, went thither also in 1677 and 1678. After the death of Anne of Austria, her son vowed fifty thou- sand masses for the repose of her soul in the principal places of de- votion specially dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. After the treaty of the Pyrenees, he sent his thanksgivings, together with rich gifts, to Om' Lady of Chartres, Our Lady of Loretto, and Our Lady of Grace. Louis the Great belonged, like his father, Louis XIIL, to the con- fraternity of the Scapular, and ha- bitually said his beads. Father de la Rue being one day admitted to a private audience, found the king piously engaged saying his rosary on large beads. The good fatlier was surprised, and could not help expressing his admiration : " Be not surprised, father," said the monarch, " I glory in telling my beads ; 1 inherit the practice from the queen, my mother, and sorry would I be to let one day pass without fulfill- ing that duty." The Spanish ambassador present- ed himself at the brilliant court of the great monarch, his beads in his hand, and no one found fault with him for so doing. It was then, too, and had long HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 433 been, customary to put beads and ^ a superb copy of the Offices of 'the Virgin in the marriage-casket. This custom was continued till the time of Louis XY. Louis XIII. had taken Rochelle, the last bulwark of Calvinism in France ; Louis XIY., annihilated that turbulent heresy by his revo- cation of the Edict of Nantes. That measure, which secured the tran- quillity of the kingdom, has been i most severely censured, but those who do so must lose sight of the fact, that the Calvinists were then incorrigible insurgents, who were not ashamed to call in the English. Louis XIY., the greatest mon- arch of his age, expired murmuring with his dying lips, the Hail Mary, which he had repeated several times, in a firm voice, whilst the prayers for the dying were said near him. CHAPTEE XIIL MODERN TIMES. ROM the bosom * of the Mediter- ranean, whose blue waters are perfumed ten leagues from land with the sweet odor of the orange -tree, there rises a rocky island, whose snow-crowned moun- tains, woods of pine, and groves of enormous chestnut-trees, would re- mind us of Switzerland, were it not that clumps of myrtle, of orange, and of citron-trees, forests of gigan- tic olives, pomegranate-trees, with their pretty red blossoms, and the ruins of Roman towers, all proclaim an Italian land. This island is the birth-place of the great patriot, Paoli, and of Napoleon, the great emperor : it is Corsica, an Italian isle, which now forms one of the departments of France. This island, at once fertile and 484 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. uncultivated, is inliabited by a * primitive race, poor, warlike, and hospitable, like the Highlanders of Scotland, and the mountaineers of Caucasus. Attached to Catholicity, and at all times free from heresy, they are yet extremely jealous in regard to honor ; and, forgetting the divine precept which prescribes the forgiveness of injuries, they take justice into their own hands, and keep up for ages the memory of an offence till it is fully and fearfully revenged. Civilized though the country be, it yet retains a certain air of wild- ness, and one sees at a glance that its people are essentially devout towards the Blessed Virgin. Her image stands at the entrance of every village, in the squares and public places, on the margin of fountains, on the highest point of the promontories, and amid the orange-woods that clothe the hill- sides. The environs of Bastia are covered with charming little Italian chapels, dedicated to the Annunci- ation, or Our Lady of Good Counsel. On the day of these festivals, which happens in spring or summer, peo- ple desert the city to go visit these Madonnas, which are reached by flowery and odorous pathways. Af- ter saying their prayers to the Virgin, each family sits down to a rural collation in the cool shade of the trees, and give themselves up for a time to innocent amusement and social enjoyment. In former times, Corsica had sev- eral cathedrals ; most of them were built under the title of the Assump- tion ; now, the most solemn feast of Mary is that of the Immaculate Con- ception. It is preceded by a no- vena, and is ushered in by the ring- ing of bells ; the vessels hoist their flags, and the streets are strewn with myrtle. A solemn procession is formed, wherein the Brothers of the Conception, in penitential gar- ments, and with lighted torches in their hands, precede the statue of the Virgin, adorned with a crow^n of silver, necklaces, and bracelets of jewels. The procession makes the circuit of the city to the sound of martial music, while Mary's altars, profusely adorned with flowers, illu- mine the holy place with the light of their thousand tapers. It is a true Italian festival, radiant with light and joy, and full of religious enthusiasm. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 435 In the country, the priest, or, per- haps, some venerable old man, re- cites the rosary every evening, just as the village bell " tolls the knell of parting day." * Sometimes there is seen in the haze of distance, on the point of a steep rock, a dark figure, leaning on his carabine ; it is an outlaw, who risks his life to join in the common prayer : for the Madonna is the last hope of these fierce yet believing men, who wear her image round their necks, and ask the shepherds in her name for a little milk and some black bread to sustain their miserable existence. Very recently, a young Corsican, a companion of the famous brigand, Santa Lucia, defending himself, though wounded and alone, against a whole regiment of the line and a posse of police, invoked the Virgin during that desperate struggle, whilst his friends, kneeling at the foot of the rock which was his last refuge, recited for him the prayers for the dying. " There is every reason to believe," says the record of this af- * Squilla di Contano Che paila '1 giorno pianger, che si muore. (Dante, Purgat, 1. viii.) Gray's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard." fecting scene, " that the last thoughts of this unhappy young man were raised to God, for there was found on his body a small medal of the Blessed Virgin, which he held in his hands while his parents and friends prayed for him." On the 30th of January, 1735, the nation assembled in general council at Corte to form a national government, after having thrown off the yoke of the republic of Genoa, elected the Blessed Virgin as queen of Corsica, and bore her banner during the last struggles of their expiring liberty. The two Paoli, Pascal and Clement, made this ban- ner respected, being both devoted servants of Mary.f Clement, of whose history little is said, except by local tradition, made his soldiers recite the rosary on their knees be- fore every engagement. Some En- glishmen, amazed at this custom, reminded him on several occasions, that the enemy was before them, and that his kneeling soldiers could not defend themselves. " Let them f Pascal Paoli heard mass every day when in Corsica, and subsequently in England, in a chapel built by him in honor of the Holy Virgin. 436 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. pray, gentlemen," responded Paoli in his deep, martial voice. The p layer being ended, the Corsieans lose like lions, and not one moved an inch from his post, for soldiers who pray know not how to fly. The Vend^ans taught the French repub- lic that lesson. Pascal Paoli had two chapels built in honor of the Blessed Vir- gin: one at Pastoreccia, near Ponte- Nuovo, the theatre of that bloody battle which destroyed the nation- ality of Corsica, and where many of his friends lost their lives; the other at Morosaglia, near his own family mansion. During his exile, he built a third in England. In the time of King Theodore, the national council had the words Monstra te esse Matrem stamped on their issue of gold and copper coins. Napoleon took pleasure in saying that the Holy Yirgin was queen of his native country. Whilst he was yet but a simple officer, he testified much devotion for a French Ma- donna in the chapel of the Ursuline Convent at Auxonne, and went often to pray before it. This statue was since removed to the parish church, where it is still seen. The saturnalia of the Regency, and the corrupt reign of Louis XV. bring us to the last years of the eighteenth century, when religion was blighted by the pestiferous breath of false philosophy. The revolution of 1793 drove the Virgin from her altars and God from his temples. The order was given to close the churches and demolish every thing that resembled a Chris- tian shrine. Alas I it was mournful to see the Calvaries thrown down, and the poor little Madonnas shat- tered to pieces where they modestly took shelter beneath the green fo- liage of the woods. It was especial- ly in Lower Brittany that devasta- tion reached its height. " We may say, without exaggeration," says M. Emile Souvestre in his interesting work on the Bretons, "that, in cer- tain places, our highways are paved with saints — regularly macadamized with heads, bodies, and limbs of Christian statues." Those unhappy days saw grievous profanations, but they likewise witnessed instances of self-devotion that w^oiild have done honor to ancient times. Bretagne, in particular, offered a resistance, passive indeed, yet firm and perse- HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 437 vering, so as to tire out persecution itself. It gave way neither to fear nor anger. The Breton peasant, as he passed the empty niches where the Madonnas were wont to stand, took off his broad felt hat piously and reverently, and went his way sadly, murmuring a Hail Mary. On Sunday, he sat down with his fami- ly at the door of their dwelling, and remained in profound silence, with his eyes fixed on the village church* where he had so often invoked Je- sus and Mary. "I will pull down your steeples," said Jean-Bon St. Andre to the mayor of a village, " so that you may have nothing to remind you of your former supersti- tions." "You must leave us the stars, though," rejoined the peasant, " and they are seen farther off than our steeple." Their devotion, sur- viving their altars, acquired some- thing lofty and melancholy, connect- ed by sympathy with the religious ruins which covered the land. The Virgin, who had disappeared from their country churches, took refuge under their cottage roofs; and be- * Voyage dans le Finistere. f " A chapel, dedicated to Our Lady of Ha- tred, still exists near Trdguier, and the people * neath the little earthenware statues, an hundred times more respected than the lares of the ancients, was seen the inscription — " Holy Mother of God, vouchsafe to protect this dwelling." And I know not wheth- er a blue would have dared to break that image thus sheltered in the household sanctuary ; for there was often an old carabine under the green serge curtains of the Breton farmer ; and if Bretagne is the land of religious sentiments, it is also that of strong and lasting hatred. The sterling virtues of these people are still somewhat tarnished by the Celtic rust : for instance, the Bretons are the only people in Christendom who have conceived the idea of as- sociating the name of the merciful Virgin with the thought of venge- ance, and of raising chapels to her under the strange and rather Druidical title of Our Lady of Ha- ir ed.\ The pilgrimages to the Blessed Virgin were not discontinued in Bretagne during the reign of terror — they merely assumed old Gaulic still continue to believe in the efficacy of the prayers there offered up." {Les Derniers Bre- tons, by M. Souvestre, t. ii.) 488 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. forms. They took place by night, through dreary wastes, where the menhirs and dolmens of the name- less God rose gray and mossy and spectral -looking. Every pilgrim held in the right hand a rosary — in the left, a torch ; and all these pale figures, half seen through their long hair, or the hanging lappets of their white caps, passed slowly along through the mists of night, singing a hymn to the Virgin. Sometimes it happened that a party of repub- licans, concealed in the skirt of a wood, or behind a hedge, would fire upon the little rustic procession. Yet this did not deter the Breton peasant from renewing his perilous devotions some days after. In a neighboring province, the villagers who went by night to pray to God and Our Lady in the depth of some lonely ravine, passed through the hamlets occupied by the revolution- ary soldiers singing hymns to the Virgin set to republican airs. During all this time, the churches in the cities were everywhere pil- jaged. Gold, silver, iron, marble, gratings, and wood-work, were all carried ofif. The works of art were torn from the walls, the pictm-es * destroyed, and workmen were paid high wages to deface the sculptures from the walls and arches. Even the clocks were pulled down and converted into coin, and this jxitriot- ic work cost the State (by its own admission) full twenty millions.* "Fools!" said La Harpe, ad- dressing the perpetrators of these sacrilegious crimes ; " Fools ! is faith engraved on walls? is reli- gion painted on canvas? No, it is in the heart, which you cannot reach ; in the conscience, which condemns you; in the sight of the whole world, speaking to all men; in heaven, where it shall be your judge. Poor imbecile destroyers, you have cried 'victory!' — where is now your victory ? Day by day you are convulsed with rage, see- ing the multitudes who throng our temples: they are no longer rich, but they are still sacred ; they are bare and naked, but they are fall. Pomp has disappeared, but worship remains ; men ti-ead there no longer on marble, and costly carpets, but they kneel on the cold pavement and weep over the ruins." f * La Hai-pe, du Fanaticisme dans la langue X revolutionn, p. 49. "flbid, p. 41. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIROm MARY. 439 That beautiful hymn to Mary, be- * ginning with "Je mets ma conflance, Vierge, en votre se- cours," * was the lay of the scaffold. In 1793, two carts full of poor Royalist women, for whom the guillotine was preparing, passed through a civic banquet served up in the street by the elect of the Revolution. Madame de Montmorency - Laval, venerable from her virtue, and re- spectable because of her illustrious name, was in one of these carts, her hands tied behind her back, and with her sixteen of her nuns — for she was abbess of the Carmelites of Montmartre, a religious order founded in the East under the patronage of Mary, as we have elsewhere mentioned. These holy daughters of the Virgin, whom the revolutionary tempest had cast on the stormy sea of the world, to perish there, were singing the pray- er of the Venddans, the hymn of their patroness, as calmly as though they were still hidden beneath their snowy veils in the choir of their beautiful church. Could they not be permitted to sing it in peace — and they about to die ? The hide- ^ ous fiuy of the wretches who dis- graced the republic is aroused by the hearing of that pious chant ; an hundred ruffians in red caps rush towards the carts, brandishing their sticks, and crying, "Silence the nuns ! Let them sing the Marseil- laise ! Let them obey the peo- ple ! Come ! the Marseillaise, in- stantly ! " The daughters of Mary continued their sweet canticle as though they heard not these fierce vociferations. Exasperated by this passive resistance, which they did not at all expect, these ferocious bandits stopped the horses, with the most fearful oaths and impre- cations, and would have struck down these poor defenceless females who were so soon to die ; but there is still so much honor and chivalry in the French people, even when going astray, that others of the republicans pressed forward, cry- ing, "No murder! Would you kill women ? " Then a terrible struggle took place around the carts. A young patriot in a Phrygian bonnet snatched a sabre from one of the archers, and planting himself close to the cart wherein the terrified * " Vii'gin ! in thee I place my trust ! " L.. 440 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Carmelites pressed around their venemble abbess, he succeeded in parrying the blows destined for them, defending himself and them with as much courage as coolness. Yet, notwithstanding all his efforts, one of the nuns received a sabre- wound in the breast. Her life was ebbing fast away, the blood flowed profusely over her black robe, and the paleness of death soon over- spread her mild, sweet features. " Bless me, oh holy saint, who will soon be in heaven ! " cried a woman from the crowd, throwing herself on her knees before the expiring nun. '• May you be blessed ! " replied the daughter of Carmel in a failing voice. " And you, w^ho have de- fended us on our way to death," she continued, presenting her val- uable rosary to the softened repub- lican, " accei)t this token of grati- tude." The carts moved forward once more, and the pious chant was re- sumed ; when it ceased, the hearts of the martyrs had ceased to beat, and Mary had taken her faithful servants to her bosom. The revolutionary vortex swallow- ed up the religious orders conse- f crated to Mary, as the stormy wind sweeps away many useful plants But that of the Carmelites left De- hind something like the perfume of the withered rose, a fragi-ant and balsamic water which bears its name. Of seventeen hundred thousand sacred buildings which covered the soil of France, each of which had an altar to the Blessed Virgin, there remained barely two thousand churches worthy the attention of the artist or the antiquary; the others — sold, bought, pillaged, de- stroyed, cast into the oven to make quick-lime — left only some mourn- ful ruins, sad subjects for contem- plation ! " Behold, then," exclaims M. Jules Janin, with generous in- dignation, " behold, then, the result of so much money, so much pa- tience, so much genius, heaps of mouldering ruins ! They have dis- graced the cities. Deprived of these master-pieces of art, what does a community of men resemble ? it is no longer a city — it is an ant- hill. They have disfigured the landscape which was so adorned by those turrets, and spires, and lofty I walls. What they could not de- stroy, they have marred and defaced. * Of the noblest Gothic towers they have made shops, and stables of the pm-est ogival churches. That fabulous period was so perverse, and so infinite in its genius of universal destruction, that one can hardly realize it." * The devotion to Mary, which had slumbered for a while in France, soon began to awake, and insensi- bly resumed its soothing influence on the souls of men. Napoleon, faithful to his early impressions, chose the day of the Assumption for his own patronal feast, and made it the greatest festival of the empire. The processions, the crosses, the white banners, and the sacred songs, soon reappeared in those fair Gothic churches whose bare walls and poor altars recalled the days of the primitive Church; whilst their dazzling lights and slender pillars and cloud - piercing spires spoke of the chivalrous pe- riod of the ages of faith. All who had suffered, all who had groaned or trembled, under the fearful Reign of Terror, came to kneel at Mary's feet : the religious reaction was en- * M. Jules Janin, la Normandie. ergetic, immense, and was felt alike in the city and the hamlet. The Virgin had again her rustic altars in the depth of the woods. Her shrines, where for long years nought had been heard save the singing of birds or the humming of bees, again resounded with the pilgrim's hymn. The Restoration, by reestablishing the processions of the'Yow of Louis Xni., placed France once more un- der the dominion of Mary. A gi- gantic stride was made in the devo- tion to the Immaculate Conception, and all France consecrated to the Yirgin the month of flowers, now piously and poetically named the Month of Mary. The higher classes gave the example of devotion to the Yii'gin ; the descendants of the val- orous knights and stately nobles, who of old built so many chapels and monasteries for her, delight to honor her now as she was honored in the good old times. First in this pious work is the virtuous queen, Marie-Amelie. In France, the devotion to Mary is tender but respectful ; the French always behold the Yirgin as she is in heaven, and honor her according- ly. In Italy, the devotion to the 442 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Miidonna has something more ar- * (lent, and at the same time more familiar. From his cradle, the Ital- ian has before his eyes those grace- ful images which remind him only of Mary's goodness and mercy ; she is the protectress of childhood, the dream of youth, the last refuge of the sinner ; the thought of her is uppermost in all the religious fes- tivals, like aquatic flowers over the deep waters ; the ardent Italian sees her everywhere, blesses her for eveiy good, and when his prayer is not granted, far from blaming Mary, he says, striking his breast, " It is my fault! The Madonna will not hear me because I am so great a sinner ! " What admirable faith is that ! what truly Christian faith ! for in such a case the heathens would drag their gods through the mire. The devotion to the Virgin is still as fervent in modem Italy as when it brought forth the Duomo of Pisa, that beautiful cathedral of Mary, the bronze gates of which, executed on the design of John of Bologna, represent the principal scenes of the life of Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin; Our Lady of Flowers the * sumptuous metropolitan church of Florence, resembling a mountain of marble of various colors, cut in the form of a Latin cross ; and many other master-pieces of Christian art — a period the most illustrious in Italian history I Landing at Genoa, so justly called the Superb, "seeming," says Ma- dame de Stael, " as though it were built for a congress of kings," the first thing that strikes the eye is the devotion of the Genoese to the Holy Virgin. At every angle of those "streets of palaces," filled with men in their picturesque cos- tume, and women in long white veils, there stands a graceful Ma- donna painted or sculptured, pro- tecting all the neighborhood. All day it is perfumed with the sweet scent of myrtle or jessamine ; in the evening it is illumined by a lamp, and numerous groups kneel before it reciting the Litany. It i« still as in the days when Andrea Doria said his Office on board his galleys, and on the gates of the stately city may still be read, Citta di Maria. There are even now no less than fifty chapels in Genoa consecrated to the Blessed Virgin. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 443 Venice, the now crownless queen of the Adriatic, never sent a bark out to sea without decorating it with the sacred image of Mar}^ During the cholera she took refuge in the merciful bosom of Our Lady of Safety, whom she invokes, in great calamities, even in preference to her patron St. Mark, and offered to her, on that occasion, a superb silver lamp weighing one hundred and sixteen pounds, richly chased and ornamented. The beautiful church of Mary, where this offer- ing was hung up, owes its origin to a favor of a similar kind. It was erected in 1531, on the site of a house wherein the plague had first broken out, the city being then de- livered from that terrible scourge by the all-powerful intercession of Mary. In the centre of the cupola was the noble inscription — noble in its simplicity : Unde origo, inde salus. The Tuscans have a most tender veneration for the Madonna. On the roads and bridges, in the streets and in the houses, her sweet image is everywhere found smiling on the passer-by as he bows his head be- fore her, and seeming to participate * in every joyful domestic event. The contadini around the charming city of Florence come down from the woody heights which surround it in a semi-circle, on every feast of the Virgin, leading a mule elegantly harnessed, and carrying a basket full of the finest grapes, some small sheaves of wheat, and some branches of the orange-tree and pomegranate laden with fruit or flowers. Dressed in their holiday garb, they traverse the city in procession, and come to deposit their fruits and flowers at the foot of the Virgin's altar. When the Grand Duke of Tus- cany, a model sovereign, returned to his states, on the fall of Napo- leon, his first care was to repair to the church Santa Maria della Nun- ziata^ where numbers of people go every day to visit an image of the Virgin, said to have been finished by an angel. In gratitude for his unhoped-for restoration, the excel- lent prince suspended a lamp of the rarest workmanship in Mary's chapel. Kome is no less devout to the Ma- donna than Florence. Pass when you will through the city, you will find groups of Romans kneeling 444 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. before the Madonna, praying with * a fervor and an earnestness truly remarkable. In the streets, in the scj^uares, and in the houses, her im- age is seen with a lamp of the purest oil burning before it ; the poor, as well as the rich, go to this expense, and would deprive them- selves of bread to provide the oil. It is both edifying and picturesque to see a street in Rome lit up by thousands of luminous points like the lucioli of Italy, and resounding with the simple music of the Cala- brian or Abruzzian pifferari. These mountain-minstrels attract a great concourse of the faithful around the Madonnas at all times, but espe- cially in Advent; for it seems as though they wished to introduce, by their pastoral strains, the feast of the shepherds, the holy night of Christmas. It is especially on the day of the Assumption that the ardent devo- tion of the Romans for Mary is manifested. On that day all the chm-ches are deserted for that of St. Mary Major, the royal church, with walls of Parian marble. The villa of the noble is abandoned, with its healthful air and refreshing ^ shades ; Varia cattiva prevails in Rome, and with it fever ; but what of that? They would go even though the plague were there. Is not the Madonna more powerful to save than either fever or plague is to, destroy? What pious confidence, and how truly wonderful is such faith in these days of ours! The Roman people are assembled en masse on the streets and squares around the superb church, which is adorned with all possible splendor for this festival. The men are clothed in their picturesque cos- tume of blue velvet; the women are bedecked with their coral neck- laces, and their jet black hair is fastened up with a gold or silver pin under a graceful white drapery. Every one carries a large bunch of the most beautiful flowers as an offering to the Madonna. That im- mense crowd of believers kneels in the hot dust, parched by the fervid sun of Italy, or stand in the shade of the adjacent houses. The Ital- ians, naturally noisy, and given to gesticulation, forget on those occa- sions their wonted habits : one thought engrosses their mind, and that is prayer ; and how well they HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 445 do understand prayer! They pray with look, gesture, heart, and do indeed pour out their soul at Mary's feet. When the Pope has finished the holy sacrifice, and solemnly blessed the kneeling multitude, the immense doors of the church are thrown open to admit the crowd, who fill it with sweet music and fragrant flowers. When evening comes, the whole city is illuminated, and all Rome prays in the street. All the people crowd, without distinction, without privi- lege, with a fraternity worthy of the golden age, around their own Ma- donna — the Madonna of the district. For this purpose, the prince leaves his marble palace, the artisan his workshop, and the maiden her fa- ther's roof, all to join in prayer with touching fervor. The women say the rosary, the men chant the lita- ny; sometimes one of those fine Italian voices, of heavenly sweet- ness, sings a hymn to Mary, and all are silent to hear ; but that silence is itself a mental prayer to the \^irgin. " I shall remember all my life," says a modern traveller, " the beau- teous festival of the Nativity of the Virgin, and the evening of the 8th of September on the Place de Na- vona, where from ten to twenty thousand persons were congregated. The image of the Madonna, splen- didly illuminated, presided over the popular festivities, as was manifest from the decency, the reserve, and the half-seriousness everywhere seen; the dwelling of a numerous family, submissive all to the paternal con- trol, can alone give the idea of such serenity amid the excitement of public rejoicing ; this was apparent even at the moment when the crowd dispersed after the fire -works. I thought it afforded a fair proof of the wisdom and mildness of the pontifical government." In Naples, the devotion to the Virgin blooms ever with the fresh- ness and the beauty of a full-blown lily. The feasts of the Madonna are popular festivals, full of joyful enthusiasm ; her churches, of which there are no less than fourteen in the city of Naples alone, unite within themselves all that is grand- est and most luxurious in painting, sculpture, and architecture ; the chapels of Mary, all rich and beau- tiful, are adorned with lapis-lazuli, topazes, jasper, and other precious stones. In the church of SaiUa Maria Ntuyva, the miraculous im- age of the Madonna delle Gimzie is placed under a canopy of silver all covered with jewels. On Mount Pausilippo the church of Santa Maria Fortunata replaces an an- cient temple of Fortune, where the heathens were wont to hang theii* offerings. Mount Rulignano is crowned by one of the most beau- tiful of Mary's churches. Five of the suburbs of Naples bear the name of the Blessed Virgin. To her the Neapolitans have also con- secrated Vesuvius, whose base re- sembles the gardens of Armida, and its summit one of hell's gates, opening on a dreary chaos. When the crater vomits forth its torrents of burning lava, and the whole bay is illuminated in the middle of a dark night, as though the last fire foretold by the sibyls were about to destroy our little planet, the terri- fied Neapolitan prays to Mary and forgets his alarm, and the inhabit- ants of the neighboring hamlets run to meet the fiery stream of lava with images of the Madonna, which they hold out to bar its progress. Sicily is still, as well as Sardinia, a land essentially Catholic. The devotion to Mary is particularly popular in Palermo and Messina, in the latter city, the noble cathe- dral dedicated to the Virgin by the Norman kings, is still in existence ; only that the campanile and the spire of the principal tower were destroyed by the great earthquake of 1753, and the Sicilians have never set about rebuilding them. In Piedmont and Savoy, Our Lady is still religiously honored. In 1669 King Charles Emmanuel declared the Mother of God prin- cipal patroness of his house and of his states, and this declaration has been frequently renewed by the pious successors of that prince. Even at the close of the eight- eenth century, the veneration of Mary was universal in Spain. In the cathedral of Toledo, placed un- der the invocation of the Blessed Virgin, the chapel of Our Lady of the Sanctuary [del Sagrario) was of wonderful richness and beauty. It was of octagonal form; its pillars and pavements were of marble; in the niches were seen golden vases enriched with diamonds, and other HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 447 gems of great value. The statue of the Blessed Virgin was of solid silver, and she was seated on a throne of tke same metal, with an Infant Jesus in her arms twelve inches high, formed of massive gold, incrusted with diamonds. The ca- thedral of Seville had its famous chapel, Our Lady of Kings, built by St. Ferdinand, the splendor of which was so great that it was reck- oned the most magnificent chapel in the world. The chapel of the Pres- entation, in Burgos, was almost as celebrated. In Madrid, the church of Our Lady of Almemada is one of the most splendid in the city ; to this Madonna is ascribed the discovery of a quantity of corn found by a providential chance in the vaults of a tower, just as the city, besieged by the Moors, was about to surrender for want of provisions. The miraculous fact is still painted in fresco on the walls of Our Lady's chapel, but we doubt whether the altar, and the balustrade of solid silver, are still there. Abotit a quarter of a league from Madrid, in a vast Dominican con- vent (now doubtless deserted, like many others), was the miraculous * image of Our Lady of the Bush [d'Atorha), a black Madonna, usual- ly dressed in weeds ; this is a cus- tom peculiar to the place, as far as we know, but on solemn feasts the statue was arrayed in queenly gar- ments, studded with large jewels. Her chapel, gloomy in its structure, was lit by an hundred lamps of massive gold and silver. The Cath- olic kings had their gallery in this chapel, with a screen in front. It was there, too, that the Te Deum of victory was sung. Charles III., king of Spain, found- ed an order of knighthood in honor of the Blessed Virgin, whom he declared universal patrona de Es- paria e Indias (universal patroness of Spain and the Indies) . At present, the fair moon of Chris- tianity is somewhat obscured in Spain, but the cloud will pass away, and the Blessed Virgin shall speed- ily recover her rights of supremacy over that most Catholic and most chivalrous nation. We hope, with the Spanish doctor who has done us the honor of translating this work, that posterity will add many a lum- inous page to the Spanish portion i of this history. 448 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. In Poi*tugal, where Mary has reigned as queen from the time of Alphonso the First, the devotion to her is still national and flourishing ; she is the first godmother of all female children, and her images are venerated in rich and beautiful chapels. England, that land of hydra- headed heresy, begins at last to turn her head towards Rome; nu- merous Catholic churches are being erected in every county, under the title of chapels. In Ireland, bon- fires have been recently kindled on every hill to celebrate, in the an- cient manner, a miracle obtained after a novena to the Virgin — the marvellous liberation of O'Connell. The Belgians are still, as they have ever been, preeminently de- vout to Mary; they make pilgrim- ages to her shrines, and consecrate to her the most beautiful chapels of their noble Gothic cathedrals. The Tyrolese adorn the walls of their houses with scenes taken fiom the life of the Blessed Virgin. Bohemia, rich and tranquil, mul- tiplies images of the Mother of God on its highways and in its towns. Here and there through the coun- '^ try, a modest chapel, dedicated to Mary (and serving at once as a house of prayer and a place of rest), rears its pointed roof, sur- mounted by a cross, as if to notify the traveller that he will there find shelter from sun or rain, and the call is always religiously heard. Austria, with its pure and simple morals, its religious and poetical tendencies, remains ever faithful to Mary, and nowhere have the sacred ceremonies of her devotion a more serious or touching character. Poland is still and always the kingdom of the Blessed Virgin, whom the Poles, since 1655, invoke in their litanies as Regina Coeli et Polonice. Her image is hung around the necks of their children, and Po- lish warriors formerly wore it as a precious preservative against dan- ger. Ladies of rank have, in their apartments an oratory adorned with the portrait of the Virgin, and the proud Polish nobles, the proudest in all Europe, fail not at Christmas times, to hang in a conspicuous part of the sumptuous banquet-hall a sheaf of straw, in memory of the utter destitution of Jesus and Mary in the stable of Bethlehem. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 449 The Lithuanians are the youngest nation of Mary's children in Europe, according to the order of time, as they were only converted in the fifteenth century; but they, too, have remained faithful to her, not- withstanding all the efforts of Prot- estantism, which fell to the ground amongst them as soon as it spoke of suppressing the popular devotion to Mary. Faithful to the ancient customs of their country, the Lithu- anian women still celebrate the re- turn of spring and the close of autumn under the auspices of Mary; it is on her altars that they deposit the violets which they go far and near to gather the first morning of spring, before sunrise ; and it is also her whom they invoke, seated around the last sheaf, while their dextrous fingers weave floral hiero- glyphics, giving, as in the East, a thought to every leaf and a symbol to every plant. These simple Lith- uanians are passionately fond of their woods and fields, and especi- ally of the fair flowers which the poorest of them cultivate, but they love the Blessed Virgin better than ail these. The Russians, who follow the rites of the Greek Church, profess the greatest veneration for the Vir- gin ; as far off as they can see her image they prostrate themselves several times, crossing themselves with extreme rapidity. In Moscow, one of the gates of the Kremlin is decorated with a statue of the Vir- gin, to which miracles are ascribed ; it is guarded by two sentinels night and day, and the people never fail to uncover their heads in passing this sacred image. The Czars were formerly crowned in the splendid Muscovite cathedral of the Assumption, where the bodies of the Russian patriarchs are laid. The wall around the sanctuary was sheeted with gold and silver. The sacred vessels and the episcopal vestments of this cathedral are still wonderfully rich ; the image of the Blessed Virgin, placed in a heavy gilt frame at the end of this church, figures in the processions, mounted on a superb coach all covered with mirrors, like the carriages formerly seen in France at the consecration of the kings. This modern car of triumph is drawn slowly along by four horses richly caparisoned. The Greeks, although schisma,tic, 460 HISTORY OF TEE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. have still the same respect for the Panagia ; in the Morea there are several convents dedicated to Mary; the most famous is that of the As- sumption, on Moimt Cylene, a few houi-s' jom-ney fi'om the famous cas- cade of the Styx, nov^ called Mav- ronero. This convent has a mirac- ulous image of Mary, which was given it in the eighth century by an imperial princess of Constanti- nople, named Euphrosyne; it is nearly all built within a large cav- ern one hundred and twenty feet high, and as many wide. The en- trance is reached by a steep and nan'ow path winding along the side of the mountain, and, like a fortress of the Middle Ages, it is defended by a gate and an iron portcullis, together with a lateral wall pierced with numerous loop-holes and fur- nished with four pieces of cannon. This narrow path, in which the winter torrents make large breaches every, year, is yet the only way of reaching the convent; hence this sacred asylum, where the Panagia has been invoked for ages by the Hellenes, is considered impregnable. In the last war of independence, the famous Ibrahim tried to take it, but t in vain. The three hundred monk« who dwell in it, becoming soldiers from necessity, were well able to defend the altar of their patroness. The life of these cahyers, as they are called by the Mussulmans, is simple and pure as in the time of their ancient foundation. They en- joy a complete independence ; they are laborious and robust, and, as worthy servants of the compassion- ate Virgin, they have ever extended a helping hand to the suffering or the oppressed. In the fourteenth century the monks of Thessalia and Phocida found an asylum in the convent of the Assumption, when, pursued by the Turks, they fled from their beloved country without a hope of seeing it again. Again, in the seventeenth centmy, the poor monks who escaped the mas- sacre of Constantinople, took refuge in this convent. Finally, in the eighteenth century, when the ruin- ous war which followed the insur- rection of the Morea had destroyed all around them, it was the Chris- tian conduct of these religious to- wards the Tm'ks of Calavrita, their prayers and the sacrifice which they made of a portion of their mSTOBY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 451 wealth, that enabled them to save from apostacy or death a great mimber of the Greeks of Achaia. The Klephts, those bold moun- taineers who have so long kept the Turks at bay, are no less devout to the Panagia than the people of the Morea. For ages long they have had no other places of prayer than some ruined chapels which they be- lieve haunted by vampires, or some rock-hewn oratory under the patron- age of the Virgin. They are some- times seen, at the dawn of day, climbing the loftiest crest of their steep mountains, with their crooked poignard in their belt, and their long gun slung over their shoidder, going to hear mass, or perhaps sim- ply to pray in some lonely chapel overhanging frightful precipices, the very sight of which would make a Turkish soldier shudder. There it was that they went to hang the offerings promised to the Panagia in the hour of danger, and always faithfully given. These gifts were often articles of value wrested from the Tm-k with sword and steel, and were regarded wi^h the most re- ligious reverence ; public devotion was their safeguard, and no matter * how great might be his distress, no Klepht would ever think of pur- loining the least of these things, which became sacred in his eyes. M. de Pouqueville, in his Travels in Greece^ relates an incident of a brigand chief who, having taken some of these ex voto from a chapel dedicated to the Virgin, near Vonit- za, was given up by his own band to Ali Pacha, by whose order he was hung. The practice of making distant pilgrimages, difficult as it was for men placed in the position of the Klephts, was still far from being unknown to them. The fa- mous partisan, Blachavas, at the age of seventy-six, set out on foot for Jerusalem, his musket on his shoulder, followed by his lieutenant, and died, as he seems to have wished, in the Holy Land.* Mount Athos, named by the mod- ern Greeks Hagion Oros (the holy mountain), still belongs to Mary, as it did in the time of the first Caesars of Byzantium. The islands of the Bosphorus and the Archipelago contain numerous, though poor, convents of Mary ; the bells of these Greek monasteries * Fauriel, Popular Songs of Greece. «62 mSTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. are suspended from the trunk of some huge cypress, which stands in spectral gloom near a church or cemeteiy. In Scio, the fairest of those islands, nearly all the inhabit- ants were Catholic. Being mildly governed, thanks to the powerful protection of the Sultana Yalida, that charming island kept its re- ligion, its gaiety, and its refreshing shades. The stranger was wel- comed there with branches laden with fruits, and when he departed they offered him flowers in re- membrance of hospitality. Nothing could equal the pomp of its festi- vals : it had its Catholic archons, like Athens of old ; its maidens were pure and fair as the smile of Mary, their beloved Panagia. . . . The revolution broke out ... all this peace, all this joy, ended in a massacre . . . three hundred young girls, the fairest in the island, were mercilessly slaughtered on the sea- shore by the fierce Osman sol- diers. They fell, one after the other, their hands joined and their eyes raised to heaven, invoking that Vii'gin- mother who failed not to avenge them. Ali Pacha, the tiger who ordered this brutal massacre, "f was burned soon after by the in- trepid Canaris, he and his vessels, and died soon after on that very strand which he had crimsoned with blood, while the conqueror did public homage to the Virgin for his victory. In Anatolia and the adjacent isles, in Cyprus and in Tenedos, the Greek race have maintained in all its fervor their devotion to the Virgin. Mahomet prevailed in the cities ; but high on the mountain- tops, in the region of clouds, the sacred banner of the Panagia waves over many a convent. Some of the Hellenes have forgotten the lan- guage of Demosthenes and Iso- crates, but not the Gospel, nor their devotion to Mary, and they repeat in the Turkish language the Apos- tles' Creed and the Angelical Salu- tation.* There the illuminations of the Courban-Ba'iram are opposed by the bonfires known by the name of St. John's, and the feast of Ma- homet by that of Our Lady of Mount Olympus. The Georgians, who bear on their standard the image of St. George, won for themselves in the MidfUe * Occident et Orient, par M. Barrault. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 453 Ages the privilege of entering Jeru- salem with banners flying, to per- form their devotions, without pay- ing the tribute imposed on other Christians ;* they are still the faith- ful subjects of the Holy Virgin, the heavenly Queen of their mountain- land. The highest peaks of their mountains are everywhere crowned with a church or chapel dedicated to Mary, placed so high that they cannot reach it themselves, and are forced to content themselves, says Chardin, with profoundly saluting it from the depth of their valleys, which they never fail to do. The Mingrelian, who sleeps with his head on his carbine and his cimetar by his side, venerates in his churches certain relics of the Bless- ed Yirgin,f kept therein with pro- found respect since the first ages of Christianity. Armenia, shut in amongst Mussul- man nations, has no more yielded to the Koran than to Zend-Avesta, and remains nearly as it was in the fifth century, after the Holy Wars, were it not that it is divided into * De Belief orest, 1. ii., ch. 5, of his Hist. Univers. — Chalcondyle, Hist, des Tiircs. fBy relics of the Blessed Virgin, we, of two camps, one professing Christi- anity with Rome, and the other with Nestorius. The Virgin is devoutly honored by both. Every Armenian fasts fifteen days before the Feast of the Assumption, which was in- troduced very early into the Cauca- sian regions, and as that people has kept from the Jews the immolation of animals, there is no good Arme- nian family that does not sacrifice a lamb in honor of Mary. Lebanon, that beautiful mountain an hundred leagues in circumfer- ence, is entirely peopled with Cath- olics. On one of its highest table- lands is the village of Eden, full of limpid streams and cool shades, it is topped by an archiepiscopal church, in which there is an altar to Mary, and at the right of that altar rises (in a truly marvellous manner) the Nakar-Rossena (chief river), which descends from an im- mense rock clothed with cypress. The Nakar-Kadislia (holy river), the offspring of eternal snows, on whose banks so many solitaries were once engaged in carving images of Mary, course, understand certain articles which were used by her during her mortal Hfe. — Tran8« 454 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Btill retains the name which it owed, in the fii-st ages of the Chui'ch, to the piety of the hermits who dwelt amid its rocks. An hom-'s journey from the spot where the Holy River collects its rapid and noisy waters, Tyre, the ancient ruler of the seas, displays the mournful wreck of greatness past; her famous cathedral of Our Lady, destroyed in the last crusades, a short time after its reconstruction, is now but a mag- nificent ruin, whose stately vaults and arches are still traced on the blue sky of Syria, but there is another church, less conspicuous, wherein the four or five hundred Catholic families who people Tyre still fervently invoke Mary. The pretty town of Nazareth, approach- ed by an avenue of olive-trees, is inhabited solely by Catholics; its church, built on the site of St. Hel- ena's, has three naves, and is al- ways full of pilgrims, and others of the faithful, in prayer. The sweet name of Mary is everywhere read on the walls, and everywhere one sees her image, profusely adorned with the fairest flowers by the piety of the Eastern Christians. Modern Jerusalem, whose popula- t tion seems formed of the wreck of nations, presents within its bosom the strange sight of the Jewish syn- agogue side by side with the Mus- sulman mosque and the Christian church, yet, thank Heaven I it is not without its altars to Mary. The descendant of the kings of Juda is still prayerfully invoked in the cap- ital of the holy King David, and all religious differences disappear at her tomb, where the Armenian, the Georgian, the Arab, the Tyrian, and the Western Christian meet togeth- er, and where even Turkish women are seen kneeling in prayer, wrap- ped up in their veils. A Greek caloyer sprinkles some drops of otto of roses on the head of ^ach one who comes to honor Mary. In the Levant, the veneration of the Virgin has reached even the in- fidels. The Turks and Persians, who speak of her with all rever- ence, consider her as the purest and most perfect of women. Hence, they are often known to hang vo- tive lamps before her images, to conduct their sick children to her churches, to pray devoutly at her tomb, and what is still more ex- traordinary amongst the worship- HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 455 ers of Allah, to build temples in her honor.* In Abyssinia, the devotion to the Virgin is still as popular as it ever was: churches bearing her Eastern name of Mariam are met in great numbers in the cities, on the moun- tains, and on the banks of the riv- ers ; they are covered with straw, surrounded by an exterior gallery, and surmounted by an iron cross, whose numerous branches are term- inated with ostrich-eggs; they stand in the midst of a cemetery, which is an inviolable sanctuary, and are magnificently shaded by dark sabines and gigantic olive-trees. Within, the walls are adorned with garish frescoes representing the Vir- gin, St. Michael, or St. George, who is very popular amongst the East- ern nations ; the floor is sometimes covered with Persian carpet, which the Mussulmans bring from Massa- ouah and sell at an exorbitant price to the Christians. A gallery runs all around these churches, and in * the centre there is a square sanc- tuary which none but the priests may enter ; there is kept the sacred ark containing the bread and wine intended for communion. The Abys- sinians hold the Virgin in so great veneration that, according to them, the world was created for her and by her ; they precede the feast of the Assumption by a fast of fifteen days, like the Copts and Syrians ; their kings style themselves sons of Mariam^ s hand^ and many of them assume her name. Finally, we learn from travellers who visited Abyssinia in 1837, that, when the Abyssinians ask a favor or give an invitation, it is always in the name of Mary; they swear only by Mary {be Mariam)^ and her name is ever in their mouth.f This ardent devotion of the Abys- sinians to the Mother of God has sometimes broken out into real acts of fanaticism. In 1714, when Ger- man missionaries of the order of St. Francis, sent by Pope Clement * A pacha of Mossoul, besieged by the famous Thamas-Kouli-Khan, made a vow to build two churches to the Blessed Virgin, in case 'he pre- served his city. Thamas raised the siege, and the Pacha, faithful to his promise, caused two churches to be erected ; their magnificence, un- »- exampled in those regions, bespeaks at once the peril, the alarm, and the gratitude of the Mus- sulman. — (See the Bishop of Babylon's letter in the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith.) f Voyage en Abyssinie, par MM. Combes et Tamisier, 1835-37. iS6 BISTORT OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. XL, ti'ied to bring them back to the unity of faith, the schismatic monks defeated their efforts by cir- ciihiting the report that these Euro- pean monks were avowedly hostile to the Blessed Virgin. This false- hood of theirs had frightful conse- quences; the people revolted; the emperor, who protected the mis- sionaries, was poisoned, and Fathers Liberat, Veis, Pi^ de Zerbe, and Samuel Bienno were stoned to death by an infuriate mob. An Ethiopian monk cast the ftrst stone, exclaim- ing: "Accursed and excommuni- cated by the Virgin be he who will not cast five stones at her ene- mies!"* Alas! these poor Fran- ciscans were the most faithful and devoted servants of Mary! The devotion to the Virgin is now spreading gradually over all the In- dies. The chaplet is recited among the Hindoos of the Malabar coast, among the Chinese, the Siamese, the Thibetians, the tribes of Ton- quin and of Cochin-China ; it is the only prayer-book possessed by the Catholics of those remote countries, and it is the first thing they ask on seeing a priest from Europe.f The * Annals of the Fropagation of the Faith. churches of India often bear the name of Mary ; that of the Nativity of the Virgin, at PondicheiTy, is one of the most remarkable. A novena has been founded in this Malabar church which procures a number of conversions, though conversions are there so difficult ; it opens with a procession which takes place by night, and is conducted with much pomp. The sacred image of Mary is borne on a triumphal car, and is placed, from time to time, on altars which the pious Christians of that country adorn with flowers and gold muslin; these altars are lit up by overhanging globes of fire. The procession moves slowly, to the sound of crashing music, between two lines of torches. At each rest- ing-place, the noise ceases while a childish voice sings the praises of the holy mother of Our Lord ; after which the image of the Virgin is solemnly brought back to the church, and replaced over her altar, magnificently illuminated. J South America is ever remark- able for its devotion to the Blessed Viigin. Brazil has built many churches in her honor in modern f/Wd. Xlbid. times, and adorned them to the * utmost of her power. Peru dedi- cated to her, from the first, its splendid cathedral of Lima, under the title of the Assumption, and paved it with silver instead of mar- ble. Cusco, the city of the Incas, consecrated to Mary its Temple of the Sun, the walls of which were coated with thick plates of gold. The Dominicans, to whom this church now belongs, raised a chap- el in it for Our Lady, and adorned it with true Peruvian splendor: flags of silver, an altar of the same metal, a statue radiant with gold and pearl, golden lamps, and mag- nificent ex voto, notHing was want- ing to complete its grandeur. Mary has altars no less rich in the an- cient temple of Zuilla [the moon), also a very splendid building, in that of Tllaper {the thunder), and of Chasca [the evening-star). In Mex- ico, the cathedrals and altars dedi- cated to the Virgin are of rare mag- nificence. The cathedral of the As- sumption, in the city of Mexico, commenced in the sixteenth century and finished in the seventeenth, has two statues of Mary which exceed all European ideas of splendor ; the i first is an Assumption of massive gold incrusted with precious stones of considerable weight ; the second, a Conception in solid silver. The cathedral of Pueblo d' Angeles, bear- ing the title of the Conception, has a high altar dedicated to Mary which is itself worth a whole basilica ; the altar is of massive silver, and the balustrading around it has plinths and capitals of burnished gold. In San Domingo, in the time of the French domination, the proces- sion of the Vow of Louis XIII. was every year made with all possible pomp. Since Hayti declared itself a republic, this custom is dis- continued, but not the devotion to Mary, whom the blacks of that island still invoke with boundless confidence. The Haytians have two pilgrimages to the Blessed Virgin, one in the part that formerly be- longed to Spain, and the other in the old French district. They often make these pilgrimages by proxy: a black pilgrim who sets out on this pious jom-ney, visits all his ac- quaintances and collects the offer- ings which they wish to send to the Virgin. The negresses of dis- tinction imported from Africa a 458 mSTOBT OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIBGIN MARY. heathen custom which they made a Christian one in the Antilles. When they wish to ascertain wheth- ci- they possess the affection of their husbands, they take to the sea- shore a thin plank of native wood pierced with holes, wherein they place lighted tapers of white wax ; after invoking Mary, they carefully and timidly commit their little il- luminated raft to the waves of their sunny gulf, and if it floats a little time on the water without sinking, they bless the Virgin, persuaded that they may rest content. Numismatics, which has pre- served to us the effigy of sover- eigns lost to history, has also helped to perpetuate the remembrance of the devotion to Mary. Nearly all Christian nations have struck med- als in honor of the Virgin, and stamped her image on coins. The Empress Theophania, who married Romanus the Younger in 959, is the first whose coin bears the image of Mary. She is placed on the reverse ; her head, surround- ed by the aureola, is covered with a veil, and her two hands are raised to the height of the chest : around, is the Greek inscription signifying t Mother of God. The second hus- band of that princess, John Zimis- ces, who ascended the imperial throne in 969, also had a medal struck, bearing on one side the figure of Christ Emmanyha {Em- mamiel), and on the other, the Vir- gin seated on a throne with the Infant Jesus on her knee. Before her are the three magi offering their gifts ; above her head is a star, and beneath her two doves. The first emperor who placed the effigy of Mary on the front side of his coins, was Romanus IV., styled Diogenes, who ascended the imperial throne A. D. 1068. On his medals is seen the Blessed Vifgin with the head of the divine Infant reclining on her bosom, according to the decree of the Council of Ephesus. The Virgin is there attired as an em- press. Several strings of pearls are seen around her head and twined amid her hair, and her brow is encircled by the imperial diadem. She also retains the glory or au- reola, but has no veil. On the re- verse of the medal is the Greek in- scription meaning, "May the Mother of God be propitious to the Emperor ^ Romanus Diogenes." Many of the HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 459 succeeding emperors also stamped the image of the Virgin on their coins; but from the time of John Zimisces till the taking of Constan- tinople, the letter M is no longer found on the coins of the Lower Empire. The Greeks were not the only nation who gave Mary this mark of respect; many modern states still bear on their coins the effigy of the holy Virgin. In the States of the Church, the new silver crown has on it the Vir- gin borne on clouds, holding the keys in one hand, and in the other an ark, with this inscription, " Supra firmam petram." The city of Genoa also presents, on some of its gold coins, the Virgin borne on clouds, and holding the Infant Jesus on one arm. The inscription is, "Efc rege eos." Austria has gold ducats * whereon is seen the Virgin, in like manner, borne on clouds, holding the Infant Jesus on one arm, with the globe in his hand. The inscrip- tion is, "Maria Mater Dei." The same state has also gold maxi- milians, on the reverse of which is seen the Virgin and Child, the latter holding the globe in his hand. The legend is, " Salus in te sperantibus." The three-florin gold pieces of the same empire have also on the re- verse the Virgin and Child, with the same legend as the maximilians. Bavaria, too, strikes gold maxi- milians and caroluses with the same effigy and inscription. Portugal stamps on her gold cruzades the name of Mary: Maria^ surmounted by a crown, and encircled by two branches of laurel ; on the other side is seen a cross with this in- ^ scription, "In hoc signo vinces." CHAPTER XIV. ADDED BY THE TRANSLATOR. [We have, in the preceding chapters, a most interesting chronicle of the rise and progress of the devotion to the Blessed Virgin. The learned author has collected much valuable information on this subject He has glanced over many lands, giving a brief space to each, and, as far as he has gone, his work leaves nothing unnoticed that could throw light on the fair picture of filial love and reverence. But we could wish that he had devoted more space to this New World, where he had assuredly an ample field before him — where the devotion to Mary is, and has been, for ages, steadily on the increase, till, like the grain of mustard-seed mentioned in the Gospel, it has become a stately tree, overshadowing with its branches all the land. It is with some hesitation that I attempt to " take up the wondrous tale," but, as I have endeavored to give it an English form, and make it accessible to those who know not the French language, I should be sorry to present it to them without adding a few pages on the history of the devotion to Mary in these countries.] HE countries of the New Worid were neariy all settled by Cath- olics, and by Catholics who loved and hon- ored Mary, as we see by the names of many of the older settlements. Columbus was a faithful servant of Mary, and Jacques Cartier, the dis- coverer of Canada, or New France, was equally devoted to her service. The latter brought with him from old Catholic France that zeal for religion which then characterized * " The salvation ov a sotji. is worth mobk THAN THE CONQUEST OF AN EMPIBE." Such WaS the golden maxim of Champlain, the founder of New * all the navigators of that great country. The beads and crucifix were his most trusty weapons, and when he succeeded in effecting a landing, or making a treaty with the Indians, it was to God and the Virgin that he returned thanks. The first tree felled by Europeans was hailed as a triumph for religion — as the first step towards the foun- dation of a new empire for Jesus and Mary.* Those sacred names were the watchword of all the French and Spanish Christians who led the van in civilizing America, and strong in the strength of those France (Canada) ; a maxim which was adopted and acted on by aU the Catholic pioneers of the New World.— (Life of Bishop Flaget, p. 179.) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 461 mighty names they triumphed over every obstacle which the powers of earth and hell raised up to bar their progress. These northern re- gions of America were especially placed under the protection of Mary from their first settlement by Euro- peans. Jacques Cartier's grim old followers, with hand of iron and heart of faith, had passed away; several voyages had been made by successive companies from France, but none of them succeeded in effecting a permanent settlement; all designs that were of a purely worldly nature failed, and it was only the faithful sons of Loyola who braved and at length surmounted every difficulty. They it was who explored the interminable woods of Canada, seeking, through incredible toils and hardships, to gather in the harvest, already ripe for the sickle ; martyrdom itself had no terrors for these valiant soldiers of Christ, and, armed only with the cross and beads, they boldly advanced, re- gardless of the tomahawk and scalping -knife, intent on conquer- ing the land for Him who sent them, and making his name known to the heathen. Well and aptly have they been called the pioneers of civilization, for where the foot of European never trod, never dared to tread, they planted the standard of the Cross. God and the Virgin were with them wherever they went. It may well be may said that Mary presided over the opening of Amer- ican civilization, since they who laid its earliest foundations were her own faithful servants, her de- voted clients. Thus, in the cruel torments inflicted on them by their savage captors, we find them con- soled by the thought of Mary's ma- ternal care and protection. " It was my consolation," wrote one of these fervent missionaries, addressing the Superior -General of his order: "It was my consolation to know that I was doing the will of God, since I undertook this journey only through obedience. I was full of confidence in the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, and in the assistance of the many souls who were praying for me."* And again, describing an- other of his grievous trials : " I de- sired and expected death, but was not without a certain dread of the * Bressani's Relation de la Nouvelle-France, abridged by the Eev. Pere Martin, S. J., p. 118. 462 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. fire. I, nevertheless, prepared for * it as well as I could, commending myself to the Mother of Mercy^ who is truly the Amiable Mother^ the Ad- mirable Mother^ the Powerful and Clement Virgin^ the Comfort of the Afflicted. She was, after God, the only refuge of a poor sinner, forsa- ken by all creatures on a foreign soil, in that place of horror and of waste wilderness,* without a tongue to make himself understood, or friends to console, or sacraments to strengthen him, or any human rem- edy to alleviate his sufferings."! Father de None, one of the first missionaries, was frozen to death while wandering alone in the track- less forest, and was found in a kneeling posture, his head uncov- ered, his eyes wide open and raised to heaven, and his arms crossed on his bosom. He was quite dead. "Father de None died, it is thought, on the day of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, for whom he had a great devotion. Every Saturday he fasted in her honor, and, every day, he recited the office of the Immac- * Dent xxxii, 10. f Bressani's Relation de la Nouvelle- France, abridged by the Rev. Pere Martin, S. J., p. 126. ^ ulate Conception. When he spoke of her, every word was from his heart." J Father Jogues, the illustrious champion of the faith, who lived through torments that would have killed an hundred ordinary men, giving an account of his capture by the Iroquois, says : " At length we reached the first Iroquois village; it was on the eve of the Assump- tion of the Blessed Virgin, and I thanked Our Lord Jesus Christ for that he was pleased to call us to share his cross and sufferings, on the day whereon the Christian world celebrates the triumph of his divine mother ascending to heaven." § On another occasion, when he and his companion had retired from this Iroquois village, during a tumult, to pray on a little neighboring hill : "Returning to the village, we were reciting the chaplet of the Blessed Virgin, and had already said four decades, when we met two young men who ordered us to return to the village. 'Brother,' said I to Rend, * we know not what these men in- X Relation Abreg'ee, pp. 178, 179. § Md., p. 198. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 463 tend to do with us, now that they are all so much excited. Let us rec- ommend ourselves with the greater fervor to God and the Blessed Vir- gin, our good mother."* Of Father Charles Garnier, an- other of the martyrs of Canada, it is related that from his childhood he had a great inclination for vir- tue, and especially a great devo- tion to the Blessed Yirgin, whom he always trailed his mother. He had bound himself by a solemn vow, to defend, till death, the doc- trine of her Immaculate Conception, and he loved to honor her under that title. His death took place on the eve of that festival, which he went to celebrate with greater solemnity in heaven.f Such were the first missionaries — the first civilizers of the Cana- dian savages, — and such their de- votion to the Blessed Mother of God, a devotion which must neces- sarily have communicated to their neophytes at least a portion of its fervor, and made the name of Mary a household word amongst the sim- ple denizens of the forest. But whilst the Jesuit fathers were toil- * Relation Abregee, p. 212. f Ibid., p. 266. * ing and bleeding, preaching and baptizing, amongst the savage tribes of Canada, far away in the sunny realm of France the Al- mighty was carrying out his mer- ciful designs for the permanent set- tlement of these remote countries, and the foundation of a new empire for the Queen of heaven : his omnis- cient wisdom was preparing an asylum for the Catholic Church of North America, and raising up a barrier against heresy in the noble provinces of JS'ew France.J The Island of Montreal was still covered with primeval woods : its existence scarcely known to Euro- peans, when God made known, by a special revelation, to some pious persons in France, that such a place was to be colonized, and that they were the instruments chosen to carry out the design. Neither of these individuals was eitlier rich or powerful, yet never doubting — never pausing to inquire " how this could be done," they at once set about forming a society for the pur- pose, assured that God was with them. Their object was to build a city in Canada in honor of Mary, I Life of Sister Bourgeoys, Introduction. 464 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. and under her especial patronage, * to serve as the stronghold and nucleus of religion in those (then) remote regions. The city was to be called Villemarie (the City of Mary). The principal movers in this proj- ect were the inspired persons above mentioned: M. de Maisonneuve, a virtuous and pious layman, M. Olier, afterwards founder of the illustrious Order of St. Sulpice, and sister Marguerite Bourgeoys, an humble maiden of Troyes. Each of these, but especially the two latter, were favored, all through, with the most singular graces, and guided by light and knowledge from above, clearly showing that they were chosen instruments of the divine will. When all things were prepared for the voyage, the good sister Bourgeoys began to shrink from the prospect of embarking alone on such an undertaking, as she was to have no female com- panion. She had taken all possible pains to ascertain whether she was really called to this perilous enter- prise; she had consulted the most pious and the most enlightened ec- clesiastics of the time, and was, through them, assm-ed of her voca- tion, yet still she feared to go alone to Canada. Her historian tells up " that the project of such a voyage for a woman of thirty -three, the prospect of being unaccompanied by any of her own sex, amidst a company of soldiers; the idea of having no female to assist her at Villemarie in the education of chil- dren, and of being constantly ex- posed to the danger of being taken and burned by the Iit)quois; all these considerations were very lit to inspire her with fear, and pru- dence seemed to render it necessary that she should have some more convincing proof of the divine will. Even this was granted to her, though she asked it not. The Blessed Virgin, for whose honor and glory she was resolved to sac- rifice her life, by going to Canada to procm-e faithful servants for her, vouchsafed to assure her with her own lips, that the design was well- pleasing to her, and that she would herself protect her amidst so many dangers. The good nun being in her own chamber, thinking at the moment of anything but her voy- age: *I saw before me,' says she, 'a tall lady, clad in a robe, as it HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 465 were of white serge, who said to me : Go ; I will not desert thee. And I knew it was the Blessed Virgin, though I saw not her face. This reassured me, and gave me courage to undertake the voyage.' After this vision, Sister Margaret no longer hesitated to set out. Yet still her great prudence made her fear that it might be an illusion; knowing that God conducts his children by the common rules of faith, and not by extraordinary means. ' After this apparition,' says she, ' being fearful of illusions, I considered that if this one were from God, I had nothing to provide for my voyage. I said to myself, K it be the will of God that I should go to Yille- mario, I have no need of anything ; whereupon I set out without a penny or a box of any kind, having with me only a small bundle which I could carry under my arm.' " We cannot suflQ,ciently admire the heroism of such perfect confi- dence in God, unexampled, per- haps, except by that of the holy Apostles whose spirit was still man- ifested in this admirable woman. Instead of laying in money and * Life of Sister Bourgeoys, pp. 41-43. clothes, so necessary in a new coun- try which as yet produced nothing of itself for the sustenance of life, but had to import all from Europe, she strips herself, on the contrary, of all she has, and distributes amongst the poor even the little money she possesses, placing her trust in God alone."* While journeying to and fro, pre- paring for her embarkation. Sister Bourgeoys took her passage in a boat from Orleans to Nantes. There were twelve or thirteen passengers on board besides the crew, and amongst these there was only one woman; yet Sister Bourgeoys con- trived to make all those men sanc- tify the voyage by many pious practices. Every day they said the beads, recited the of&ce of the Blessed Virgin, and read a portion of some pious book.f All this time M. de Maisonneuve was hurrying on his preparations under the direction of M. Olier: they had secured the assistance of another pious lady. Mademoiselle Manse, who was to take charge of the sick in the new colony. It was the intention of M. Olier to conse- f Vie de la Soeur Bourgeoys, tome i., p. 52. 466 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. crate the island of Montreal to the Holy Family, and for that purpose he proposed to establish three different institutes : that of his own order of St Sulpice, for the forming and main- tenance of the priesthood, in honor of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ ; that of the Congregation of Om* Lady, for the education of females, in honor of Our Blessed Lady; and that of the Hospital Nuns, lor the care of the sick and diseased, in honor of her illustri- ous spouse, St. Joseph. Come we now to the actual foundation of the city, which I will give in the simple, graphic words of M. Olier's biographer. " In the month of February, 1642, he assembled in the chm^ch of Notre Dame all the members of the com- pany of Montreal, celebrated the Holy Mass at the Virgin's altar, where he gave communion to those who were not priests, whilst the latter celebrated at the neighbor- ing altars; and all consecrated the island to the Holy Family, under the special protection of the Blessed Virgin, and consecrated themselves to that pious intention. On leaving the church, they repaired to the f Hotel de Loson, to concert the means of consolidating the good work. It was resolved that they should freight at least three vessels, to convey to Montreal as many de- cent families of different states as they could find willing to emigrate ; that they should take possession of the island in the name of the Bless- ed Virgin, who was always to be regarded as its first and true mis- tress, and that, with the king's per- mission, they would build a city on it, to be called Villemarie. " On the 17th of May following, the little troop (having passed the winter in Quebec) at length arrived at Montreal. Immediately on land- ing, they prostrated themselves on the shore, and, in the transports of their holy enthusiasm, they sang . several psalms, to testify their grati- tude to God. In the place destined for the new city, they erected tents for their own accommodation, and then proceeded to raise an altar, where, next day, Father Vimont, after the Veni Q-eator, first cele- brated the holy sacrifice, and ex- posed the Blessed Sacrament, to obtain from heaven an auspicious commencement to that pious work. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 467 It was in a chapel constructed of bark that the Ble&sed Sacrament was first placed, and it has ever since been preserved in Yille-Marie. As the country furnished neither oil nor wax, they placed before the tabernacle which they brought from France, instead of a lamp, a glass vial containing a number of fireflies, insects which, when there are sev- eral of them put together, produce a li2;ht like that of numerous wax tapers.* "Such was the beginning of Yille-Marie," adds the biographer, and it will at once be seen from his description, that the foundation of the city of Montreal was essentially a religious one, resembling that of a monastery rather than a city. We are inclined to think that no other city was ever founded under cir- cumstances so interesting or so edi- fying. The motives of its founders were of a purely religious nature ; they had no thoughts of aggrandiz- ing themselves or even their nation ; they desired not to enrich them- selves by drawing forth the natural resources of the country; its wealth of woods, and waters, and minerals, * Vie de M. Olier, abregee. gave them no concern; their sole ambition was to promote the glory of God and the salvation of men, and to do honor to their sovereign lady and mistress, the Blessed Mo-- ther of God. Assured of her pro- tection, they calmly prosecuted their work of building habitations for themselves, fearing neither the sav- age Iroquois of the surrounding woods, nor the severity of the cli- mate, nor the privations of every kind yet to be endured. They were doing the will of God, and working for Mary, their beloved queen, and all considerations of a purely per- sonal or selfish nature were forgot- ten. During the first days of the col- ony's existence, the river St. Law- rence rose in fury one Christmas eve, threatening to sweep away the little inclosure of stakes which then contained the whole of Montreal. M. de Maisonneuve, the pious gov- ernor of the island, made a vow that if the fort were preserved, he would plant a wooden cross on the summit of the mountain which over- hung the infant city. The waters retired after some time, without do- ing any injury, and the grateful gov- ids History of the devotion to the blessed virgin mart. ernor planted the cross as he had * promised. This cross was desti-oyed soon after by the Iroquois, but when Sister Bourgeoys amved in the col- ony, she prevailed upon M. de Mai- sonneuve to have it put up again, and it continued to be a place of pilgrimage for several years, not- withstanding that the woods around it were infested by the ferocious Iroquois, who took every opportu- nity of attacking those who went to pray there. Yet many did go for some time after the replanting of the cro^s, to perform novenas and other devotions for the conversion of the savages. In the lapse of time there was a mission estab- lished on the mountain, and the savages began to gather to the place: hitherto they could never be induced to settle on the island. A school-house and a small chapel were built ; the latter dedicated to Our Lady of Snow — Notre Bame des NeigeSj around which a pretty vil- lage has since sprung up. The good Sister Bourgeoys suc- ceeded, after some years, in forming her admirable institute under the title of the Congregation of Our Lady, but not without having her full share of the sufferings and pri- vations of the infant colony. At first, she went from house to house teaching, but her strength soon be- gan to fail under this excessive fatigue ; she was then presented by the governor (in the name of the company) with a stone building which had been used as a stable ; * here she commenced her school, her- self and her four assistants sleeping in a sort of loft to which they as- cended by a ladder. This humble building, cleaned and ornamented by the pious sister as well as her poverty would permit, was convert- ed into a school-house, and formed the foundation of the stately con- vent now known as the Congrega- tion Nunnery. After considerable delay and many disappointments. Sister Bourgeoys was so happy as to see a chapel erected near her school-house, in honor of Our Lady of Good Aid — Notre Dame de Bon Secours. "Nothing could be more touch- ing," says the reverend biographer of Sister Bourgeoys, " than ^he dis- interested and courageous charity of these fervent colonists for each * Vie de la Soeur Bourgeoys, t. i., p. 93. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 469 other. M. de Maisonneuve had f formed amongst them a company of soldiers styled the Blessed Ykgin's Company, who were to be ready at any time to sacrifice their lives to preserve those of the other colo- nists, and kept guard night and day around the houses and fields, where the savages were accustomed to con- ceal themselves in order to surprise the colony. 'M. de Maisonneuve,' says Sister Bourgeoys, ' had enrolled sixty-three of these soldiers, in hon- or of the number of years which the Blessed Virgin is thought to have passed on earth. Every Sun- day he appointed certain of their number to receive daily during the ensuing week, and gave them a pious exhortation. When these sol- diers mounted guard, it was always with prayer; and when they had any religious duty to fulfill, they were taken to the church, where they said their prayers and per- formed their other devotions in common, with every appearance of satisfaction.' " * Meanwhile, Mademoiselle Manse had her hospital already in opera- tion, under the title of the Hotel * Vie de la Soeur Bourgeoys, t. i., p. 77, 78. ^ BieiL M. Olier being unable to come himself to Montreal as he had desired, the governor prevailed upon him to send four of his ecclesiastics to establish a seminary there for the education of priests and to minister to the spiritual wants 6f the rising colony, the Jesuit Fathers having no permanent settlement there, and being desirous of devoting them- selves in a particular manner to their missions amongst the Indians. From this time the colony pro- gressed rapidly under the pastoral and paternal care of the pious Sul- picians, who, in the course of some years, became seigneurs or proprie- tors of the island of Montreal, which was transferred to them by the com- pany. During the whole period of her long life, Sister Bourgeoys continued to labor, under the patronage of Mary, for the spiritual and tempo- ral welfare of the colony. Not con- tent with training up her pupils in the way of godliness and virtue, she instituted an External Congre- gation, consisting of those young women who had been brought up in her schools. This excellent con- fraternity is still kept up in Mont- A70 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. real under the title of the Confra- ternity of Our Lady of Victory. About the same time was formed the pious confraternity of the Holy Family, which grew out of the three religious comnumities already in existence. The object of this asso- ciation was to place before Chris- tian families the example of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph ; the men to form their conduct on that of St. Joseph, the women on that of the Blessed Virgin, and the children on that of the child Jesus.* This confrater- nity is also in existence at the present time. In 1673, the wooden chapel of Our Lady of Good Aid was replaced by one of stone on the following occasion. Amongst the members of the company of Montreal, before it made over the island to the Sul- picians, there were two brothers named Le Pretre, lords of Fleury, in France. They were both very pious, and having a peculiar devo- tion to the Blessed Virgin, they were exceedingly anxious to pro- mote the prosperity of her new city. For this purpose they made a sac- rifice highly honorable to them- * Vie de la Sceur Bourgeoys, t. i., p. 170. ^ selves, and well calculated to prove their generous devotion. They had, in the chapel of their castle, a small statue of the Blessed Virgin, which had been an object of particular veneration for more than a century. The desire of promoting the devo- tion to Mary in a colony specially consecrated to her, induced them to send this precious treasure to Mont- real, with a request that it might be placed in a chapel dedicated to the Mother of God. Sister Bour- geoys happened just then to be in France on some important business for the colony, and to her care the statue was confided. It was but six or eight inches in height, skill- fully carved in brown wood. The niche wherein it stood was of gilt wood, adorned with sculpture and with precious stones. This statue was at first deposited in the little wooden chapel, but the piety of the colonists did not permit it to re- main long in that humble abode. They resolved to erect a stone build- ing; and on the 30th of January, 1673, the first stone was solemnly blessed by the Superior of the sem- inary, amidst a general assembly of aU the inhabitants of the island. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 471 This church was consecrated on the 25th of August, 1675, and was the first stone church erected on the island of Montreal.* Every day a priest went there to say mass ; and when Mary's festivals came round, they were celebrated with so much pomp and solemnity, that the peo- ple gathered from all parts, and the place became a famous pilgrimage. It became the term of public pro- cessions, and in times of danger or calamity, the faithful hastened thither to offer up their supplica- tions. In 1754, the church of Bon Se- cours was burned in a conflagra- tion which destroyed a considerable portion of the city ; but " great was the astonishment of all the world, and great the consolation of vir- tuous souls, when, on searching amongst the ruins, the venerated image of Our Lady of Good Aid was found in a state of perfect preservation." f War and famine visited the land, so as to keep the public mind in an unsettled and anxious state, and it * Manuel du Pelerin de Notre Dame de Bon Secours a Montreal, pp. 14, 15. t Ibid., p. 21. * was many years before the project of rebuilding the church could be carried into execution. On the 30th of June, 1771, the first stone of the new building was laid. This stone bore the inscription : ET Beat^ Mari^ Auxiliatrici sub titulo assumptionis. High up in the wall of the church, overlooking the St. Lawrence, there was a figure of the Blessed Virgin placed in a niche, inviting all those who sailed up or down the river to invoke the Star of the Sea. Time, and the action of the elements, have long since destroyed this venerable image. There was in Montreal another interesting monument of past times, also dedicated to Our Lady ; a church which formerly belonged to the R^collet Fathers, and from them popularly named the Church of the R^collets. It subsequently belong- ed to a congregation of men piously associated together under the pat- ronage of Our Blessed Lady. It bore on its fi-ont the date, 1725. This venerable structure is now no longer in existence. 47S HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIHOIN MART. But we have yet to speak of the noblest monument of piety ever erected in these northern regions — the parish church of Montreal, dedi- cated to Almighty God, under the invocation of Our Lady. This mag- nificent structure is built in that stately style of architecture which characterized the old French and Flemish cathedrals of the Middle Ages, and though, perhaps, not quite so florid as most of them, its exterior is of rare beauty. Two lofty towei-s rise on either side of the portal ; * in one of these there is a bell which weighs 29,400 lbs., and in the other a very good chime of bells ; the bourdon^ or great bell, is only rung on solemn occasions, and when it is, its deep, booming sound, is heard reverberating for miles along the river. The interior is divided by two rows of lofty pillars into a nave, and two lateral aisles, with a spacious choir, sur- rounded by the stalls of the rever- end Sulpicians to whom the church belongs. The roof is groined and arched. There are two ranges of * The height of the principal towers is 220 feet, and of the others 115 feet each ; the great window behind the high altar is 64 feet in height, f galleries running around three sides of the walls, and opposite the choir, just over the principal entrance, is the organ-loft. Over the high altar is a niche containing a statue of Our Lady, nearly of life-size. In the side aisles there are several chapels, with altars and balustrad- ing of dark wood, handsomely orna- mented. One of these is dedicated to the Infant Jesus, another to St. Amable. These two are on either side of the high altar. There is also one bearing the name of St. Joseph, and another that of St. Anne. Each of these has a hand- some altar-piece. The nave is lit by chandeliers of the most costly kind, and the aisles by oil-lamps. Before each of the altars where the Blessed Sacrament is kept, there hangs a heavy silver lamp of an- tique style and workmanship. Take it for all in all, it is a superb me- mento of Catholic piety and devo- tion to the Blessed Virgin. Quebec is scarcely behind Mont- real in devotion to the Mother of God. One of the first churches by 32 in width. The total number of pews is 1,244, capable of seating between six and seven thousand persons. ( Guide to the Cities of Canada. ) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 473 founded in the city was that of Our ' Lady of Victory, where the faithful still go to invoke the aid of her who is truly the Help of Christians. The Sisters of the Congregation have an establishment in Quebec, as they have in various parts of the coun- try, and wherever they have charge of the rising generation of women, Mary is sure to be loved and hon- ored. Space will not permit me to par- ticularize all the churches and chapels dedicated to Our Blessed Lady in Canada ; suffice it to say, that many of the parish churches bear her name, and that, in all the cities and toAvns, there is one altar dedicated to her wherever there is a second one in the church. Through- out the rural districts Mary reigns supreme : her festivals are cele- brated with all possible solenmity, and her altars adorned as richly as the means of the people will allow. There is scarcely a family all the country over without a Mary, and it is no unfrequent thing, amongst the French Canadians, to find several * There are also wooden crosses erected, at short intervals, to remind the people of Christ's passion and death ; they are generally accom- ^ daughters of the same family bear- ing the name of Mary in addition to their distinctive appellations. La Sainte Vierge is still the chosen patroness of all Lower Canada, and it may with truth be said that the wives and mothers of that province are entirely devoted to that great Queen, and live, for the most part, as becomes her servants. Lower Canada is essentially Catholic — a fact which stares the traveller in the face as he journeys along the peaceful highways. At every few miles he will perceive a pretty parish church raising its cross- crowned steeple, and over its por- tal, perhaps, a small statue of the Blessed Virgin set in a niche. The exterior of these churches is simple enough, but within they are, in general, well finished and tastefully decorated.* And the sweet Mother of Chris- tians is not insensible to all this homage : many and many a time has she manifested her gratitude and her protecting care on behalf of these good Canadians. Passing panied by some of the instruments of Our Sa- viour's torture — the ladder, the spear, the crown of thorns, etc., and inclosed by a wooden railing. 474 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. over the numerous instances on rec- ord, we will only mention two which occurred within the last few years in view of the whole province. In 1847, when the terrible typhus fever raged in Monti*eal and in all the ports of the St. Lawrence, many of the priests had already fallen vic- tims to the dreadful pestilence ; the devoted daughters of St. Vincent de Paul, the heroic Sisters of Charity, had suffered severely, no less than thirteen of their number having died within a few weeks ; the wor- thy bishop of Montreal was at length attacked by the fever and the whole city was thrown into con- sternation. Then it was, when all human succor was vain, that the faithful had recourse to the Mother of Mercy. A novena was made in the chm'ch of Bon Secours for the recovery of the bishop ; the good prelate himself made a vow that if the Blessed Virgin would be pleased to arrest the progress of the pesti- lence by her powerful intercession, and relieve his suffering people, he would have the event recorded on canvas. The prayers were heard; the vow was accepted; the fever stopped its ravages almost immedi- ately; the bishop recovered, con- trary to all expectation, and a hand- some painting was executed by his orders, representing the Emigrant Sheds, the chief scene of the pesti- lence, the Sisters of Charity, and some ecclesiastics in attendance on the sick, with the Blessed Virgin seated on a cloud, looking down on the sufferings and the charitable la- bors of her faithful servants. The picture was placed over one of the side altars in the church of Bon Secours. The other instance referred to oc- curred during the visitation of the cholera to Montreal in 1849. The disease was making fearful ravages amongst the people, and was daily on the increase, when the same pious prelate* had again recourse to the maternal heart of Mary. The statue of the Blessed Virgin was borne in triumph around the city, followed by a vast concourse of peo- ple, amounting, it was thought, to twenty thousand, walking in pro- cession with banners flying; some of the pious confraternities reciting the rosary and litany, and others * The Eight Rev. Ignatius Bourget, titular ^ bishop of Montreal. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 475 singing hymns. After visiting some others of the churches, the proces- sion returned to that of Our Lady of Secour, and the scene at that mo- ment was one which the mind can- not easily forget. It was a lovely evening, and a lovely sight, when the gray, soft, summer twilight faded into night, and the vast multitude knelt in front of the quaint old church, lighted up and wreathed with flowers as for a joyous festival. Above was the cloudless sky, where Mary sits enthroned beside her di- vine Son, and below, at the end of a long vista of glittering lights and over-arching boughs, was seen the statue of that amiable Virgin, re- minding the thousand, thousand supplicants, of her many claims on their confidence and affection. Dur- ing the solemn Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, the multitude without and within the church joined in fervent prayer. Our Lady of Bon Secours again extended her protecting arm over her own city, and in a few days the cholera dis- appeared from Montreal. In gratitude for this last favor, the good bishop replaced the statue of Our Lady by one larger and more richly adorned, which was borne in solemn procession to the favorite shrine, and there placed over the high altar in regal state. A crown- ed queen, with her maternal arms extended to embrace her humble clients. Our Lady stands, as we see her in the pictures of the Immacu- late Conception. In the cities of Lower Canada, the devotion to Mary is carried on with pious fervor. The different confraternities belonging to her are all in a flourishing condition. That of the Holy Scapular is diffused all over the country, and the society of the Living Rosary is daily gain- ing ground. The arch-confraternity of the Sacred Heart of Mary for the Conversion of Sinners was estab- lished several years ago in Mont- real, and it has borne good fruit in the numerous souls reclaimed from a life of sin through the prayers of its members and the compas- sionate goodness of the ever-Blessed Virgin. Upper, or Western Canada, is still far behind the sister province in re- ligion, owing to the comparatively small number of Catholics settled there. Indeed, the interior of the 476 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, country is even yet but thinly peo- pled, but its population is rapidly on the increase, and the zealous missionaries of the Cross are lo- cated here and there at regular in- tervals, like sentinels at their post. The Chui'ch of Upper Canada is growing fast under the watchful care of the bishops. These eminent prelates are all fervently devoted to Mary, and are using their best endeavors, in concert with their respective clergy, to promote her honor and glory ; to enrol the faith- ful in her confraternities, and to place churches under her invoca- tion. Convents are already estab- lished in each of the cities, and both Kingston and Toronto have magnificent cathedrals ; Ottawa, too, has a large and handsome cathe- dral, erected within the last few years. In the lower provinces of British America religion begins to raise her head. Nova Scotia, New Bruns- wick, Prince Edward Island, and the island of Newfoundland, have now their titular bishops, sufiragans of the archiepiscopal see of Halifax. A good bishop of St. John's, N. F.,* undertook to prosecute the building f of a spacious cathedral, commenced many years before by his predeces- sor,! and nothing could equal the enthusiasm with which the honest fishermen of Newfoundland second- ed his pious undertaking. The peo- ple not only furnished great part of the building materials, but drew them to the spot, and the church being placed on a steep hill, it was no easy matter to draw heavy loads to the top. But this was no obsta- cle, or at least it was one which the piety of the people easily over- came; it was no uncommon thing to see several fishermen drawing a cart up the hill loaded with w^ood or stone, and all seemed vieing with each other who should do most to forward the work. Every one gave what he could: those who had noth- ing else, freely gave their manual labor. It has been justly observed that never, in modern times, was the faith of Catholics, and its all- powerful efficacy, so strikingly dis- played as in the building of a su- perb cathedral by the poor fisher- men of Newfoundland. * The late lamented Bishop Mullock, an Irish Franciscan. t Right Rev. Dr. Fleming. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 477 In August, 1852, there was a pro- vincial synod held in Quebec, on which occasion nearly all the pre- lates of British America were pres- ent either in person or by proxy. The bishops of Upper Canada were met in Montreal by some of the prelates of the lower provinces, and, after vespers on a Sunday evening, a procession was formed consisting of the greater part of the Catholic population of the city, to visit Our Blessed Lady in her shrine of Bon Secours, and to implore her blessing on the council about to open dm'ing the following week ; at the head of the procession walked six bishops with the reverend Su- perior of the seminary, followed by the countless multitude of the faithful. A solemn benediction was given at the altar of Bon Secours, and one of the prelates* addressed die people from the steps of the church, announcing the object of the approaching assembly in Que- bec, and soliciting the prayers of the people on behalf of their pas- * The Right Rev. Armand de Charbonnel, then bishop of Toronto. f The Chapel of Loretto was founded by the i^ * tors during the sitting of the coun- cil, that the Holy Ghost might pre- side over their deliberations, and that Mary might be with them as she was of old with the Apostles when they met together. This scene is one of tlje proudest and most cherished reminiscences in the an- nals of Montreal, and will, we doubt not, be related with pride and pleas- ure by generations yet unborn. It may be well to mention here that the Indian tribes of Canada are for the most part firmly at- tached to the Catholic faith. They have a large settlement near Que- bec, named Loretto ; f one near the southern shore of the St. Lawrence, named Caughnawaga, some miles above Montreal, and another on the Lake of the Two Mountains, an ex- pansion of the river Ottawa. These people are extremely simple and well-disposed, and are remarkable for their piety and reverence for religion. When Bishop Flaget visited Can- ada, a few years before his death. Jesuit Father Chaumonot, in fulfillment of a vow made by him in France ; it was opened for service in 1674, and is an exact counterpart of the famous Santa Gasa. 478 mSTORT OF "'HE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. ho was taken by the Sulpicians of Montreal to visit the Indian village on the Lake of the Two Mountains, where an old schoolmate of his was their pastor. Here a large band of Algonquins came to visit him and to receive his blessing. They bore before them a crimson banner, in- scribed with the Ave Maria of the Sulpicians; and falling upon their knees, appeared full of humility and faith. They conducted him to their village, and on his arrival, he was saluted with firing of cannon, while all the inhabitants were on their knees to receive his benediction. At this mass the Indians chanted canticles in two responding choirs, and the bishop was moved even to * tears. He next visited their superb Calvary carved in wood.* This representation of Calvary is a work of great ingenuity : it is situated on a sand-hill behind the village, and is used by the Indians as a sort of pilgrimage. "What a beautiful proof is here of the maternal tenderness of the Catholic Church, and her wonderful power as a conservator of the human race. Had not these Algonquins and Ottawas been con- verted to Catholicity, and remained faithful to its precepts, they would in all probability have disappear- ed long ago from the face of the earth, like many of their kindred tribes. * lAfe of Bishop Flaget, p. 19L CHAPTER XV. DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN IN THE UNITED STATES. Canada and the f other British provinces were discovered and settled under the auspices of Mary, the same may be truly said of the Great West. Father Marquette, the illus- trious Jesuit missionary, who, in pursuit of " the lost sheep " through the pathless forests of the West, dis- covered the great river since known as the Mississippi, tells us himself that he had " always invoked Mary since he had been in the Ottawa country, to obtain of God the grace to be able to visit the nations on the river Mississippi."* His biog- rapher tells us that " from his pious mother the youthful Marquette im- bibed that warm, generous, and un- wavering devotion to the Mother of God, which m.akes him so conspic- uous among her servants." f Mar- quette was, in relation to the Mis- * Life of Father Marquette, by J. G. Shea, sissippi, what Jacques C artier was to the St. Lawrence : each disclosed to the civilized world a vast region before unknown, and both were ser- vants of Mary. No other discoverer, in ancient or modern times, occupies so grand a position in history as the Jesuit Marquette. Others labored and explored at the bidding of earthly princes, for the advance- ment of human science, or, perhaps, even for self-aggrandizement, but Marquette did all, undertook all, for the greater glory of God, according to the well-known motto of his order : no earthly prince or princess gave him his commission — Jesus Christ was his sovereign, and Mary "the patroness of his mission." Thus we find him having recourse to her in all his doubts and dangers. "De- spairing now of being able to reach his destined goal without the inter- position of Heaven, the missionary turned to the patroness of his mis- sion, the Blessed Virgin Immaculate, f Narrative of Father Marquette, p. 6. 480 BISTORT OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. and with his two companions began f a novena in her honor. Nor was his trust betrayed," adds the biogra- pher; "God heard his prayer, and his illness ceased. During this painful wintering, which, for all his expressions of comfort, was one of great hardship and suffering, his hoiu*s were chiefly spent in prayer. Convinced that the term of his ex- istence was drawing rapidly to a close, he consecrated this period of quiet to the exercises of a spiritual retreat, in which his soul overflowed * lAfe of Father Marquette, p. 69. ^ Ihid. X The account of the death of this famous missionary is so very beautiful that we cannot forbear giving it here. " Calmly and cheerfully he saw the approach of death, for which he pre- pared by assiduous prayer; his oflSlce he regu- larly recited to the last day of his life; a medita- tion on death, which he had long since prepared for this hour, he now made the subject of his thoughts; and as his kind but simple compan- ions seemed overwhelmed at the prospect of their approaching loss, he blessed some water with the usual ceremonies, gave his companions directions how to act in his last moments, how to arrange his body when dead, and to commit it to the earth with the ceremonies he pre- scribed. He now seemed but to seek a grave. At last perceiving the mouth of a river which still bears his name, he pointed to an eminence as the place of his buriaL . . . His companions then erected a Uttle bark cabin, and stretched the dying missionary beneath it as comfortably as their want permitted them. Still a priest, with heavenly consolation, as rising above its frail and now totterins; tenement, it soared towards that glorious home it was so soon to enter." * Wlien opening a new mis- sion amongst the savages, we find him adorning the rustic altar which he had raised with pictures of the Blessed Virgin, under whose invo- cation he had placed his new mis- sion ; f and when he felt his end approaching, the names of Jesus and Mary were ever on his lips.J He died as he had lived, devoted to rather than a man, he thousjht of his ministry, and, for the last time, heard the confessions of his companions, and encouraged them to rely with confidence on the protection of God, then sent them to take the repose they so much needed. When he felt his agony approaching, he called them, and taking his crucifix from around his neck," he placed it in their hands, and thanked the Almighty for the favor of per- mitting him to die a Jesuit, a missionary, and alone. Ilien he relapsed into silence, inter- rupted only by his pious aspirations, till at last, with the names of Jesus and Mary on his lips, with his eyes raised as if in ecstasy above his crucifix, with his face all radiant with joy, he passed from the scene of his labors to the God who was to be his rev/ard. Obedient to his directions, his companions, when the first out- bursts of grief were over, laid out the body for burial, and to the sound of his little chapel-bell, bore it slowly to the spot which he had pointed out. Here they committed his body to the earth, and raising a cross above it, returned to their now desolate cabin. Such was the edify- HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 481 the Mother of God, who had ever been the especial object of his love and veneration. " The privilege," says his biographer, " which the Church honors under the title of the Immaculate Conception, was the constant object of his thoughts; from his earliest youth, he daily re- cited the little office of the Immac- ulate Conception, and fasted every Saturday in Our Lady's honor. As a missionary, a variety of devotions directed to the same end, still show his love for her, and to her he turned in all his trials. When he discovered the great river, when he founded his new mission, he gave it the name of the Conception, and no letter, it is said, ever came from his hand that did not contain the words, '' Blessed Yirgin Immaculate." The smile that lighted up his dying face, induced his companions to believe that she had appeared before the eyes of her devoted client.* That the Blessed Virgin took an active part in the discovery of the Mississippi, no candid mind can doubt. Marquette himself tells us ing and holy death of the illustrious explorer of the Mississippi, on Saturday, 18th May, 1675." r-Lif^ of Father Marquette, p. Ixxi. * in his narrative that "he put his voyage under her protection, prom- ising her, that if she did them the favor to discover the great river, he would give it the name of Concep- tion, and that he would also give that name to the first mission which he should establish among those new nations, as he actually did among the Illinois."! . . . The name which the pious missionary gave to the Mississippi is found only in his own narrative, and on the map which accompanies it. The name of the Immaculate Conception, which he gave to the mission among the Kaskaskias, was retained as long as that mission lasted, and is now the title of the church in the present town of Kaskaskia. Although his wish was not realized in the name of the great river, it has been ful- filled in the fact that the Blessed Yirgin, under the title of the Im- maculate Conception, has been cho- sen by the prelates of the United States assembled in a national coun- cil, as the patroness of the whole country, so that not only in the vast * Life of Father Marquette, p. Ixxii •f Narrative, see. L p. 8. 482 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. valley of the Mississippi, but from * the Atlantic to the Pacific, the Blessed Virgin Immaculate is as deal* to every American Catholic as IS Our Lady of Guadaloupe to our Mexican neighbors." * The immediate successors of Mar- quette in the evangelization of the western regions were scarcely less devoted to Mary than he was him- self. Thus we find Father Henne- pin, a R^collet friar, during his missions on the Upper Mississippi, chanting the Litany of the Blessed Vii-gin as he journeyed with his Indians in a canoe on the great river. The name of Mary, and the glorious titles wherewith the Church delights to honor her, were among the first sounds that awoke the slumbering echoes of the Father of Waters after its discovery by Euro- peans. When the great valley of the Mis- sissippi became partially peopled by settlers from the different nations of Europe, religion continued to progress until the fatal breaking up of the Jesuit missions, when those zealous champions of the Cross were * NarrcUive of Father Marquette, sec. i., p. 8, note. forced to leave the rich harvest of their toil to be gathered in by others; then the scattered flock, being deprived of pastoral care, and surrounded by a half-heathen population, began to lose the fervor and simplicity of that faith which they had received in happier days. Coldness and indifference prevailed among them ; and how could it be otherwise, when they had neither bishop, nor priest, nor sacrament? The Catholic regions of the West and South, the conquests of the Jesuits and Recollets, were fast fall- ing away from their high vocation. The Eastern and Middle States were meanwhile peopled with an active, bustling population, professing ei- ther some Protestant fam^y, which they called religion, or otherwise no religion save that of expediency and worldly prosperity. The immense countries now constituting the Unit- ed States were on the point of being lost to the Universal Church, but God in his own good time raised up the means of defence. A branch of the order of St. Sulpice was founded at Baltimore, in the Catholic State of Maryland, about the year 1791, and their establishment was a tower HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 483 of strength for Catholicity. The priests whom they trained for the mission were men of rare prudence and of fervent zeal, devoted to the Blessed Mother of God, and ready to sacrifice all for the honor and glory of God. Baltimore had already a bishop, the only one south of the St. Lawrence, east or west of the Alle- ghanies. The venerable Bishop Car- roll bore on his own shoulders the whole episcopal burden of all those infant churches founded by the early missionaries, and none but a man endowed with the rarest qualities, and the most vigorous intellect, could have borne as he did, for many years, this heavy weight of care and responsibility, or fulfilled the arduous duties of his sacred office. In 1792 pious missionaries ar- rived from France, and among them was M. Flaget, afterwards bishop of Louisville. " Having unreservedly offered his services to Bishop Car- roll, he cheerfully accepted from the latter the distant mission of Yin- cennes, where there was a consider- able number of French settlers, who had been long deprived of the ser- vices of a clergyman. . . . M. Flaget * arrived at Yincennes a few days before Christmas, 1792. He found the church in a sadly dilapidated state. It was a very poor log build- ing, open to the weather, neglect- ed, and almost tottering. The altar was a temporary structure of boards badly put together. . . . The congre- gation was, if possible, in a still more miserable condition than the church. Out of nearly seven hun- dred souls of whom it was com- posed, the missionary was able, with all his zealous efforts, to induce only twelve to approach the Holy Com- munion during the Christmas fes- tivities. His heart was filled with anguish at the spiritual desolation which brooded over the place."* But things were soon changed: the zealous efforts of the pious mission- ary, through the grace of God, soon fructified, and a manifest change took place in the congregation, so that, at his departure from Yin- cennes, he might say with truth, says his biographer, " that if but twelve adults could be found, on his first arrival, to approach the Holy Communion, there was then prob- ably not more than that number ^5 * Life of Bishop Flaget, ch. i., pp. 30, 33, 35. 48-4 HISTOu^i ox ^ilE DEVOTIO:, j.u TEE BLESSED VIBGIN MART. of persons who were not pious com- municants." In 1811 the excellent pastor of Yincennes was made bishop of Bardstown, in Kentucky, the first bishopric erected in the West. It was much against his will that he accepted the appointment, but he could not disobey the positive in- junction of the Holy See, and cheer- fully gave up his own will for the good of religion and the salvation of souls. He tells us himself, in a letter to the directors of the Asso- ciation for the Propagation of the Faith, that it was six months after- wards before he was enabled to reach Bardstown, his episcopal see, and that through a subscription made by his friends in Baltimore.* There was, as yet, no church in Bardstown — a poor prospect for a bishop ; but M. Flaget was not the man to be easily discouraged where there was question of doing good, or advancing the interests of re- ligion. The ceremony of his in- stallation must, we think, be inter- esting to our readers. " The bishop there found the faithful kneeling on the grass, and singing canticles in * Annais of the Propagation, voL iii, p. 189. f English: the counti-y women were nearly all dressed in white, and many of them were still fasting, though it was then four o'clock in the evening; they ha^^ng enter- tained a hope to be able on that day to assist at his mass, and to receive the Holy Communion from his hands. An altar had been pre- pared at the entrance of the fii-st court, under a bower composed of four small trees which overshadow- ed it with their foliage. Here the bishop put on his pontifical robes. After the aspersion of the holy wa- ter, he was conducted to the chapel in procession, with tlie singing of the Litany of the Blessed Virgin, and the whole closed with the prayers and ceremonies prescribed for the occa- sion in the Roman Pontifical."! Here again we see Mary presid- ing over the installation of the first bishop of the West; and that the new prelate considered her protec- tion as of the last importance to religion is clearly proved by the interesting memoir from which we have already quoted. In passing thi'ough Lancaster, a village on his way, he found some Catholic fam- f Life of Bishop Flaget, ch. iv., p. 72. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION^ TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 485 ilies of good standing in society, and baptized their children. He had hopes that a good congregation would, in time, be formed there ; but he remarked with regret that "the devotion to the Holy Virgin see-med unknown in those parts."* At another station where the good Bishop remained some days, he found the church in such a mis- erable condition that he could not say mass. Not much more than a quarter of a century has since pass- ed away, yet these poor villages, so utterly destitute of religious ac- commodation, have many of them become large cities and episcopal sees, so rapidly do things progress in the West. The biographer of Bishop Flaget quotes in this con- nection an interesting passage from the Annals of the Propagation: "Following the traces of this jour- ney of seven hundred leagues, one would say, that wherever Bishop Flaget pitched his tent, he there laid the foundations of a new church, and that each one of his principal halts was destined to be- I come a bishopric. There is Yin- I cennes, in Indiana ; there is Detroit, * Ldfe of Bishop Flaget, p. 109. ^ * in Michigan ; there is Cincinnati, the principal city of Ohio ; there is Buffalo, on the borders of the lakes ; there is Pittsburgh, which he evan- gelized in returning to Louisville, after thirteen months' absence, after having given missions ;wherever, on his route, there was a colony of whites, a plantation of slaves, or a village of Indians." In 1799 the Russian prince Gal- litzin, a convert to the Catholic faith, who might well be called one of the apostles of North America, established in western Pennsylvania a mission under the title of LorettOj doubtless under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin. In 1812 a convent was founded in Kentucky, by the Rev. Charles Nerinkx, for the education of young females, " and was called Loretlo, after the famous asylum of the Holy Virgin in Italy. Besides the object alluded to above, the sisterhood was to take charge of destitute orphans, and its members were taught to love poverty, and to earn their own livelihood by manual labor. They were to cherish a special devotion towards that model and pride of her ^ sex, the pm'e and holy One, — - €80 msTonr of the devotion to the blessed virgin mart. ' Our tainted nature's solitary boast,' the Immaculate Mary, Mother of God made man. They were styled, ' The Lovers of Mary at the foot of the Cross.' Standing with her near the Cross, they were daily to sym- patliize with the dying Son and the afflicted Mother, with the pious ejac- ulations: * suffering Jesus I sor- rowful Mary!' Such was the idea of the sainted founder, and God be- stowed an abundant blessing on his enterprise. The society grew apace, and the most edifying fervor reigned throughout the establishment of Lo- retto. The mother house was soon able to send out colonies to other parts of Kentucky, and subse- quently to found houses in Missouri and Arkansas."* "These women sought for pov- erty in every thing : in their monas- teries, and in the plain neatness of their chapels. . . . They were the edification of all who knew them, and their singular piety and pen- itential lives reminded one of all that we have read of the ancient monasteries of Palestine and The- bais."t ''The same year (1812) which * Life cf Bishop Flaget, p. 289-90. * gave birth to the Loretto Society, likewise witnessed the commence- ment of another sisterhood, destined also to do much for promoting the cause of religion and education." J The mother house of this community is named Nazareth, in commemora- tion of the humble abode of Mary. The members are known as the Sis- ters of Charity, and they are devot- ed to the twofold object of teaching and exercising the corporeal and spiritual works of mercy. The in- stitution has attained a high rep- utation for sanctity and usefulness, and has extended itself far and near over the country. In 1819, when, in consequence of the increasing age and the numer- ous infirmities of the venerable Bishop Flaget, a coadjutor was given him, the new prelate was consecrated on the Feast of the Assumption, in the newly -erected cathedral of Louisville. " This was the first episcopal consecration which took place beyond (or west of) the Alleghany mountains," and we see that the ceremony was per- formed under the auspices of Our Blessed Lady. ■\ Ibid. X Ibid., 291, 293. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 487 In 1820 the college of St. Joseph was founded, and in 1821 that of St. Mary's ; both in Kentucky. Thus did the pious bishop, who was main- ly instrumental in founding both, place the education of the rising generation under the tutelary care of Mary and her blessed spouse. This holy patriarch of the West went to Rome about the year 1837, and having business to transact at Vienna, he made it a point to visit the sanctuary of Loretto, "to sat- isfy that tender devotion he had from childhood cherished towards the Immaculate Virgin, Mother of God. He made a retreat there, under the direction of the Jesuit Father.* God was pleased to at- test the sanctity of this holy pre- late, even by the gift of miracles, as w^e see from his Memoirs. The young lady thus miraculously cured was a Miss Olympia de Monti ; she vras attacked by a fever, which finally became of the most malig- nant kind, and she was reduced to the very point of death. She re- ceived the Holy Viaticum with sen- timents of the greatest fervor, and made up her mind that she was to * Life of Bishop Flaget, p. 315. die. Just then Bishop Flaget was induced to pay her a visit. When Madame de Monti had conducted him to her daughter's room, she re- tired. The bishop remained fifteen or twenty minutes with Miss de Monti. She afterwards related to her parents that he gave her his blessing twice, and made the sign of the cross on her forehead. More- over, the holy prelate promised to pray for her intention during nine consecutive days, and recommended to her to recite the Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, and a prayer to the Blessed Virgin. The prayers were heard, and the young lady was restored to health. This miracle is so well authenticated that no ra- tional mind can doubt it."f Jesus and Mary, never invoked in vain, were pleased to honor their faithful servant by this miraculous cure. " He had always cherished a most tender devotion to the Virgin Mother of God ; he had imbibed this feeling at the same pure fountain of living waters from which all the saints of God, from St. John, the beloved dis- ciple, down to St. Alphonso Liguori, drank it in so abundantly. He had t Ibid., p. 318-323. 488 mSTORT OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN 3TARY. made it a practice through life to recite a part of the Rosary daily; and now, while unable to perform other devotions which required read- ing, he gladly availed himself of the occasion to multiply this simple, but touching form of supplication." * Following the march of civiliza- tion to the Far "West, we find in the van the stalwart champion of the Cross, the Rev. Father de Smet, S. J., and M. Blanchet, now the ven- erable archbishop of Walla -Walla. The former may truly be called the Apostle of Oregon, the greatest ex- plorer of the Western wilderness since the days of Father Marquette. We find this illustrious mission- ary planting the devotion to Mary wherever he went, side by side with the worship of God. At each of his principal missions he gave her name to either a church, a school, or some other charitable institution. Thus, when a convent of the sisters of Notre Danie was established in Willamette, its chapel received the name of St. Mary's ; when a chm*ch was erected amongst the Flathead Indians, it was named St. Mary's * Ufe of Bishop Flaget, p. 350. f Oregon Misaions, p. 60. Church; that established amongst the Flatbows was dedicated to Mary, under the title of the As- sumption, and that of the Koetensis was called the Church of the Holy Heart of Mary.f "Nowhere," says Father de Smet himself — " nowhere does religion make greater progress or present brighter prospects for the future than in Oregon." J We have every reason to hope that this remark will be verified, for the foun- dations of those infant churches were well laid. "On the Feast of the Holy Heart of Mary," says the missionary again, " I sang High Mass, thus taking spiritual posses- sion of this land, which was now for the first time trodden by a minister of the Most High. This station bears the name of the Holy Heart of Mary." § Speaking of another tribe amongst whom he celebrated the Feast of the Assumption, he says : " Since my arrival among the Indians, the feast of the glorious Assumption of the Blessed Viigin Mary has ever been to me a day of great consolation. . . . The Cross was elevated on the border of a J Oregon Missions, p. 98. § nid., p. 126. EISTOBY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 489 lake, and the station received the beautiful name of the Assumption. Under the auspices of this good Mother, in whose honor they have for many years sung canticles, we hope that religion will take deep root and flourish amidst this tribe, where union, innocence, and sim- plicity reign in full vigor."* A Canadian, settled in those parts, had been many years without see- ing a priest, and on hearing of the arrival of the missionaries at the source of the Columbia (near which he resided), he hastened thither with his wife and children in order to have them baptized. '' The Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Vir- gin, this favor was conferred on them. . . . This was a solemn day for the desert! The august sacri- fice of Mass was offered ; Morigeau devoutly approached the holy table. At the foot of the humble altar he received the nuptial benediction, and the mother, surrounded by her children and six little Indians, was regenerated in the holy waters of baptism. In memory of so many benefits, a large cross was erected * Oregon Missions, p. 135. t Ibid., p. 121. in the plain, which, from that time, is caUed the Plain of the Nativity.^' ■\ The name of St. Mary's river was also given to one of the principal streams in those remote regions, J so that woods and wilds, and waters were alike consecrated to her, and her name impressed on every strik- ing object. When the good Indians prayed for their benefactors, it was the rosary they recited for them, ^ invoking the tender heart of Mary on their behalf. " How happy should I be," writes Father de Smet to one of these benefactors; "how happy should I be, could I give you to understand how great, how sweet, how enrapturing is their devotion to the august Mother of God I The name of Mary, w^hich pronounced in the Indian language, is something so sweet and endearing, delights and charms them. The hearts of these good children of the forest melt, and seem to overflow, when they sing the praises of her whom they, as well as we, call their Moth- er." || In another place, the whole week preceding the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was devoted X Ibid., p. 218. II Hid. p. 284. § Ibid., pp. 245, 246. 490 EISTOJiY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIROIN MARY. to the preparation for receiving the Holy Communion on that festival. And again, we find the hunting- party who travelled with the mis- sionary, stopping under the shade of a majestic tree to celebrate the Feast of the Divine Maternity. "The sun's last rays had long disappeared beneath the horizon, ere all was ready for the evening prayer. After which, notwithstanding the fatigues of the day, a fire was kindled before the missionary's tent, and the great- er part of the night consecrated by these fervent children of the woods, to the reconciliation of their souls with God."* How beautiful is the fervor of these guileless Christians ; how edi- fying their example ! Religious confraternities had been formed amongst them at St. Maiy's, and when their spiritual father was forced to leave them, to bear the tidings of salvation to others of their brethren, we find them adding some short ejaculations to their morning and evening prayers; "first, to the Heart of Jesus, as protector of the men's Confraternity ; second, to the Blessed Virgin, patroness of * OregonJdUsions, pp. 389, 390. f the women's Sodality ; third, to St. Michael, model of the brave; fourth, to St. Raphael, the guide of travel- lers ; fifth, to St. Hubert, the patron of hunters; sixth, to St. Francis Xavier, for the conversion of idola- ters. We shall see," adds the zeal- ous missionary, " that these pious aspirations were not addressed to Heaven in vain." Let us hope that such may be the case, and that the vast regions thus happily evangel- ized, may continue to progress in civilization — that true civilization founded on religion — and that Mary, the Mother of God, may ever reign over the hearts of its people, of what origin soever they may be. Thus we see that the holy Mother of God presided over the discovery and the evangelization of all the northern, southern, and western re- gions of the American continent. If her influence was not so apparent in the discovery or settlement of the Middle and Eastern countries of North America, she has since ob- tained the supreme honor of being chosen patroness of all the United States. Owing to the wonderful increase of Catholicity in that coun- try, there is no city within its vast HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 493 extent, that has not one or more * churches dedicated to the Mother of God, under her numerous titles, while churches and chapels, con- vents, schools, hospitals, and insti- tutions of various kinds, bearing her name, are everywhere met. Some of the largest and grandest cathe- drals either are, or will be, placed under her gracious patronage. From the stormy coast of Maine to the sunny shores of Alabama, and Flor- ida, and Louisiana, and from St. Louis, Dubuque, Chicago, and Mil- waukee, to New York and Boston, monumental churches and charities in honor of Mary Immaculate, cover the land. On the highest point of the Alleghanies is seated Zoretto, the thriving Catholic settlement, with its handsome church, founded by the Eussian prince, Demetrius de Gallitzin, in honor of the ever- Blessed Virgin ; and where the mighty cataract of the North pours the waters of one region into the lap of another, over that sublime scene Our Lady of the Angels now presides in a college of the Lazarist Fathers, and Our Lady of Loretto in a convent of the Sisters of Loretto. Each new diocese, as it springs into existence, adds its quota of churches, chapels, convents and schools to swell the long list of Mary's foundations in America. Confraternities and sodalities in her honor, are numerous in all the cities and towns, and even in the rural districts. The Society of the Holy Rosary, those of the Scapular, the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the Conversion of Sinners, the So- dality of the Children of Mary, etc., are everywhere established. Pro- cessions in honoi' of the Mother of God take place regularly in the churches, and the devotion of the Month of Mary is faithfuUy practised in all parts of America. Even in the land of the Pilgrim Fathers, Puritan New England, churches in honor of the Mother of God raise their spires to heaven all the coun- try over. In Boston, the chief of the New England cities. Our Lady has three stately temples dedicated to her, under her titles of the Im- maculate Conception, Gate of Heav- en, and Star of the Sea; so, in New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and, indeed, all the cities of the Union. True, the w^ayside Madonnas are nowhere to be seen in the United 492 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. States, the gracious image of the Vii'gin-Mother smiles not down on her children in the streets or squares of our cities; nevertheless, the de- votion to Mary is seated deep in the hearts of American Catholics in every section of the country. Canada, and especially Lower Canada, has, as we have seen, been devoted from the first to the Blessed Vu-gin. The fervor of the early set- tlers has scarcely, if at all, dimin- ished, and Mary is now, in the nine- teenth century, as loved and honored by the great mass of the French Canadians as she was two hundred years ago, when Champlain and de Maisonneuve, Sister Bourgeoys, and Madame de la Pelletrie vied with each other in promoting her glory. Nor is this devotion of Mary con- fined to the descendants of the French settlers ; the Iiish emi- grants are gradually spreading abroad over all the country, and wherever they go, they bring with them at least the germ of that de- votion, and readily fall in with the French ceremonies and religious exercises, in honor of her who is es- pecially dear to them as the most afflicted of Catholic nations. In f fact, no people are more sincerely devout to Mary than the Irish. From their earliest youth they are trained up in love and reverence for her ; the devotion of the llosary and that of the Holy Scapular are popular in every part of Ireland, and in the cities there are various other confraternities established in honor of Mary. Hence it is that they propagate, with the Catholic faith, that reverence for the Blessed Virgin which has raised so many noble churches and convents in her honor throughout the United States. The German Catholics have also contributed largely to spread this devotion; many of their churches in the American cities are dedi- cated to Mary, while the Spanish element, so strong in the South and Southwest, has done much to pro-, mote the public veneration of the Mother of God. America, then, from north to south, fi'om Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, and from Chili to Massachusetts, is deeply imbued with devotion to Mary. Montreal, lately the capital of the British prov- inces, is still, and will, we trust, ever be the city of Mary, seated like HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 493 a queen on her own majestic river, * and watching with anxious interest the increasing homage offered to her divine Mistress in the less favored countries around. Even in the Uni- ted States the prospect is cheering. Religious communities are spring- ing up everywhere under the aus- pices of the bishops, and the masses of the people are beginning to catch some of the holy fervor of their prelates. In Ireland, the Apostle-nation of the world, a great revival has been going on for many years. Religious institutions are being founded and revived all the country over; the ancient churches and monasteries, ^ so long ruined and deserted, are now being restored ; some of them with renovated splendor, and the National University, some years ago founded in Dublin, will be, as it were, an impregnable bulwark for the Irish Church — a wall of brass rearing itself up against the furious attacks of heiesy and infidelity. And Mary will reign as a queen within those honored walls, presid- ing over the education of the gen- erations who are yet to come, and of the faithful missionaries who are to perpetuate the faith of Christ and the devotion to her through all the nations of the earth, who in her are blessed. pilgrimages. CHAPTER XYI. PILGRIMAGES OF FRANCE. HE practice of f making pilgrim- ages," says M. Michaud, * " has been encouraged in all religions ; it is, moreover, based on a sentiment natural to man." This remark is just and true ; all nations have had consecrated places whither they made it a duty to re- pair, at certain commemorative pe- riods, to obtain favors more easily from the divinity, by visiting the isites which they believed sanctified by his presence or by his miracles. Pilgrimages are as ancient as so- ciety itself; those of the East are, nearly all, connected with diluvian memories; indeed, those pilgrim- ages, whose institution is lost in the obscurity of time, have gener- ally, for their object, the lofty moun- * Hint, des Crois., t. L tains whereon was formed the ker- nel of the great nations of Asia, who choose to descend, like their rivers, from the rocky bosom of their mountains. The Chinese, who style themselves Sons of the Moun- tains, climb on their knees the steep sides of Kicou-hou-chan ; the eastern Tartars go to venerate the mountain of Chan-pa-chan, as the root of their tribes, and some of the Gentile Hindoos, that, of Pyr- pan-jal; the Japanese undertake, at least, once in their life, the peril- ous pilgrimage of Jsje, a mountain from which their ancestors descend- ed: the Apalachites, or Floridian savages, repair, on the return of every season, to sacrifice on Mount Ola'imi, in thanksgiving to the sun, who, they say, saved their fathers from a deluge, etc. These pilgrim- ages are founded on traditions cor- rupted by time, but undoubtedly historical ; in them are perceived HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 490 the traces and the effects of the terror which prompted the build- ing of the famous Tower of Babel. Discouraged by the confusion of tongues, the post-diluvian tribes, finding that they could not take refuge in towers reaching to the clouds, took up their abode on high mountains, to preserve themselves, if possible, from the disastrous con- sequences of another deluge. It was only when pasturage failed on the mountains, and the soil would not yield sufficient produce to sup- port the rising colonies, that they were forced to settle on the plains, which they had often to drain before they were fit for tillage. Hence comes the respect enter- tained by the Eastern nations for their sacred mountains — a respect which they testify by annual visits, accompanied by vows, offerings, and prayers. After having venerated the cradle of nations, men venerated that of creeds ; then the sites which re- called great remembrances ; then persons who made themselves illus- trious by heroic or religious acts. Thus it is that the gratitude of the Jewish people preserves, from f age to age, the tomb of Esther and of Mardocha'i, whither the Hebrews, from every part of Asia, have gone on pilgrimage for two thousand years. Strange it is that the tomb of two exiles, erected by the grati- tude of some captives, has survived the great Assyrian empire, and that it alone saves the ruins of Ecbatana from utter oblivion ! Man is like the ivy ; he must rest somewhere, and cling to something, that he may have courage to live. When he finds neither sympathy nor consolation among his fellows, he instinctively conjures up the beings of a better world, and seeks from them that succor which society either will not or cannot give. Of this we have a remarkable proof in the conduct of the Indians, when oppressed by the first Portuguese viceroys ; these unarmed and inof- fensive people, finding neither pro- tection nor support from the suc- cessors of Alfonso d'Albuquerque, sat down, as suppliants, before the tomb of that great man, to demand from the illustrious dead that jus- tice which the living would not grant either to their rights or their prayers. 196 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. Protestantivsm, which discolors f and pulverizes all it touches, did not fail to do away with the pious visits which Christians made in eveiy age to places sanctified by the sufferings of Chiist, or those which his Mother made famous by her favoi-s. Turks, the infuriate enemies of images, have lighted golden lamps before the altars of Mary ; but what Protestant has ever placed a lamp in the Holy Sepul- chre; what Protestant has prayed before the manger of Bethlehem, as did Saladin and the Caliph Omar? "These local devotions," say they, "are superstitions: God is every- where." Doubtless God is every- where, and Catholics know it well ; they have not yet to learn the first question of their catechism. They knew, fifteen centuries before the * It was over the threshing-floor of Areuna that the destroying angel ceased his ravages, after the prayer of David. "From all time," says a great ecclesiastical writer, " God has par- ticularly marked out certain places for receiving the prayers and vows of men. One must be more incredulous as to the history of the Church than to any other, not to believe that God wishes his saints to be specially honored in cer- tain places, where He bestows graces not given elsewhere, and this in order to attract the nations. time of the apostate monk, Luther, and they know it now, that God hears in all places the prayer of the faithful soul; but what is there to prevent God from attaching some particular graces to those ancient shrines where he has often vouch- safed to manifest his power by prodigies ? There was many a ver- dant hill in Judea which he might have pointed out to David for the place of his temple, yet he chose the rocky threshing-fioor of Areuna, the Jebusite, because he had there once before displayed his mercy ; * and also, if we may believe a charming tradition, preserved like a desert-tlower amid the dark tents of Arabia, because the place was sanctified of old by a noble instance of fraternal love.f Man is, by na- ture, so imperfect and so prone to f Jerusalem was a ploughed field ; two broth- ers owned the lot of ground on which the Tem- ple was subsequently built ; one of these brotli- ers was married, and had several children ; the other lived alone ; but they farmed toirelher the piece of ground left them by their father. Tne harvest- time being come, the two brothers bound up their sheaves, of which the}' made two equal shai'es, and left them on the field. During the night there came a happy thought into the mind of the unmarried brother. He said to himself, "My brother has a wife and HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 497 evil, that he has always some ex- piation to make before approach- ing the source of all sanctity ; when that expiation seems to him in some measure proportionate to the fault, he feels a more sensible trust in the assistance of Heaven ; hence came the generous confidence of the martyrs, who hoped in propor- tion to their sufferings. The pil- grim acts on the same principle ; to prayer he adds fatigue, priva- tion, and the toil of travel, and he hopes, in virtue of the sufferings he imposes on himself, that he may find favor with God, who himself suffered so much ! How can such a hope be vain ? The eminent historian Eobertson, unblinded by the narrow privileges of his sect, candidly acknowledges children to feed, and it is not meet that my share should be a-s large as his ; I will go then and put some of my sheaves with his secretly ; knowing nothing of it, he cannot refuse them." And he did accordingly. The same night, the other brother awoke, and said to his wife, " My brother is young ; he lives alone, and has no one to comfort him in his toil and fatigue ; it is not just that we should take from the common field as much as he ; let us arise and add some of our sheaves to his without his knowledge, so that he cannot refuse to take the sheaves." And it was done as he said. Next day, each of the brothers was surprised to see that the heaps the benefits for which Europe is in- debted to foreign pilgrimages. In the first place, the enfranchisement of the commons, the creation of commerce and shipping, the propa- gation of knowledge, the improve- ment of agriculture, and the intro- duction of numberless plants and trees, with various kinds of grain, which now contribute to the main- tenance of the Western nations ; then, the emancipation of the serfs to which the pilgrimages contribu- ted more than any thing else ; for the feudal lord who mingled, bare- foot,* with the pilgrims of all con- ditions who set out with him on some holy journey [v^age), more easily understood, in those hours of penance and humility, that those despised slaves, whom antiquity were still equal ; neither could account for the prodigy. So it went on for several nights ; but as each carried to his brother's heap just the same number of sheaves, the heap always re- mained the same, till, one night, both having sat up to watch for the cause of this miracle, they both met with their load of sheaves. Now, the place where so good a thought came at once into the minds of two men, and was so per^ severingly carried out, must be a place agree- able to God, and the men blessed it, and chose it for the site of a house of prayer. ^4 * See Memoirs of the Sire de Joinville. 488 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. placed in the rank of things^ were his brethren before God, and, when he obtained the grace which he came to seek, far away from his castle, in some ancient shrine, it often came into his mind to free a certain number of his vassals, in honor of Christ, the enemy of sla- very, and of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is nought but meekness and mercy.* Pilgrimages, which date from the Deluge, f and have been adopted by all nations, strengthen the re- ligious sentiment amongst Catho- lics, opening the soul to many a generous and sanctifying emotion ; J let Protestants, then, in their utter ignorance of the human heart, say what they may, pilgrimages are good, and useful, and praiseworthy, and well-pleasing to the Divinity. We see this pious practice in use from the first ages of the Church ; Mary, the holy women, and the * Many old acts of emancipation still bear the pious formula, "We transfer and give up to Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary all our rights over such a one," etc. f If credit may be given to the old traditions of Asia, pilgrimages are of still more ancient origin. According to the Rabbins, the children of Adam returned more than once to contem- * Apostles, were the first pilgrims, and the faithful of Europe and Asia quickly followed their example. " People throng hither," wrote St. Jerome, in the fourth century, "from every part of the world : Jerusalem is full of men from every nation. Every Gaul of distinction comes to Jerusalem. The Breton, beyond the range of our knowledge, if he have made any progress in religion, leaves his wild home to visit a land which he knows only by name and on the testimony of the Scriptures Need I speak of Armenians, Per- sians, the people of India, of Ethio- pia, of Egypt fertile in solitaries, of Pontus, of Cappadocia, of the two Syrias, of Mesopotamia, and the swarms of Christians that the East pours forth. According to the Sa- viour's own words, where the body is there shall the eagles gather. They come in crowds to these places, and edify us by the lustre plate from afar the inclosure of the terrestrial paradise, and some of the sons of Seth took up their abode on the summit of a mountain whence they could behold it, always hoping that the promised Liberator would soon restore them to it. \ Doctor Johnson, a zealous Protestant and a profound thinker, himself acknowledges that. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 499 of their virtues. Their language is * different, but their religion is the same." * The Mussulmans say, with great reason, that it is a pious and salu- tary practice to visit the tombs of the holy deadj and have often knelt side by side with Christians in places where the latter went on pil- grimage. After the taking of Jeru- salem, the Caliph Omar repaired to Bethlehem ; he entered the church, and prayed before the crib wherein the Lord-Messiah [Aisa Resold) was born. He commanded the Mussul- mans to pray only one by one, lest there might arise in the crowd some confusion incompatible with the sanctity of the place ; he also for- bade them to go there for any other purpose than that of prayer. Saadi himself relates this fact,f and the local tradition of Jerusalem adds that the same prince went to pray at the tomb of Mary. Besides the scenes of the Re- demption, there are several famous pilgrimages in the Holy Land : Our * St. Jerome, Ep. 17. f Omar must needs go to Bethlehem; he en- tered the church and said his prayers at the crib where the Lord-Messiah was born. He commanded his Mussuhnans to pray there only ^ Lady of Edessa, in Mesopotamia, whither the first Christians repaired in great numbers ; Our Lady of Seydnai, where a Sultan of Damas- cus founded a perpetual lamp, in gratitude for a favor which he had obtained through the intercession of Mary; Om* Lady of Belment, within two hours' march of Tripoli ; finally, Our Lady of Tortosa, famous in me- diaeval times, throughout Christen- dom, and where the Mussulmans themselves sometimes brought their children to have them baptized, per- suaded as they were that that cere- mony, through the protection of the Blessed Virgin, would preserve them from all evil. J We read in the Memoirs of the Sire de Joinville that he went on a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Tortouse, whence he brought relics and some camlets which gave rise to a droll mistake. The seneschal, who had himself brought the relics to the king, sent by one of his officers some parcels of rich stuffs to the pious Queen Margaret, to whom he one by one, and forbade them to assemble there or make any noise. — Gvlistan, des Moeurs des Rois, p. 301. X Tortosa is now Tripoli of Syria. 600 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. was very willing to pay his court. The queen, knowing that the Sire de Joinville was returned, and had brought relics from Tortosa, no sooner saw his knight enter her presence with a parcel in his hand, than she fell on her knees before the package, supposing it to con- tain the relics in question. The knight, ignorant of the queen's mo- tive, knelt in his turn, and kept looking at Margaret in mute sur- prise. The princess, perceiving this, told him to rise, adding, with pious condescension, " that it was not for him to kneel, having the honor of bearing holy relics." " Relics, your highness," replied the knight, "I have no relics. This is a package of camlets which the Sire de Join- ville sends you." Then the queen and her ladies began to laugh, "^/ic?," said the queen to the knight, ''''your lord has played me a pretty trick to make me kneel to his cam- Usr-^ Pilgrimages in honor of the Moth- * Hisl. de St. Louis, by the Sire de Joinville. f Occident et Orient, by M. Barrault. J All the East, with the exception of the Jews, is fiiU of respect for the Virgin, whom Mahomet placed in the Koran as one of the four just wo- men. Chardin relates that the Jews of Persia, t er of God have lost nothing of their fervor in Asia, and Europeans are sometimes surprised to meet Turk- ish women praying devoutly at the Virgin's tomb,f with the daughters of Sion, wealthy Armenians, Greeks from beyond the sea, and Catholics from Arabia. The devotion to the Virgin amongst the Christian na- tions of the East is sure to strike all travellers; they consider it worthy of note that this devotion submits all human destinies to the power of a woman, in countries where women rank so low.J Amongst the Gauls pilgrimages were made long before the intro- duction of Christianity; one of the most famous shrines of western Gaul was a gloomy cavern, conse- crated to the god Belenus, on the rock — then surrounded by woods — where now rises, amid moving sands, the. amphibious fortress of Mount St. Michael. § There it was that the pilots of Armorica went to buy of the Druids of Mount Belen, having taken it into their heads to speak ill of her before some of the followers of Ali, were near being killed for their pains, and had to leave the city where it happened. § The vast forest which surrounds Moun St. Michael was submerged about the year 709. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 501 enchanted arrow> to which they * foolishly ascribed the power of changing the winJs and averting storms. When this steep mountain, the last stronghold of Druidism, re- ceived a Christian abbey, solemnly dedicated to the archangel Michael, the grotto of Belenus was trans- formed into a charming marine chapel, dedicated to the Star of the Sea, to Mary, protectress of sailors. This chapel was built of pebbles polished by the waves, and thrown up by the ocean ; inside, the walls and roof were adorned with coral branches, amber, and shining shells, brought there from every shore by pious mariners ; the altar was a portion of rock still retaining the roughness of a shoal, and all around were hung up, as ex-voto^ anchors saved from the ocean, and the chains of captives. Before the Revolution, this chapel was often visited by long tiles of mariners saved from shipwreck ; those sons of the ocean, with a fervor by no means uncom- mon amongst them, chanted in a voice hoarse as that of the waves the Ave maris stella, or the sweet Salve regina. Nearly all the kings of France, down to Louis XY., vis- ited this shrine; and there is said to be an ancient prophecy preserved in the archives of the abbey, threat- ening great misfortunes, even to the third generation, on the posterity of that king who should fail to make a pilgrimage to Our Lady and St. Michael. If the prophecy really exists, it has been but too truly verified ! The pilgrimages of France pre- sent themselves to us surrounded by marvels which conceal their ori- gin ; we will speak of them as our worthy fathers spoke before us. These wonders, handed down by tradition from age to age, are not an article of Catholic faith, and criticism may attack them without wounding the Church ; nevertheless, it is our opinion that we should gain little by rejecting them: the marvellous belongs to Gothic le- gends, like moss to aged oaks, or ivy to mouldering walls. According to certain Lyonese tra- ditions, based on a bull of Innocent lY., St. Pothin erected the first chapel wherein Mary was invoked in the Gauls. It is said that he brought from Asia a little statue of the Yirgin, which he placed in 503 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRQIN MARY. a solitary and shaded crypt on the banks of the Saone, in front of the hill of Fourviere. In that wild and retired place he raised an altar to the true God, and there placed the image, which was afterwards re- moved to a temple built on the same hill, and called from it Our Lady of Fourviere. This church was famous as a pilgrimage, in the Middle Ages, through all the Lyon- ese country ; but the Calvinists, who pillaged and destroyed so many rich shrines, spared not that of Lyons. The church of Fourviere, where every generation from the birth of Christianity, had marked its passage by gifts which would be now as precious to the anti- quary, the sculptor, and the painter, as to the pilgrim, was stripped of all but its four bare walls ; these could not well be melted in the cru- cible that had swallowed up so many gems of art, because they had the misfortune of being gold or silver. The chapter of St. John could not think of restoring that of Fourviere till long after the ravages of the Protestants. It was done, however, as soon as the cathedral and clois- f ter were completed. Mary's altar was at length consecrated on the 21st of August, 1586. From that moment the confidence of the peo- ple turned towards that beacon of salvation. " The source of miracles seemed dried up," says an ancient historian, " but they began again at the close of the eighteenth century, to the great joy and satisfaction of the whole country."* During the Revolution of 1793, the church of Fourviere was sold; but when tranquillity was restored, the zealous prelate who governed the ancient church of Pothin and of Ireneus recovered the shrine for religion. The inauguration was performed on the 19 th of April, 1805, by the sovereign pontiff Pius VILf In 1832 and 1835, Lyons, threat- ened with cholera, raised its eyes to the holy mountain, and the Vir- gin said to the plague, " Thou shalt go no farther!" The city escaped, contrary to all expectations : the cries of terror were changed into canticles of joy, anc public thanks- * Hid. de Notre Dame dt Fourviere, ou Richer* ches histo'-iqites 8ur I'atUel tutelaire des Lyonnais. ■[Ibid. givings were solemnly offered to * Mary in her favorite shrine. Ever since the auspicious period when this sanctuary was restored to religion, the devotion to Our Lady has steadily increased, and Fourviere is, as it were, its foun- tain-head. The people who inhabit Lyons and the surrounding country crowd the paths of Mary's hill, and no matter at what hour you go there, you are sure to find yourself amidst a crowd of pious persons of every rank, age, and condition. One day, in the year 1815, a pil- grim of no ordinary mien, having first taken a view of Lyons from the top of the hill, like one who studied its strong and weak points, at length entered Our Lady's church, and the faithful, raising their down- cast eyes a moment, said to them- selves, "It is Marshal Suchet!" It was indeed he — the marshal of the empire, the son of Lyons, to whom the defence of his native city was entrusted. He slowly paced up the aisle of Mary's church, with a sub- dued and respectful countenance ; entering the sacristy, he sent to request that one of the chaplains would come to him. "Reverend sir," said the marshal, advancing towards the priest, " when I was quite a child, my good and pious mother often brought me here, to Our Lady's feet, and that remem- brance is still before me. ... I will say more, that remembrance is dear to me, and I have willingly cher- ished it. Will you have the good- ness to say some masses for my intention ? " And having placed three Napoleons on the table where the offerings are registered, the bril- liant hero of that wondrous period knelt some time at Mary's altar in fervent prayer. Marshal Suchet, as might be expected, ended his loyal and noble career by a Christian death, as is recorded on his tomb. The pilgrimage of Notre Dame du Puy, in Velay, is also considered as one of the oldest in France. It is said that, during the occupation of Gaul by the Romans, a Gallic lady who had been baptized by St. George, first bishop of Puy, finding herself in danger of death, was ap- prised that she should recover her health on the top of Mount Ani- cium, not far from her own dwell- ing. She had herself conveyed thither accordingly, and was scarce- 604 BISTORT OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. ly seated on a volcanic rock of the Puy,* when she fell into a gentle slumber. She then saw in a dream a celestial woman clothed in white flowing robes, with a crown of jewels on her head; she was of dazzling beauty, and surrounded by a train of heavenly spirits. " Who is she ? " demanded the Gallic lady, address- ing one of the attendant spirits; " who is this queen so lovely and so noble, who comes to visit a poor sick woman in her affliction ?" "It is the Mother of God," replied the angel ; " she has chosen this rock for a shrine, and commands thee to make it known to her servant Geoi-ge. Lest thou shouldst take this behest of Heaven for an idle dream, awake, woman, thou art healed!" She awoke, accordingly, without fever, pain, or even languor. Penetrated with gratitude, she has- tened to the bishop, and gave him, word for word, the message of the angel. Having listened in silence to the orders of Her whom he revered next to God, St. Geoi-ge bowed down, * In Languedoc and Auvergne the name of puy is giVen to a high mountain, from the Italian word poggio. f as though the Virgin herself had spoken, and went without delay to visit the miraculous rock, followed by some servants and the Gallic convert. How great was his sur- prise to find the spot covered with snow, although it was then ifuly! Whilst he yet stood, lost in aston- ishment, a deer was seen running over the snow, marking out with its light feet the site for a vast building. The holy bishop, still more amazed, had the ground thus marked fenced in with a hedge, and on that favored spot there soon arose a cathedral, around which the city of Puy was soon formed. This town was considered impregnable — thanks to the protection of Mary. The little statue which people come from Spain and all the south- ern provinces of France to vener- ate, dates from the time of the Cru- sades ; it is two feet in height, and is seated after the manner of the Egyptian deities, with the Infant Jesus on the knee. What is most remarkable is, that this statue is wrapped, from h^d to foot, in sev- eral bandages of fine linen, carefully and solidly fastened to the wood, I much in the same way as an Egyp- HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 505 tian mummy. The appearance of this statue, the cedar of which it is composed, and the bandages in which it is swathed, give reason to suppose that it is the work of the hermits of Lebanon, who fashioned it on the model of the Egyptian statues. This image of Our Lady was brought by St. Louis from the Holy Land. The sovereign pontiffs have en- couraged this pilgrimage by their favors and by their example : sev- eral popes went there as simple pilgrims. The bishops of Puy received great privileges from the court of Eome on account of Our Lady, amongst others, that of immediate depend- ence on the Holy See, and the Pal- lium. Many of the kings of France went likewise to honor Mary on the mountain of Anicium. In 1422, Charles VH., while yet but Dau- phin, went there to recommend his almost desperate cause to Notre Dame du Puy, and it was in that very church that he was afterwards proclaimed king. King Ren^ also made this pil- grimage with a great train of men and horses ; a crowd of Moors, probably converted to the Chris- tian faith, followed in their Oriental costume. The Chapel of Our Lady of the Mountains, or of Ceignac, seated on a hill surrounded by others, in the ancient forest of Cayrac, between the Yiaour and the Aveyron, is famous through the pilgrimage of a Hungarian palatine, who, in 1150, miraculously recovered his sight, through the intercession of Our Lady. This nobleman, afflicted in the very prime of life with total blindness, left the banks of the Danube with an hundred men-at- arms, to ask Our Lady of the Moun- tain to put an end to his long- protracted sufferings. He embarked on the Adriatic Sea, and, after coasting along the Italian shore, entered the Gulf of Lyons ; but there, a terrible storm dispersed his ships, and it was with great difficulty that his squire saved him in a long boat, which succeed- ed in reaching the shore. Shocked by this sad catastrophe, and deplor- ing the fate of his followers, the blind prince, accompanied by his faithful servant, plunged into the -jp mountains of Languedoc, journeying by short stages towards the Chapel f of Our Lady of the Mountains, where he arrived in 1150. A hunts- man, watching his snares on the verdant shores of the Yiaour, point- ed out the ford to the two pil- grims, and conducted them to a rising ground commanding a view of the little church. The palatine, for years deprived of the sweet light of heaven, could not behold the wel- come sight ; but he heard the merry chime of the morning bells, and, prostrating himself on the dewy grass, he blessed God and Our Lady for that he had reached the end of his long journey. Full of faith, he entered the sanctuary which he came so far to seek, and had a solemn Mass said at Mary's altar. The Mass ended, the blind prince was praying in tears before the image of the Virgin, when his at- tention was attracted by a clang of arms, as if caused by many pil- grims entering the church together. He instinctively raises his sightless eyes, and, behold! he sees his own banner, and those prostrate pilgrims whose Eastern costume contrasts so strongly with the brown capes of the Languedoceans, they are his | own faithful Hungarians ! A cry of joy and gratitude escapes him ; he has recovered his sight, and his men-at-arms are there before him! Our Lady treated her vassal with royal generosity, and favored him beyond his most sanguine hopes. Seven lamps of massive silver were the gift offered by the Hun- garian noble to the Virgin ; by his orders, a cross was raised on the hill where he had prayed, and on it was inscribed, in Gothic characters, the history of his cure. A group in relievo was placed in Mary's shrine, representing the prince pal- atine and his squire on their knees before the image of the Virgin ; above was a Latin inscription, con- ceived as follows: Ecce palatinus privatus lumine princeps, Munera magna ferens, sed meliora refert. Virginis auspiciis, divino in lumine, lumen Cernit, et exultat, dum pia perficerent. Insuper et centum famulos in littore fractos Invenit incolumes ; dicitur inde locus. Amongst the benefactors of the Chapel of Our Lady of Ceignac are reckoned the Dukes d'Arpajon, Car- dinal de la Pelagrua, nephew of Pope Clement V., with a great num- ber of bishops and other eminent personages. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 507 The pilgrimage of Our Lady of Roc Amadour, not far from Cahors, is situated in the most barren and mountainous part of Quercy. A saint, whom local tradition would fain set down as the Zaccheus of the Gospel, retired about the middle of the third century to a maze of rocks which rear their lofty heads above the narrow and deep ravine, ^ thi'ough which the Lauzon rolls its waters ; this ravine, now known as the Glen of Roc Amadour, was then called the Dark Valley [vol tene- breux), and was infested with wild beasts. This gloomy, yet somewhat grand landscape, having some resemblance to the Theban desert, had doubtless some analogy with the lofty and austere thoughts of the anchoret ; he made himself a cell on one of the culminating points of the mountain, and hoUoAved in the rock, on a level with the eyrie, an oratory to the Mother of God. The Gallo- Roman inhabitants of the fair valleys of Figeac and St. Cerd, seeing him sometimes from a distance on the crest of those bare, wild moun- tains, surnamed him Amator rupis ; this name, the only one which has f come down to us, was changed into that of Amador, and then Amadour^ which is more conformable to the genius of the dialect spoken there. The little statue of the Virgin, like those which the early Chris- tians of Gaul venerated in the hol- low of oaks, wrought miracles in behalf of the fervent pilgrims who went to visit it in its rocky shrine. Pilgrimages were multiplied, and they soon became so frequent that a city was built at the foot of the holy place ; that city, though situa- ted in a desolate region, on a bar- ren soil, and in a place difficult of access, nevertheless became, through the devotion of our fathers, one of the principal towns of Quercy; it had its towers, its consuls, and its coat of arms — thi-ee silver rocks with golden lilies on a field gules. Just over the steeple of the an- cient church of Roc Amadour, at a prodigious height, was a citadel intended to protect the rich shrine of Mary ; but those lofty walls, tow- ering proudly in the air, were not sufficient to save the holy mountain from the fierce followers of Calvin, who would have braved hell itself for the sake of gold. Our Lady's 608 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRQIN MART. Chapel has now a surer protection in its poverty. This pilgrimage was famous even in the time of Charlemagne ; Count Koland, nephew of that emperor, visited Roc Amadour in 778; he made an offering to the Blessed Virgin of the weight of his sword of silver, and when he fell on the field of lloncevaux, that sword was carried to Roc Amadour.* In the yeai* 1170, according to Roger de Hoveden, Henry IL, king of Eng- land and duke of Guyenne (in right of his wife Eleanor), made a pil- grimage to Roc Amadour, in fulfill- ment of a vow made by him during a long illness which he had had. As the people of Quercy had no great love for the English, Henry had to make this pious journey under the escort of a strong guard. The Eng- lish prince left marks of his mu- nificence in Our Lady's Chapel, and amongst the poor of Roc Amadour. Amongst the illustrious pilgrims who went to honor Mary in her mountain -shrine were Simon de Montfort, the pope's legate ; Arnaud Amalric, afterwards bishop of Nar- * Dupleix, Hist, de France, Charlemagne, ch. 8. —This bracmar (sword) having been stolen or * bonne; St. Louis, accompanied by his three brothers ; Blanche of Cas- tile, and Alphonso, Count of Bou- logne, who subsequently ascended the throne of Portugal ; Charles the Fair, King John, Louis XL, and many powerful lords. Of the great bishops who, at va- rious times, visited the miraculous Chapel of Our Lady, there is one whose name is so dear to humanity, to Catholicity, that we cannot omit to mention it : that name, so honor- able to France, so imposing even to unbelievers, is that of the Swan of Cambrai. Consecrated from his birth to Our Lady of Roc Amadour by his pious mother, Fenelon went more than once to invoke, in her favorite shrine, her who gave him that courageous wisdom which he turned to such good advantage. Two pictures, hung as ex-voto in Mary's sanctuary, represent two solemn phases of his existence. In the first, he is lying in his cradle, a new-born infant; in the second, a young man, and already a doctor of divinity, he is returning thanks to his divine protectress for the first lost, was replaced by a club, which retained the name of Boland's sword. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 509 step in his brilliant career. At a * little distance there is a tomb, at which he often wept and prayed ; it is that of his mother, who would sleep her last sleep in the shade of Mary's altar. Sometimes it was not only in- dividuals, but whole towns and provinces, that repaired to Roc Amadour. "In 1546," says M. de Malleville, in his Chronicles of Quercy, " the 24th of June, the Feast of St. John and of the Blessed Sacrament, was the great pardon of Roc Amadour ; to which place the concourse of people, both na- tives and foreigners, was so great, that several persons were smoth- ered in the crowd, and tents were spread over all the adjoining coun- try like a great camp." The offerings made at the shrine of Roc Amadour were truly mag- nificent ; amongst them was the forest of Mont Salvy, given in 1119, by Odon, Count de la Marche, to the Blessed Mary of Roc Amadour ; and the lands of Fornellas and Orbanella, given in 1181, by Al- phonso IX., king of Castile and Toledo, for the benefit of tlie souls of Ms parents. In the year 1202, Sancho YIL, king of Navarre, gave an annuity of forty-eight gold pieces for the lighting of Our Lady's Chapel ; and in 1208, Savaric, prince of Mau- leon, a great captain and a famous troubadour, gave, as a free and perpetual donation, to the Blessed Mary of Roc Amadour, his estate of Lisleau, with a full exemption from tax or charge of any kind. Pope Clement Y., in 1314, left a legacy to the same church, " to keep a taper perpetually burning in a silver vase or basin in the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Roc Amadour, in honor of that ever-Blessed Mother, and for the salvation of his soul." It would be too long to enumer- ate all the benefactors of Mary's Chapel ; its interior was radiant with offerings of gold, pearls, and precious stones ; Spanish princesses wrought rich hangings for it with their own hands, and it was lit, both night and day, by fourteen lamps of solid silver, whose chains were intertwined into a magnificent net-work. By a contrast, peculiar to Chiistianity, the Madonna's altar was of wood, as in the days of St. no mSTORT OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Amadour, and the miraculous im- age was a little statue of rough black oak. High in the dome of the chapel, where windows of rich stained glass surrounded the steeple, there was a little bell with- out rope, which rung, of its own accoi"d, when it pleased the Star of the Sea to manifest her power in behalf of distressed mariners who called upon her from the wastes of Ocean. The Virgin of Quercy was too rich a prey to escape Protestantism. On the 3d of September, 1592, Dm-as took possession of Roc Ama- dour ; the crosses were broken, the pictures defaced, the rich ornaments burned and torn to pieces, the bells melted down, and the body of St. Amadour was smashed with the hammer, and then consigned to the flames.* The atheists of 1793 gave the finishing stroke to this work of destruction. Now the towers of the city are prostrate and overgrown with grass; shrubs are growing amid the ruins of the citadel ; tall weeds are wav- ing over the disjointed stones of the immense flight of two hundred and seventy-eight steps which led from f the city to the aerial shrine of Mary; the lute of the Languedocian cantadour no longer celebrates Our Lady's miracles, and the niglit-wind alone is heard whistling through that ancient chapel, where the or- gan once pealed its solemn music. The Virgin of Roc Amadour might now be called the Virgin of EuinSj and yet she still works miracles there. The pilgrimage of Our Lady of Liesse, in Picardy, is not so ancient as those of southern France, since it only dates from the twelfth century; but it is even more famous than they are. The origin of the statue which decorates the sanctuary is truly mai*vellous ; tradition has pre- served the wondrous tale not only in the French province where it is located, but even in the Holy Land ;f nay, it is even said to exist in the archives of the Knights of Malta.J The following is the story, and it bears a decidedly Eastern character. Foulques of Anjou, king of Jeru- * Odo de Gissey, Hist, de Roc Amadour. f See Hist, de Notre Dame de Liesse, par I'AbW Villette, Addit. au disc, prelim, p. 100. t Ibid., pp. 10, 11, et 12. galem, having rebuilt the fortreSvS of Bersabee, within fonr leagues of Ascalon, to protect the frontier of flis kingdom from the incursions of the Saracen>s, entrusted its defence to the brave and pious Knights of St John of JerusaleuL This val- iant garrison had often to combat the infidels who held the ancient country of the PhilLsiines for the Sultan of Egypt One day, the Knights of St John, including three brothers of the ancient and noble house of Eppes, in Picardy, fell into an ambascade, and, notwiths-tand- ing that they performed prodigies of valor, they were taken and load- ed with chains by the Mnssnlmana, who sent them to ]^yi>t. The brothers d^ppes had the majestic mien and krfty stature of the an- cient knights of the north of France. The Sultan quickly distin- guished them from the others, and hoping to gain them for his false prophet, he commenced by casting them into a dungeon in order to bre^ down their courage, and then proceeded to spread before their eyes the most eedndng prospect, making them all manner of fEur promises if they would only give op t their religion. The three valoron^ knights, as they were before inac- cessible to fear, were now also deaf to the voice of ambition, and not to be lured by gold. The Sultan, thus disappointed, sent some of the most famous dervises to argue* religion with them, whereupon the good knights, in their hatred of Moham- medanism, became, all at once, sub- tle theologians, and defended Chris- tianity as well in discussion as they had often done with shield on arm and lance in rest The Sultan made it a point of honor to overcome the captives, and his obstinacy incTcas- ing with their resistance, he swore that these knights c^ St J<rfm should foUow the prophet's stand- ard were it to cost him the half of Egypt He had one daughter, beautiful and accomplished, and so virtuous that she deserved to have a betta" creed ; her lie sent into the dungeon where the French knights languished in chaiiis, and charged her to give them a terrifying ac- count of the tortures awaiting them if they still continued to hold out The knights received the lady with an the hi^bred courtesy of tiiat I cfaivalroos age; but they rejected J 612 mSTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO TEE BLESSED VTROTN ^TARY. her insinuations with the firmness f of men who willingly accepted mar- tji*dom, and explained their own faith in a manner so clear and con- vincing, that the young princess be- gan to reflect on the truths laid be- fore her. A miraculous and radiant image of Mary, brought by angels, it was said, to the pious champions of the faith, completed the conversion of the young Mohammedan. Hav- ing one night bribed the guards of the prison, she made her way, with a casket of jewels, to the French knights, and escaped with them from her father's palace. Having crossed the Nile in a bark prepared to receive them, the fugitives bent their course towards Alexandria, hoping, perhaps, to ob- tain a temporary asylum in one of the Coptish monasteries of the soli- tude of St. Macarius; but, after some hours' march, the princess, exhausted with fatigue, stood in need of some repose, and, notwith- standing the imminence of the dan- ger, the three knights of St. John resolved to keep watch, and let her sleep for a while. They accordingly seated her in a field of soft, long grasy, and sat down themselves at a respectful distance. The princess slept, and her companions, after struggling in vain against the drowsiness which came upon them, at last fell asleep in their turn. No one knows how long their sleep lasted. The eldest of the brothers was the first to awake ; the sun was already far above the horizon, and the birds were war- bling on every tree. The crusader looked around in amazement ; he fell asleep within sight of the Nile and the pyramids, under the fan -like branches of a palm-tree, and he awoke under a venerable oak, on the margin of a purling stream, in a fresh green meadow spangled with daisies. At a little distance rose the dark, round turrets of an old baronial castle, very much re- sembling that in which he left his soiTowing mother, when setting out for the Holy Land. His doubts were dispelled by a shepherd who was leading his flock to the pas- ture : the castle before him was his own good castle of Marchais, and he found himself in Picardy, under one of the old ancestral trees which his fathers had planted. He blessed HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 513 the Holy Yirgin, and awoke his com- * panions, whose surprise equalled his own. The image of the Eastern Ma- donna was still in their possession ; so they built a fair church wherein to place it, and the Mohammedan princess was baptized in the cathe- dral of Laon. That this statuette of Mary reached France by means more natural, we may well believe ; but it is quite certain that it was brought from the Holy Land by three brothers of the house of Eppe, knights of St. John of Jeru- salem. Some of the most illustrious names of the French monarch}^ are found on the list of the pilgrims to Our Lady of Liesse. Amongst them are the Duke of Burgundy, Louis n. of Bourbon, Prince of Conde, the Duke de Mercoeur, Prince Albert Henry of Ligne, Madame Henrietta, Frances of France, Queen of England, some of the Princes de Longueville, Marshal d'Ancre, Mademoiselle de Guise, the Count of Egmont, Louis, duke of Orleans, brother of Charles VL, Charles YH., King Ken^, Louis , XL, Francis the First, Henry H., Charles IX., Queen Mary de Medici, Louis XIIL, Ann of Austria, Louis XIY., etc. Many of these great personages, not content with leaving rich do- nations at JSTotre Dame de Liesse, also placed their statue there ; that of Louis n. of Bourbon, prince of Cond^, was of gold. Mary of Arquin, who was after- wards queen of Poland, visited Our Lady's chapel in 1671 ; she offered to the Blessed Yirgin a silver child, representing Prince Alexander So- bieski, her son, together with a chain of gold enriched with jewels, denoting that she devoted him to the Mother of God, as her slave.* This shrine, like the others, was plundered by the Huguenots, and the Kevolution completed the work; yet still the chapel of Our Lady of Liesse is frequented by a concourse of pilgrims. In the legend of St. Liphard of Meung, who lived in 550, there is mention made of the town of Clery, and an oratory therein dedicated to the Blessed Yirgin. In 1280, some laborers placed there a small * Hist, de Notre Dame de Liesse. 614 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIROIN MART. statue of Our Lady which had been turned up by their plough- share. This discovery was rumored abroad, and attracted the attention of the most powerful nobles of the time. Amongst these was Simon de Melun, a nobleman who had accompanied St. Louis to Africa, and was raised by Philip the Fair to the dignity of Marshal of France; he formed the design of founding a college there, but, dying glori- ously soon after at the siege of Courtray, he was prevented from executing his pious intention, which was, however, carried out by his wife and son. Philip the Fair, after his victories in Flanders, was deeply sensible of what he owed to Mary; struck with the vast numbers of the faithful who visited Our Lady of Clery, he increased the number of its canons, and resolved to rebuild the church ; but death came suddenly upon him, too, in the midst of so many proj- ects, religious and otherwise, and left him little more than the merit of a good intention. The church was, nevertheless, commenced in his reign, and was duly continued, thanks to the munificence of his * third son, Charles, duke of Orleans, The completion of the church was reserved for Philip of Valois, that noble prince who charged his sol- diers, in a conquered countiy, to respect the churches. This mag- nificent temple was pillaged by the English during the famous siege of Orleans. Louis XL, who had new sleeves put to his old doublets so as to wear them thread- bare, knew well how to act as be- came a sovereign prince, when he felt so inclined; he had the church of Clery rebuilt, made it a donation of 2,330 crowns, endowed it with great revenues, erected it into a royal chapel, and richly provided for its canons. This monument, the object of so much care and expense, was de- stroyed by fire in 1472, whilst the workmen were engaged in covering it. The whole was consumed by fire, says the chronicle of Louis XL, but the church was constructed anew, under the inspection of the king's secretary. Louis XL having recovered his health at Clery, and attributing his cure to the Blessed Virgin, enriched her college with new gifts, and HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 515 caused his tomb to be constructed there. "He placed himself in it several times," says one of his his- torians, "in order to see whether it fitted his body well, and was ready to receive him after his death." He was buried there according to his desire. His wife, Charlotte of Sa- voy, was soon after laid beside him. The Calvinists, who had as little respect for the sepulchres of kings as for the altars of saints, demol- ished the statue of Louis XI., and broke open his royal tomb for the sake of pillage. This tomb, recon- structed by Louis XIH., was again broken and mutilated during the Revolution, and repaired by Louis XYIII. The devotion to the Virgin is still kept up with pious fervor in the old church of Louis XI. The pilgrimage of Our Lady of the Thorn [Notre Dame de rapine), near Chalons-sur-Marne, commenced in the first years of the fifteenth century. On the eve of the Feast of the Annunciation, a. d. 1419, two young shepherds leading their flocks by the side of a little chapel dedi- cated to St. John the Baptist, per- ceived a bright light in the midst of a thorny bush which grew near * it. The first sheep of the flock being frightened by the light, took flight ; but the young lambs ap- proached the bush ; the shepherds followed their example, and discov- ered a small statue of the Blessed Virgin, with the Infant Jesus in her arms. The miraculous light increas- ing when night came, people ran from all parts to see it, and as the place where the prodigy occurred was very high, the light could be seen for ten leagues around. The bishop of Chalons came in proces- sion with all his chapter and many of the neighboring priests to visit the place. They found the bush as green as though it were summer; and they took the little statue of the Madonna and conveyed it to the neighboring chapel of St. John. This remarkable prodigy attract ed all the faithful of Champagne to the chapel, which speedily be- came a famous pilgrimage. With the offerings of the pilgrims a su- perb church was constructed on the plan of an Irish architect ; the work was steadily prosecuted; notwith- standing the war then being carried on against the English, the inhabit- ants, though plundered and impov- 616 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. erished, cheerfully left their plough to draw stones all the way from Lorraine. The building went on with renewed activity when Charles Vn. sent a considerable sum to- wai'ds the completion of the church. It took a century to build it, and during all that time the fervor of the people continued through war, and pestilence, and famine, and all imaginable plagues, the worst of which was certainly the harassing presence of the English. The cities of Chalon and Verdun would fain contiibute their share towards the decoration of this building, which was to perpetuate the memory of the miraculous bush. The one gave it superb stained glass windows, representing the history of the mir- acle; the other, magnificent bells; the liberality of the faithful, great and small, rich and poor, did the rest During the religious wars the English Protestants, who were mas- ters of Champagne, having heard of the great riches contained in the sanctuary of Our Lady of the Thorn, formed the project of pillaging and destroying it ; but the lord of the soil, a man full of faith and courage, t had the noble church surrounded with stakes, and putting himself at tl e head of a band of brave young men, drawn together by patriotism and devotion to Mary, they succeed- ed in repulsing the enemy and sav- ing the Virgin's altar. Forced to beat a retreat, the English acted like Vandals; they fired a parting volley through the beautiful win- dows, which were nearly all de- stroyed. Nevertheless, by a sort of prodigy, the famous pane of glass on which is represented the finding of the miraculous statue remained uninjured. In memory of that hap- py day, the fabric (or trustees) of the church of Notre Dame dc I'Epine, down to the time of the Revolution, gave to the descend- ants of the gentleman who saved the shrine from profanation and pil- lage two blessed swords, which they received on the Feast of the As- sumption before the Virgin's altar. A solemn procession took place every year in this church. A num- ber of delicate children, bound to wear white perpetually in honor of the Blessed Virgin, assisted in the procession on the 15th of August, with tapers in their hands: these HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 517 were the petitioners of Mary. The verdict of death seemed pronounced against them on their entrance into the world: their mothers piously called on the Yirgin, and hope, through her powerful aid, to pre- serve those fragile plants which thus grow up under her sacred pro- tection, and depend on her for their very existence. It was an affecting sight to see those little angels, clothed in white, and pale as the flowers wreathed around their heads, kneeling at Mary's feet, and repeat- ing the prayer which they were not able to understand, asking that their life might be spared, that life so precious to their tender mothers. . . . When the rose of health begins to bloom on their childish features, when the seventh year is past, and they at length leave off the white livery of the Virgin, how joyfully do their mothers hasten to return thanks to Mary! What heartfelt prayers are then poured forth at the altar of Our Lady of the Thorn! There is in the Yosges a pilgrim- age which perpetuates, amongst the humble matrons of the country, a beautiful superstition wherein the Christian and the maternal senti- ment are somewhat closely commin- gled. About the year 1070, a monk of Senones built on the margin of a lonely torrent a hermitage and chapel, whither the people went to honor Our Lady of Meix. This pil- grimage was afterwards either dis- continued or suppressed. The chap- el is now in ruins, and a shattered stone cross is the only thing yet standing; but under these ruins there are subterraneous vaults, and an altar of rough stone, whereon children who die unbaptized are still laid. " They are hardly placed on that stone," says the moun- taineer who serves as a guide through the gloomy cavern, " when their eyes open, a slight breath escapes from their little icy lips, the water of baptism falls on their brow, and they sleep again to go up to heaven." A little grave is made near the altar, and the mortal remains of the faded floweret are left under the protection of Mary: the ignorant, but exalted tender- ness which induced the parents to ask a miracle of the Virgin, makes them bury them within the pre- cincts of her ancient shrine, in or- der that she may not forget them! 518 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Let incredulity blame as it may f this superstition of the heart, to the tender and pious soul it is full of melancholy beauty, and deserving only of pity. Doubtless, more than one mother may have been mis- taken in fancying that she saw the pale lips of her infant quiver with momentary life as it received the water of baptism ; but no one will dare to say that Mary has not power to work miracles as great as this, at her pleasure. Even amongst the wild recesses of the Pyrenees there are sanctua- ries dedicated to Mary. The most ancient and the most famous of these is Our Lady of Heas, fre- quented by all the people of the neighboring valleys. Amongst the precipitous rocks of Heas there is an altar raised where the goatherd would not dare to hang up a tem- porary shelter against the storm: the Romans would have dedicated this altar to the Spirit of the Storm, but Christians have erected it in honor of Her who stills the winds and waves. On the 8th of Septem- ber, the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, and on the 15th of August, the day of her glorious Assump- tion, an immense concourse of peo- ple repairs to the shrine of Our Lady of Heas ; each one, on going away, detaches a small fragment of the blessed rock, which is taken home respectfully to their cabins, as a relic of some value. Mountain pilgrimages are pictur- esque ; but how touching are those of the coasts I What a pleasing ob- ject is a sanctuary of Mary, with its tapering spire standing on the point of a promontory, whence it may be seen from afar over the deep sea! The mariner salutes it with a heavy heart on quitting the land where he leaves his wife and children, and hails it with delight on his return ; that spire is to him the emblem of hope, and amid all the anxious perturbation of his heart, as he approaches his home after months, perhaps years of ab- sence, he feels a certain religious confidence, a certain assurance that all goes well — thanks to the protec- tion of the good Virgin. . . . And then, who knows but it was Our Lady that saved him from ship- wreck, he and his vessel; and the first care of these poor people, on reaching land is to go barefoot, as HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 519 in the Middle Ages, to hang up in * the maritime chapel the offering promised when the tempest shiv- ered the masts and rent the sails. One of the Dieppe papers recently published an account of one of these touching scenes, which made a deep impression on the public mind, notwithstanding the impiety of the times. " A ceremony of a most affecting kind took place yester- day in St. James's church," said the writer. "The crew of the lugger Automne (which encountered so vio- lent a storm on the 3d of Septem- ber) gave themselves up for lost, when the mate, Louis Coreteur, thought of making a vow, in the name of his companions, to Our Lady of Succor, the patroness of sailors. Scarcely had he made the vow, when a golden sunbeam, dart- ing through the mass of heavy clouds which obscured the sky, cheered the drooping hearts of the mariners with renewed hope. This vow was yesterday accomplished by these good sailors in the chapel of Om- Lady of Succor. The whole crew of the vessel walked in pro- cession to Our Lady's chapel bare- footed and bareheaded, in their sea costume, bearing on their robust shoulders the promised offering, placed on a litter, and ornamented with blue streamers ; they were accompanied by their parents and friends, and followed by a numerous concourse of people. The parish priest addressed them in an affect- ing discourse, and after the mass of thanksgiving, he recited the De Profundis for the captain and four of the crew who perished during the storm." Our Lady of Grace is one of the most ancient maritime chapels of Normandy. This sanctuary was built, as we have already said, in consequence of a vow made, dur- ing a tempest, by a Norman duke, who was very devout to the Bless- ed Virgin. The site of this pretty chapel, shaded by tall trees, and surrounded with flowery turf, is calm and beautiful as the • rich, fresh landscapes of the magnificent province to which it belongs. Our Lady of Grace seems to be the for- tress of Honfleur ; the hill on which it stands • commands a view of the mouth of the Seine, with the distant line of the dark green sea and the bright blue river gliding into its sto BISTORT OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. bosom. There are two roads lead- f ing to this chapel— one rough and rocky, the other smooth and level. In former times, the inhabitants of Hontleur took a pleasure in keep- ing the road clean and covering it with fine sand, in order that a fair and gentle princess, much be- loved by the people, might climb the ascent to the Virgin's shrine without fatigue. The revolutionary storm drifted the noble lady to other climes, but the memoiT of her beneficence still remains. One day, not long ago, great crowds of people were assembled on the little green esplanade which extends in front of Notre Dame de Grace ; they were clinging to the sides of the rock, hanging from the bushes, mounted on the tops of the trees, and every eye was turned to- wards the ocean in search of some expected object. The enthusiasm of the people was great, but some- what grave and religious in its character ; prayers ascended to heaven, and tears were in every eye : a ship passed under Our Lady's hill — a ship with a black flag and a cofiin on the deck: the priests blessed it as it passed be- ^ neath, and the people wept in silence. . . . There was not a chapel of the Virgin on either bank of the Seine wherein prayers were not of- fered up that day for the soul of the great emperor; and Our Lady of Grace was fervently invoked for that illustrious exile who died far away from France, and — saddest of all — where the flag of England waved above him ! "Within half a league of Pornic, a small seaport about ten leagues from Nantes, on a height which overhangs the ocean, stands the maritime village and church of St. Mary ; this church bears the marks of great antiquity, and in its small cemetery lie the mortal remains of a crusader ; it is held in great ven- eration amongst the Breton sailors, who often go there to accomplish vows. When a Breton ship passes under the church of St. Mary, the mariners take off their hats and say the Ave Maria. Not a peasant along the coast thinks of going into the sea to bathe without dipping his hand in the water and making the sign of the cross, turning his head towards the patronal sanc- tuary ; and the fishermen, tossed HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 521 about by the storm, which is more * dangerojs along the coast than on the high sea, never lose hope so long as they can behold the pictur- esque spire of St. Mary's church: the Virgin sees them. That thought sustains their courage, and is, even in itself, a chance of safety. When the stormy waves of the Atlantic rush madly into the sandy bays of Guienne, and recede from the shore with a hoarse and terrific sound, if a dismasted vessel be seen struggling with the tempest, it is Our Lady of Arcachon whom the anxious wives and mothers of the Aquitaine sailors invoke on their behalf This chapel, around which whole flocks of sea-mews take re- fuge, stands in a wild and lonely place, amid clumps of gloomy pines. Many sailors, and poor, grateful women, arrive there barefoot from time to time, telling their beads with their rough, horny fingers, and many an ex-voto hangs in the vener- able chapel, denoting that so many prayers have been heard and grant- ed by Mary. Our Lady of the Watch (Notre Dame de la Garde) is the last ob- ject seen or noticed by the Pro- vencal sailor as he leaves his native land : its chapel, built in the thir- teenth century, is of blueish-gray limestone, and stands on the summit of a lofty mountain commanding a view of the Mediterranean, with its numerous isles, its castle of If, and its changeful billows. Thither does the sea-worn mariner first bend his steps when his vessel reaches the port, after a voyage to the distant countries of the Levant ; it is no uncommon sight to see these sea- faring people going on their knees up the mountain -path to this an- cient chapel to thank Her whom they name, with true Italian famil- iarity, the good Mother of the Watch, for having saved them from the manifold dangers of sea, wind, and plague. But it is not to sailors alone that the Madonna of Marseilles is kind and propitious ; she is the guardian angel of the city, which has re- course to her in all public calami- ties. When the cholera, raging all over France, first broke out on the Provengal soil, the fair old Phocian city knelt as one man at the feet of its beloved patroness, who failed it not in its hour of peril. In tes- 622 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. timony of its gratitude, Marseilles has consecrated to the Blessed Vir- gin a superb statue of solid silver, admirably executed. That is as it should be. In Corsica, Our Lady of Lava- sina, looking down on the blue waves of the Mediterranean, re- freshes the way-worn pilgrim, and even the sailor, passing in his ves- sel, with the perfume of its orange- trees. This sanctuary, dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin, was long left in obscurity, visited only by the coral fishers who frequent that lovely coast, when, about the middle of the seventeenth century, miracles were wrought by the Corsican Ma- donna, which were noised abroad, even through Italy. The church was then enlarged and beautified ; great numbers of the faithful went there, on the patronal feast, with bare feet and tapers in their hands. This pious practice is still kept up with as much devotion as in any foimer time. The painting which decorates this chapel, the work of an Italian artist, represents Mary when a child, with St. Anne throw- ing a transparent veil gracefully over her head. SWITZERLAND. The origin of the famous pilgrim- age of Our Lady of Hermits, the Loretto of Helvetia, dates from the heroic times of Charlemagne. The saint who first inhabited the her- mitage of Einsiedeln was a young Suabian lord named Meinrad, be- longing to the illustrious house of Hohenzollem. Being of that con- templative turn of mind so common among the Germans, Meinrad, even in his early days, loved to wander through the woods which then over- spread his native land, and to com- mune with the Deity face to face, where no sound broke in on the silence of the place save the mur- mur of streams or the rustling of leaves. Night often surprised him poring over an old book clasped with gold, which he had inherited from his fathers, or meditating pro- foundly on the miracles and favors of the Blessed Virgin. His soul soared aloft in solitude ; pitying the world and its fleeting goods, Mein- rad made his vows in the abbey of Reichenau, which he afterwards quitted for a small hermitage built on the brow of Mount Etzel. There HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 523 he passed seven years ; but the fame of his virtue descended to the valleys ; the shepherds and wood- men first went to visit him, then lords, then noble ladies, humbly so- liciting his prayers and counsels. This public homage was torture to the young hermit, who sighed only for meditation amid the deep silence of the woods. One night he stealth- ily quitted his hermitage, taking with him only the statue of the Virgin, the sole ornament of his chapel, and took refuge in a forest of the canton of Schwytz, which bore the characteristic name of the Dark Forest. Thirty- two years after, he was assassinated by ruffians with whom he had shared the water of his spring and the wild fruits of his forest. The birds of heaven pur- sued the murderers till they suf- fered the penalty of their crime.* For nearly half a century after the tragical death of Meinrad, his cell, wherein he had wrought mir- acles, remained uninhabited; at the * The murderers were betrayed by two ra- vens, who followed them all the way to Zurich ; they even made their way through the windows of the inn where the assassins took refuge on * end of that time, a little society of hermits settled there under St. Ben- non, of the ducal house of Burgundy. Hence the surname of Our Lady of Hermits given to the chapel of Ein- siedeln. St. Eberhard consecrated his wealth, which was considerable, to the erection of a monastery there, and he himself was the first abbot. The Virgin's chapel, such as it was in the time of St. Bennon, was placed in the vast church of the convent, of which Meinrad's cell formed the choir. The French de- stroyed this chapel, which had withstood the furious attacks of Protestantism ; but God permitted the statue of the Virgin to be saved. It was replaced in the church of Einsiedeln in 1803, with much solemnity, and in 1817 this ancient shrine recovered a portion of its former splendor, thanks to the concurrence of some distin- guished artists and the abundant alms of the faithful. The convent of Einsiedeln is not situated in the mildest climate : its entering the town, and never left them till they witnessed their execution. It is in memory of this event that the abbey of Reichenau bears two ravens on its arms. 6S4 HISIVRY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. steeple, covered with snow the f greater part of the year, pierces the dull, heavy clouds secreted by the long frost ; at its base stretches a barren waste, yielding with re- luctance a scanty crop ; the fruits are few and tasteless, and the fields ai*e only adorned by the pretty lilac blossom of the potato ; but still Our Lady is pleased to manifest her power there, and the rugged path of the holy mountain is often mois- tened with the noblest blood of Germany. More than one count of the empire, and noble German ladies not a few, make it their duty to ascend barefoot to Einsiedeln: there is still some of the ancient fervor of Frederick's knights re- maining in old Germany. As for the Catholic population of Switzer- land, nothing can equal their con- fidence in Our Lady of Hermits ; and there are few families, even in the more distant cantons, who do not keep up the pious practice of making this pilgrimage. "The first thing which strikes the eye, in the beautiful church of Einsiedeln," says a French trav- eller, who visited it in 1839, " is the miraculous chapel where the modest image of the Virgin is ex- posed. Mass was being said there, and a great crowd of the faithful, men, women, and children, of every age and station, were assisting at the holy sacrifice, piously awaiting the time for communion ; others were gathered around the confes- sionals ; others, after having re- ceived the Holy Eucharist, were hearing a mass of thanksgiving at some of the side-altars. Neaiiy all the Swiss cantons were represented there. In a group from which the other pilgrims seemed to keep re- spectfully aloof, we recognized the graceful mien and elegant costume of the w^omen of France. The men, less numerous, and more uniformly clad, still betrayed their origin by a certain diversity of countenance. Amongst them we could distinguish French, Germans, and Italians ; but all were equally pious and col- lected." In a visit of devotion to the abbey of Einsiedeln, Queen Hor- tense, that fair, unhappy princess, once the brightest ornament of Na- poleon's court, placed on the altar of the Swiss Madonna a superb branch of hortensia, composed of HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 525 large diamonds. This ex-voto was the offering of a mother who had but one son to love, and who be- sought the Mother of Christ to protect and save from all evil the noble-hearted youth, who remem- bered but too well that he was born within hearing of the cannon of Wagram, and amid the fabulous exploits of the imperial epoch. Many volumes have been writ- ten in Switzerland on the miracles wrought by the Madonna of Ein- siedeln. We shall give but one of these, a little fanciful legend of the seventeenth century, which we found in a book of devotion pub- lished in Fribourg, but now some- what scarce. The Swiss piously believe in the authenticity of this strange fact; but others are not bound to follow their example. In a vast mediaeval hall, whose walls were adorned with paintings in fresco of the most terrific sub- jects, and around which were seen those stone benches only found in the feudal castles of Germany, were seated some Helvetian gentlemen quaffing deep draughts of Rhenish wine, from large, old-fashioned gob- lets. In the midst of this Teutonic f banquet, whilst a young officer named Berthold was uttering some of the most extravagant nonsense, a pilgrim was ushered in ; he was going alone and barefooted to visit Our Lady of Hermits, when the approach of a violent storm forced him to ask hospitality at the castle. The noble host arose from his seat, and com'teously conducted his new guest to the corner of a vast Gothic fireplace, where whole oaks were burning. This duty accomplished, Berthold, without any respect for the austere presence of the pilgrim, resimied the silly and impious dis- course which his entrance had for a moment interrupted, casting from time to time a furtive glance at the stranger to see what effect his words produced on him ; but the pale, emaciated face of the holy man remained perfectly calm and motionless. The banquet over, the guests ordered their horses, and prepared to go to their several homes. "The night is dark," said the host to the young miscreant, Berthold, who was a relative of his own ; " thou hast to pass through a glen haunted by evil spirits. Some- ^ thing bad might happen to thee. 686 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Be advised by me, and stay here to- f night" " Pshaw I " laughed the officer, vN'ho was in the service of France, " I fear neither God nor devil I " "Are you quite sure of that?" demanded the pilgrim, in a tone of gloomy raillery, which made all the others afraid. "So sure, honest pilgrim, that I now drink to Lucifer, and beg the favor of his company to escort me home to-night, if it be convenient." "And thou wouldst deserve it well," cried the host, turning pale. "We will petition Our Lady for you," said the immovable pilgrim; "you will need her help." " Oh, pray do not trouble your- self — I can dispense with your prayers;" .and he bowed ironically to the holy man. Some minutes after, he was in the stirrups, and dashing down the hill on which the castle stands, singing the chorus of a bacchanalian song. The night was far advanced, the silence profound, and the solitude unbroken ; the full-orbed moon, fair and lonely, shone out at times through thick, dark clouds, in a starless sky, and flashes of lightning I darted at intervals along the hori- zon. For some reason best known to himself, the young man left off singing, but kept swearing occa- sionally. He at last reached the dangerous place mentioned by his friend, which was known by a name very common in Helvetia, The Dev- ils Road. It was a deep gorge, hol- lowed between the reddish flanks of two mountains — a wild and gloomy spot, where the Alpine goat would have scarcely ventured even in the light of day. At that dead hour of the night, when the deep stillness and the fearful gloom called forth every superstitious feeling latent in the mind, the young Swiss, becom- ing somewhat uneasy, mechanically placed his hand on his sword ; then, ashamed of himself, he began to laugh at his own fears. " I have specially invited Lucifer to see me home," said the miscreant, willing to indulge his pride by an idle boast; "but he is deaf, it seems — or hell is empty." The thunder growled in the dis- tance, and a flash of lightning illu- mined the woods and mountains, showing him two hideous dwarfs at his horse's head. " Ha I " cried the HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 627 officer, with a shudder ; but quickly resuming his wonted insolence, "Avaunt, ye fiends!" he cried, proudly waving his sword ; " two wretched dwarfs would be only a fitting escort for some Alpine cow- herd!" The dwarfs disappeared, and the gallop of two horses rapidly de- scending the almost perpendicular face of the mountain made Berthold turn his head. The horsemen were two knights, in black armor, mount- ed on steeds of the same color. Their eyes shone like blazing coals through the bars of their closed hel- mets ; to the arm of each was fas- tened the morgenstern of ancient Germany, a club studded with long iron points, apparently reeking with human gore, and streams of fire waved above their helmets instead of plumes. The gloomy knights drew up in silence on either side of the terrified officer, snatched the reins from his trembling hands, and the three horses dashed along at lightning speed; mountain after mountain disappeared; sparks of fire darted from the stones of the road, and dis- tance was no sooner perceived than * passed. Frail bridges of flexible branches, spanning cataracts so fearful that even the boldest hun- ter of the Alps would scarce set foot upon them, were crossed with the swiftness of the wind. The re- gions of eternal snow were quickly gained, and the horses, redoubling their fury, made straight for a tre- mendous gulf, where, far down as the eye could see, rolled a mountain stream, its noise hardly perceptible from the immense height above. Suddenly, from amidst those gloomy waters, reddened at times by sub- terranean fires, a multitude of hoarse, hollow voices were heard. " Kevenge ! revenge ! " they cried ; "give us the seducer, the false friend, the duellist!" "We bring him!" replied the knights, brandishing their ponder- ous clubs. A cold sweat bedewed Berthold's brow; his hair stood on end, and his features were convulsed with mortal terror; for amongst those accusing voices there were many that he well knew — voices that pierced his very soul: remorse be gan to speak as loud as fear within his wretched soul. niSTORT OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VJRGTN MART. " Give us the gambler, the slan- * derer, the blasphemer, the perjured!" cried the voices from the abyss; and Berthold's gloomy companions, laughing within their helmets, with a clanking, horrible laugh, answered the voices from below : " We bring him! we bring him I" " Give us the impious I " "We bring him!" was still the answer of the black knights, and Berthold well nigh lost his senses. Already were the three horsemen on the edge of a steep rock over- hanging the dread abyss. . . Another moment, and all were over. . . . But suddenly the two black knights stopped in the midst of a furious gallop, and stood still and mute as statues. The light tinkle of a bell was heard from afar: it was the midnight office ringing in Our Lady's Chapel at Einsiedeln. Ber- thold understood that Mary's influ- ence had paralyzed the fearful power which was dragging him down to hell, and, hastily making the sign of the cross, he fervently recommended himself to the pro- tecting Virgin, who seemed to inter- pose between him and the condign punishment which his conscience told him he so well deserved. The bell ceased ringing, and the youn^i officer felt his heart sink as he saw the two knights once more moving on their black coursers. But the voice of repentance had ascended to the starry throne of Mary; and the demons, with an impotent ges- ture of rage and despair, plunged headlong into the chasm, leaving Berthold alone on the brink. The moon, just then emerging from a mass of dark clouds, shone brightly down from her meridian height, and the officer discovered, to his great surprise, that he was on the highest ridge of the mountains, and would find it extremely difficult to descend. Some days after, the young noble- man went barefooted to Our Lady of Hermits^ to the great amazement of his boon companions, and made a vow, in expiation of his sinful orgies, never to drink any other beverage than the pure water from the spring. In a remote corner of the canton of Underwald, on the edge of a path which winds in a serpentine form amongst the rocky knolls which cover the mountain-side, at the nar- rowest part of the pass, where the HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 529 traveller sees below the most fright- ful precipices, and above overhang- ing masses of rock, where death seems threatening on either hand, there stands a small open chapel, adorned with simple pictures of the Blessed Yirgin. That gracious im- age, placed thus so far from any habitation, and from all human suc- cor, has received the name of Our Lady of the Traveller. This place, often accursed, was long ago called the DeviVs CuUender. After trying in vain to make it more secure, peo- ple conceived the idea of building a chapel, and placing in it a sacred image, so that no one might forget, how great soever was his danger, to invoke the holy name of God, and make the sign of the cross. But where were workmen to be found bold enough to undertake the work ? This obstacle was speedily got over, for several came forward and repaired to the spot, after renewing their fervor bv hearing: Mass. And the Mother of God, will- ing to show these pious workmen that their heroic devotion was pleas- ing to her, made fast the tottering rocks by virgin^ s threads^ fastened to the grass and moss. " Ever since," * say the Swiss of Underwald, "the passage is safe; no accident hap- pens there either day or night. Our Lady is so good as to protect all the passers by, even those who do not see, or will not honor her." * The pilgrimage of Maria Zell, in Austria, is almost as famous as that of Einsiedeln. Its founder, whose name is no longer known, was a monk of the abbey of St. Lambert, who took up his abode, about the middle of the twelfth century, in the vale of Affleuz, for the purpose of converting some Carinthian tribes who were still idolaters. This pious German missionary brought with him a small wooden statue of the Blessed Yirgin, which he exposed to the veneration of his neophytes' on the trunk of a fallen tree, for want of other pedestal. The Carin- thian shepherds sheltered their Ma- donna as well as they could, in a sort of hut erected by them for the purpose, and went in crowds tc invoke her in that humble shed, where their simple demands were often heard and granted by the powerful Virgin. Such was the commencement of * See M. Veuillofc, Voyage en Suisse, 1829. 530 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. this famous pilgrimage, now fre- quented by emperore and princes. In 1220, Henry, margrave of Mo- ravia, and his wife Agnes, in grati- tude for a marvellous cure obtained through the intercession of Mary, built the stone chapel which is now seen in the middle of the church ; on its altar was placed the sacred image, which had till then remained on the stump. Louis I., king of Hungary, after gaining an unhoped- for victory over the Turks, erected the church which surrounds the chapel. The Mussulmans Bun-ound- ed Maria Zell, in 1530 ; but, at the moment when the chief was direct- ing the point of his lance against the miraculous statue of the Virgin, he was struck with blindness, and his soldiers, seized with terror, took flight. The emperors Mathias, Ferdi- nand n., Ferdinand III., and Leopold L, made the pilgrimage of Maria Zell. In 1728, Maria Theresa made her lirst communion there ; in 1814, the Emperor Francis went thither him- self; and the late emperor,^ no less devout to Mary than his great an- cestors, made that pilgrimage with the empress and a part of his court. A. magnificent offering of precious stones signalized the munificence of the two illustrious pilgrims who went to solicit the aid of the Queen of Heaven in governing their peo- ple wisely and paternally, as their pious and glorious ancestors did before them. On the shores of the lUyrian Sea there rises, about two thousand feet above the level of the sea, a moun- tain, which bears the name of Monte- Santo ; on the top of this mountain there is a Franciscan monastery, which possesses the miraculous image of St. Mary of Castagnavizza. King Charles X., a good prince and a pious mon- arch, reposes there under the guardian care of the heavenly patroness of France ; one day, per- haps, when the stormy passions of men have subsided, six feet of French earth will be granted to the descendants of St. Louis, of Henry IV., and of Louis XIV. In the palatinate of Kalish, in Poland, there is a small town, seated advantageously on a height, and praised for the strength of its fortifications even in 1750. This town, named Czenstochowa, was al- ways garrisoned by companies of HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 531 artillery; but it was best known through its abbey of the Fathers of Death, or the congregation of St. Paul, which contained a miracu- lous image of Mary ; both natives and foreigners flocked to this sanc- tuary, where every wealthy pilgrim left magnificent offerings. Besides the image of the Madonna, which, according to the monks, is the identical poftrait of the Virgin painted by St. Luke (an opinion somewhat questionable), they ex- pose to the veneration of the faith- ful a more authentic relic : the table at which the Holy Family took their meals. Polish sentinels were stationed at the gate of Our Lady of Czenstochowa, and in different parts of the monastery ; fresh- blown flowers were every morning laid at the Virgin's feet ; but not all the sweet and simple grace of Mary's worship could exclude from, that chapel a sort of religious horror which froze one's very blood. The catacombs, with their mournful ornaments of human bones, were scarcely more frightful than those spectral-looking monks, who wore on their drapery the death's-head and cross-bones, such as we see on * funeral-palls,* and had similar de- vices painted in a hundred differ- ent places through the church. This devotion to the Virgin of Czenstochowa has been transplant- ed into France by the Poles of our own times. A pious Polish family, residing in the neighborhood of Paris, conceived the idea of inau- gurating the image of the tutelary Madonna of Poland in an ancient oak of the Forest of St. Germain. On the 13th of August, 1840, a Polish ecclesiastic, in the presence of a multitude of Poles of both sexes, consecrated the sacred image in the beautiful tree chosen for its temple (doubtless, for want of means to build one) ; then, all the assembly, kneeling on the grass, began to recite aloud the Litany of the Blessed Virgin ; they then prayed for the dead, and for their beloved country; they besought Heaven for happier days, and dis- persed with their souls strength- ened and encouraged by that re- ligious sentiment which gives men patience and fortitude. Belgium has been always dis- tinguished amongst the nations of * Hint, des Ordres Monastiques, t. iii., ch. 44. Europe for its teodet devotioa to * Marj ; of the noinerDiis pilgrimages which it had, and stiU has, we will only mentioii that of Oar Ladj of Hall, of which an interesting de- scription was left OS by one of the most learned writes of the seven- te^ith centory, Jostos Iipsi& Oor Lady of Hall is situated in a pretty town sarroonded by a fine and fertile country, watered by the Senne; it is considered a beaatifiil chorch even in that old Cathc^ic land, where the chorches are truly magnificent Hie Tirgin^ chapel is on the left-hand side. The statae is of gilt wood, and is crowned with fine g(M. With 'one hand the Vir- gin supports her drrine Son, and with the other she presents a lily, that charming flower, the emblem of chastity, poetically named by the inhabitants of the Pyrenees, An- dredotta Maria arrosa (the Virgin Mary's rose). In former times, she wore on her breast six large pearls, with a beautiful ruby in their midst Twelve towns or cities, who had experienced the effects of her protection, undertook the charge of her adornment Every year, on the first Sunday of September, their ^ deputies bron^it her twelve mag- nificent robes, in token of gratitude and dcFotioiL On that day a sol- emn proees^on toc^ place, and the image of the Virgin was borne in triumph by the twdve deputies through the city of Hall and its suborbs. The people of Liege are also in the habit df going there every year, in procession, on the Feast of Pentecost* • SevCTal princes have contributed to enrich this sanctuary. Over the altar, according to Justus Lipsis, were seen the twelve Apostles^ and on either side, an angel with a lamp; the whole of solid silver. So altar could bosst so great a numb^ (^ lamps, coats -of -arms, banners, croBBes, chalices, and \2^ rioos figures in gold and silvo". Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, gave, among other rich presents, a seocmd statue of the Virgin, with a cavalry soldier and a foot-soldier, fully accoutred, all of silver; Charies, his son, gave a silver £Edcon ; the Emperor Maximilian enriched this shrine with a golden tree; Charies V. with a coat- of- arms ; Pope Ju- * Dtm Fir^o AiOouu.— Millot, Bid. da Trom- AmU, t l, p. 467. HISTOBT OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIBOm MABT. 533 lias n. with a silver lamp. To the right were seen the statnes of the Emperor Maximilian, Albert, duke of Saxony, and one of their conr- tiers, in a kneeling posture. Ova* their heads were hung the banners sent by conquerors as offerings to Mary. There was also a jRemon^ stromoe of silT^ gilt^ of consider- able weight, given by Henry VilL of England. Justus lipsis him- seH not content with having care- fiilly written the history of Oar Lady of Hall, hong up his silv^ pen before Mary's image. After the Holy Sepolehre and St. Peter's in Rome, there is not in all Christendom a pilgrimage more £amoas than that of ihe Holy House of Loretto, — ScmUssmia casa di Lo- reto. The Holy House of N^azareth was venerated by Christians even in the lifetime of the Apostles, and St. Helen surrounded it by a temple which received the name of St Mary. Und^ the domination of the Arabian caliphs, crowds of Euro- pean pilgrims went to adore €rod and honor his Mother in that sim- ple, holy dwelling where Jesus and Mary led, for so many years, a \a^ borious and hidden life; but when ■^ the Turks had subjugated their for- mer masters, the Christian pilgrims who ventured into Syria to visit Jerusalem and Nazareth, were so barbarously treated, that the West became thoroughly exasperated, and rushed fordi as one man to do battle against the infidels. Whai Godfrey de Bouillon was proclaimed king of Jerusalem, Tan- cred (whose valorous deeds have be^i sung by Tasso) was named governor of Galilee: that prince, who was very devout to Mary, en- riched the Church of Kazaretfa with sumptuous gifts. Alter the disastrous expedition of St. Louis, tMs comer of the earth, which was r^arded as the cradle of Christianity, was defended, foot by foot, by the brave Knights of the Temple, who shed tears of rage and blood, seeing the holy places pro- faned by the Saracens. Galilee having &llen under the Mohsmunedan yoke, though whiten- ed with the bcmes of Christian war- riOTS, " God would not p^mit Mary's hsAj house," says Father Torsellini,* ** to remain exposed to the profana- tion of the Barbarians; he had it * Mstanm LmmrdrnKA, eh. 2, p. 6L 534 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. conveyed by angels to Sclavonia, * and thence to the March of Ancona, where it was placed in the midst of a laurel grove belonging to a pious and noble widow named Lauretta. It was rumored abroad," he adds, "that on the arrival of the Holy House, the tall trees of the Italian forest bowed down in token of re- spect, and further, that they retained that inclination till the winds or the woodman's axe laid them prostrate on the ground." The Church of Loretto, one of the most beautiful in Italy, 4as been tastefully and munificently adorned by the popes, who often went there as pilgrims ; three doors of chased bronze give admission to the holy temple, in the centre of which stands the Holy House, with its covering of white marble, adorned with magnificent basso -relievo, de- signed by Bramante, and executed by Sansovino, Sangallo, and Bandi- nelli. The miraculous statue of the Vir- gin is thirty-three inches in height ; it is carved in cedar-wood, covered * The altar of the Madonna is radiant with gold and jewels. {.Italy, by Lady Morgan, voL iii., ch. 25.) with the richest drapery, and placed on an altar sparkling with jewels.* It is said that the niche in which it stands is overlaid with gold.f Nu- merous lamps of massive silver are constantly burning before it. La sola del tesoro (the treasure- room) no longer displays the bound- less wealth that it did in former times ; but even in our days it has received some splendid gifts from popes and princes. Amongst these pious offerings is seen an ostensory of gold enriched with diamonds, a chalice and a censer, offered to the Madonna by the Emperor Napoleon; a chalice of silver gilt adorned with rubies and beryls, presented in 1819 by Prince Eugene Beauhar- nais ; another chalice ornamented with brilliants, by the Princess of Bavaria, his w^ife ; a large cross of gold and diamonds, and a crown of amethysts, rubies, and diamonds, offered, in 1816, by the King and Queen of Spain, then on their pil- grimage to Loretto; a bouquet of diamonds, offered, in 1815, by Ma- ria-Louisa, sister of the King of f La vaga nicchia e ricoperta di lame d'oro, (Don Vincenzo Murri, Storia deUa Santa Gasa.) ' HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 586 Spain, Queen of Etruria, and Duch- ess of Lucca ; an immense heart of the purest gold, with a jewel in the centre, suspended by a chain of em- eralds and amethysts, the Emperor of Austria's gift to the Madonna. It would be impossible to enume- rate all the precious stones and rich presents of every kind offered by kings and princes, under the simple title of dono di una pia persona (the gift of a pious person) on the regis- ter which contains the names of the benefactors of the Holy House. The music of the beautiful Litany of Our Lady of Loretto was the offering wherewith a famous Flor- entine composer repaid a miracle of the Virgin in the beginning of the eighteenth century. This com- poser, named Barroni, suddenly lost his hearing, like Beethoven; after exhausting all the efforts of art, he besought the assistance of Mary, and made a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Loretto. There he was cured, after having prayed with fervor and devotion ; in his gratitude to the Holy Madonna he composed a cho- rus of praise in her honor, which, under the title of the Litany of Lo- retto, was executed for the first time * on the 15th of August, 1737. This Litany is since sung every year on the Feast of the Madonna ; Rossini, passing by Our Lady of Loretto, was struck with the beauty of the music, and is said to have intro- duced it into his TamirediJ^ The popes have taken pleasure in showing their respect for Mary by their tender solicitude for her mirac- ulous shrine at Loretto. Pope Pius Y. offered to the Holy House two silver statues of St. Peter and St. Paul ; he did still better by turning from its natural channel a river whose waters, sluggish and partly stagnant, sent up the most unwhole- some exhalations to the top of the hill, where a small town was formed in the shade of Mary's magnificent church. Gregory XHL founded a college for the Illyrian youth within the very bounds of Loretto, as if to console the Dalmatians for the loss of the Madonna, who stopped but a moment amongst them ere she took her flight to the lovely shores of Italy. Sixtus V. founded the Order of the Knights of Loretto, specially intended to protect the coast of the Mediterranean from the incursions * Gazette Musicale. 686 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. of the Barbarians. Benedict XIV. t embellished this sanctuary with per- sistent generosity ; and Pius VII., on being liberated, went to kneel be- fore Our Lady's altar before he re- turned to Rome, and left, as a mark of his passage, a superb golden chalice with this inscription : " The sovereign pontiff, Pius VII., restored to liberty on the Feast of the Annun- ciation, being on his return from France to Rome, left at Loretto this token of his gratitude and devo- tion." His Holiness, Gregory XVL, likewise made the pilgplnmge to Loretto. The Spaniards have conseci-ated to Mary the lofty mountain of Mont- serrat, ten leagues from Barcelona, which was, according to the cele- brated naturalist Humboldt, the great Atlas of the ancients ; spread out beneath lies the fair kingdom of Valencia, the ancient garden of the Hesperides. This mountain, whose singular form gave rise to its name of Monte-Serrats (the cut mountain), seems composed of detached pieces, which make it appear divided, and covered with spiral cones, so that at a distance it would be taken for the work of man. Seen from afar, it is a pile of grottoes and gothic pyra- mids ; on a nearer view, each par- ticular cone appears a mountain, and all these cones, terminated by miniature spires, forms an enormous mass about live leagues in circum- ference. It was probably this strange configuration that gave rise to the fable of the giants heaping mountain on mountain in order to scale the heavens. On a platform of this famous mountain was built the superb con- vent dedicated to the Blessed Vir- gin, one of the most renowned pil- grimages in the Christian world. The foundation of this noble monas- tery is recorded as follows, in an inscription over a large picture of the same time (1239): In the year 808, under the government of Geof- fry the Bearded, count of Barcelona, three young shepherds having, one evening, seen a great light coming down from heaven, and heard melo- dious music in the air, went and told their friends. The bishop of Manresa repaired to the spot, ac- companied by a magistrate and a great number of the people ; they also beheld the heavenly light, and after searching for some time, they HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 537 discovered the image of the Virgin, which they resolved to take to Man- resa; but, on reaching the place where the monastery now is, be- hold! they could go no farther. This prodigy induced the Count of Barcelona to build a convent there for nuns, whom he procured from the royal abbey of las Fttellas, in Barcelona ; the first abbess of Our Lady of Montserrat was his daugh- ter Richilda, who took possession of it about the year 895. This com- munity of nuns existed till 976, when Borrell, count of Barcelona, with the pope's consent, established the Benedictines on Montserrat. The convent of Montserrat is a grand and noble building, situated on a narrow table-land of the moun- tain, known by the name of St. Mary's Platform ; it is overhung by enormous rocks, which seem ever on the point of falling ; it is defended by the declivities of the mountain, like natural fortifications, and, on the side where it is accessible, by six strong towers. Besides the con- vent and church of Our Lady, the fortified inclosure contains a lodg- ing-house for travellers, an hospital, and an infirmary. The Church of * Our Lady of Montserrat, though having but one nave, is yet very spacious; the choir -stalls are of remarkable workmanship. The face of the Virgin's image is almost black, like that of Toledo, Guada- loupe, and many others in Spain ; it represents Our Blessed Lady of a matronly figure, and advanced in age ; although very dark, her face is beautiful ; she is seated on a sort of throne, and holds in her right hand a globe, from which springs a fleur de lys, while with the other she supports the Divine Child, sit- ting on her knee, giving benediction with his right hand, and holding in the other a globe surmounted by a cross. . The inhabitants of the mountain are divided into four classes, namely, monks, hermits, choristers, and lay- brothers, who regularly and unin- terruptedly succeed each other at prayer. The place is so arranged, that the singing in the monastery is heard in the different hermitages; and the bells of the latter, repeated by the echoes, is conveyed from one station to another round the whole mountain. The top of Montserrat commands one of the finest pros- 588 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. pects in the world, consisting of the * kingdoms of Valencia and Murcia, and* even the Balearic Isles. Spanish kings and princes often ascended on foot the mountain-path which leads to Mary's altar; and numberless captives went thither, in the old times, to hang up the chaiife, which they had worn among the Mooi*s. St. Ignatius Loyola, before he devoted his life to relig- ion, went there to Inake his vigil of armsy according to ^Ihe custom of ancient chivalry, with whose spirit he was strongly,. imbued^V "After having passed the nigh^ in prayer," says Father Bouhoui-s, fiis biogra- pher, "and solemnly consecrated himself to the Yirgin,, as her, knight, in conformity with those martial ideas in which he conceived the things of God, he hung his sword on a pillar near the altar, as a sign that he renounced the secular ser- vice ; then, after receiving the Holy Communion very early in the morn- ings he left Montserrat." Our Lady of the Pillar, at Sara- gossa, is one of the oldest and most magnificent pilgrimages in Spain. King Ferdinand went there with Queen Christina a short time before his death; and both, after praying devoutly, like true Catholic princes, before the venerated image of the Virgin of Saragossa, left her, at their departure, munificent proofs of their devotion. The cathedral dedicated to Mary is a vast building, five hundred feet in length, with three spacious naves, and a multitude of chapels. Mod- ern travellers speak with admira- tion of these chapels of marble and of jasper, hung round with offerings of gold, silver, and precious stones ; its silver lamps shed such a daz- zling radiance on those walls, cov- ered with bright and precious ob- jects, that it produces around the statue, itself\sparkling with jewels, such an overpowering brightness that the eye can scarcely bear to rest upon it ; the whole like a splen- did vision, with the glitter of gold and the flash of rubies and dia- monds. The Virgin's statue stands on a jasper column about three feet high ; her garments and jewels were valued at several millions of pounds. A pilgrimage, still very famous in Spain, is that of Our Lady of Gua- daloupe. Father Mariana assures us that this image, which was re- HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 539 nowned so early as the fourth cen- tury, was sent by Pope Gregory the Great to St. Leander, bishop of Seville. King Alfonso endowed this shrine in 1340, and annexed it to his private domains. Forty-nine years after, Don Juan I. gave it to some Jeromite monks, together with the lordship of a large town formed in the neighborhood. The convent, which took the name of . Santa Maria^ is situated in the midst of the present town ; and, as times were very unsettled when it was first founded, it has rather the ap- pearance of a stately fortress than of a peaceful monastery. It has an infirmary for the sick -poor, a cara- vanserai for strangers, two colleges, and some fine cloisters. In 1389, the famous Spanish arch- itect, Juan Alfonso, commenced the church, which has three naves, and its walls are hung round with mag- nificent offerings, acknowledging, as the Spaniards say, more than three thousand authentic miracles wrought by the Blessed Yirgin. Her image is over the high altar, and was lit, some years ago, by more than one hundred lamps of massive silver ; she is clothed in white, and has the * Divine Infant in her arms. Queen Donua Maria, wife of Juan 11., her son, Don Henrico, and many other princes, chose their burial-place in this church, which is adorned with good paintings by Zurbaran and Jordans. The devotion to Our Lady of Gua- daloupe crossed the ocean, and was establishda 'by miracles in Mexico, a country entirely devoted to the Mother of God. It is recorded, in a narrative published at Rome in 1786, that a converted Indian, who went every Saturday to Mexico — eight miles from his own village — to hear mass in honor of the Blessed Yirgin, had a miraculous vision on a hill formerly very famous among the Mexican idolaters, who named it Tepijacac, and consecrated it to Tonantim, the mother of the gods. One Saturday, being the 9th of De- cember, A. D. 1531, the pious Diego, passing the foot of this hill, heard a soft strain of music, which he took at first for the singing of birds ; but on listening more attentively, he was inclined to attribute it rather to the angels. Over the Tepijacac hovered a variegated cloud of the loveliest hues imaginable, and from 140 RISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. it came forth a sweet voice, call- ing the pious Mexican by name. Amazed, and unable to account for this strange adventure, Diego climb- ed the hill, on the summit of which he perceived a woman of the most majestic beauty : from her white drapery issued rays of light, w^hich, reflected on the surrounding rocks, seemed to have transformed them into precious stones. The Blessed Virgin, for she it was, told Diego that she wished to have a temple built to her on that hill, under the name of Our Lady of Guadaloupe, and commanded him to acquaint Juan de Zumarraga, who was then bishop of Mexico. The prelate lis- tened in silence to this strange recital, and dismissed the Indian, telling him that he would need to be assured of the truth of his state- ment, and to have a more convinc- ing sign of the will of Heaven. Apprised by her messenger of the ill success of his mission, the Virgin ordered him to ascend the hill and gather a bunch of flowers. Now, it was not the season for flowers, and, moreover, the top of the rock had as yet produced only briers and thorns ; but Diego obeyed, never- f theless, and his submission was re- warded, for he quickly found him- self in the midst of flowers, balmy and beautiful ; he proceeded to cull a nosegay, which Mary told him tc present to the bishop. " He will believe this time," said the Virgin, with a smile. Diego repairs to the episcopal palace, where the fragrance of the flowers hid under his cloak attracts the attention of the officers of the household ; they force Diego to let them see them, and stretch out their hands to take them. Astonishment ! the flowers are imprinted on the cloth, and are nothing more, as it were, than painted roses and lilies I The bishop appears, and Diego, opening the folds of his garment, now exhaling a celestial odor, finds, to his extreme surprise, that the flowers had shaded themselves into a beautiful image of Mary. The prelate, after prostrating himself, takes the cloak from off the Mexi- can's shoulders, and exposes it in his chapel until another could be built on the spot pointed out by the Virgin. The church was erected as soon as possible, and when it was completed, the image was conveyed HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VntGIN MARY. 541 thither : ever after it performed many miracles, and became the most famous Madonna in America. This new sanctuary being unable to contain the crowds who flocked thither, people thought of building another, about the year 1695. The archbishop of Mexico, Francisco de Aquiar e Seixas, laid the first stone. This is the splendid church now so much admired. It cost 2,270,000 pounds. On the 1st of May, 1709, the sacred image was transported thither, and placed on a silver throne valued at 400,000 francs. The gifts increasing from day to day, altars were constructed of the finest marble, and the treasury was enriched with precious vessels. The great silver-gilt lamp alone weighs more than six hundred and twenty marks, and is still more valuable from its workmanship. Around the sanctuary runs a grand balustrade of silver, continued as far as the choir, which, according to the Span- ish custom, occupies the lower end of the church. This first railing is protected by a second of precious wood, adorned with an infinite num- ber of silver figures of exquisite workmanship. A vice-king of Mex- * ico, Don Antonio-Maria Buccarelli, surrounded the image with a cornice of massive gold, and enriched the altar with twelve golden candle- sticks. In 1749, a chapter was founded for the service of this sanc- tuary. Mexico was solemnly consecrated to Our Lady of Guadaloupe, and her feast was fixed on the 12th of De- cember, with an octave, as a festi- val of the first class. Benedict XIV. extended this festival to all the do- minions of the Catholic king. A town has since sprung up around the sanctuary. Guadaloupe is the Loretto of America. The image represents an Immaculate Concep- tion, with the inscription : Non fecit taliter omni nationi.* We will content ourselves with the pilgrimages already described, as they are the most famous in Christendom : it would be tedious to enumerate all those which still exist in Catholic countries. We will merely mention, then. Our Lady of Lampadouze, placed, like a bea- con, on a desert isle, between Malta * The Mexicans, to show their respect for Our Lady of Guadaloupe, gave her name to their first steamboat. Ml mSTORT OF THE DEVOTIOK TO THE BLESSED VTROTN MART. ftnd the African coast, whose lamp, f kept up alternately by Christians and Mussulmans, burned uninter- ruptedly for ages ; Our Lady of Monte-Nero, overiooking Livoume, whose church is frequented by an innumerable crowd of pilgrims, and its walls covered with ex-wlo; it commands a view of that fair Tus- can sea into which the ItaUan maid- ens cast, on the eve of the Virgin's festivals, those garlands of flowers which they once offered to the nymphs of Amphytrion ; Our Lady of Jftrcy, near Savona, in the valley of St Bernard, the fairest sanctuary constructed by the piety of the (xen- oese people in honor of Mary ; Our Lady of Consolation, in Turin ; Our Lady of Charme, in Mamienne; Our Lady of Chasms, near Chambery; and Our Lady of Passaw, where the French priests, driven from home by the Revolutionary bayonets, went to pray for a happy return to their coimtiy — sighing for the limpid streams of France on the banks of the majestic Danube, the king of German rivers. As to the other sanctuaries of Mary scattered all over the world, the greater part will be found in the annexed Historical Calendar. This calendar, published during the minority of Louis XTV., contains all the pilgrimages of the Virgin throughout Christendom, with a number of pious foundations, which render it extremely valuable ; it is, moreover, a very rare work, only to be found in libraries. It is needless to say that things have changed since then, and that many religious edifices consecrated to the Mother of Grod, and then in a flourishing condition, are now but a heap of ruins — thanks to the " march of in- tellect " and the " age of progress." This calendar, which completes our notice of the pilgrimages, is given without other authority than that of the writere quoted, t(^ther with the dates and miracles as they stand from age to age. HISTORICAL CALENDAR (£>f tl)e ScastB of tl)£ Blcsscb Virgin, WITH THF FOUNDATIONS AND CHURCHES DEDICATED TO HER. JANUABY. 1. Dedication of Our Lady of the Annuncia- tion, in Florence, by Cardinal Guillaume d'Es- tonville, a. d. 1452. In this church is preserved a picture of the Annunciation, which was found miraculously finished when the painter came to give it the last touches. Archangel. Janius. 2. Foundation of the Abbey of Dunes, in Flanders, in honor of the Virgin, a. d. 1128, by Foulques, a Benedictine monk. Chronic. Ber- tinense. 3. Our Lady of Sichem, near Louvain, in the duchy of Brabant. This image is said to have sweat four drops of blood in the year 1306. Just. Lips, in Hist. Sichem, cap. 5. 4 Dedication of Our Lady of Treves, in Ger- many, A. D. 746, by Hydolph, Archbishop of Treves. The Princess Genevieve, wife of Sy- fred, palatine of Treves, and daughter of the Duke of Brabant, had this church built in a wood on the very spot where Our Lady ap- peared to her, and assured her that her inno- cence should be recognized. Additiones ad Mo- lanum de Sanctis Belgicis. 5. It is stated that on this day a paralytic man was miraculously cured in the church of Our Lady of Sichem, in Brabant. Just. Lips, in Hist. Sichem, cap. 24. 6. Our Lady being on this day at the wed- ding of Canaan, prevailed upon her Son, then thirty years of age, to change water into wine ; this was his first public miracle. 8. Epipn. hceres. 51. 7. Our Lady's return from Egypt to Judea with Jesus and St. Joseph. Martyrolog. Rom., 7 Januar. 8. Our Lady of the Beginning, in Naples. This chapel was built by St. Helen, and^ons«- crated by St. Sylvester, a. d. 320. Pet. Stephanus, de Locis Sacris Neapolit. 9. Our Lady beyond the Tiber, in Rome. This church was built by Calixtus L, A. r. 224. Baronius in apparatu ad Annal. et in Annal. ad ann. 224. 10. Our Lady of Guides, in Constantinople, where there were some of Our Lady's spindles to be seen, with some of the swaddling-clothes of the Divine Infant, given by St. Pule-heria to that church. Niceph., Tract. 3, cap. 7. 11. Our Lady of Bessiere, in Limousin. A heretic who had scoflfed at the devotion testified to this image, saw his house burned before his eyes without any visible cause. Triple Couronne, 1. i., Trait. 2, S. 10, nomb. 6. 12. Our Lady of the Broad Street, in Rome, built on the spot where St. Paul languished for two years in chains, while he preached the Gospel and wrote several of his Epistles. Trip. Gout., place quoted, nomb. 6. 13. Pius Y. revises the Little Office of the Blessed Yirgin, a. d. 1571. Balinghem in Calend. 14. Oi» Lady of Speech, near Montserrat, in Spain; so called because she is said to have restored speeoh to a dumb man, a. d. 1514. s^ BaHnghem in Calend. 15. Our Lady of the Porch, in Rome, where may be seen an image said to have been brought from heaven by an angel to the blessed Golla, widow of the Consul Symmachus. Ex monv^ ment. S. Maries in Portic. 16. Our Lady of Montserrat, in Spain, on this day, miraculously delivers several captives from the tyranny of the Turks. Hist. Montiaer. 17. Our Lady of Peace, in Rome. In the year 1483, the Duke of Calabria having be- sieged Rome to revenge himself on Sixtus IV. for having prevented him from assisting the Duke of Ferrara against the Venetians, the Pontiff had recourse to the Queen of Heaven, and engaged by vow to build her a church under the title of Our Lady of Peace, if she would vouchsafe to deliver the city from the siege, and restore peace to Italy. His prayer being heard, he accomplished his vow, and com- menced a church, which was finished by his successor, Innocent VIII. Gabriel Pennotus in hint, tripartita Canon. reguL, 1. iii., cap. 33. 18. Our Lady of Dijon, in Burgundy. This image, formerly called Our Lady of Hope, de- livered the city from the fury of the Swiss, A. D. 1513 ; in gratitude for this favor, a general procession takes place every year. Trip. Cour., nomb. 42. 19. Our Lady of Gimont, near Toulouse. This Cistercian church is celebrated in that part of the country for its miracles. Trip. Cour., nomb. 34. 20. Our Lady of Tables, in Montpellier ; an ancient and very famous church. In the arms of the city the Virgin is seen holding her Divine Son in her arms. Trip. Cour., nomb. 38. 21. Our Lady of Consolation, in Rome, at the foot of the Capitol. This Madonna commenced to work miracles in 1471. Trip. Cour., nomb. 38. 22. Espousals of Our Lady. This feast, long celebrated in France by pious persons, was ap- proved of by Pope Paul III,, in 154% Petrus Aurattis, lib. de Imag. Virt., c. 10. ¥ 23. Espousals of Our Lady, according to the custom of Arras. This feast was first celebrated in the year 1556. Monutn. Eccles. Attrebat. 24. Our Lady of Damascus. There is said to proceed from this image, painted on wood, a miraculous oil, which restored sight, a. d. 1203, to the Sultan of Damascus, infidel as he was. In gratitude for this favor, he founded a lamp to be kept constantly burning before the image. Spond. in Annal., ad ann. 1203. 25. Translation of Our Lady's shroud and tomb to Constantinople, by Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, in the reign of the Emperor Marcian, A. D. 455. Ferreol, Locrius in Ghron. anacephal. 26. Our Lady of Long- Fields, founded in 1261, by Elizabeth, sister of St. Louis. OaUia Christ., t. iv. 27. Our Lady of Life, at Venasque, in Prov- ence. Chronicles say that this image frequently restored life to unbaptized children, in order that they might receive baptism. IHp. Cour., nomb. 89. 28. Our Lady of Succor, near Rouen. This image is famous throughout the country. Ex archiv. hums ecclesia. 29. Our Lady of Chatillon-sur-Seine. Ber- nard had a great devotion for this image, be- cause of a miracle which it wrought in his favor. Trip. Cour., nomb. 43. 30. Our Lady of the Rose, at Lucca, in Italy. Three roses were found in the month of Jan- uary in the arms of this image, according tc a Latin chronicle. Ccesar Franciot. in hist. Litcensi. 31. Apparition of Our Lady to Sister Angela de Foligny. In e/'us vita. FEBKUABY. 1. The Vigil of the Feast of the Purification. Locrius in Calend. 2. The Purification of Uur Lady. This festi- val was instituted in 544, under the Emperor Justinian, on occasion of the plague which rav- aged ConstantiQople, where ten thousand per- HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 545 sons somefemes died in one day. In the year 701, Pope Sergius added to this feast the so- lemnity of the Tapers. Baronius in Annal. ad ann. 544. 3. Our Lady of Seidaneida, near Damascus. From this image, painted on wood, there flowed an oil which was never exhausted, no matter what quantity was taken. The virtue of this oil was so great that it cured even the infidels themselves. Arnold, abbas Lubec. ajpud Baron, ad ann. 870, et apud Spondan. ad ann. 1203. 4. Our Lady of the Pillar, at Saragossa, in Spain. So named because, according to the ti'adition, the Blessed Virgin appeared to St. James the Major on a pillar of jasper, a. d. 36, and commanded him to build her a church, which the Spaniards hold to have been the first dedicated to Our Lady. Beutereus, 1. i., c. 2 et 3. 5. Dedication of the first temple to Our Lady by St. Peter, in Tripoli, now Tortosa. Ganisius, I v.. de B. Virg., c. 32. 6. Our Lady of Louvain, in the Netherlands. This Madonna, highly venerated in the country, began to work miracles in 1444. Balinghem in Galend. 7. Our Lady of Grace, in the Abbey of St. Sauve, at Montreuil-sur-Mer. Ghronic S. Salvi. 8. Our Lady of the Lily, near Melun. This abbey of Cistercian nuns was founded by Queen Blanche, mother of St. Louis. Gall. Christ, t. 4. 9. Octave of the Purification of Our Lady, established in the Cathedral of Saintes, because it was said that on the night of the Octave the bells were heard to ring harmoniously of their own accord. The sacristans having hastened to the church, beheld a number of strange men with tapers in their hands, singing hymns of honor to the Virgin, venerated in that church under the title of Our Lady of Miracles, and, entering softly, they begged the nearest of the august band to give them his taper, in proof of the prodigy. This taper is religiously pre- served in that church. Sausseyus Martyr. Gall, died. * 10. Our Lady of the Dove, near Bologna, in Italy, built, it is said, in the place marked out by a dove, who kept for two days flying round some masons who were at work, seeming to them k) indicate a certain spot. Trip. Gour., nomb, 107. 11. St. Mary of Liques, near Calais. This monastery, of the Premonstratensian Order, was founded in 1131, by Robert, lord of Liques. Gall. Christ., t. iv. 12. Our Lady of Argenteuil, near Paris, built by Clovis I., A. D. 101. This priory possesses a part of Our Saviour's seamless garment. Thomas Bosius, 1. ix., de Sig. eccl., c. 9. 13. Our Lady of the Hot Oven, in Bourges ; so called because, in the year 526, a certain Jew, it is said, shut up his son in a heated oven be- cause he had received Baptism and the Holy Communion ; he was taken out safe and sound, thanks to the protection of Our Lady. A church was built to the Blessed Virgin in mem- ory of this event. Annales de France en Childe- hert. 14. Our Lady of Bourburg, in Flanders. It is said that this image having been struck by an impious man, a. d. 1383, the sacrilegious offender fell dead on the spot. Bzovius, ex Archiv. eccles. Burburg. 15. Our Lady of Paris, built first by King Childebert, a. d. 522. About the year 1257, St. Louis had a more spacious one erected on the same site, on the foundations laid by Philip Augustus in 1191. Du Breuil, Theatre des Antiq. de Paris, 1. i. 16. Our Lady of the Thorn, near Chalon, in Champagne ; so famed because this image was found in a hawthorn bush. Trip. Gour., nomb. 54. 17. Our Lady of Constantinople, formerly the Jewish synagogue, which was converted into a Christian church by the Emperor Justin the Younger, a. d. 566. Locrius. 18. Our Lady of Laon, erected into a cathe- dral, and founded by St. Remi, Archbishop of ^ Rheims, about the year 500 ; this prelate also 646 mSTORT OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. oonseorated St Geneband, his nephew, its first f bishop. Miracles were often wrought there, and, amongst others, we read that in 1395 there was seen on tlie spire a crucifix, whose stigmata shed blood. Thomas Walsingham, JHist. Ang. in Richardo I. rege. 19. Our Lady of Good-Tidings, near Rouen, visited by a vast concourse of people, especially on Saturdays. Trip. Cour., nomb. 52. 20. Our Lady of Boulogne-sur-Mer. In this church there is seen an image said to have been brought in a ship by the ministry of angels, A. V. 633. Louis XL gave this church a massive golden heart, weighing as much as two thousand crowns, a. d. 1479, and ordained that all the kings of France, his successors, should make a similar offering on their accession to the crown. Trip. Cour., nomb. 53. 21. Our Lady of Good Haven, in Dol, propi- tious to mariners. Trip. Cour., nomb. 61. 22. Our Lady of Help, at Rennes, in Brittany. Idem. 23. Our Lady of the Rocks, near Salamanca, in Spain. There is an image venerated in this chui-ch which was miraculously found, a. d. 434, by Simon Vela, who built a church there. Ba- Hnghem in Calend. 24. On this day, in the year 591, St. Gregory the Great, having the image of the Virgin which St Luke painted, borne in procession, the plague ceased in Rome. Balinghem in Calend. 25. Our Lady of Victory, in Constantinople. The city was delivered from the siege of the Saracens by the aid of the Blessed Virgin, a. d. 621. Fereolus Locrius. 26. Our Lady of the Fields, in Paris, formerly dedicated to Ceres. St. Denis, after having cast out the demons, consecrated it to Our Lady. In it is seen an image of the Virgin, on a small square stone, about a foot in diameter, made after that which St Denis brought to France. This house, a Benedictine priory, was occupied by the Carmelites, who were received into it, A. D. 604, and founded by Catherine, Princess de Longueville. It was the first settlement of those nuns in France. Mother Anne of Jesus, a com- panion of St. Theresa, was the first superior. Du Breuil, Theatre des Anliq., L ii. 27. Our Lady of Lights, near Lisbon, in Por- tugal. A light was long seen shining in this place, without any one being able to account for the phenomenon, when Our Lady, appearing to a prisoner, promised him liberty on condition that he would build her a church on the place thus pointed out by her. Anton. Voisconcell., in descript. reg. Lusitan., c. 7, § 5. 28. Institution of the Monastery of the An- nunciation, at Bethune, in Artois, by Franfois de Melun and Louise de Foix, his wife, a.d. 1519. Fereolus Locritis. MARCH. 1. Establishment of the Feast of the Imma- culate Conception of Our Lady, by Sixtus IV., A. D. 1476, and grants of indulgences to those who assist at mass or Divine service. T. IV. Conciliorum. 2. Our Lady of Apparitions, in Madrid ; so named because, in 1449, the Virgin appeared on eight successive days to a young girl named Yves, and commanded her to build a church on the spot where she should find a cross in honor of Our Lady. In vita B. Joan. 3. Our Lady of Longpont, in Valois. This abbey, of the Cistercian Order, was founded in the year 1131, by Josselin, Bishop of Soissons. Oall. Christ., t. iv. 4. Our Lady of Guard, in Arragon ; so named for having saved the life of a child who fell into a well, A. D. 1221. Bzovius, ad ann. 1221. 5. Our Lady of Good Aid, at Nancy, in Lor- raine. This image is believed to have obtained the victory for Rend, Duke of Lorraine, over Charles the Bold, the last Duke of Burgundy. Trip. Cour., nomb. 65. 6. Our Lady of Nazareth, at Pierre-Noire, in Portugal. This image was honored in Naz- areth from the time of the Apostles, if v/e may beUeve a document which was found by a HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 547 hunter fastened to the image, a. d. 1150. Trip. Cour., nomb. 13. 7. Our Lady of the Star, at Villa- Vicioza, in Portugal ; so called because of a star which a shepherd saw shining where the church is built. T^ip. Cour., nomb. 17. 8. Our Lady of Virtues, at Lisbon, in Portu- gal. Anton. VasconcelL, in descripL reg. Lusitan., c. 7, § 5. 9. Foundation of Savigny, in the diocese of Avranche, in Normandy, in honor of the Blessed Virgin, about the year 11] 2, by the Blessed Vital, hermit, who was its first abbot. Gall. Christ., t. iv. 10. Our Lady of the Vine, near Viterbo, in Tuscany. A handsome church now occupied by the monks of St. Dominick. Bzovius, ad ann. 1487. 11. Our Lady of Forests, at Porto, in Portu- gal. This image was discovered in a forest, where it had been hid by Queen Malfada, wife of Alphonso I. Joan. Barrius, lib. de reb. inter- amnensib., c. 12. 12. Our Lady of Miracles, in the cloister of St. Maur-des-Foss^s, near Paris. It is said that this image was found already made, when the sculptor, named Rumoldi, thought of working on it. Du Breuil, Theatre des Antiq., 1. iv. 13. Our Lady of the Empress, in Rome. There is a tradition that this image spoke to St. Gregory the Great, a. d. 593. Anton. Yepez. ad ann. 84, divi Benedicti. 14. Our Lady of the Breach, in Chartres, where a general procession is held every year, in gratitude to Our Lady for having delivered the city, when besieged by the heretics, a. d. 1568. It was during this siege that the image of Our Lady, standing over the Porte-Drouaise, remained uninjured by the cannonading or mus- ketry of the besiegers, the marks of which are still seen on two or three of the fingers. Sebas- tien Rouillard, Parthenie, c. 3. 15. In the year 911, the city of Chartres was miraculously delivered from the siege main- tained by Hollo or Ralph, Duke of the Nor- * mans ; as he was on the point of taking the town, Gaucelin, forty-seventh bishop of Char- tres, ascended the ramparts, holding a relic of Our Lady by way of a banner ; * this raised such a commotion in the enemy's camp, that they were forced to retire in disorder ; in mem- ory of this event, the fields of the Porte-Drou- aise are still called the Field of Retreat. Sebas- tien Rouillard, Parthenie, c. 7, nom. 5. 16. Our Lady of the Fountain, in Constanti- nople, built by the Emperor Leo, a. d. 460, in gratitude for the Blessed Virgin having ap- peared to him on the margin of a stream where he had charitably led a blind man, and promised him that he should become an emperor, though he was yet only a simple soldier. Niceph^ 1. xv., cap. 15. 17. A. D. 1095, under Urban II., there was a council held at Clermont, in Auvergne, and the Office of Our Lady was instituted. Goncil. Glarom. — Foundation of the Abbey of Baumont- lez-Tours, by Ingeltrude, in the year 600. Gall. Ghrist., t. iv. 18. In the year 1586, Our Lady of Loretto was erected into a cathedral by Sixtus V. Tur- sel. Hist. Lauetana, 5, 10. 19. Our Lady Fair (La Belle Dame) at No- gent-sur-Seine. It is said to be impossible to convey this famous image from its little chapel, which is no more than four or five feet square. Ex monument. Novigent. 20. Our Lady of Calevoirt, at Uckelen, near Brussels. This image began to work miracles in 1454, whereupon a magnificent chapel was built there in honor of Oar Lady, a. d. 1623 ; the shrine was piously visited that same year by the Infanta of Spain, Isabella Clara Eugenia. Aub. Miroeus, in Annal. Belg. 21. Our Lady of Bruges, in Flanders, where there is a tress of the Blessed Virgin's hair, given by a Syrian bishop named Moses. Hugo Farcitus, 1. i., miracul. B. Virg. 22. On Palm Sunday, in the year 1098, St. » This relic (so called) is the wedding garment of the Blessed Virgin. — Teams. Robert, Abbot of Muldme, retired, with twenty- one of his monks, to the diocese of Chalons-sur- Saone, where he built, in honor of Our Lady, the famous monastery of Citeaux, the muther- hoose of the order. Arnofd Vionus, 1. i., Ligni viicB, c. 47. 23. Our Lady of Victory. This image bears that name, because the French, having happily taken it from the Greeks, in a bloody battle fought near Constantinople, a. d. 1204, it ob- tained a complete victory for them. Spondanus iri Annal., ad ann. 1204. 24. Vigil of the Annunciation of Our Lady, instituted by Gregory IL On that day Our Lady made the Pasch in Jerusalem, a. d. 49. Balingh. Metaphrastes. 25. The Annunciation of Our Lady. This festival was instituted by the Apostles, and is the most ancient of all. Joan. Boni/aciua, L ii., HisL Virg., c. 5. 26. Our Lady of Soissons, occupied by nuns of the Benedictine Order. This abbey possesses one of the Blessed Virgin's shoes. J3. FarcUus. 27. Apparition of Our Lord to his Blessed Mother, after his resurrection. Alphonsus a Castro, c 17. 28. Our Lady of Castelbruedo, at Olian, in Catalonia. It is said that every year, on the Feast of the Annunciation, three lights of an azure color are seen to penetrate the windows of this church, hght the lamps and tapers, go out by the way they came, and disappear imme- diately. Ludo MarincBus, 1. v., de reb. Hisp., c. ultimo. 29. Apparition of Our Lady to St. Bonet, Bishop of Clermont, in Auvergne, whom she commanded to say mass one night when he had remained in the church to say his prayers. The saint, pressing against a pillar as if to conceal himself, the stone became soft, and made him the place which is still seen there. But the Blessed Virgin having compelled him to offici- ate, left him, when the ceremony was over, the chasuble brought by angels from heaven. This celestial gift is still shown at Clermont, where ^ it is rohgiously preserved. In ejus '9Ua, apud Surium, die 15 Jan. 30. Restoration of the Chapel of Our Lady of Boulogue-sui'-Mer, by Claude Dormy, bishop of that city. Trip. Cour., nomb. 53, 31. Our Lady of Holy Cross, in Jerusalem, where there is seen a portion of Our Lady's veil, given by St, Helen. Onuphrius, 1. vii,, EccL APEIL. 1. Octave of the Annunciation of Our Lady, in the Carmelite Order. Balinghem in Galend. 2. Our Lady the Great, at Poictiers. There is in this church an image of the Blessed Vir- gin, in whose bands were miraculously found the keys of the city, whilst a servant of the Mayor sought them everywhere, in order to open the gates to the English, to whom he had promised to deUver the city. Jean Boucher, Annals d'Aquitaine. 3. Apparition of Our Lord to his Blessed Mother and the Apostles, eight days after his resurrection. Balinghem in Galend. 4. Our Lady of Grace, in Normandy. This image is famous all over the country, and peo- ple come from all parts to venerate it. Ex. Archiv. hujus eccl. 5. Apparition of Our Lady to Pope Honorius IV., in confirmation of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Balinghem in Galend. 6. Our Lady of the Conception, attached to the Capuchin Convent of Douai, in Flanders. There is in this church a picture of the Im- maculate Conception, which was miraculously preserved from fire, a, d. 1553. Amatus Francisc. in libello M. S. 7. Our Lady of the Forsaken, at Valencia, in Spain, This image is in a chapel where there is said to be a loud noise made when any one is drowned or murdered in the neighborhood of the city. Trip. Gour., nomb. 28. 8. Feast of the Miracles of Our Lady, at Cambron, near Mons, in the Low Countries. Locrius. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 549 9. Our Lady of Myans, near Chambery, in Savoy. It is thought that this image arrested the devastating progress of the lightning which had already consumed the town of St. Andrew, with sixteen villages, and prevented it from de- stroying Myaus, a. d. 1249. Trip. Gour., n. 114. 10. Our Lady of Laval, in Vivarais. This church is much frequented, in order to obtain rain for the preservation of the goods of the earth. Trip. Gour., nomb. 41. 11. It is said that on this day a blind man recovered his sight in the church of Our Lady of Montserrat, a. d. 1538. Balinghem in Galend. 12. Our Lady of Charity, in the Abbey of the Bernardines, seven leagues from Toulouse. It is said that this image has several times shed tears. Trip. Gour., nomb. 34. 13. Apparition of Our Lady to the Blessed Jane of Mantua. In ejun vita. 14. Apparition of Our Lady to St. Ludivina, A. D. 1433. Joan Bruchman. 15. In the year 1101, the Holy Virgin gave the Blessed Alberic the white habit, instead of the black one which he then wore. In ejus vita. 16. Our Lady of Victory, in the Church of St. Mark, in Venice. This is the famous image which the Emperors John Zimisces and John Comnenus caused to be borne on a triumphal car ; it is now borne in procession by the Vene- tians when they wish to obtain rain or fine weather. In ejus i^ta. 17. Our Lady of Arabida, in Portugal, where there is an image which 'an English merchant was accustomed to wear on his person. Being one day in danger of shipwreck, he beheld his image surrounded by a great light, on the top of the rock of Arabida, where he then built him- self a small hermitage, and in it spent the re- mainder of his days. IVip. Gour., nomb. 16. 18. Grant of Plenary Indulgences, by Urban VI., to those who visit the Church of Our Lady of Loretto. Balinghem in Galend. 19. Confirmation of the Feast of the Concep- tion of Our Lady, by the Council of Trent, a. d. 1545. Goncil. Trident. * 20. Our Lady of Scheir, in Bavaria. This church was built on the site of the castle, volun- tarily made over to Our Lady by all the mem- bers of the house of Scheir, with the exception of Arnold, who, in punishment of his obstinacy, was drowned in a neighboring lake. Thrith. de Orig. gentis et princ. Bav. 21. Institution of the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, in Toledo, a. d. 1506, by Cardinal Francis Ximenes, archbishop of that city. Gomesius, in ejus vita. 22. Our Lady of Betharam, in the diocese of Lescar, country of Beam. This image was found in 1503 by shepherds who, seeing an ex- traordinary light in the place now occupied by the high altar of the chapel, approached and found there an image of Our Lady, to whom a chapel was immediately built. Trip. Gour., n. 32. 23. Concession of Indulgences, by Pope Ca- lixtus III., A. D. 1455, to those who visited the Cathedral of Arras, where there are preserved a veil and a cincture of Our Lady. Andreas Her- hy, ex codice MS. Eccles. Attreh. 24. Dedication of Our Lady of Reparation, at Florence, by Eugenius IV., a. d. 1436. Balingh. in Galend. 25. Dedication of the Lower Holy Chapel of Paris, in honor of Our Lady, by Phillip, Arch- bishop of Bourges, A. n. 1248. Du Breuil, Thea- tre des Antiq. 26. Our Lady of Naiera, in Navarre. This image was miraculously found 1048. Don Gar- cias de Naiera, King of Navarre, built a church for it, which was visited by several of the kings of Navarre. Andre Favin, 1. iii.. Hist, de Navarre. 27. It is said that in the year 1419, Our Lady of Haut, in Hainaut, restored life to a child who had been three days dead. Just. Lips, in Hist. D. Virg. Hallens, c. 19. 28. Our Lady of the Oak, near the town of Sabld, in Anjou. This image has wrought so many miracles that it is now very famous in that country. Marshal de Bois Dauphin built it a handsome church and an hospital for pil- ^ grims. Trip. Gour,, nomb. 50. 660 EISTORr OF TEE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 29. Our Lady of Faith, in the Augustinian Gharoh of Amiens. This image remained a long time in the oratory of a young lady, who gave it to the Augustiuians, and in theii* church it has since wrought many miracles. Ex. MS. Atig» Aminer. 30. Our Lady of Nantes, in Bretague. This church, which was dedicated to the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, by Felix, Bishop of Nantes, was thrown down by the Normans, a.d. 937, and rebuilt by Alain, Duke of Bretagne. For- tunaL, L iii, Carm., c. 1, 2, 3 et 4. MAY. 1. In the year 1449, some of the principal goldsmiths of Paris began to give the May-pole to the Church of Notre -Dame. Du Breuil, Antiq. de Parisi, 1. i. 2. Our Lady of Oviedo, in Spain, where there is some of the Blessed Virgin's hair. Balinghem in Calend. 3. Apparition of Our Lady to the Blessed Mary Bazzi, of the Order of St Dominick, a. v. 1597. Balinghem in Calend. 4. Our Lady the Helper, three leagues from Caen, in Normandy. There is a solemn pro- cession held every year at this chapel. Trip. Cour., nomb. 51. 5. Our Lady is present on Mount Olivet, at the Ascension of Our Lord, and then returns to Jerusalem to retire with the Apostles. Ads of the Apostles, c. i. 6. Our Lady of Miracles, in the Church of Our Lady of Peace, in Rome. It is said that in 1483, a man who had lost his money at play, having blasphemed this image, stabbed it four times with his poignard, when it shed so much blood that the miracle was noised abroad all through the city. This image is still preserved in the Church of Our Lady of Peace, where it is seen over the high altar, enshrined in marble. Oabr. Pen. in Hist. Triple Canon. Regvl., 1, iiL, -^ 33, § 2. 7. Our Lady of Haut, in Hainaut, where there ^ is one of the three little statues of the Blessed Virgin which St. Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew II. of Hungary, honored religiously, and be- queathed by will to her daughter, St. Sophia, who gave it, in 1267, to the Church of Haut, where several miracles have since been wrought. Jiist. Lips. Hint. D. Virg. Hallens, c. 3. 8. A. D. 1202, the learned Justus Lipsius gave his silver pen to the Church of Our Lady of Haut, in Hainaut, where it still hangs before the high altar. In ejus vita. 9. Our Lady of Loretto, in the March of An- cona, in Italy. This chapel is the House of Nazareth, where the mystery of the Redemption was announced. Turselin, in Hist. Lauretana, 1. i., c. 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10. 10. Dedication of the City of Constantinople to Our Lady, by Constantine the Great, under the Patriarch Alexander. Niceph., 1. viii., c. 26. — Our Lady of La Saussaie, near Paris. The church of this Benedictine priory was dedicated to Our Lady a. d. 1305, by Pope Clement V. 11. Apparition of Our Lady to St. Philip of Neri, whom she cured of a grievous malady, A. D. 1594, In ejus vita. 12. Our Lady of Virtues, at Aubervillers, near Paris. This image has wrought so many mira- cles in this church, that it is called Our Lady of Virtues, although it is dedicated to St. Christo- pher. Du Breuil, 1. iv. 13. Dedication of Our Lady of Martyrs, called the Rotunda, in Rome, by Boniface IV., a.d. 608. This temple was styled the Pantheon, be- cause it was dedicated to all the gods of the Gentiles. Bede, Hist. Eng., b. ii, ch. 4. 14. Dedication of Our Lady of Noyon, by Hardouin, thirty-seventh bishop of that city, A. D. 998. Chronic. Annonice, t. iii. 15. Descent of the Holy Ghost on Our Lady and the Apostles, a. d. 34, being the forty-eighth year of the Blessed Virgin's age. Christoph. a Castro, in Hist. Virg. 16. Apparition of Our Lady to St. Catherine of Alexandria, whose body was found on the ^ 13th of this month, on Mount Sinai, by a special HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIBGIN MARY. 551 revelation from the Queen of Heaven. In ejus vita. 17. Our Lady of Tears, in the Duchy of Spo- letto, in Italy. It is said that this image, paint- ed on a wall, shed abundance of tears, a. d. 1494. Gabriel Pennotus, 1. iii., Hist. Tripartita, c. 34. 18. Dedication of Our Lady of Bonport, be- longing to the Order of Citeaux, near Pont de I'Arche, in the diocese of Evreux. This abbey was founded by Richard CcBur de Lion, 11th March, a. d. 1190. Gall. Ghriat., t. iv. 19. Dedication of Our Lady of Flines, near Douai, by Peter, Archbishop of Rheims, a. d. 1279. This abbey of Cistercian nuns was given to St. Bernard by Marguerite de Dampierre, A. D. 1234. Chronic. Flinens. 20. Dedication of the Church of La Fertd, diocese of Chalons, in Burgundy, in honor of Our Lady. This abbey, the first-born of Ci- teaux, was founded in 1113, by Savaric and Guillaume, counts of Chalons. Ex Archiviis Ahhat. Firmitatis. 21. Our Lady of Sweat, at Salerno, in Italy. It is said that this Madonna sweat blood and water in 1611, foreshowing a great conflagration which took place next day. P. Spinelli Tract, de exempt, et miractU., cap. ultim. 22. Our Lady of the Virgin's Mount, near Naples. This image preserved from the flames the monastery and church consecrated to it. Idem, loco citato. 23. Our Lady of Miracles, at St. Omer, where there is one of the Blessed Virgin's gloves, and some of her hair. Chronic. Bertinens. 24. Gregory XV., a. d. 1622, issued a decree forbidding any one to maintain the opinion con- trary to the Immaculate Conception. It is also forbidden by the same decree to employ any other term than that of Conception in the mass or office of the day. Balinghem m Calend. Patronal Feast of Our Lady of Succor, Mont- real, Lower Canada. This shrine is famous throughout the country, and is much frequented by pilgrims. It formerly contained aSn image which had been venerated for more than a cen- * tury in a domestic chapel in France, and was sent to Montreal — or Villemarie — by the pious nobleman to whom it belonged. It was mir- aculously preserved from fire in 1754, but was stolen (or otherwise disappeared) in 1831. It was replaced by another in 1847. Marvellous effects have followed the invocation of Our Lady of Bon Secours. Manuel du Pelerin de Notre- Dame de Bon Secours. 25. Our Lady the New, in Jerusalem, built by the Emperor Justinian, a. d. 530. Procopius, de JEdific. imperat. Justiniani. 26. Dedication of Our Lady of Vaucelles, in the diocese of Cambrai, by Samson, Archbishop of Eheims. This abbey, of the Cistercian Order, was founded in 1132. In Chronic. Cisterc. 27. Dedication of Our Lady of Naples, styled St. Mary Major, by Pope John II., a. d. 553. There is an image of the Virgin preserved in this church which was said to have been painted by St. Luke. Schraderus, I. ii. 28. Feast of the Relics of Our Lady, in Ven- ice, when there are exposed to the veneration of the faithful some pieces of the Virgin's robe, her cloak, veil, and girdle. Ex hist, ea de re, impressa Venitiis. 29. Feast of Notre -Dame des Ardents, at Arras ; there is a taper in the Cathedral of Arras said to have been brought there by Our Lady, a. d. 1095. Jacob. Meyerus, in annal. Fland. ad ann. 1095. 30. Dedication of the Church of the Virgin's Mountain, near Naples, built a. d. 1126, by St. William, founder of the Order of the Virgin's Mountain, and repaired in 1519. Jean Juvenal, 1. vii., de Antiq., c. 3. 31. Our Lady of Suffering, in the Church of St. Gervase, in Paris. This image, which stood at the corner of the Rue des Rosiers, was mu-< tilated by a Jew in 1528 ; Francis the First had it solemnly conveyed to St. Gervase, and caused a statue of the Virgin to be made of gilt silver, which he himself put up in place of the former. This statue was stolen in 1545, and was replaced ijc by one of stone, which still bears the name of 652 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Our Lady of Silver. Du Breuil, Theatre des Antiq.t L iii JUNE. 1. Oar Lad} of the Star, at Aqailea, in Italy. This church is so named because it is said that a star was seen in daylight over the head of St Bernardino, when, preaching at Aquilea, he applied to the Blessed Virgin that passage of the Apocalypse where mention is made of the woman with a crown of twelve stars on her head. Surius, in ejus vita, 2. Our Lady of Edessa, in Asia Minor. It is said that this image, placed under the portal of a church, spoke to St. Alexis, and made known to the people the merit of that saint. Thence it was transported to Rome, where it is highly honored. Thomas Bosiics, 1. ix., c 9. 3. Our Lady of Sosopoli, in Pisidia. There proceeded from this image a miraculous oil, as testified by Germanus, patriai-ch of Constanti- nople, in a letter read at the second Council of Nice, assembled for the defence of sacred im- ages. Act. 4 Condi. Nicceni. 4. Our Lady of the Hill, at Fribourg, where many miracles are wrought. Trip. Cour., n. 85. 5. Chronicles tell that in the year 1428, Our Lady of Haut, in Hainan t, restored hfe to a child who had been dead for several days, in order that it. might receive Baptism ; that it lived five hours after being baptized, then grad- ually melted away like a snow-ball, in presence of seventy persons. Juatus Lipsius, de Virg. Hallens., c. 21. 6. Institution of the Nuns of the Visitation of Our Lady, founded at Annecy, in Savoy, a. d. 1610, by St. Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, and Jane Frances Fremiot de Chantal, who was the first member of that order. Henri de Mau- pas du Tour, 2d partie, chap. i. 7. Dedication of Our Lady of the Valley, of the Cistercian Order, seven leagues from Paris, under Louis XHL, April 18th, a. d. 1G16. Ex- codice MS. 8. Our Lady ol Alexandria, in Egypt, built by * St. Peter, patriarch of that city. BaroniuK, ad ann. 310. 9. Our Lady of Ligny, near Bar-le-Duc, in Lorraine. This image is much celebrated be- cause of the numerous miracles which it oper- ates. Dnp. Cour., nomb. 57. 10. Our Lady of Cranganor, in the East In- dies. This church is said to have been built by one of the three Magi. Oaorins, t. i., de Oestis Emmam. 11. Our Lady of Esquernes, half a league from Lille, in Flanders. This image began to work miracles about the year 11G2. Buzelinus, in Annal. Gall. 1. ii. 12. The Chronicle mentions that on this day Our Lady appeared to St. Herman of the Pre- monstratensian Order, and gave him a tress of her hair. Surius, in ejus vita. 13. Dedication of Our Lady of Sichem, near Louvain, a. d. 1604, by Mathias Hovius, Arch- bishop of Maliues. The image of the Blessed Virgin seen in this church was first placed in the hollow of an oak. Justus Lipsius, de Virg. Aspricol., c. 4. 14. A. D. 371, there fell from heaven a white fleecy substance mixed with a thick rain ; the fact is mentioned by St. Jerome, who holds that, the famine being great in the country, the in- habitants of Arras had recourse to the Virgin, who sent them that heavenly gift, commonly called manna, some remains of which are still to be seen in the church dedicated to her honor. Ex arch. Alb. Truliense. 15. Foundation of Our Lady of the Bernar- dines, in the diocese of Toulouse and Rieux, A. D. 1145. 16. Our Lady of Aix - la - Chapelle, built by Charlemagne, and consecrated by Leo III., a. d. 804; there were present on this occasion no less than three hundred and fifty prelates. Charlemagne gave to this church two of Our Lady's tunics, a. d. 810 ; but Charles the Bald took one of them, sixty-five years after, and gave it to the Church of Chartres. Ferreolua ^ Locrius, L v., Marioe Aug., c. 17. 17. Our Lady of the Forest, near Boulogne- Bur-Mer. This little chapel is famous all over the country. Trip. Cour., nomb. 53. 18. Apparition of Our Lady to St. Agnes of Mount Politian, to whom she gave, it is said, a small cross, which is now exhibited, with great solemnity, on the first day of May. Chronio. S. Dominici, part, i., 1. i., c. 72. 19. At Treves, in Germany, in the Church of St. John the Evangelist, built in 333, there is seen Our Lady's comb, given by Agritius, arch- bishop of that city. 20. Our Lady of Blaquernes, on the wharf of Constantinople. In this church is Our Lady's shroud, given by the Empress St. Pulcheria, who received it from Juvenal, Bishop of Jeru- salem. Niceph., 1. XV., c. 14. 21. Our Lady of Matarieh, at Grand Cairo, in Egypt, where there is a miraculous fountain ob- tained by the prayers of Our Lady, when she retired thither with the Holy Family ; tradition says that she washed the clothes of the Infant Jesus at this spring. Trip. Cour., nomb. 5. 22. Our Lady of Narni, in Italy. It is said that this image spoke to the Blessed Lucy, to whom she gave the Infant Jesus to hold. Trip. Cour., trait. 3. 23. Our Lady Justiniana, at Carthage. This church was built by the Emperor Justinian, in honor of the Blessed Virgin, to whom he as- cribed his victories over the Vandals. Baron., ad aim. 534. 24. Our Lady of the Clos-Evrard, near Tre- ves. This image was fastened to an oak by a vine-dresser who wished to honor it ; but Our Lady ordered him to build a little hut in her honor. The miracles there wrought became so numerous that the hut was speedily converted into a small chapel, and fiu9,lly a church was erected on the spst, and dedicated to the Bless- ed Virgin, a. d. 1449, by Jacques de Rircq, Arch- bishop of Treves. Trip. Cour., nomb. 82. 25. A. D. 431, the Council of Ephesus, wherein it was declared that the Virgin was entitled to be called the Mother of God. Concil. Ephes. 26. Our Lady of Meliapour, in the East In- dies, where St. Francis Xavier often went to pray. In vita S. Franc. Xaverii. 27. Our Lady of La Dorade, near Toulouse. This place, formerly dedicated to the goddess Pallas, was changed into a church for Our Lady when the inhabitants received the faith. ForcaL, 1. i., de Gall. Imperia. 28. Dedication of the Church of the Carthu- sians, in Paris, under the title of Notre Dame, by Jean D'Aubigny, Bishop of Troyes, in Cham- pagne, A. D. 1325. Du Breuil, Theatre des Antiq., 1. ii. 29. Our Lady of Buglose, two leagues from Acqs, in Gascony. This image was miracu- lously found, A. D. 1634, and conveyed to the parish church of Buglose. Trip. Cour., nomb. 36. 30. Our Lady of Calais, built by the English while in possession of that city, which they oc- cupied for about two hundred and ten years ; a magnificent chapel was added to it in 1631, by Jacques de Bolloye, Vicar of Calais. Davila, t. ii. JULY. 1. Dedication of the Church of Jumieges, in Normandy, a. d. 1067, by Maurice, Archbishop of Rouen, at the request of King William. Thos. Wahingham. 2. Visitation of the Blessed Virgin. This fes- tival was instituted by Urban IV., a. d. 1385, and confirmed by Boniface IX., a. d. 1389. S. Ante- nin, iv. part., tit. xv., chap. 24. 3. Our Lady of La Carolle, in Paris. It is said that this image, placed at the corner of the Rue aux Ours, being struck with a knife, a. d. 1418, shed a quantity of blood. In commemo- ration of this event, a great fire is made every year, and a wax figure burned in it, represent- ing the person who gave the sacrilegious blow. Du Breuil, 1. ii. 4. Our Lady of Miracles, at Avignon, built by Pope John XXIL, on the following occasion : Two criminals were condemned to bt burned, and one of them having invoked the Blessed 654 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Virjfin, was respected by the flames, whilst his ooiupauion was wholly consumed. Richard Clu- niacin Joan. xxii. 5. Dedication of Our Lady of Cambrai, a. d. 1472, by Peter de Ranchicourt, Bishop of Arras. This church was built in honor of Our Lady in 624 ; destroyed by the Normans in 882 ; rebuilt by Dossillon, twenty-first Bishop of Arras, a. d. 890 ; and finally, after being burned down in 1064, and again in 1148, was restored, as we now see it, in 1261. Chronic. Hannon., t. iii., L ii., chap. 23. • 6. Our Lady of Iron, near Blois, district of Dunois. It was in this chapel that, about the year 1631, a child who had been smothered while struggling in its cradle, was restored im- mediately to life as soon as its parents conse- crated it to Our Lady of Iron. Ex archiv. hujus loci. 7. Dedication of Our Lady of Arras, a. d. 1484, by Pierre de Ranchicourt, bishop of that city. This church was built by St. Vaast, Bishop of Arras, a. d. 542, with the donations of the first kings of France, according to Baronius. The Normans destroyed it in 583, and, after being rebuilt, it was consumed by Ughtning, a. d. 1030, and rebuilt in 1040. Locrius, 1. ii. It is said that in 1410, Our Lady of Haut, in Hainaut, restored life to a child belonging to Brussels, who was drowned in a welL The child being taken dead from the well, was con- secrated to Our Lady, and it was instantly re- stored to life. Justus Lipsiv^ de Virg. Hcdlens., c. 16. 8. Our Lady of Peace, in the Capuchin Church, Rue St. Honord, in Paris. 9. Dedication of Our Lady of Coutances, by GeoflFroy de Mowbray, in 1056. 10. Dedication of Our Lady of Boulogne, near Paris, a. d. 1469, by Chartier, Bishop of Paris. The confraternity of Our Lady of Boulogne is so famous that six of our kings were amongst its members. Dy, Breuil, Antiq., 1. iv. 11. Our Lady of Cl^ry, four leagues from Or- leans; this church was rebuilt by King Louis ^ XL, who was buried there in 1483. Locrius, M. Aug., 1. iv., ch. 68. 12. Dedication of Our Lady of All Graces, in the church of the Friars Minors, at Nigeon, near Paris, a. d. 1578. This house was given, in 1476, by Anne of Brittany, wife of Louis XII., to St. Francis of Paula, who had instituted his order a. d. 1436. Du Breuil, Antiq. de Parin. 13. One hundred years before the birth of Our Lord, the image of Our Lady of Chartres was carved in a forest, on the plains of Beance, by command of Priscus, king of the Chartrains, and then placed, with the inscription, Virgini parUurce ^that is to say, to the Virgin who is to bring forth), on the spot where it now stands, which was then a Druid cave. St. Potentian, second bishop of Sens, whom the Apostle St. Peter had sent into France, stopped at Char- tres, where he blessed this image, and dedicated the grotto for a church, a. d. 46. Seba.4. RouU- lard, Parthen., ch. 4, nomb. 1. 14. Our Lady of the Bush, in Portugal. This image was discovered by a shepherd in the midst of a burning bush. Vasquez Perdigon, Bishop of Evora, built in this place, a. d. 1403, a church and a monastery, which was given to the monks of St. Jerome. VasconcelL, in Descript. regni Lusitanice, ch. 7, § 5. 15. A. D. 1099, the Turks were defeated by Godfrey de Bouillon, who, on this day, took Jerusalem, of which he was declared king, and its festival was formerly celebrated every year, with a double office and an octave. Molanus, ad hanc diem. 16. The Feast of the Scapular. Tradition says that she gave it herself, about the year 1251, to the Blessed Simon Stock, of England. This devotion has spread all over the world. Popes John XXII., Gregory XIIL, Sixtus V., Gregory XIV., and Clement VIII., granted in- dulgences to the members of the confraternity. Cartagena, de Ortu ordinis Carmelitarum. 17. In the year 1565, Pius V. approves of the reform of the barefooted Carmelites, instituted by St. Theresa at Avila, in Spain. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 555 18. Our Lady of Victory, at Toledo ; so named because of a signal victory gained by Alphonso IX. over the Moors, a. d. 1202, after having hoisted a flag on which was the image of Our Lady. In Hist. Alphonsi ad Innocent III. 19. Our Lady of Moyen-Pont, near Peronne. This image was found by a shepherd near some ponds, where are now the meadows of Amele ; a church was built there, and was repaired in 1612. Trip. Gour., nomb. 53. 20. Our Lady of Grace, at Picpus, Faubourg St. Antoine, in Paris. This image, which is in a little wooden vessel with two angels at the end, was made in 1629, of a splinter taken from the famous image of Our Lady of Boulogne-sur- Mer. Trip. Gour., nomb. 47. 21. Our Lady of Verdun, in Lorraine, re- nowned for its numerous miracles. St. Polich- rainus, fifth bishop of Verdun, dedicated this church on his return from the Council of Chal- cedon. E.r archiv. eccles. Virod. 22. Our Lady of Safety, near Marseilles. The Queen of Heaven is highly honored in this church, where, every Saturday, the Blessed Sac- rament is exposed from midnight till noon. There are in it more than thirty large silver lamps, with many branches of coi'al of extraor- dinary size. Ex Ghronic. Massiliens. 23. Institution of the Premonstratensian Or- der, by St. Norbert, a. d. 1120, on a revelation from Our Lad3^ Bihlioth. Frcemonstr., 1. i., c. 2. 24. Foundation of Our Lady of Cambron, near Mons, in Hainaut, by Anselm de Trasigny, lord of Peronne. . In MS. a. d. 1148. Hannon Ghronic. 25. Our Lady of Bouchet, two and a half leagues from Blanc, in Berry. A shrine which attracts a great number of pilgrims. The image of the Virgin is made of the wood of an old oak, where the first image was found. Ex monumen- tis hujvi loci. 26. Our Lady of Faith, at Cancy, near Abbe- ville. This image having been removed from the oak where it now is to a chapel built for it about fifty paces distant, was miraculously ^ found again in its former place. Des Archives de Gancy. 27. In the year 1480, the Knights of Ehodes gained a signal victory over the Turks by the assistance of the Blessed Virgin, who appeared on the walls of that city with a lance in her hand ; the enemy, frightened, retired in dis- order, with the loss of the greater part of his forces. Jacob. Bosius, in hist, equitum Rhod. 28. Our Lady of Faith, at Gravelines. This image is renowned throughout all the country. Hist. Domince Foyens. Gravel. 29. A. D. 1546, it was regulated by the Council of Trent, that, regarding the immaculate con- ception of the Blessed Virgin, the decree of Sixtus IV. should be observed, under the penal- ties therein mentioned. Balingh. in Galend. 80. Our Lady of Gray, near Besan9on, in Franche-Comtd. This image, made of the oak of Montaigu, was much honored in the country. Trip. Gour., nomb, 58. 31. Our Lady of the Slain, at Ceica, near Lor- ban, a Cistercian monastery, in Portugal. It is said that this image was brought from heaven to the Abbd John, uncle of King Alphonso, and that it resuscitated a few persons who had been killed ; that, in memory of this miracle, they had ever after a red mark round their neck, like that which is still seen on the neck of the imaga Ghronic. Gisterc, 1. vi., c. 27 et 28. AUGUST. 1. A. D. 1218, Our Lady appearing on this day to St. Raymond, of the Order of St. Dominic, to James, King of Arragon, and to St. Peter of Nolasquez, made known to all three separately, that she wished them to establish a religious order for the redemption of captives. Surius, in vita S. Raymondi. 2. Our Lady of the Angels, or the Portionctde, six hundred paces from the town of Assissium, in Italy. The monks of St. Benedict gave this chapel to St. Francis, at his own request, and it was his wish that the convent which he built 556 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. there should be the chief house of his order. It was there that the first general chapter met, on which occasion five thousand mouks were pres- ent In this chapter he i ^stored the spirit of Hie order, a. d. 122G, being the twentieth after his conversion, and the forty-fifth of his age. Chr. Ord., part i., 1. ii., c. 1. 3. Our Lady of Arches, in London. It is on record that this image, having been carried off in a storm, with more than six hundred houses, A^ D. 1071, fell uninjured to the ground with so much force that it went through the pavement, more than twenty feet into the earth, whence it could never be raised. William of Malmesbury, 1. iv., in WUleL, 2. 4. Our Lady of Dordrecht, in Holland, erect- ed by St. Sauterus on the spot, it is said, which an angel, sent by the Virgin, pointed out ; the saint afterwards won the crown of martyrdom in that same church, and, in order to honor her memory, God was pleased after her death to make a spring shoot up there, which cured fevers of all kinds. Molan. in SS. Belg. 5. Dedication of Our Lady of Snow, in Rome, called St. Mary Major, formerly of the Crib, be- cause Our Saviour's crib is kept there. It was built by John Patricius and his wife, on the place which they found covered with snow, on the 5th of August, 367, and rebuilt by Sixtus IIL, about the year 432. Baron., in Not. ad ann. 367. Dedication of the Church of Our Lady of the Angels, in Rome, by Pope Pius IV., a. d. 1561. This church, which was formerly a part of the baths of Dioclesian, was erected into a cardinal- ate, endowed with several iiidulgences, and given by the same pope to the Carthusians. Balinghem in Gal&id. Our Lady of ^Protection, in the Church of the Bernardines, Rue St. Honore, Paria It was so named by the Queen, Ann of Austria, a. d. 1561, in gratitude for the favors she had received from the Queen of Heaven. Du Breuil, Antiq., L iii. 6. In the year 963, Our Lady of Chartres was ^ ( entirely burned, with the exception of the Vir- gin's tunic, which is still kept there. Seba.^t. Buuillard, Parthen., c. 7. 7. Our Lady of Schiedem, in Holland. Chron- icles relate that a merchant who stole this im- age, having embarked with the intention of sell- ing it at the Fair of Anvers, could never get clear of the port. Frightened by this prodigy, he replaced the stolen image, which was solemn- ly conveyed to the Church of St. John the Bap- tist, where St. Ludivine passed whole nights in prayer. Joan. Bruchman, Minorita. 8. Our Lady of La Kuen, near Brussels. This church was built by order of Our Lady, who is said to have marked out its dimensions with a cord, which is still shown. Auctar. ad Molan. 9. Our Lady of CEguies, in Brabant, the birth- place of Mary of CEgnies, who visited this holy image barefoot, once a year, in the depth of winter. Jacob, de Vitriaco, in ejus vita. 10. Institution of the Order of Our Lady of Mercy, at Barcelona, a. d. 1218. Surius, in vita Sancti Raimondi. 11. A. D. 810, the Emperor Nicephorus and the Empress Irene sent to Charlemagne two of the Blessed Virgin's robes ; he placed them in his church of Aix-la-Chapelle, from which Charles the Bald took one, and gave it to the Cathedral of Chartres. Locrius Anaceph., p. 3. 12. Our Lady of Rouen, built by Robert, Duke of Normandy. Richard the First, King of Eng- land, made great gifts to this church, and tho kings of France endowed it with many privi- leges. Merula, Gosmogr., part ii., 1. Hi. 13. Death of Our Lady in presence of all the Apostles, except St. Thomas. Like her Divine Son, she rose from the dead and ascended to heaven the third day after her death. Suarez, t. ii., in p. Disp. 21 sect., in fine. 14. Vigil of the Assumption, with a fast, men- tioned by Nicholas I., who was Pope in 858. It is said that on this day the angels were heard, near the city of Soissons, singing the anthem : "FeUx namque es, sacra Virgo Maria, et omni laude dignissima quia ex te ortus est Sol justi- HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 557 tise, Christus Deus noster." Thorn. Goncep., 1. ii., part 7. 15. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. This feast was instituted, according to Stu Ber- nard, in the very times of the Apostles. St. Bernard, epist. 174. 16. On this day the Virgin's sepulchre was opened, and as a proof that Our Lady had already ascended to heaven, there was seen in it only her shroud, which shed a delicious per- fume. Sauiiseyua, in Martyr. Gallic, die Assumpt. 17. Philip the Fair gained, on this day, a Bignal victory over the Flemings, a. d. 1304, after commending himself to Our Lady of Char- tres ; in gratitude for this favor, he gave her in perpetuity the land and lordship of Barres, to- gether with a perpetual annuity, and all the ac- coutrements which he wore on that memorable day. This feast is celebrated, in the Church of Notre-Dame, in Paris, on the following day, the 18th, and has a double office. Sebast. Rouillard, chap. 6. 18. A. D. 1022, King Kobert founded a chapel in honor of Our Lady in the court-yard of the palace, in Paris, on the spot now occupied by the Holy Chapel. Du Breuil, Antiq. de Paris. 19. Our Lady of Jerusalem, near Montecorvo, in Portugal. There is here a chapel built in imitation of that of Jerusalem ; it is said that the Virgin herself gave the plan. Vasconcell. in Descript. regni Lusit. 20. In the famous church of the Benedictines of Affighem, in Brabant, there is seen an image of the Blessed Virgin, which is said to have spoken to St. Bernard ; when the saint saluted her with, " Salve, Maria," she answered, " Salve, Bernard." Just. Lips., t. ii., c. 4, § 4. 21. In the year 1022 was instituted the Order of the Thirty Knights of Our Lady of the Star, at Paris, by King Robert, who said that the Blessed Virgin was the star of his kingdom. A. Favin, Hist, de Navarre, 22. Octave of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, instituted by Pope Leo IV., a. d. 847. Jacob. Bosius, num. 2. * 23. On this day, in the yeaf 1328, Philip of Valois, being surrounded by the Flemings near Mount Cassel, had recourse to the Blessed Vir- gin, who immediately delivered him from the danger to which he was exposed. In gratitude for this service, on entering Paris he went straight to the Church of Notre-Dame, and, going in mounted as he was, he rode up the nave till he came in front of the crucifix, where he laid down his arms. The picture of the mon- arch on horseback was long seen in this church, to which he assigned a pension of an hundred livres, to be paid from his domain of Gatinais. Trip. Cour., trait 4, c. 7, nomb. 7. 24. Dedication of Our Lady of Benoiste- Vaux, within a league of Verdun, in Lorraine. In this chapel there is an image of the Virgin which is famous for working miracles ; there is also a miraculous fountain, the water of which cures many diseases. Hist, de Notre-Dame de Benoiste- Vaux, chap. i. et ix. 25. Our Lady of Rossano, in Calabria. It is said that the Saracens, wishing to surprise the town of Rossano, and having already planted their ladders against the walls, were repulsed by Our Lady, who appeared clothed in purple with a lighted taper in her hand ; this appari- tion frightened them so that they fled precipi- tately. Gabriel de Barry. 26. Our Lady of the Arbor, at Douai. It is on record that when some children were play- ing disrespectfully before this image, it made a sign of displeasure with its hands. This mira- cle induced the people of Douai to build a chapel for it, a. d. 1543. Buzelin, in Annul. Gallo-Flandr. 27. Our Lady of Monstier, eight or ten leagues from Sisteron, on the way to Marseilles, There is an old tradition that a nobleman of the country, being made pi-isoner by the Turks, made a vow to build a chapel in honor of the Virgin, if she would please to deliver him. The Virgin heard his prayer ; an angel took him on his wings and conveyed him to his home. The ^ nobleman erected a magnificent chapel to Cm 658 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Ladv, where muny miracles nere wrought Ex MS. eade re cowicript. 28. Our Lady of Kiovia, in Poland, metropol- itan of Russia ; there is in this church a large alabaster figure of the Yirgiii, which spoke to St. Hyacinth, a.d. 1241, and told him not to abandon it to the enemy who was besieging the city, but to take it with him, which he did without any trouble, the image having lost its weight In vita sancti ffyacinthL 29. Our Lady of Clermont, ten leagues from Cracovia, where there is an image made by St Luke, and sent to the Empress Pulcberia ; that princess placed it in the Church of Our Lady of Guides, in Constantinople, whence it was taken by Leo, Duke of Russia ; the Duke of Opolia wished to remove it to his ^uchy, iu 1380 ; but when it reached the mountain of Clermont it became so heavy that it could be carried no far- ther ; seeing by this miracle that the Virgin had chosen that mountain for a dwelling-place, a church was built there for her^ Bzovius, ad ann. 1383. 30. Our Lady of Carquera, on the river Douro, in Portugal. Egas de Monis, guardian of King Alphonso I., had that young prince car- ried to this ancient church that the Virgin, by her intercession, might straighten his feet, which was immediately done. Vasconcell. in Regib. Lttait. Anacephat. 1 et 2. 31. Dedication of Our Lady of Founders, in Constantinople. The Empress St Pulcheria had this church built, and enriched it with .Our Lady's girdle. A festival was instituted in Con- stantinople for this relic, under the title of the Deposition of Our Lady's Girdle. The iVench having taken the city, this precious treasure was taken by Nivellon, Bishop of Soissons, and placed in the famous Abbey of Our Lady, with a part of the Virgin's veil. Niceph,, L iv., c 8. SEPTEMBER. 1. On the first Sunday of this month there is a festival celebrated in the Church of St. Peter, ^ at Louvain, in honor of the Virgin, called the Collection of the Feasts of Our Liuly. Molanus, ad Usuard. Martyrolog. 2. Our Lady of Helbron, or Nettles, in Fran- con ia, Germany. This image ))egan to work miracles in 1441. Trip. Cour., nomb. 73. 3. Dedication of the Abbey of Corneville, in honor of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, A. D. 1147, by Hugh, Archbishop of Rouen. OaU. Christ., t. iv. 4 A.D. 1419, Our Lady of Haut, in Hainaut, restored life to a girl named Jeanne Maillard, who, in taking water from a well, fell in, and was drawn out quite dead ; her mother having devoted her to Our Lady of Haut, she imme- diately gave signs of life. Just. Lips, de Virgin, Hdlens., c. 19. 5. Our Lady of the Woods, near Arras. A horseman having a mind to make a stable of this chapel, a. d. 1478, was instantly killed by his horse. 2Vip. Cour., nomb. 62. 6. Our Lady of the Fountain, half a league from Valenciennes. Tradition says that the Virgin appeared to a certain hermit in this place when the plague was ravaging the city, and commanded him to tell the inhabitants that they should fast next day and spend the night in prayer. That being done, she was seen coming down from heaven and encircling the whole city with a cord ; this cord is still kept at Valenciennes. Ex libdlo de ea re scripto. 7. Vigil of the Nativity of Our Lady, insti- tuted by Gregory II., about the year 722. Ba- lingh. in Galend. 8. The Nativity of Our Lady, which hap- pened, according to Baronius, in the year of the world 4007, on a Saturday, about the dawn of day, fifteen years before the birth of Our Saviour. This feast was instituted on the 8th of September in the Greek and Latin Churches, A. D. 436, according to the same writer, and ia France by St Maurillus, Bishop of Angers. Dedication of the Church of Our Lady of Liesse, in the diocese of Laon, ten leagues from Rheims. Dedication of Our Lady of Montserrat, in * Catalonia. 9. Our Lady of the Puy, in Velay. St. Georges, who was the first bishop, marked the site for this church, which was not built till about the year 221. The Virgin herself gave it in charge to St. Evodus, or Vosius, seventh bishop of the same place, whom she ordered to transfer his episcopal see to Puy. St. Evodus obeyed the Virgin ; but when he came to conse- crate his new church, he perceived that it was already consecrated by angels ; the doors open- ed of themselves, the bells rang of their own ac- cord, the tapers were burning, and the holy chrism, which the angels had used, appeared still fresh on the altar and on the walls. Odo GisHcus, de Virg. Aniciens., 1. ii., c. 7, 8 et 9. 10. Our Lady of Tru, near Cologne. This church was built, under Otho L, by St. Heri- bert, Archbishop of Cologne, on the very spot where idols were formerly worshipped. 11. Our Lady of Hildesheim, in the duchy of Brunswick, in Germany. The image here ven- erated is the same which Louis the Good was accustomed to wear on his person. One day when he chanced to forget it in a wood, it be- came so hea,vy that it was impossible to move it, which induced the king to build a church for it in that place. Trip. Cour., nomb. 75. 12. Our Lady of Healing, in Lower Nor- mandy. Many miraculous cures have been ef- fected in this church. Ex archiv. hujus eccles. 13. Our Lady of Guadalupa, in Spain. This image, sent by Pope Gregory to St. Leander, Bishop of Seville, was concealed, at the time of the Moorish invasion, with the body of St. Ful- gentius, in the cave of Guadalupa, where it re- mained for nearly six hundred years, till Our Lady revealed it to a shepherd. Joann. Mari- ana, 1. vi., de ReK Hispan. 14. Dedication of Our Lady of Fontevrault, in Poitou, by Pope Calixtus II., a. d. 1129. Gall. Christ. 15. Octave of the Nativity of the Blessed Vir- gin, instituted on the occasion of some differ- j)s ence which occurred at the election of the suc- cessor of Celestine IV., through the intrigues of the Emperor Frederick II., the cardinals had recourse to Our Lady, binding themselves by vow to add an octave to the Feast of her Na- tivity, if she would vouchsafe to give them a pope. Innocent IV. having been elected, he in- stituted this octave, a. d. 1243, the first year of his pontificate. Arnoldus Wionius., 1. v., Ligni vitce, c. 22. 16. Our Lady of Good News, at Orleans, built by King Eobert, a. d. 996, on the spot where he received the glad tidings that his father, Hugh Capet, had escaped death. Locrius, Marion Au- gustce, 1. iv., c. 62. 17. The placing of the image of Our Lady of Puy, in Velay. The holy king St. Louis gave this image to the Church of Puy, a. d. 1254, on his return from foreign parts. 18. Our Lady of Smelcem, in Flanders. Chronicles tell that certain shepherds remarked that their sheep bent the knee before this im- age. It was for this reason that Baldwin, sur- named Fairbeard, chose this place as the site for a church, in gratitude to Our Lady for having cured him of a disease which he had had for seventeen years. Trip. Cour., nomb. 63. 19. Our Lady of Healing, near Mount Leon, in Gascony, Geoffroy, Hist, de la Vierge de Guerison. 20. Our Lady of the Silver-Foot, at Toul, in Lorraine ; where there is an image which, ac- cording to an ancient tradition, apprised a cer- tain woman, in 1284, of treachery meditated against the city, and as a sign, the image ex- tended its foot, which was changed into silver. Trip. Cour., nomb. 57. 21. Our Lady of Pucha, in the kingdom of Valencia. This image was found a. d. 1223, by means of seven stars shining over the place, whereupon the people dug into the ground, and found an image of the Virgin. Bernard. Comes., Hist. Hispan., 1. x. 22. The name of Mary given to Our Lady, by her mother, St. Ann. Fet. a Castro, Hist. Virg. c. 2. 660 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 23. Our Lady of Vulvancre, in Spain. This image was found in an onk, in the place now oc- cupied by the magnificent church rebuilt by Alphonso IV., King of Castile. Anton. Yt^pez, in Chronic. 24. Our Lady of Roc-Amadour, or Roche- d'Amateur, in the diocese of Cahors, Quercy. This pilgrimage is so named because St. Ama- teur, vulgarly called St. Aniant, remained some time on this rock, which became famous about the year 1140. Hugo Fardlus, de MiraciU. B. Virg. Rupiramal. 25. Our Lady of Passage, at Rhodes. This image being often removed was always found again in the same place, which caused a church to be built there. Trip. Cour., nomb. 53. 26. Our Lady of Victory, at Tournay. The inhabitants carried the keys of the city to the Church of Our Lady, a. d. 1340, because they knew that it was only the Queen of Heaven who could deliver them from the English, who were forty days besieging the city. No sooner had they manifested this confidence in the Blessed Virgin than the siege was raised ; the inhabit- ants at the time had scarcely three days' provi- sions. Ex Archiv. Tornncens. 27. Our Lady of Happy Meeting, half a league from Agde. This earthen image was discovered miraculously, a. d. 1523. Trip. Cour., nomb. 34. 28. Our Lady of Cambron, of the Order of Citeaux, near Mons, in Hainaut. It is said that this image, being struck by a rufiian, shed blood profusely. Hist. Camberon., edita Duaci, ann. 1602. 29. Our Lady of Tongres, in the diocese of Cambrai. This image was taken in 1081 to a garden, where the Bishop of Cambrai had a church built. Trip. Cour., nomb. 1602. 30. Our Lady of Beaumont, in Lorraine, be- tween Domremy and Vaucouleut. Joan of Arc often retired to this church to recommend the affairs of France to the Queen of heaven and earth, who ordered her to take up arms to de- liver that kingdom. Trip. Cour., traite 3. ch. 7. OCTOBER. 1. Foundation of Crown Abbey,* of the Au- gustinian Order, in the diocese of Angouleme, under the title of Our Lady, by Lambert, who was its first abbot, a. d. 1122. Gall. Christ, t. iv. 2. Our Lady of the Assumption, in Naples ; built by the regular canonesses of St. Augustine, in gratitude for the Mother of God having warned them to leave a house which fell imme- diately after they had quitted it. Trip. Cour., nomb. 42. 3. Our Lady of the Place, in Rome. This image having fallen into a well near the house of the Cardinal Capoci, a. d. 1250, the water rose miraculously, and cast out the image, which the cardinal then placed in his chapel. But Pope Innocent IV. obliged him to build another on the spot where the miracle tooii place. This chapel being given to the Servites, they built a handsome church, inclosing the well within its walls. Trip. Cour., nomb. 100. 4 Our Lady of Vaussivieres, in the moun- tain's of Auvergne, near Mount d'Or, where there was an image which was miraculously saved from the general wreck when the English ravaged Vaussivieres, about the year 1374. This image being removed to the Church of Besse, was found again in its former place. Duchene, ch. 9. 5. Our Lady of Buch, in the Pine Moun- tains, f in Guienne. The sea threw this image on shore, whilst St. Thomas, the Franciscan, was praying for two vessels which he saw in danger of perishing. He received the image with respect, and enshrined it in that place, in a little chapel built for it. Florimond Rayraon, Hid. des Heres., 1. i. St. Mary of Jersey, consecrated a. d. 1320, on one of the Channel Islands. Chartrier de Cou- tance.% dit le Livre-Noir. ( The Black Book. ) 6. Our Lady of La Plebe, in the marsh of Venice, built a. d. 1480. i> '^ Ahbaye de la Couronne. f Moutagnes des Pms. B © 0} HISTORY OF THE DEV0T102^ TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 561 7. Feast of the Rosary, instituted by Pope Gregory XIII., a. d. 1673, after the famous vic- tory of Lepanto, obtained by the Christians over the Turks. Joseph Stephan., Tract, de Indulg. Rosarii. 8. Our Lady of Gifts, at Avignon. Tradition assigns the foundation of this church to St. Martha, and adds that it was consecrated by Our Lord himself. Being sacked by the Sara- cens, it was repaired by the Emperor Charle- magne. Trip. Gour., nomb, 40. 9. A. D. 723, on the night of that day on which the Prince of the Saracens had St. John Da- mascene's hand unjustly cut off. Our Lady mir- aculously united the severed hand to the wrist, that faithful servant having begged her to do so, that he might continue to write in favor of sacred images. Joan. Patriarch. Jerosolimtt., in vita sancti. Joann. Damasc. apud Surium. 10. Our Lady of the Cloister, at Besan9on. Our Lady's image, placed in the cloister of the Magdalen, was preserved from a fire, a. d. 1624, although the niche in which it stood was re- duced to ashes. 2^ip. Gour., nomb. 58. 11. Our Lady the White, in the church of the Bernardine monastery, at Ouville, district of Caux. This image is much honored in that country. Ecc Archiv. hujus Monast. 12. Our Lady of Faith, in the district of Li^ge. This image was found, a. d. 1609, by a carpenter named Gilles de Wanlin, who, cutting down a tree for the purpose of making a boat, found in it, behind an iron grating, an image of Our Lady, made of whitish clay, and about a foot in height. It was removed to another oak, and thence again to a church built on the spot where the former tree had stood. Trip. Gour., nomb. 60. 13. Dedication of Clairvaux, in the diocese of Langres, in honor of the Blessed Virgin. St. Bernard was the first abbot of this famous mon- astery, where he died in 1153, at the age of sixty-three years. Alphonso I., King of Portu- gal, in 1142, bound himself and his successors to pay a tribute of fifty maravedia of gold every ^ year to Our Lady of Clairvaux. Ghronic. Gis- tercians. 14. Our Lady of La Eochette, near Geneva. A shepherd having approached a bush where he heard a plaintive voice, found in it an image of the Blessed Virgin, which caused a church to be built there. Astolph. Hist, univers. B. Marioe Virg. 15. Dedication of Our Lady of Terouenne, A. D. 1133, by Milon, its thirtieth bishop. Jacob Meyerus, 1. ii., Annal. Flandrice. 16. Dedication of Our Lady of Milan by Pope Martin V., a. d. 1417. This church was built in 1388 by John Galeas, Duke of Milan. Philip. Bergom., L iv., Suplic. ann. 1388. 17. Dedication of the Grotto of Our Lady of Chartres, by St. Pontian, a. d. 46. — Dedication of the Church of Citeaux, in the diocese of Chalons, under the invocation of Our Lady. Sebast. Rouillard, c. 4, n. 4. 18. Dedication of Our Lady of Rheims, built by St. Nicaise, archbishop of that city, a. d. 405. This church being ruined, was rebuilt by Ebon and Hincmar. It was finished in 845. Flodo- ardus, 1. i., ch. 6. 19. Dedication of the Abbey of Royaumont, under the title of the Holy Cross and Our Lady, by John, Archbishop of Mitylene, a. d. 1235. This monastery was founded by St. Louis, in the year 1227. Gall. Ghrist., t. iv. 20. Dedication of the Church of Pontigny, four leagues from Auxerre, under the title of Our Lady. This abbey was founded in 1114 by Thibaud, Count of Champagne. Angel. Mauriq. 21. Our Lady of Talan, near Dijon. Ex monumentis Divion. 22. Our Lady of the Vault, half a league from Grand Cairo. Tradition has it that the Blessed Virgin remained some years in this subterra- nean chapel. Trip. Gour., nomb. 9. 23. Our Lady of Comfort, near Honfleur. This chapel is much frequented. Two children were in it restored to Hfe, in memory of which their images are there in silver. Ex archiv. ^ hujus loci. 662 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. %L Onr Lady of Hermits, in Switzerland, where there was former 1} a little hermitage in the midst of the woods, occupied by St. Mein- rad, till the Emperor Otho built a church there, accordiug to an order which he had received &*om heaven. This church contains a little Lady-chapel, consecrated, it is said, in 1418 by Our Lord himself, accompanied by angels and saints, who performed the functions of the or- dinary officers of the church, in presence of the Blessed Virgin. Trip. Cour., nomb. 84. 25. Dedication of Our Lady of Toledo, in Spain, about the year 1075, by Bernard, arch- bishop of that city. This cathedral has a rev- enue of more than 300,000 livres. Joann. Mari- ana^ 1. ix., ch. 18. 26. Dedication of Our Lady of Victory, near SenUs, A. D. 1225, by Guarin, Bishop of Senlis and Chancellor of France. This abbey was built by Philip Augustus, in gratitude for the victory which he gained at Bouvines over the Emperor Otho, a. d. 1214. Carta Tabular, de Vict. 27. Our Lady of La Basilla, in Lombardy, beyond the Po. This church was built by the express command of Our Lady. Albert. Lean- der, in Descriptione Ilaliae. 28. Our Lady of Vivonne, in Savoy, where there is an image which was miraculously found by a laborer. This statue, having been thrice removed to the village church, always returned to its original place ; a church was consequently built there, and given to the Carmehtes. AdoU phus, in Hist, univers. imag. B. Virg. 29. Our Lady of Orope, near Bielle, in Savoy. This image, made of cedar wood, and about six feet high, is in a chapel built by St Eusebius, Bishop of Verceil, about the year 380 ; the saint often retired thither during the troubles of the Arians. Trip. Cour., nomb. 112. 30. Our Lady of Mondevi, at Vic, in Pied- mont, where there is an image painted by a tiler on a pillar of brick built by him for that pur- pose. This pillar has been surrounded by a church, where numberless miracles are wrought. Hist, de Mondevi, c. 2. 31. In the year 1116, a choir boy having fallen into the well of Saint Fort, which is in the Church of Chiirtres, was saved by Our Lady. All the time that he was in the well, he heard the angels answering the public prayers recited in the church ; this gave rise to that custom in the Church of Chartres, of the choir never sing- ing the response to the Dominus Vobiscum, chanted at high mass and in the canonical hours. Sebast. Rouillard. Farthen., c. 6, n. 14. NOVEMBER. 1. The Feast of All Saints, instituted art Rome, in honor of Our Lady and all the Saints, by Pope Boniface IV., about the year 608, and afterwards in all the churches in Christendom, by Pope Gregory IV., about the year 829, at the request of Louis the Good, who issued a proclamation commanding it to be observed throughout all his dominions. Baron, ad Mar- tyrolog. Roman. 2. Our Lady of Emmimont, near Abbeville. This church is much frequented by pilgrims. Antiq. d'Abbev., 1. i. 3. Our Lady of Rennes, in Bretagne. The EngUsh having undermined the town to blow it up, it is said that the tapers in this chapel were miraculously lighted, the bells rang of their own accord, and the image of the Blessed Virgin was seen to extend its arm towards the middle of the church, where the train was laid ; the dan- ger was thus discovered, and measures success- fully taken to avert it. Trip. Cour., tract 3. c. 7 et 8. 4 Our Lady of Port Louise, in Milan. Tra- dition teUs that this image one day received the homage of two angels, who were seen by several persons bending the knee before it. Astolphus, ex hist, univers. imag. B. Virg. 5. Our Lady of Damietta, in Egypt. This church was consecrated in honor of the Blessed Virgin, a. d. 1220, by Pelagius, the Apostolic legate, ^^hnilius, in Fhilippo. 6. Our Lady of Valfleurie, seven leagues from HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 563 Lyons. This church is so called because the image of the Virgin over the high altar was found by shepherds in some broom which was in full blossom, though the season was mid- winter. Trip. Cour., nomb. 47. 7. Our Lady of the Pond, near Dijon. This image, of baked clay, was discovered in 1531, by means of an ox which always stopped at that spot, and although he kept grazing there con- tinually, the grass grew thicker and thicker every day. Trip. Cour., nomb. 42. 8. Our Lady of Fair-Fountain, in the diocese of La Rochelle. This image has been honored from time immemorial. Ea: archiv. hujus Abbatce. 9. Our Lady of Good Aid, in Perche, near Roumalard. This church is mach frequented by persons in affliction. Trip. Cour., nomb. 52. 10. A. D. 1552, Our Lady of Loretto cured a Turkish pacha of an incurable disease ; he had been persuaded by one of his slaves, who was a Christian, to have recourse to the Blessed Vir- gin ; the infidel believed him, and promised to set him free if . Our Lady cured him. Having recovered his health, he sent many pi'esents to the' Church of Our Lady of Loretto, and, amongst others, his bow and quiver. Tursel., Hist. Laurel., 1. iii., c. 18. 11. On this day, about the year 1546, the Por- tuguese gained a great victoiy over the infidels, who were before the Castle of Die, in the East Indies, for seven months, and would have taken it if Our Lady had not appeared on the walls ; this apparition so terrified the enemy that the siege was immediately raised. Balinghem in Galend. 12. Our Lady of the Tower, in Fri?bourg, built in a heretic country, on the very spot where an image of Our Lady was found. Trip. Cour., nomb. 85. 13. Dedication of the Abbey of Bee, in Nor- mandy, A. D. 1077, by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury. This Benedictine abbey was founded about the year 1045, by Herluin, who was its first abbot. Guillelm. Gemiticensis, 1. vi., de due. Norman., cap. 9. 14. Our Lady of the Grotto, in the diocese of Lamego, in Portugal. This chapel was hol- lowed in the rock, on the spot where an image of the Virgin was found. VasconcelL, in De- script, regni Lusitan. 15. Our Lady of Pignerol, built in honor of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, about the year 1098, by Adelaide, Countess of Savoy. Ex archiv. hujxis loci. 16. Our Lady of Chieves, in Hainault, where, in 1130, the lady of the place, named Ida, built a chapel near a fountain where an image of Our Lady was found ; many miracles have since been wrought there. Trip. Cour., nomb. 62. 17. Institution of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Sion, at Nancy, in Lorraine, a. d. 1393, by Ferri de Lorraine, Count of Vaud^mont. Trip. Cour., nomb. 66. 18. Our Lady of Bourdieux, near Bourges. This Benedictine abbey was built, in 928, by Ebbon, Lord of Berry. Bzovius, ad ann. 928. 19. Our Lady of Good News, in the Abbey of St. Victor, which Mary de Medici visited every Saturday. The abbey was founded in 1113 by Louis the Fat. Ex archiv. S. Victoris Paris. 20. Our Lady of Guard, near Bologna, in Italy. This image was in the Church of St Sophia, in Constantinople, with the inscription : "This picture, painted by St. Luke, is to be taken to Mount Guard, and placed over the altar of the church." A Greek monk set out for Italy towards the year 433, with the image en- trusted to him, and placed it on Mount Guard. Bzovius, ad ann. 1433, n. 379. 21. The Presentation of Our Lady. This feast was instituted, in the Greek Church, more than nine hundred years ago, since St. Ger- manus, who held th«e see of Constantinopie, in 715, composed a sermon on it.* Baron, in Notis ad Martyrolog. 22. Institution of the Confraternity of the Presentation of Our Lady, at St. Omer, a. d. 1481. Adalardus Tassart,in Chronic., ad ann. 1481. "■ It will be remembered that this Calendar was drawn ^ up in the "eign of Louis XIV. 664 BISTORT OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 28. Oar Lady of the Yaalt, near the town of St Anastasia, in the neighborhood of Florence. Ttnp, Cour., nomb. 102. 24 A. D. 1535, Oar Lady of Montserrat re- stored speech to a Savoyard who had been damb. HisL Montiss. 25. Oar Lady of the Bock, in the territory of Fiezoli, in Tascany. This image is placed in a rock, where two shepherds once retired to pray, when Our Lady commanded them to baild her a charch in that place. Archangd. Janius, in .AnnaL PP. Servitarum. 26. Oar Lady of the Mountains, between Moant Esqoilin and Mount Yiminal, in Italy. This image was miraculously found, a. d. 1500. Trip. Cour., nomb. 99. 27. Dedication of the town of Lesina, in the Gampagna of Borne. This town was given to Our Lady, a. d. 1400, by Margaret, Queen of Poland, and mother of Ladislas. Bzovius, L ix., de Sign, eccles. 28. Oar Lady of Walsingham, in England, much honored by Edward L, who, playing one day at chequers, instinctively rose from his seat, and at the same moment a large stone fell from the roof of the vault on the seat which he had occupied. Ever after, he had a particular devotion for Our Lady of Wal- singham. Thomas Waltsingham, in Hist. Ang. in Ed.L 29. Our Lady of the Crown, at Palermo ; so named because it was there the kings of Sicily received the royal crown, as holding it from the Mother of God, and being only to wear it for her. Thorn. Fazellus, L viiL, prions decad. de reb. Siulis. 30. Our Lady of Genesta, on the coast of Genoa, in Italy. A poor woman, named Pe- traccia, undertook to build this church, which appeared utterly impossible ; she, nevertheless, laid the first stone, saying she was sure she should not die till Our Lady and St. Augustine had finished the work. The result was, that in a little time after the church was foimd miracu- lously finished. Signinus, in Chronic. DECEMBEB. L Oar Lady of Batisbon, in Bavaria, founded ■ by Duke Theodore, after being baptized by St Bupert, Bishop of Salisbury, and Apostle of Bavaria ; the same saint subsequently conse- crated this church. Canisitis, 1. v., de B. Virg., cap. 25. 2. Our Lady of Didynia, in Cappadocia, be- fore which St Basil besought the Blessed Virgin to remedy the disorders caused by Julian the Apostate ; he was favored there with a vision foreshowing the emperor's death. Baroniun, ad ann. 303. 3. Our Lady of Filermo, in Bhodes. This image remaining amongst the ruins of the Church of St Mark, of Bhodes, was removed to St Catherine's Charch, and, at length, the knights having quitted Bhodes, it was placed in the Church of St Lawrence. This church was afterwards entirely burned, but the image re- mained uninjured. Trip. Cour., nomb. 91. 4. Our liady of the Chapel, at Abbeville. This church was built about the year 1400, on a little hill where idols were formerly worshipped. Antiq. d'Abbev., L L 5. In the year 1584 was instituted the first congregation of Our Lady in the Jesuit College in Bome, and hence the company's pious custom of establishing it in all their houses. Balinghem in Calend. 6. Our Lady of Fonrviere, at Lyons, famous for miracles, and for the extraordinary con- course of people who go there from the city, es- pecially on Saturdays. 7. On this day, being a Sunday, in the year 1550, the canons of Our Lady of Paris, walking in procession before the image of the Virgin, which stands near the door of the choir, a Lorraine heretic, forcing his way through the crowd, sword in hand, attempted to strike the image ; he wa? prevented by the assistants, and on the following Thursday he was executed in front of Notre -Dame. Du Breuil, Antiq. de Paris, L L HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 565 8. The Conception of the Blessed Virgin. This feast commenced in the East about the seventh or eighth century, for St. John Damas- cene, who hved in 721, makes mention of it. It was instituted in England, a. d. 1100, by St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, then in the diocese of Lyons, a. d. 1145, and finally Sixtus rV. decreed, a. d. 1576, that it should be cele- brated throughout Christendom. Joann. Molaru, in Annot. i., ad Usuard, 9. Our Lady of the Conception, in Naples ; so named because, in 1618, the Viceroy, with all his court and the Neapolitan militia, made a vow in the Church of Our Lady the Great, to believe in and defend the Immaculate Concep- tion of the Blessed Virgin. Trip. Gour., n. 43. 10. Institution of the nuns of the Conception of Oar Lady, by Beatrice de Sylva, to whom Our Lady is said to have appeared in 1484, clothed in white, with a scapular of the same color, and a blue mantle. Beatrice, sister of the Blessed Amadeus, took this costume for the habit of her order, approved by Innocent VIII., according to the Cistercian rule. Vasconcell. in DescripL regni Lusit. 11. Our Lady of Angels, in the forest of Livry, four leagues from Paris. Three Anjou merchants having been abused in this forest, A. D. 1212, by robbers, who left them fastened to trees, so that they might starve to death, had recourse to the Blessed Virgin, who imme- diately sent three angels to liberate them. In the course of time several other miracles were wrought there, which made the chapel very famous. Des registres de I'Abbaye de Livry. 12. Our Lady of Good News, at Abbeville. This little chapel, in St. Peter's Priory, has always been much frequented. Antiq. d'Abhev. 13. Our Lady' of the Holy Chapel, in Paris. This image, under the portal of the lower Holy Chapel, has wrought many miracles. 14. Our Lady of Albe la Royale, in Hungary, was built by St. Stephen, King of Hungary, who gave his kingdom to the Blessed Virgin. Joann. Bonifacius, Hid. Virg., 1. ii., c. 1. * 15. Octave of the Conception of Our Lady, instituted by Pope Sixtus IV. Bullarium. 16. Institution of the famous confraternity of Our Lady of Deliverance, in the Church of St. Etienne des Gres, in Paris, about the year 1533, to which Gregory XIII. granted great indul- gences, A. D. 1518. 17. Cathedral Church of Our Lady of Amiens. The first bishop of this church was St. Firmin, ^o received the crown of martyrdom during the persecution under Dioclesian. There is in this church a portion of the head of St. John the Baptist, brought from Constantinople by a traveller named Galon, a. d. 1205. Locrius, Marice Augustoe, 1. iv., c. 59. 18. Dedication of Our Lady of Marseilles, by St. Lazarus, in presence of his two sisters, Mary Magdalen and Martha, and three holy prelates, Maximus, Trophimus, and Eutropus. Ganisius, 1. v.. Moral. 19. In the year 657, while St. Ildefonso, Arch- bishop of Toledo, was saying matins. Our Lady, it is said, appeared to him, accompanied by a vast number of blessed spirits, holding in her hand the book he had composed in her honor. She thanked him for it, and, in gratitude, gave him a white chasuble. This celestial present is still preserved at Oviedo, where Alphonso the Chaste, King of Castile, had it solemnly removed to the Church of St. Saviour, which he had built. Baron, ad ann. 657. Our Lady of Etalem, in Bavaria, built by the Emperor Louis IV. Albert, Krantzius, L i., Me' tropol. 20. The Abbey of Our Lady of Moleme, order of St, Benedict, in the diocese of Langres, was founded on this day, a. d. 1075, by St. Eobert, who was its abbot. Gall. Ghrist, t. iv. 21. Foundation of St. Acheul, near Amiens, under the title of Our Lady, by St. Firmin, first bishop of that city. Ex archiv. S. Achioli. 22. Our Lady of Chartres, in Beauce. This church, which was built in the times of the Apostles, after being several times destroyed, ^ was put in its present state by Si Fulbert, fifty- 566 HTSTORT OF TEE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. fifth bishop of Chartres. Sdxist. Rouillard, Par- ^ then., o. 5. 23. Our Lady of Ardilliers, at Saiimur, in Anjou. The name of this church is illustrious all over France, because of the vast concourse of people drawn thither by a miraculous foun- tain which cured many diseases. The image represents Our Lady of Pity, holding in her arms her dead son, whose head is supported by an angel. Locrius, MarUe AugvMce, 1. iv., ch. 60. 24. Celebration of the Chaste Nuptials of Our Lady and Si. Joseph, long solemnized as a fes- tival in Sens, and several other churches of France. Savusseyua, in Martyrol. Oallic. 25. On this day, at the hour of midnight, the Blessed Virgin brought forth the Saviour of the world, in the stable of Bethlehem, where a foun- tain sprang up miraculously on the same day. Baron., in Apparal. ad Annal. 26. Institution of the Confraternity of the Conception of Our Lady, at the Augustines of the grand convent, in Paris, a. d. 1443, to which many indulgences were subsequently granted by Linocent IIL Du BreuU, Aniiq., L ii. 27. Institution of the order of the Knights of Our Lady, a. d. 1370, by Louis II., Duke of Bourbon. Andr. Favin, 1. viii.. Hist, de Navarre, et L iii., du Theatre d'Honneur. 28. Our Lady of Pontoise, seven leagues from Paris. This image, standing in the portal of the suburban church of that city, on the road to Kouen, is famous for the miracles wrought therein. Ex archiv. hujus ecdes. 29. Our Lady of Spire, in Germany. St. Ber- nard, entering this church on the 29th of De- cember, 1146, was honorably received by the canons, who conducted him to the choir, singing the anthem, " Salve, Regina ;" the anthem fin- ished, St. Bernard saluted the image of the Vir- gin in these terms, "O clemens! O pia! O dul- cis Virgo Maria ! " and the image is said to have answered, "Salve, Bernarde." The words of the saint to the image are engraved in a circle on the pavement of the church, on the spot where he pronounced them, and subsequently the "Salve, Regina" was added; this anthem was composed in 1040, by Herman, surnamed Contract, a Benedictine monk. Angel. Manri- que, Annal. Gist., ad ann. 1146, c. 10, etc. 30. St. Mary of Boulogne, in Picardy. This church was founded by the monks of St. Augus- tine, A. D. 1159 ; it was destroyed by Henry VIII., King of England, a. d. 1444, secularized and made a cathedral, 1559, according to Lo- crius. Gall. Christ., t. iv. 31. About a hundred years before the birth of Our Saviour, the image of Our Lady of Char- tres, consecrated by the Druids to the Virgin who was to bring forth, restored to life the son of GeoJBfrey, king or prince of Montlh^ry, who, having fallen into a well, was found dead ; in gratitude for this favor, he made several pres- ents to the image, as is recorded in the his- tory of this miracle, represerted on the windows of the church. Sebastien .Aouillard, Farthenie, c. 3. '^ !1 EUe-n No^an K^ll^V FlT^TNie n<x.Vio-n VXellev( S i na q Is ^ ^ w^i \ O'oh-rx T. Ke\le\| ,11*-. ■i-l-.T. H V/ ^ v^ ^ j'M 'i^^j MWHI f. r \ I Hi k\ illU-J-— «!)/ffl ■^ ;^^ v li ^ ^, .1 ,1 ffl®w (2,A^ -^^ y^y2c6a^6^y/^/m^y'/2/'i/t^a^^^ N-Y.D ScJ.SATLIER. A MONUMENT TO THE GLOEY OF MAEY. MEDITATIONS OS THB LITANY OP THE BLESSED VIRGIN. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF THE ABB!^ EDOUARD BARTHE, BY MRS. J. SADLIER. PUBLISHED WITH THE APPROBATION OF THE LATE MOST REV. JOHN HUGHES, D. D., AND THE MOST REV. J. McCLOSKET, D. D., ARCHBISHOP OF NEW TOBK. ▲ NEW, ENLARGED AND REVISED EDITION. PUBLISHED BY D. & J. SADLIER & CO., 31 BARCLAY STREET. MONTREAL :— CORNER OF NOTRE DAME AND ST. FRANCIS XAVIER STS. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, Bt D. & J. SADUER & CO., b the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for tbe Southern District of New Torik APPKOBATION OF HIS GEACE THE AECHBISHOP OF PAEIS. Makie — Dominique — Auguste Sibour, by the grace of God and the favor of the Holy Apostolic See, Archbishop of Paris, on the report of the examiner by us appointed, and the favorable opinion of our Commission des tltudes, have approved, and do hereby approve, of a book entitled " Monument to the Glory of Mary, The Litany of the Blessed Virgin," illustrated, accompanied by Meditations by the Abbe Edouard Barthe, Honorary Canon of Rodez, published by P. J. Camus, Paris. Given at Paris, under our seal, the signature of our Vicar-General, president, and the countersign of the Secretary of our Commission des Mudes, July 2d, 1851. Sec. Com. Jul. Flandrin, Can. Hon. Pres. Com. L. Batjtain, Vic. Gen. APPROBATION OF HIS LOEDSHIP THE BISHOP OF EODEZ. It is with as much pleasure as attention that we have read, according as they appeared, all the numbers of Abbe Barthe's Meditations on the Litany of Loretto. We have everywhere found in that work the most exact orthodoxy, with the utmost beauty and elegance of style, a rare and profound knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures, with the charm and the unction of lively faith and tender piety. All these numerous merits, to which we have already borne testimony, are based on the solid foun- dation of Catholic teaching, and the pure doctrine of the Church, and hence it is that we think it our duty, once more, to recommend this beautiful and excellent work, which is solely for the glory of the Immaculate Mother of God, and must therefore be dear and precious to the faithful children and devoted clients of that Queen of the Church and Mother of Christians. Given at our residence in Vabres, on the Feast of All Saints, in the year of grace, 1850. John, Bishop of Sodex THE TRANSLATOR TO THE READER. ^ EADER, if you are a Catholic Christian, you are a child of Mary, and as such will kindly welcome this Monument TO THE Gloey of Maey. It comes to us, as you see, with high recommendations ; and, even allo\dng for what it loses in the translation, I trust you will find it fully deserving of all that has been said of it. The distinguished French pre- lates who so warmly recommend it to the Faithful, seem fully convinced that it is calculated to promote devotion to the Blessea Virgin — one of the strongest bulwarks of our holy faith — and, if so, your time and my time will not be lost. If the perusal of this work makes you in any degree more devout to Mary, our sovereign lady and mistress, — if it induces you to have recourse to her in all your trials, temptations, and dangers, it will help to promote both your temporal and eternal happiness, and Mary will give you a portion of the reward which she never fails to confer on those who love and honor her. Hoping that you will receive it well, for Her sake, I now beg leave to present it to your notice. MoMTBEAL, August, 1854 674 INTRODUCTION. And behold how faithfully all generations have accomplished this prediction I Hear how the echoes of Gathoho history for eighteen hundred years repeat the matchless name of Mary, and proclaim, as " with the noise of a great trumpet,"' the grandeur, the merits, the power of that divine Mother. Going back to the primitive Church, we find, from the very beginning, the glory of Mary celebrated by the arts. Not to speak of the picture attributed to the Evangelist, St. Luke, — a picture formerly so highly honored in the East, and whose authenticity is not altogether des- titute of scientific proof,* — we have, from the second century, or at least from the third, a painted likeness of Mary, on which the antiquarian may still feast his eyes in the catacombs of Rome. This ancient monument of CathoUo devotion clearly proves that, no sooner was the Church, in the midst of persecutions, established in the world, than Christian artists began to consecrate their pencil to the Blessed Virgin. In the fourth century we find, on many sar- cophagi or Christian tombs, a group of the Virgin and Child, the countenance of the Mother breathing at once a radiant youth and a divine purity. This it was that caused a learned writer of our day, M. Baoul Bochette, to make that important remark, founded on his knowl- edge of arts and monuments: "It is incorrect to say, as did the Protestant historian Basnage, that it was not till after the Council of Ephesus that the Virgin began to be represented; for," he adds, " amongst the Christian sarcophagi of the Vatican, where she is seen, there is certainly more than one anterior to that period."' The fifth century presents, in the reign of the Greek emperor Anastasius, imperial coins, whose reverse bears the monogram of Mary, surrounded by stars. This mark of respect was continued by a great number of his succes- sors; amongst others, the empress Theophania had the figure of Mary stamped on her money, her head encircled with the nimbo, with the inscription : QeoToxog, Mother of God. From the fifth century to our own times, it is well known how the arts have multiplied testimonials of devotion to the Blessed Virgin. It is true that, at one time, they fell into singular aberrations — for instance, inventing black statues of the Mother of God — but these specimens of bad taste are still so many proofs of the faith and piety of those times, now called the Dark Ages, which, nevertheless, produced, in their incomparable stained windows, and their wonderful churches dedicated to God under the invocation of Mary, things which our modern civilization has no longer the secret of fabricating, and has hardly the courage to undertake. Still, we are not to suppose that churches dedicated to Mary date only from the Middle Ages : if we would ascertain their origin, we must go back to Pope Calixtus I., who built a chapel, under the title of Our Lady, beyond the Tiber, in the most populous part of Rome, in the year 224; nay, we must ascend still higher, for, even prior to that time, there was at Sara- » Isaias xxvii. 13. « Annaks de Fldlos. Chret., t. ix., p. 74 et suiv. a Ditcours sur I' art du Chrinlianisme, p. 34, note 1. INTRODUCTION. 575 gossa, in Spain, the church of Our Lady of the Pillar, and in Syria several other churches, likewise dedicated to the divine Virgin. Thus it is that, by an uninterrupted chain of monu- ments, reaching from the first ages of Christianity tiU the present time, ai-chitecture, inspired by faith and piety, has united its powerful voice with that of the other arts to exalt the glo- rious name of Mary. What a magnificent sight would it be, were it given to man to contem- plate, in one stupendous whole, all the wealth of stone and marble, of wood and precious metals, of gold and azure, offered by the arts to God, throughout the CathoHc world, for eighteen centuries, to bless and glorify Him for the graces, the virtues, the power wherewith he endowed it on behalf of men 1 . . . . What eye could gaze on that ravishing spectacle ! what heart consider it without emotion! what lips would not cry out, with transport — "Glory be to God, who has made every age so faithful in fulfilling that prophecy of his divine Mother — 'Behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed 1'" But there is a voice as superior to that of all the arts as the moral order is to the phys- ical — the voice of science, of eloquence, of genius by word and pen; and, assuredly, it has not been wanting in the fulfillment of the Virgin's prophecy. There remains to us but very few writings of the first two Christian centuries, and yet, even in the second century, we read in the words of the illustrious martyr St. Irenseus, bishop of Lyons, an eulogy of Mary, most expressive in its conciseness. "Eve," says he, "allowing herself to be seduced by the words of the tempter, disobeyed God and sought to flee from his presence; the Virgin Mary, acced- ing to the words of the Angel Gabriel, and obeying the orders of God, consented to bear Christ in her womb, so that by that submission, she became the pattern of Eve."' After him St. Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Ephraim, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Jerome, St. Chrysostom, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Cyril, St. Epiphanius, St. John Damescene, then St. Bernard, St. Anselm, and that great genius who is called the last of the Fathers of the Church, the immor- tal Bossuet, — in a word, all the most eminent writers of Eastern and Western Christendom have, in turn, celebrated the glory of Mary, her dignity, her virtues, her privileges, and the wonder* ful efficacy of her intercession. The Litany of Loretto forms, as we have said, a full and complete abridgment of all these praises, of all these marks of veneration and love, of devotion and confidence; it is, therefore, one of the best acts of homage we can render to that divine Mother. Hence, Pope Clement VIII., in 1601, forbade any other to be recited in her honor in the public prayers; in 1606, Paul v., in his turn, granted sixty days' indulgence to all those persons who would assist on Saturdays at the solemn chanting of those pious invocations in the Dominican churches ; Sixtus V. and Benedict XIIL, two hundred days to all the faithful who would recite them • Omlra hares., lib. v., c. 19. 878 INTRODUCTION. devoatly; and Pius VII. extended this last indulgence to three hundred days. "We thereby see how this Litany became so dear to Catholic piety, which has delighted to multiply its repeti- tion, to vary its mosio, and to embellish it with all the charms of melody and of the sweetest harmony. The art of engraving, which speaks to the eye as singing does to the ear, could not fail to lend its valuable aid to this pious tribute of musical art In fact, towards the end of the eighteenth century some famous German engravers published a series of figures and symbolical images, as ingenious as significant, intended to explain to the eye, in succession, all the titles which the Church bestows on Mary in the Litany of Loretto. May the author of these Meditations, O Mary, be successful in the mission which circum- stances, in some way providential, have given him! Undoubtedly it will be sweet, and very sweet, to me, to pour forth my soul before thee and in thy honor, and to exert myself to make known the holiness, the goodness, the tenderness, and the glory of the divine Mother of my Saviour. But how can I speak of thee in adequate terms, after all that has been already written by others so much more competent? How can I even attempt it, when St. Bernard said that " nothing frightened him more than having to speak of thy greatness and glory ?" » I will, nevertheless, attempt it, O Mary, O thou whom I delight to call my good and amiable mother; I will attempt it for the sake of thy divine Son, who is glorified through thee; I will attempt it for thy sake, O masterpiece of Almighty power 1 brightest image of his adorable perfections! I will attempt it with the confidence of a child who works for his mother and before her eyes, and who looks to her for help and encouragement. To thee, then, O divine Mary, I give up my mind, my heart, and my pen, and to thee do I dedicate this feeble testi- mony of ray respect, and confidence, and filial devotion. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIEGIN. MEDITATION I. LORD, HAVE MERCY ON US. . HY is it that the Church makes us send up to God the humble sigh of prayer, before commen- cing the different invocations which she afterwards makes us address to Mary ? It is to remind us of that truth of faith so forcibly expressed by the Apostle St. Paul : "Of him, and by him, and in him are all things: to him be glory forever."^ Yes, truly, the creature, even the most august, the most adorned with virtue, the most resplendent in power and in glory, is nothing before him, nothing without him, nothing but by him. K the Bless- • Romans xi. 36. * Exod. iii. 14. ed Virgin can marvellously assist us by her protection, it is to him that we owe that inestimable advantage: from him alone comes that power, from him alone come all the graces that flow on us. The object of the Church is to inspire us with a high idea of the supreme greatness of God, a deep and lively sentiment of respect, of religious fear, of pious prostration of all our faculties before " Him who is."^ He alone owes nothing to any one; all that thinks and wills, all that breathes, all that lives, all that exists, owes to him alone thought, will, breath, life, being, and the preservation of being. He alone, existing by himself, "blessed and only mighty,^ who only hath immortality,* who alone doeth won- derful things,^ who is alone immor- al Tim. vi. 15. * 1 Tim. vi. 16. »Ps. Ixxi. 18. r 578 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. tal hy Ms own essence,^ alone the be- ginning and the end of all;^ than whom there is no other God;"' He alone merits the title of Lord by excellence ; and by that title the Church wishes to excite our faith in the infinite majesty of Him whom we have the immense honor of ad- dressing. Oh! let us be sensible of our extreme inferiority to him, our inexpressible littleness as crea- tures before his infinite greatness as Creator; and, imploring his mercy, let us remain as supplicants at the feet of his supreme majesty, pros- ti'ate in profound respect and adora- tion. Let us acknowledge, with all the powers of our soul, that we are but dust and ashes;* that in his presence we are nothing;^ that we do not deserve to address Him even with the mute worship of the heart. Why, once more, does the Church, in this first invocation of the Lord, make us say, as though crying out in distress, Lord, have mercy on us I .... It is because we are, indeed, much to be pitied ; that our misery is great, profound, and almost im- measurable. In the body, weak- ness, infirmity, pain, sufiering — at f times, almost intolerable. In the soul, weariness, sadness, poignant grief, devouring passions ; darkness in the understanding, inordinate af- fections in the heart ; dangers, de- grading inclinations, and ignomin- ious disorders in the senses. Within and around us, numerous enemies of our eternal salvation. In our will, weakness, indecision ; often, and very often, cowardice, indo- lence, and even mortal lethargy. Oh, yes, assuredly we are much to be pitied. Our misery is inexpres- sible. At every moment, we run the risk of losing all, irrecoverably ; of incurring an endless and ir- retrievable misfortune. We have, then, but too much reason to ex- claim, with St. Theresa, " Alas I Lord, so long as this mortal life endures, the eternal is always in danger ! life, so opposed to my happiness, why am I not permitted to end thee? I bear with thee, because my God bears with thee ; I take care of thee, because thou art His. But do not betray me, and be not ungrateful to me. Alas ! Lord, but my exile is long ! .... It is true that all time is short to gain thy • 2 Mach. L 24, 25. * Apoc. xxii. 13. ^ ' Deut, xxxii. 39. * Gen. xviii. 27. * Ps. xjcxviii. 7. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 579 eternity ; but a single day, a single hour, is too long for those who fear to offend thee, and who even know not whether they do offend thee!"^ We have but too much reason to 3ry out with the Apostles, beaten by the tempest, "Lord, save us, or we perish ;"^ and with the Churcli, our mother, Lord, have mercy on us ! It is for us ever to pronounce these words with a lively sentiment of our immense need of Divine com- miseration, of infinite mercy, ex- ceeding the vast extent, the pro- found depth of our misery. Pros- trate here, before the infinite majesty of the Lord, let us say to him, as humble and most wretched petition- ers, as sick persons groaning in mortal anguish, as mariners who have death before their eyes : — Supreme Being, Being by excel- lence. Being of beings, from the height of thy supreme greatness, deign to hear our voice. It is the cry of nakedness, the cry of infir- mity, of pain, of peril ; it is the cry of the heart which invokes, which beseeches thy omnipotence and thy infinite goodness ; it is the cry of » Elevation a Dieu. »Matt. viii. 26. 3 2 Esd. ix. 31. faith, which shows us in thee the "God of mercy," ^ at the same time that it makes us say. Lord, have mercy on us. It is the cry of faith, which shows us also in heaven, near the throne of thy eternal glory, a mother whom thy Church makes us call Mother of mercy ;^ a mother whose praises thou wouldst have "the whole earth" proclaim as it proclaims thine own ;^ a mother to whom it is so sweet to send up our accents " of benediction," which fall back on our heads as a dew of grace and of divine blessing;^ a mother who prays for us, and with whom we unite in saying to thee — Lord, have mercy on us I Kyrie eleison I MEDITATION E. CHRIST, HAVE MERCY ON US. THE soul that is deeply sensible of its misery, and impressed with the majesty of the Lord, from whom alone it can expect relief, strength, and salvation, implores * Salve Begina, etc. » Habac. iii. 3. • Numb. xxiv. 9. 580 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. \ him but with fear and ti-embling. It remains, as it were, annihilated in presence of his infinite greatness. The Church encourages it in the second invocation, where she veils, in some degree, the infinite distance between God and the creature, and makes it consider Him to whom the invocation is addressed under the most accessible point of view, and in the way best calculated to excite hope. And what does the name of Jesus Christ say to the ear of Catho- lic faith ? " The Word made flesh," which " dwelt among us, fujl of grace and truth ;"^ the one Mediator of God and men ; ^ the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world,^ who was tempted in all things like as we are, yet wdthout sin,* who was in all things made like unto us,^ so that he might com- passionate us as a brother, having compassion on our sad state, having been man's companion in misfor- tune ; " the great High-priest, who hath penetrated the heavens, who hath the key of David ;° He that openeth, and no man shutteth."^ ' St. John i. 14. • 1 Tim. ii 5, 6. » St. John i. 29. * Heb. iv. 15. » Heb. iL 17. In placing on our lips the name of that divine Pontiff, the Church, then, proposes to us the motive most proper to dilate our hearts, com- pressed with fear ; she invites them, in the most effectual manner, to give themselves up to the sentiment of Christian hope, which holds the soul duly balanced between despair and presumption. How^ can we presume on the goodness of God, when we believe that, to " blot out the hand- writing of the decree which was against us," it w^as necessary that Christ should "fasten it to the Cross ?"^ How can we despair of obtaining strength, or the forgive- ness of our sins, how enormous so- ever they may be, when we believe that " God so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlast- ing?"^ Ah! we do not justly ap- preciate this faith in Jesus Christ ; we are not sufficiently sensible of its advantages. It is a supernatural gift, which surpasses not only all human strength, but all human un- « Heb. iv. 14 "> Apoc. iiL 7. ' Colos. ii. 14. » St. John iii. 16, MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 581 derstanding, and all the desires which our nature is capable of forming. It is a gift, without which it is impossible to obtain everlast- ing happiness ; for, " without faith, it is impossible to please God,"^ and how can any one who is not pleas- ing to God be judged worthy of a share in his eternal bliss ? It is a gift worth nothing less than eternal life, the eternal possession of the sovereign good ; for the divine Mas- ter has said, "This is life everlast- ing," to "know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."^ .... And even in this world, is it not the only true happi- ness ? "He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me," says the Man-God once again, " is passed from death to life."^ It fol- lows that the life of those who have not faith in Christ is death. In fact, to be a slave of "the Prince of Dark- ness ;" * to be destitute of infallible light, amid the cruel uncertainty of the understanding as to the duties of man and his destiny ; to be with- out a guide, without a pilot amid the shoals of life, without consola- • Heb. xi. 6. « St. John xvii. 3. s St. John V. 24 * Ephes. vi. 12. tion amid the sorrows of this world, without strength against the assault of the passions, misfortune, and afflictions ; to be deprived of the calm, pure truth of the teachings of the Incarnate Word, the incompar- able force of his example, the inex- haustible resources of his merits, the magnificent hopes founded on his word, what a fate would that be ! what a deplorable condition! and what obligation do we not owe to the Saviour, who has endowed us with the priceless treasure of faith ! Jesus ! eternal Priest ! ador- able Pontiff! divine victim of our salvation, it is thou who hast given us our faith in thee ; be thou for- ever blessed by every pulsation of our hearts! What thanksgivings can ever equal the favors he has conferred upon us, for " he hath not done in like manner to every na- tion,^ many of whom are still seated in the darkness and shadow of death !"^ .... Ah! vouchsafe to " confirm what thou hast wrought in us ;^ deign to fructify the gift which we have received from thy infinite <* Ps. cxlviL 20. « St. Luke i. 79. » Ps. Ixvii. 29. 6» KKDirATTONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. libeiulity." Help; "increase our faith,"* 80 that it may "work by charity."* It is true, we are very ungrateful, very culpable; but are we not "thy brethren/" for whom thou hast shed all thy blood ? Be- hold, moreover, between thee and us, thy divine Mother, " under whose protection we take refuge"* in our distress. Is not the voice of Mary still more powerful over thy heart than was that of Bethsabee over the heart of King Solomon? And if that prince said to his mother, " Ask, for I must not turn away my face,"* how much more wilt thou grant to the entreaties of her at whose request thou didst work thy first miracle ?® She here interposes her prayer to defend us from those "dreadful arrows"^ which thine adorable heart desires so much to see changed, by our compunction, into the bm-ning dai-ts of divine love, as she formerly, in her appari- tion to St. Dominick, showed you that faithful servant uniting his zeal with that of St. Francis of Assis- sium, and thus appeased thine out- raged justice. Full of confidence • St. Mark ix. 23 ; St Lake xviL 5. * Gal. v. 6. » St John XX- 17. * Sub tuum. » 3 Kings ii 20. * in her maternal intercession, we venture to say to thee, "from the depths"* of our nothingness — Christ, have mercy on us I Christe eleison I MEDITATION in. lord, have mercy on us. AFTER having penetrated our hearts with the sentiment of Christian hope, exciting our faith in the divine Mediator, the Church makes us repeat, Lord^ have mercy on us! It is that, the adorable name of Jesus, once piously in- voked, the name of Lord given to God need no longer inspire us with terror. K the Man-God vouchsafes to cover us with his infinite merits as with a shield, why should we henceforth tremble before the su- preme Majesty? Why should we imitate Adam, when, after his fall, he was so afraid of God that he became, in some degree, senseless ? for he sought to hide himself from his presence,^ as though he knew « St. John ii. 3, 4 ' Job vi 4. • Ps. cxxix. 1. • Gen. iii. 10. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 583 not that " there is no creature invis- ible in his sight; but all things are naked and open to His eyes,^ to whom darkness is not dark, and night as the light of day."^ .... Ah, why should we not, rather, speak to the Sovereign Master, in the name of that sweet Saviour, with filial confidence, since it was he who " sent his Son, that we might re- ceive the adoption of sons, and who sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father?"^ Prodigious honor, prodigious favor conferred on guilty man! That God, from whom we deserved only condemnation, is not content with redeeming us, with restoring us by his only Son; he would, moreover, " that we should be named, and should be the sons of God."* .... "Behold," then, "what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us;"^ behold what we owe to the merits of Jesus Christ. They have so admirably " reconciled all things"'^ that they have made man, reprobate man, doomed to hell by the infinite justice of God, the be- loved child of God himself. > Heb. iv. 13. * Ps. cxxxviii. 12. ' Gal. iv. 4, 5, 6. * 1 John iii. L It is true, we have lost sight of that high dignity conferred upon us by baptism; it is true we have diminished, by faults "which are not unto death,"^ or have even for- feited, by mortal sin, the rights appertaining to that fair title. But, however that may be, we are still entitled to rely on the merits of the Saviour, to recover, by the means which himself has provided for us, the high position from which we may have fallen. Yes, that infinite treasure of his mortal life, his suffer- ings and his immolation on Calvary, Jesus Chi'ist has irrevocably placed in our hands. He has given it to us ; he has made it, as it were, our inalienable property; and, till our latest moment, we may use it to im- plore the Lordy and to obtain the graces of which we stand in need. For Jesus himself has said, " If you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it to you."^ Oh, with what honor, riches, and power, it has pleased God to endow the Christian soul! And what faithful heart will not be happy to borrow here the sublime words of the holy » 1 John iii 1. « Colos. i. 20. ' 1 John V. 16. • St John xvi. 23. 6S4 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. man Job, " Wliat is man, that tliou f shouldst magnify kjm ?"^ In repeating to God, Lord^ have mercy on us I let us then internally prostrate ourselves before him ; let us be seized with admiration and motionless surprise, that we may, at any moment, speak to a God so great, and that a God so great should deign to lend an ear to creat- ures so degraded by sin. But at the same time let us expand our hearts, and pour them forth, as it were, into the bosom of a father who cannot help cherishing a tender love for his children. For when we unite with Jesus, and appear before God in the adorable person of his Son, it is impossible that this cry of the heart calling on him for mercy should not be graciously heard. Om* voice, united with that of our divine Mediator, changes its nature, if we may say so; it loses its hu- man qualities, its weakness and unworthiness, and its great defile- ment, to participate in the strength, the purity, the divine sanctity, the divine efficacy of the voice of Jesus. Lord, it is in the name, and • Job vii. 17. » Ps. cxli. 3. 3 Gal. iv. 7. * Heb. X. 19 through the infinite merits of the Mediator whom thou hast had the ineifablc charity to give us ; it is in him and by him that we pour out our prayer in thy sight, and before thee declare our trouble,^ crying, Have inercy on us ! " We are no more servants, but sons, and if sons, heirs also,"^ "through Christ, by whose blood we have a confidence in the entering into the sanctuary."* We are " his brethren, he is the first-born amongst us,^ but we are joint heirs with him.'"* "We go, then, with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy," ^ and that we may entreat thee to have mercy on us as thou wouldst have mercy on himself, if it were possible that he could be in the state of necessity and of danger in which we are. Ah, Lord, it is no longer we who address thee ; it is He himself, our divine brother, who says to thee, by our heart and tongue. Have mercy on us I and, with him, his august Mother, that cherished daughter of heaven, who tells thee she is "our sister;"^ that she is "our kinswoman according • Rom. viii. 29. * Eom. viiL 17. ' Heb. iv. 16. • Gea. xii. 13. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 585 to the flesh ^ in which Jesus Christ came"^ — Jesus Christ, "the lion of the tribe of Juda,"^ who triumphed over death by his resurrection, over the corruption of the world by his admirable purity and infinite sanc- tity, over the devil by the glory and power of the Cross. In* the name of that divine Saviour, and in union with Mary, we once more cry out to thee — Lord, have mercy on us I Kyrie eleison ! MEDITATION lY. CHRIST, HEAR US I THE more we unite our heart and voice with the heart and voice of Jesus, to implore the divine goodness and mercy, the more our prayer ascends towards the throne of the Eternal as "an odor of sweet- ness."^ Here, then, in order to ex- cite a more lively faith and confi- dence in that " Mediator of the New Testament,^ who is able also to save forever them that come unto God ' Rom. ix. 3. ^ 1 John iv. 2 3 Apoc. V. 5. * Ephes. V. 2. * by himself;"^ in order to enter in- timately into the admirable disposi- tions of his adorable heart, praying solemnly, on the eve of his death, "for those who should believe in him," ^ let us once more address our- selves to Him, beseeching him to liear us. Not that his ear is ever closed against us, or that his heart is not ever disposed to hear those whom he loved more than himself ; but we entreat him to hear us, as a good father hears his poor children^ or a kind mother the cherished fruit of her womb, however ungrateful we may have hitherto been. We ask him to hear us with that ear of the heart which listens with tender in- terest to a beloved voice, which answers that voice with overflowing kindness and affection, and estab- lishes between himself and the Christian soul an ineffable com- munion of sentiments worthy the admiration of the angels themselves. Ah, blessed is the soul which, pos- sessing the inestimable gift of sanc- tifying grace, can speak thus to Jesus as friend to friend, as the Spouse in the Canticles to her be- » Heb. ix. 15. « Heb. vii. 26. » St. John xvii. 20. 686 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. loved, her adorable Spouse! Blessed are they who can say, with a just confidence, " My beloved to me, and I to him,"^ and who deserve to hear, in their intimate connection with the divine Jesus, those words so consoling, so full of heavenly sweet- ness, "Let thy voice sound in my ears, my love, for thy voice is sweet^ . . . ." But, alas! our want of fidelity, our want of zeal, our want of faith and charity, often deprive us of these delightful communings with God. We admit a third party be- tween him and us; we divide a heart which is his by so many titles. We persist in fostering in- clinations, passions, small, it is true, but still displeasing to him, and in- fringing on the absolute right which he has to be preferred to all with- out reserve; and he punishes us but too justly by the privation of those favors whose value neither men nor angels can estimate, or describe in adequate terms. Yet we must not be discouraged, though our infirmity leaves us little hope of always maintaining with Jesus this inefiable connection, the ' Cant. u. 16. lot of predestined souls. Wliatever we are, we may and should aspire to go far enough into the privacy of his adorable heart to enjoy his friendship, to persevere in his grace, to live and die in his holy love. . . . Ah, let us studiously avoid all that might break or even loosen the sa- cred bond which unites us to that divine Saviour. Let us, on the con- trary, do all we can to strengthen it every day, every hour, so that we may die in that holy exercise of the truly Christian heart. Jesus ! thou who " knowest so well how to be a friend,"^ who art so admirable in thine efi'usions of love to hearts that thou findest void of creatures and of self, be glo- rified on earth as in heaven, for that thou vouchsafest to cherish in so marvellous a manner souls so little worthy of thee. Let those, espe- cially, who have the happiness of " tasting and seeing how sweet thou art"^ in thy divine favors, unite to sing with transport the name and heart of their adorable Spouse. . . . But let those who can only admire from afar the ineffable mysteries of thy love, celebrate, at least, with » Cant. ii. 14. ^ ' Life of St. Theresa, ch. xxv. * Ps. xxxiii. 9. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 687 a lively sentiment of gratitude, the incomparable goodness which prompts thee to hear the voice of their supplication. good and gracious Jesus, it seems as though we heard thee say from the highest heavens, "I have heard the groan- ing of the children of" the new "Is- rael ; ^ I will hear them, and forgive their sins."^ We entreat thee, with all the fervor of our hearts, to pre- serve us from ever displeasing thee, especially so as to lose thy grace. And if we had that misfortune, we beseech thee beforehand to save us from the fatal consequences which so often follow the loss of thy divine love. How great is the favor which we thus ask of thee ! But it is Mary, our mother, who bears to the throne of Thy mercy the humble supplications of her children, pre- sented by our angels to her who is their Queen. Oh, preserve us, through her, from all sin ; preserve us from the just severity of thy slighted and outraged love; pre- serve us from the unclean spirit, from all that dishonors man in thy sight ; preserve us from all the dis- eases of the soul, and from all the * bodily ills that might injure the soul ; preserve us from the bolts of thy justice, from a sudden and un- provided death. Vouchsafe to grant us the grace of "being always thine, whether we live or whether we die."^ Sweet Lord Jesus, we be- seech thee hear us. Christ, hear us I Christe, avdi nos. > Exod. vi. 5. » 2 Paral. vii. 14. MEDITATION Y. CHRIST, GRACIOUSLY HEAR US I IT is not enough to have said to Jesus, Hear us ; the Church re- peats the adorable name of Christ, and adds, Graciously hear us. And why do we repeat a name which has been just pronounced ? It is that a name so sweet and precious, a name of help and consolation, a name of benediction and of salvation, can be uttered again and again, with- out danger of weariness or disgust. On the contrary, the oftener it reaches the ear and the heart, the more unction, the more sweetness does it bring wiv/h it. It is, more- » Eom. xiv. 8. 688 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. over, that wretched degraded chil- dren, as we all are from the fall of our first father, unhappy exiles, voyagere on an ocean so exposed to tempests, so full of quicksands, so fruitful in shipwrecks, we can never have recourse too often to a name BO powerful. Ah, when we know and believe that "■ there is no other name given to men whereby they may be saved ;"^ that "in that name every knee should bow of those that are in heaven, on earth, and in hell;"^ that by that name the Apostles wrought the most stu- pendous miracles;^ that even yet, in the name of Jesus Christ, the most marvellous effects are every day produced by the sacraments, effects which, though invisible, are none the less admirable prodigies — knowing and believing all this, we must find happiness in pronouncing and invoking that divine name. We derive from that invocation a pro- found sentiment of joy and relief, a mild light which guides us securely through the shades of this life, a firm courage, a persevering energy in defending ourselves from the en- ' Acts iv. 12. » PhU. ii. 10. 3 Acts iii. 6. t emies of our salvation. For the name of the Spouse in the Canticles "is as oil poured out;"* "it lights," says St. Bernard, " it nourishes and softens, it strengthens, it even saves the soul from despair."* But why say to Jesus Christ, Graciously hear us ? Had not Hear us, as we have seen, its sweetness and its charm? "Would it lose, then, in being repeated? . . . Un- doubtedly not; but the Church hereby insinuates to us that Jesus may sometimes hear us, without being disposed to answer our pray- ers. In fact, he defers, in certain circumstances, granting us the ob- ject of our petitions, how humble and fervent soever they may be, in order to excite our faith more and more, to inflame our ardor and our zeal, and to procure for us the great merit of perseverance. And as we are tempted too often to be discour- aged by such trials, we entreat Jesus to free us from that danger. Ah, let us, then, earnestly beseech that Mediator, so good, so benefi- cent, so devoted to oui interest, to "make haste iq, help us."® Yet, * Cant. i. 2. * Serm. xv. super Gantica. e Ps. Ixix. 2. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED YIROIN. 589 nevertheless, if it please his ador- able Providence to subject us to the holy probation of delay, in regard to our demands, let us entreat him no less earnestly to grant us the precious grace of perseverance in prayer. Discouragement is, in fact, injurious to the infinite goodness and mercy of God, the truth of his promises, the infinite merits of Je- sus, the efiicacy of which we seem to doubt when we cease to implore the Lord if we do not immediately obtain what we ask. Perseverance, on the contrary, in fidelity to prayer, even when it pleases God to appear deaf to the groaning of our hearts, is a beautiful homage rendered to his perfections. It makes us adore his goodness, his mercy, his infalli- bility, even when they seem to hide from us — his wisdom, his provi- dence, when their ways are the most inscrutable — with as much faith as though they were clearly visible in the success of our de- mands. It makes us, besides, place all our hopes in the infinite merits of the Saviour, even when they seem to have lost their efiicacy in our behalf, with as much firmness ' 1 John ii. 1. « 1 Cor. xiL 3. as though we felt their powerful effects. Jesus, who, to manifest the plenitude of thy mercy, made thy- self "our advocate with the Fa- ther,"^ permit not that we should ever cease to implore thy love, al- though our prayers appear useless. Grant, rather, through thine all- powerful grace, without which we cannot even "pronounce thy name,"^ that we may redouble our confidence and fervor, when thou seemest not to hear our voice. thou whose tenderness has vouchsafed to rep- resent itself to us under the touch- ing figure of " the hen gathering her chickens under her wings," ^ our filial confidence makes us pour forth into thine adorable heart our pains and our sorrows, our woes and our sup- plications. Oh ! that we may ever persevere in that holy confidence, through the intercession of thy di- vine Mother ! It is by her sacred hands that we present all our de- mands ; it is through her that we hope to obtain grace to pray with- out ceasing, till she is moved to say to our angels : " The Lord has heard me"* on behalf of my faithful sup- 3 St. Matt, xxiii. 37. * Deut. ix. 19. 690 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. plicants; "go, ye swift angels,"^ con- vey the blessing of my Son to those who unceasingly say to him : Christ, graciously hear us. ChristBj eocavdi nos. MEDITATION YI. GOD, THE FATHER OP HEAVEN, HAVE MERCY ON us. RESTING on the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, and closely united with him, as our divine Me- diator, by the preceding supplica- tion, we may and ought to implore, with new confidence, the most Holy and most August Trinity. The Church makes us successively invoke the three divine persons, and first of all she teaches us to say: Gody the Father of Heaven, have mercy (must God, the Father of Heaven .... Is not the Deity on earth, then, as well as in heaven ? Does he not fill the universe with the majesty of his presence? Did not the prophet- king, soaring on the wings of faith and love, find him equally present, ' Is. xviiL 2. * equally adorable, "in heaven, in hell, in the uttermost parts of the sea, in the light of day, and in the darkness of night ? " ^ . . . . Ah I un- doubtedly, God is everywhere. He is everywhere by his knowledge, for he knows and sees all things; by his power, for in any place what- soever he has but to will, and his will is instantly done : even nothing itself hastens to obey him. He is everywhere by his essence, for he is infinite, and the infinite knows nei- ther measure nor distance, nor any bounds. " In him we live, and we move, and we are."^ He surrounds us, he penetrates us with his knowl- edge, his power, his invisible es- sence, as the sun surrounds and penetrates the crystal with his im- palpable rays. "Wo, then, to us, if we banish him, in thought, to heav- en, as to a distant palace, far away from the voice of our supplication I "We should, thereby, commit a griev- ous mistake, and, by detaching God from this sad world, render our un- happy lot, as children of Adam, worse than it really is. No, truly, God is not far from us : he is in us, and we are in him. It • Ps. cxxxviii. 8, 9, 12. 3 Acts xvii. 28. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 59] needs no effort to send up to him the sighs and supplications of our exile : he whose mercy we solicit is more present to us than we are to ourselves. May we never forget that saving truth ! Why, then, once more, the words Father of heaven f . . . . Ah ! it is that in heaven God has prepared for his elect a delightful dwelling, an everlasting home, an eternal kingdom, where, without being any more present than he is elsewhere, he manifests his adorable presence to the angels and saints. There he shows himself to them, for it is writ- ten, "We shall see him as he is,"^ that is to say, in his beauty, in his truth, in his goodness, in his power, in his love, in all his perfections. Here below nothing could satisfy our desires, however fortunate our life might be, according to the world ; however multiplied, however varied might be our enjoyments, still the banishment made itself felt in one way or another. And, more- over, is not the whole life long, for the greater part of mankind, but one tissue of fatigue, weariness, disgust, grief, suffering of every kind .... » 1 John iii. 2. * Hence, we all sigh, more or less, and all eat the bread of bitterness, moistened even with tears. Were, then, the gratuitous goodness of God to offer us only a natural hap- piness in the world to come, we ought to praise and bless him for- ever, and to seek that happiness with the greatest eagerness. To be eternally exempt from the ills of this world, to be eternally sheltered from indigence, disease, pain, mourn- ing, from all trouble, from all sad- ness, would not even that be too much for such miserable, guilty creatures ? . . . . But, prodigy of goodness I God is so generous as to call us to a supernatural bliss, to a bliss with which our nature has no proportion, which is immeasur- ably beyond all the aspirations of our heart, all the dreams of our imagination, to a bliss which is nothing less than a participation in the divine nature.^ How can we but esteem and ardently desire such happiness ? how can we esteem and desire it without the liveliest appre- hension of not fultilling as faithfully as we should the conditions neces- sary to obtain it? Let us, then, » 2 Peter i. 4. 592 MEDITATIONS ON THE LIT ANT OF TEE BLESSED VIIiOIN. beseech God, with all the fervor of f our soul, to have mercy on us I God, t/ie Father of IveaveUy have mercy on us, Father, " who hath predestined us unto the adoption of children, through Jesus Christ," ^ and who hast loved us so as to make us thy " heirs and co-heii's," ^ vouchsafe " to enlighten the eyes of our heart, that we may know what is the hope of thy calling, and what are the riches of the glory of thine inherit- ance in the saints."^ May the sight of that inheritance wherein ''thou shalt make them drink of the tor- rent of thy pleasure,"* inspire us with the ardor, the courage, the strength required "to run in the list so that we may obtain the prize," ^ and " the crown of life, promised to those who love thee."^ And thou, Mary I show, by the effects of thy protection, "whose daughter thou art." ^ We delight to offer thee that homage of the faithful heart ! Hail, daiighter of God the Father! Such thou art by a title infinitely more precious than the other daughters of Eve, thou! mother of the ^'Word made flesh;"® and whilst > Ephes. i. 5. « Rom. viii. 17. » Ephes. i. 18. * Ps. 3JU.V. 9. • 1 Cor. ix. 24. thou wert still on earth thou couldsl say to him, with a thousand times more confidence than we, his adopt- ed children : Our Fatlier who art in heaven. Grant, then, Mary 1 that, by thy powerful intercession, we may address him in this humble prayer: God, the Father of h^javen, have MERCY ON us. Pater de coelis, Dens, miserere nobis. MEDITATION YII. GOD, THE SON, REDEEMER OF THE WORLD, have MERCY ON US. THIS invocation of the Son of God, " consubstantial to the Father, true God of true God,"^ re- minds the Christian soul of the great, the ineffable mystery of the world's redemption : a mystery in- effable in itself, ineffable in its mar- vellous effects. It is, then, true that, from the Redemption wrought on Calvary, the salvation of man is purchased by the death of a God. He who feared not to humble himself by « St. James L 12. ' Gen. xxiv. 23. 8 St. John i. 14. • Nicene Creed. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIBGIN 593 being " made flesh,"^ thought not that * he made too great a sacrifice by suffering and dying for us the most ignominious and cruel death. Oh! but we " are bought," then, " with a great price !"^ and what a high vahie we should set on our souls! How important we should consider all that can increase its dignity before God, and contribute to adorn its immortal crown ! and how care- ftilly, how anxiously should we avoid all that may impede its salvation ! We were lost, lost forever: in consequence of the guilty fall of the first man, we were all struck with an eternal anathema. An expia- tion was required, and an expiation of infinite value, to satisfy the in- finite majesty of God outraged by sin. But who was capable of mak- ing this atonement ? Was it men ? Certainly not. Was it angels ? No ; they are pure, elevated, sublime ; but there is between them and the Infinite an infinite distance. Our misfortune was, therefore, without remedy, without hope .... Yes, if the eternal Son of God became not "our victim of propitiation."^ He ' St. John i. 14. » 1 Cor. vi. 20. » 1 John ii. 2. * Is. liii. 6. i» clothed himself with our nature, and, entering into the world, said to the Most High: Behold me ready for the sacrifice ; he took " upon himself all our iniquities;"* he gave himself up to be " wounded for our iniquities, and bruised for our sins,"^ in order that justice and peace might kiss^ "in his person." He even went so far as to desire, with unequalled ardor, to suffer and to die for us ; ^ and that burning desire was accomplished in his passion. Oh ! yes, accomplished : what is the Saviour's passion but one continued series of suffering of mind and heart — a succession of unheard-of pains and sacrifices for worthless and un- grateful sinners ? . . . . In presence of a devotion so ca- pable of exciting our devotion, and of making our hearts throb with the liveliest gratitude and the most ten- der affection, let us first pause a moment, while we adore, in the si- lence of admiration, that mystery which entrances the angels. Let us, then, contemplate that "great mystery ;"^ let us study and fathom, as far as our limited reason can, the * Is. liii. 5. « Ps. Ixxxiv. 11. » St. Luke xii. 50. 8 Tim. iii. 16. 69i MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. Becret depths of the love and mercy f of our God. Immei*sed in that bot- tomless and shoreless ocean, let us give up our hearts to the pious transports wherewith it may please God to animate them And then we shall admire "the abundant riches of his grace," ^ of which re- demption is the source. Sanctifying grace ! sublime and supernatural gift I It marvellously unites our soul to God, communi- cates to it a divine life, a life which is the beginning of the life of heav- en, for St. Paul says that " the grace of God is life everlasting."^ And this divine life of our soul, which the sacraments are intended to give, to maintain, to increase, to restore, when we have had the misfortune of losing it, this divine life imparts to all our acts an admirable power, that of meriting an eternal reward, and of constantly increasing our eternal happiness and glory. Yes, by sanctifying grace we may make of our smallest actions works so precious that each of them is pre- ferable to all the treasures of the earth ; we may, in one moment, do » Ephes. ii. 7. » Eom. vL 23. • Ps. xci. 6. more, by a single secret act of the will which loves God, than all men together could do, in thousands of ages, by all their natural force. " Wonderful ! wonderful ! " is all that we can say, adorable Son of the eternal Father, when we con- sider the ineffable work of our re- demption by thy blood, and the precious fruits that we daily gather from it. Oh! how justly does the apostle St. Paul tell us that thon hast loved us to excess! and how well may we exclaim : " The thoughts " of thy love " are exceed- ing deep;"^ too deep for our lim- ited understanding; thy greatness is far beyond our praise ; thou art greater than our imagination can conceive, "greater than our heart!"* it cannot repay such love as thine, even by giving all its love. ""We know that thou livest, divine Re- deemer, and this, our hope, is laid up in our bosom,^ for thou livest to make intercession for us."^ Let not thy blood, the merits of which flow incessantly on the earth, become useless through our fault. The voice of that precious blood says * 1 John iii. 20. " Job xix. 25, 27. •Heb. vii. 25. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 595 to thy Father : " Save my people," ^ my "pm-chased people ;"^ and Mary says with thee : ^' My people for which I request."^ Ah! suffer us not, by the abuse of thy grace, to paralyze the efficacy of thy media- tion and the intercession of her whom we happily hail as " Mother of tJie Son of God!'' God, the Son, Redeemer of the World, have mercy on us. Fili Redemptor, Mundi Deus, mis- erere nobis. MEDITATION YEI. god, the holy ghost, have mercy on us. GOD is love," says St. John,* The Father, then, is love, the Son is love, the Holy Ghost is love. But the works of divine love, con- sequently the operations of grace, whether on the mind or on the heart, are attributed to the Holy Ghost, although they belong equally to the three persons. The reason is » Esther vii. 3. » 1 Peter ii. 9. 3 Esther vii. 3. « 1 John iv. 16. » St. John iii. 5. « St. John Tii. 38, 39. * that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and from the Son by love, and that he is the substantial and reciprocal love of both. Hence Jesus told his disciples that " unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God;"^ that the graces of that di- vine Spirit should be like unto "riv- ers of living water "^ flowing from the hearts of the faithful. And the great Apostle teaches that "the charity of God is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us;"^ that he "is the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation f that it is he who renews us,^ who helpeth our infirmity," and "asketh for us, with unspeakable groan- "10 mgs Ignorant and impotent as we are, how ardently should w^e beg of the Holy Ghost that "burning and shin- ing lamp " ^^ which dispels the dark- ness of the understanding, and in- flames and enlivens the heart. How fervently should we beseech him to make us judge all things "not in ' Kom. V. 5. » Ephes. i. 17. » Titus iii. 5. «> Eom. viii. 26. " St. John V. 35. 696 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN carnal wisdom,"^ but in the wisdom of the Gospel ; to direct and sup- port our will ; to render our whole conduct supernatuial. For this is the distinctive character of the true child of God, the true Christian; and this it is that places the dis- tance from heaven to earth between his thoughts, his affections, his views, his desires, his actions, and the thoughts, the affections, the views, the desires, the actions of the worldling. The true Christian, in fact, thinks of God as his centre ; of heaven, as his home ; of salvation, as " the one thing necessary."^ If he regard creatures, it is in God and for God ; to Him alone he attaches himself as his sovereign good, as the rock which can alone withstand the tem- pestuous waves of time. The world- ling, on the contrary, thinks of creatures, forgets heaven and salva- tion; he seeks his interest or his pleasure in all the various attach- ments which divide his heart. He desires, he covets that which disap- pears in the twinkling of an eye ; he madly pursues fragile goods, > 2 Cor. L 12. * St. Luke x. 42. » Fun. o7at. on Anne de Gonzague, by Bossuet. * " which elude his grasp like frozen water, melting away, and leaving only defilement on the hand that held it."^ The true Christian and the slave of the world often do the same works, transact the same business, meet with the same accidents, but with intentions and dispositions so dissimilar, and in a manner so dif- ferent, nay, so opposite, that in the hand of one they are pure gold for eternity, in that of the other vile lead, which; far from enabling him "to lay up treasure in heaven,"* can only "drown him in perdi- tion."^ The one " lives in the Spirit, and walks by the Spirit;"'' his whole life has something noble, elevated, grand, pertaining to heaven, to God. The other lives but in his own low, corrupt nature, in connection with the spirit of evil and his dreary doom. Ah! then, let us once more en- treat the Holy Ghost to make us act in all things in a supernatural man- ner, and never to permit us to be sc unfortunate as to "extinguish the * St. Matt. vL 20. » 1 Tim. vi 9. •Gal. V. 25. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 697 Spirit''^ within us, or even "to grieve Him."^ Let us say, with a sincere resolution of faithfully cor- responding to His grace: " Oh ! Holy Spirit, Fount of life, and fire of love, And sweet anointing from above ; "' "lead us into the right land, and quicken us in thy justice ;"'^ main- tain us even in that charity which is " from a pure heart, a good con- science, and an unfeigned faith." ^ "We even venture to beg of thee that our charity "may more and more abound in knowledge, and in all understanding, that we may be re- plenished with the fruit of justice,*^ going from "virtue to virtue," till " the God of gods shall be seen in the heavenly Sion."^ Vouchsafe to grant us this grace through Mary, whom we honor and respect as thy divine spouse. She could say at the accomplishment of the august mystery of the Incarnation, " God hath endowed me with a good dow- "8 ry."" Thou couldst say of her: Thou art "full of grace ;^ one is my dove, my perfect one ; ^^ how ' 1 Thes. V. 19. '^ Ephes. iv. 30. 3 Hymn, Veni Creator. * Ps. cxlii 10, 11. » 1 Tim. i. 5. « Phil. i. 9, 11. beautiful art thou," " and how justly did her mother call her " blessed of the Lord!"^^ In the name of that favored Virgin, we beseech thee, God, the Holy Ghost, have mercy ON us. Spiritus SanctCj Detis, miserere nobis. MEDITATION IX. holy trinity, one god, have mercy ON us. rr^HE adorable mystery of the J- Holy Trinity, "one and indi- visible,"^^ is the foundation of our religion, the source of all the other mysteries, and of all the divine mer- cies. Hence it is that the Church, after making us successively invoke the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, makes us say. Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us. A day shall Gome, if we remain faithful, when we shall see, without obscurity, what we now believe, and the adorable Trinity will reveal 'Ps. Ixxxiii. 8. 8 Gen. XXX. 20. •St. Luke i. 28, ' Cant. vi. 8. » Cant. iv. 1. '« Kuth iii. 10. " Brev. Bom. S08 MEDITATIONS ON THE UTANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. to US its ineffable secrets. We * shall tbeu comprehend how the Father, knowing himself from all eternity, necessarily begets " his own image," ^ who is the Son; how, this knowledge being absolute and indivisible as well as his sub- stance, he communicates the latter to the Son unreservedly and undi- videdly. We shall understand how it is that from the eternal union of the Father and the Son necessarily proceeds their mutual love, who is the Holy Ghost; how, that union being equally absolute and indivisi- ble, " the Holy Ghost proceeds from it with the same perfection that the Son receives from his Father."* But the light of heaven is not made for earth : home can never be found in the land of exile. "Till the day" of eternal happiness "breaks, and the shadows retire,"* till a holy death comes to rend the veil of faith, and " we shall know God even as he knows us,"* let us humbly adore, with our whole mind, the mystery which he has been pleased to reveal to us; let us praise and bless him with all our ' 2 Cor. iv. 4. * Cant iv. 6. ' Sermon on the Hdy Trinity, by BossoeL hearts, for that he has vouchsafed to make us sharers in the divine knowledge, and to admit our poor understanding even to the eternal sanctuary of his " light inaccessi- ble."* What an inlinite honor has he conferred upon us by imparting to us, in this place of probation, in the darkness of our exile, a truth which dazzles the angels, and gives us reason to pine for " the courts of the Lord,"^ where we shall enjoy a spectacle so glorious ! Unity in trinity. Trinity in unity: how mar- vellous ! how incomprehensible ! Unity of nature in a tiinity of per- sons, trinity of persons in a unity of nature, what admirable concord, what ravishing harmony! "Yes," says St Augustine, " in God there is number, in God there is no num- ber: when you reckon the three persons, you behold a number; when you ask what it is, you find no num- ber : the answer is, that it is one only God. Because they are three, there is number; when you seek to examine their nature, the num- ber escapes; you find only simple unity."^ * 1 Cor. liiL 12. » 1 Tim. vL 16. •Ps. IxxTciii. 3. ^In Joan. IhicL xzix. No. 4. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 599 0, unity so inviolable that num- ber cannot divide it! 0, number so well arranged that unity cannot confuse it ! How magnificent is the hope of one day seeing thee " face to face!"^ And, meanwhile, it is sweet to be able to adore thee with the divine certitude of faith, and to bless thee for the supernatural con- nection with thyself which thou givest us in Christianity ! The Father, by his adoption, raises us to the sublime quality of children of God ; the Son, by the Incarnation and Redemption, mar- vellously associates us^ with the divine nature; the Holy Ghost, by the efi'usion of his charity into our hearts,^ establishes an admirable communication* between God and us. Ah ! may we estimate, at their just value, these divine revelations, and esteem ourselves according to the nobility and grandeur of our dignity! May we well understand that, God having raised us so high, all that is not God is beneath us ; that, having the inestimable honor ' 1 Cor. xiii. 12. » 1 John i. 3. » Eom. V. 5. * 2 Cor. xiii. 13. ' 1 John iii. 1. « St. John XX. 17. f of being the sons of God,® the brethren of the Son,^ the temples of the Holy Ghost,^ we should ever respect ourselves as belonging to a chosen generation, a royal priest- hood, that we may declare his virtues, who hath called " us out of darkness into his admirable light! "^ " Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, who art but one and the same sub- stance,"^ to thee, "the only God, be glory and magnificence, both now and forever ; " ^° to thee who hast honored us with the revelation of thine eternal essence, to thee who hast raised us to a superhuman dig- nity, the completion of which shall be, in heaven, a transformation into thy Divine image.^^ Ah! before "the breadth, and length, and height, and depth "^^ of thy love for us, what can we do but stammer like the prophet ^^ the accents of praise and admiration, in union with Mary, who, astonished herself at the great things thou hast done in her,^* contemplates thee in trans- ports of gratitude and love. We ' 1 Cor. vi. 19. 8 1 Peter ii. 9. « 1 John T. 7. » St. Jude 25. » 2 Cor. iii. 18. » Ephes. iii. 18. " Jerem. i 6. M St. Luke i. 19. 600 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. adore thee as "the Alpha," ^ the eternal origin of all ; we reverence her as the fii-st of thy creatures, and the nearest to thee by the perfec- tions thou gavest her, and by the sublime ties of daughter, mother, and spouse, wherewith thou hast honored her. Grant that, beseech- ing thee, by her pure lips, to keep us always faitliful, always worthy of thee and of our magnilicent title of Christians, we may say to thee : Holy Trinity, one God, have mer- cy ON us. Sancta TrinitaSy unus DeuSj mis- erere nobis. MEDITATION X. HOLY MARY, PRAY FOR US. THE first title of honor which we give to the Blessed Virgin, when invoking her, is her own name of Mary — a name which, after that of Jesus, is the delight of pious souls. What more sweet than the name of a mother, and of a mother as ten- der, as august! A mother ! Is there > Apoc i 8. » St. Luke i. 42. any thing so precious in nature, any thing which dilates the heart like her presence, any thing so moving as her memory ? A mother I Ah ! God has created nothing in this world to be compared to her in kindness, in pure and sweet affec- tion, in devotion, in sublime hero- ism of heart. When we have the happiness, then, of being animated by a lively faith, when we firmly believe that Jesus is our divine brother, that Mary his mother is also ours, that she necessarily ex- tends to us that inexpressible ten- derness with which she is filled for the "blessed fruit of her womb,"^ for that Jesus who has so loved us, what pious emotions, what exqui- site feelings, should not the name of such a mother excite within us. But what joyful admiration should the mysterious meaning of that blessed name inspire. It signifies at once Sovereign, Radiant Star, Queen of the Sea^ . . . and to whom could these touching titles apply but to Mary? Sovereign, has she not the honor of having brought forth "the King of kings, and the Lord of lords,"* to whom belongs » Lexic. bibl. Weitenader. * 1 Tim. vi. 15. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIBGIN. 601 "magnificence, power, glory, and * victory,"^ and who, by glorifying lier in heaven, gave her a power of intercession like to none other? Radiant Star, is it not she who has given to the world "the true Light"^ of men, "the Sun of justice,"^ whose divine disk, without dawn or twi- light, east or west, unceasingly dis- plays the fullness of his inexhausti- ble rays ? Is it not she who shines in the splendor of the purest, the most perfect virtue — in the splen- dor of a miraculous virginity, and of a glory which eclipses that of the angels and saints ? Queen of the Sea, is it not she whose admirable example, like a heavenly beacon, surmounts the troubled waters of this life, and guides into the port of eternal bliss those who keep its be- neficent light in view? Is it not she whoJias received from God, so to say, the power of appeasing at will the storms and tempests which so often beat on our frail bark, when the invocation of her all-pow- erful name stills the winds and the waves ? Undoubtedly, the name of Mary » 1 Paral. xxix. 11, 12. » St. John i. 9. » Mai. iv. 2. is not "strong and mighty"* in com- parison with that of Jesus, except in that inferior degree which neces- sarily distinguishes the creature, even the most perfect, from its Cre- ator and its God ; moreover, it has no virtue except through Jesus him- self. But it has pleased that divine Son to manifest his glory by his august mother, and to communicate the admirable efficacy of his own name to that of Mary. Like that of Jesus, the name of this divine Virgin consoles and strengthens. " Invoke it," says St. Bernard, " in your dangers, your doubts, your an- guish, let it be incessantly on your lips and in your heart. Then there will be no more wandering, no more despair, no more error, no more fall- ing, no more fear, no more fatigue, but a sweet experience of the pro- found meaning of those words of the Gospel, ' The name of the Virgin was Maryy^ Like that of Jesus, this name, so dear to our hearts, puts the spirit of darkness to flight. "If the wind of temptation assail yoii," says the same holy doctor, "call Mary to your aid."^ It was * Ps. xxiii. 8. * Rom. ii. sxiper Mvisus est, « Kom, ii. super Missus esi. 601 MEVii.iii^.y-' ^'A I HE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. of her that, in the beginning, God * said to the tempter of Adam and Eve those energetic wonis, "She bhall crush thy head,"^ and that prediction resoonds anew, like a cmsh of thunder for Satan, as often as the Christian soul invokes the name of the Blessed Virgin. Mary! blessed be the Lord who " hath so magnified thy name that thy praise shall not depart out of the mouth of men."' Ah, tell us by what name thou art called ; ' make us feel and comprehend its dignity, its sweetness, and its pow- er; penetrate us with the respect, the confidence, and the love which it merits. It is to the pious heart " a plentiful olive-tree, fair, fruitful, and beautiful;"^ it is precious as a vase exhaling sweet perfumes. So powerful do we esteem it^ that when invoking it, we think we see the fallen angel taking flight with the forced cr}*, '* Terrible is the name of the Virgin!" Mary! may that sacred name be ever terrible to hell in our behalf^ may it be "terrible as an army set in array"* to all the > Q«a. iiL la. *Q«a. zxziL 29. * Judith xiiL 25. * Jar. xL 16. •Cant via enemies of our salvation. May we never separate it in our heart from the adorable name of thy divine Son, and may it be, after that of Jesus, our refuge and our shield, our strength and our consolation. It is with the hope of obtaining this grace that we say to thee with the Church — Holy Maet, prat for us. Samda Maria, ora pro nobis. MEDITATIOX XL HOLT MOTHER OF GOD, PRAT FOR US. A SIMPLE virgin of the tribe J\. of Juda, Motker of God! How wonderftd! What greatness and majesty is contained in that title, what honor and glory, what incomparable magnificence I In the general opinion of men. the disnitv of the mother is com- puted by that of her son. What must then be the dignity of Mary, who brought forth the adorable humanity of the eternal Son of God! K she had given birth to an illus- trious saint, even that would make MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 603 her very honorable in our eyes ; she would be still more honorable if she had brought into the world an incarnate angel ; and much more so had it pleased God that " one of the chief princes"^ of heaven "was made flesh "^ in her chaste womb. But, Mary, Mother of God ! who can ever estimate, or comprehend, or express the dignity, the elevation of the Blessed Virgin ? And who is there that, penetrated with a lively faith, will not cry out with the Angel of the Schools, that "this title has made her something infinite, be- cause of the infinite good which is in her Son,"^ and with the blessed Peter Damian : " But we have rea- son to remain mute with astonish- ment and admiration, nor dare to raise our eyes before the immense glory of such a dignity !"* God is infinitely powerful : what wonders soever he may produce, he can always produce others greater still. And yet we need not fear to say that, all-powerful as he is, he could not make Mary either greater or more noble than he has made her in her dignity of Mother of God. ' Dan. X. 13. * S. Thomas, 3 p. q. 25, a. 6, ad L 2 St. John i. 14. ■• Serm. de NcUiv. B. M. V. f Could he, in fact, give her a Son greater or more noble than he who, " without robbery, is equal to God,"^ and who says, "I and the Father are one?"^ Could he give her a Son superior to himself? Mary en- joys, then, by her divine maternity, all the dignity possible for a mother to have ; and even as the Creator could not make a man greater than the Man-God, so neither could he make a mother more august or hon- orable than her who can say to that Man-God, "Thou art my Son."^ 0, let us admire, praise, exalt this masterpiece of the Almighty power, of the adorable wisdom of the Most High. He could bring about the ineffable mysteiy of the Incarnation without giving a mother to the hu- manity of his Son. But was it not fitting that the Divine Repairer of man's fall should be " the Son of man,"® at least by his mother, so that it might be one of ourselves who made for us all the infinite satisfaction due to eternal justice? And then, Adam and Eve having both transgressed, and having both, by their fall, involved their whole » Phil. ii. 6. « St. John X. 30. 1 Heb. L 5. • St. Luke xix. 10. 604 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. posterity in the same ruin, does it | not seem that each sex ought to liave its share in the restoration and salvation of mankind ? Divine "Wis- dom, then, admirably provided for the work of redemption by creating a Mother of God. By Mary, Eve's sex has given to the world its Sa- viour, and by that Saviour, that of Adam has redeemed the world. But God has done still more. He has favored us all "with a continual and perpetual extension of the mys- tery of the Incarnation. Thus speak the Fathers of the Church." * By our participation in the mystery which supposes all others, the adorable Eucharist, have we not the infinite honor of contracting that union with God which approaches the nearest to that of Mary with her Son Jesus, and that of the Word with his humanity, since "we are therein really incorporated with the divine flesh of Christ."^ And Jesus himself has said, "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him."^ Ah ! let us here humble ourselves before ■ Bourdalone, sur le Tres- Saint Sacrament. • S. Chrys., Homil. 63, ad popvil. Antioch. > St. John vi. 57. the Lord, for that a favor so pro- digious leaves us cold, tepid, in- different, instead of inflaming our hearts, and filling us with a bound less zeal and devotion ! Mary! we are happy to pro- claim, with the Church, that thou art truly the Mother of God. We joyfully acknowledge that it was thou who "brought forth"* the first- born by excellence, called by St. Paul "the first-born amongst those who are conformable to his image ;"^ that it is thou, and thou alone, who art entitled to the literal applica- tion of those sacred words, " He that made me rested in my tabernacle ;"*' and that, as the Eternal Father says to his Son, "Before the day-star" of time " I begot thee," ^ as thou canst thyself say to him, "And I also be- got thee, in tiTne ! " We venerate, then, and honor with all our heart thy divine maternity ; we offer thee all the homage due to thine incom- parable dignity. Obtain for us, Mary ! to appreciate the admirable participation in thy glory and the glory of his adorable humanity, * St. Matt. i. 25. » Kom. viii. 29. * Eccles. xxiv. 12. 1 Ps. cix. 3. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 605 which thy divine Son, in the sacra- * ment of his love, vouchsafes to give us : Holy Mother of God, pray for us. Sancta Dei Genitrix^ ora pro nobis. MEDITATION XII. holy virgin of virgins, pray for us. VIRGIN" OF Virgins I what title could be more suitable to her who hrst consecrated the love of holy virtue by the seal of a perfect vow ! A vow so precious in the eyes of Mary, that she only accept- ed the ineffable glory of the divine maternity, after the Angel had as- sured her, on the part of God, that this glory should be nowise incom- patible with the sacred engagement she had contracted with the Most High ! Virgiii of Virgins ! what title could better express the pious admiration of the Church for her miraculously perpetual virginity ! So, also, what emblem could be more illustrative of Mary's favorite virtue and this magnificent privi- lege than that lily-stem, whose triple flower tells us so well that she was a virgin while bearing the divine Jesus, a virgin before and after that august mystery. The lily ! What flower is there of sweeter perfume, of purer beauty, of more delicate white? There is, therefore, no more perfect symbol of the fairest, the most exquisite virtues ; of that angelic virtue, whose triumph is manifested in the Virgin of Virgins on the day of the Incarnation of the Word, when the angel said, to reassure her: " The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee!"^ Hence, the Scripture represents to us, under the figure of a girdle of lilies,^ the inviolable chastity of the Spouse of the Canticles, and the predilection of the heavenly Bride- groom for virginal purity, by telling us that he is " the lily of the val- leys," and goes to his garden "to gather lilies."^ These charming figures have each a sweet and expressive lesson for us. It is, that Jesus loves to rest with "the clean of heart ;"'^ that he 'St. Lukei. 35. « Cant. vii. 2. 3 Cant, ii 1 ; vi. 1 «St. Matt. V. 8. €oe MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN. loves to abide in liearts whose pure thoughts, pure desires, pure affec- tions, pure emotions, are for him like " a bed of aromatical spices."^ And, consequently, we may perceive what delight our divine Saviour must take in Mary, whose spiritual purity, truly perfect, was enhanced by another miraculous purity, so that the very name of this twofold virtue has become her own name, and she alone is, by excellence, called the Virgin ! But let us sound our own hearts, and are we a holy object of compla- cency to the divine Lamb who is followed by virgins "whithersoever he goeth?"^ Alas! even without falling into the slough of vice, do we never permit ourselves to do aught that might displease him? How many imprudent or even dan- gerous looks ! How many liberties which, without exceeding the strict bounds of virtue, are yet incom- patible with the holy integrity of a chaste delicacy! How many thoughts, how many remembrances, perhaps even regrets, how many de- sires, how many projects, how many • Cant. vL 1. • Apoc. xiv. 4. » 2 Cor. ii 16. * dreams of the imagination, which are far from having for their em- blem the dazzling whiteness of the lily! How many words which are far from breathing " the good odor of Christ,"^ the Son of a virgin, and the tender, intimate friend of St. John, because, as the Church tells us, the latter " wore the spotless crown of virginity ?"* Finally, how many affections, of which God is neither the beginning nor the end ; how many attachments formed (though we will hardly acknowledge it to ourselves) , not so much by the spirit as by the flesh ! . . . Ah ! let us courageously banish from our hearts, not merely anything that might offend the divine Son of Mary, but anything that might not be pleasing to him. Let us respect our bodies as being " the members of Christ,"^ and never convert them to any but a holy use. Let us re- member that where the eye of man cannot penetrate, the eye of God sees and judges ! for " hell itself is naked before him, and there is no covering for destruction!"^ Let us remember that his eyes, sweet " as * Brev. Bom. * 1 Cor. vi. 15. • Job xxvi. 6. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGLN. 607 those of the dove"^ for virgin souls, are " as a flame of fire " ^ for those who attempt before their Creator what the mere look of a mortal would make them avoid as repre- hensible. Ah! would that we un- derstood this better, and would always keep it in mind ! Virgin of Virgins ! living mir- acle of purity! who wast on earth Christ's " dove," his perfect one ; the daughters of Sion saw thee and declared thee most blessed. Num- berless are the "young maidens"^ whom thy powerful example has in- duced to renounce the world and all its most seductive charms, to consecrate themselves to God in solitude, to serve Jesus with inex- pressible love in the person of the poor, or to follow thy footsteps, even amid the cares of the world ! " Queens " themselves, amid the splendor of their courts, have "praised thee"* by the sublime virtues which they practised after thine example, and under thine auspices 1 Glory be to thee, Mary! incom- parable model of that virtue which * makes man's life like to that of the angels, as though his soul were not connected with corruptible organs. Ah! make us, by thy protection, thy faithful imitators, and zealous lovers of the holy virtue of purity. It is that we may always resemble thee, and thus merit the favor of thy divine Son, that we may say to thee. Holy Virgin of Virgins, pray for us. Sancta Virgo Virginum^ ora pro nobis. ■ Cant. V. 12. ' Atdoc. i. 14. 3 Cant. vi. 7, * Cant. vi. 8. MEDITATION XIE. MOTHER OF CHRIST, PRAY FOR US. TO say of Mary that she is the Mother of God, is to reveal to us, all at once, the full extent of her greatness and glory. But this the human mind could not comprehend unless it could embrace infinite maj- esty. Hence it is that the Church, after making us invoke Mary under that title, here presents her to us in a way that we can more easily understand. Is it not ti'ue that a mother ap- pears to us the more honorable in proportion as her son is distin- guished by more eminent qualities, and does greater things for the haopiness of his fellow-creatures? What admirable glory reverts, then, to the Blessed Virgin as the Mother of Christ? Does not Jesus pos- sess, even as man, all the peifec- tions suitable to our nature ? " God anointed him with the Holy Ghost," ^ who is personally united to him. "In him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge;"^ in him all the treasures of goodness, meek- ness, humility, patience, compas- sion, charity the purest and most devoted; in him the plenitude of feelings, the noblest, the most ele- vated, the most delicate, the most generous, the most captivating to the human heart. . . . But who may tell what he has done for the happi- ness of those whom he was pleased to make his brethren?^ Not to speak of the salvation which he prepared for us with his own life, how numerous are the blessings which he has otherwise conferred upon us? What improvement both moral and intellectual, has he not | ^ Acta X. 38. * Colos. ii 3. » Heb. ii. 17. i brought into the world ! What a prodigious transfo-i-mation has he not wrought in it! Even now Chris- tianity prevents more evil in one day than all human laws could re- press; it produces, in one day, more acts of virtue, often sublime, than the pompous maxims of philosophy could ever achieve. To whom is due the restoration of woman, who was in olden times considei'cd and treated as a mere thinff in the family — is it not to the Son of Mary ? . . . To whom is due th© respect for childhood, the mod- eration of paternal authority, for- merly so arbitrary and tyrannical — • is it not to the Son of Mary ? From whom came the abolition of sla- very ? who has invested the servant with a sacred and august character in the eyes of the Christian master, and taught us to regard all men as our brethren — is it not the Son of Mary? . . . Whence proceed all the helps, all the consolations, all the good and admirable works of which our holy religion is the soul and the inexhaustible source — is it not from the Son of Mary ? . . . Ah! even if the Blessed Virgin were not the Mother of God, were MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN 609 Christ, lier adorable Son, nothing more than the greatest of men, the most signal benefactor of humanity, his Mother would be the noblest, the most august, the most honor- able of mothers. And, in the supernatural order, where is the good of which Jesus is not the author? Without him, fallen man would have neither sanc- tifying grace, nor merit for heaven, nor any of those actual graces so necessary to our weakness. With- out him, either before or since his appearance on earth, there would be no connection of love, of favor, between God and man, none of the consolations of piety, none of the guiding lights of faith, no beacon of hope for eternity. But how blind and ungrateful we are to enjoy all these blessings, and yet love their author so little ! Each step of ours is marked by some fa- vor of Christianity, and we heed it not. At the sight of these precious gifts our hearts should b'e more and more inflamed with love for the divine Son of Mary, but far from that being the case, we refuse him that time which so justly belongs to him, we employ it in violating * his holy laws, in gainsaying his example, in wilfully offending him. What ingratitude is ours ! . . . Ah ! if we have ever so little tenderness of heart, let us endeavor to repair by our own repentance this base ingratitude, and henceforward to live unceasingly for him who un- ceasingly pours down his blessings upon us. Mary! who could say to this adorable benefactor, "Thou art my Son,"^ I bore thee in my womb, I gave thee suck, and nourished thee."^ What must have been thy feelings when thou hadst " to wrap up " the delicate limbs " of that divine child," the "first-born"^ of all those who by their divine adoption were to be- come "his brethren."^ Ah! doubt- less thou didst pour forth thy heart in expressions of love and admira- tion, thou wert happy to give him continual proofs of devotion, of con- secration, of entire self-abandon- ment. The most amorous words of the Spouse in the Canticles hardly sufficed to express the sacred trans- ports of thy love while thou saidst, " My beloved is mine, he shall abide > Heb. i. 5. » 2 Mach. vii. 27. ' St. Matt. i. 25. * Eom. viiL 29. 610 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. between my breasts."^ Obtain for us, then,*0 Mary! a share in thy admiration, thy gratitude, thy love for Jesus, who never ceases to load us with favors. Permit us not to remain ungrateful, at least so far as to deliberately offend so liberal a benefactor. Yes, we beseech thee with all the fervor of our souls, repeating with the Church — MoTUER OF Christ, pray for us. Mater Christi, ora pro nobis. MEDITATION XIV. MOTHER OF DIVINE GRACE, PRAT FOR us. HAIL, full of grace !^ said the heavenly ambassador sent by the Most High to announce to Mary the sublime mystery of the Incar- nation. These are words of such profound meaning, that no human intellect could understand, no hu- man lips explain it. Full of grace I Who, then, can estimate the quan- tity, or appreciate the value of this treasure? K it be true that more or less grace is the effect of the great- t er or lesser love which the Lord has for a soul, what soul could ever receive as much as Mary, the spe- cially beloved of God ? . . . . Full of grace! "Perfect expressions," says St. Sophronius, " for grace is given to others as it were by shares; to Mary, it is given in its plenitude."' Mary alone, of all mankind, was called to the triple dignity of be- loved Daughter of the Father, be- loved Mother of the Son, beloved Spouse of the Holy Ghost; and it also required an incomparable sanc- tity to correspond with that incom- parable dignity; to produce that unprecedented sanctity an unpre- cedented supply of grace was requi- site, nay, even the plenitude of grace. Hence, the angel, willing to express this marvellous sanctity which dis- tinguishes Mary amongst all creat- ures, called her not by her name, although that name is, as we have seen, rich in admirable significa- tion; he saluted her with the very title of "full of grace,"* as it were to designate her by that which is her special characteristic before the Most High. But she is, moreover, the Mother > Cant L 12. » St. Luke i. 2& ' Serm. de Assump. V. * St. Luke i. 28. N >': I )<H-.I.S;i.lliciH C... MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE Bi^ESSED VIRGIN 611 of him who is " the God of all * grace," ^ and of whom St. Paul says that, in his person, "the grace of God hath appeared visibly to all nien."^ Why should not she who gave birth to such a Son be called the Mother of Divine grace, especial- ly she to whom that same Son has, if we may say so, confided the dis- tribution of his favors ? For Jesus, from the Cross, gave his mother to us in the person of St. John, who, as the only disciple present, represent- ed all the faithful;^ and what the great Apostle said of the gift made us by the Eternal Father of his own Son, we may, in due proportion, say of the gift which the ^njassi^iff^B of his divine Mother. ▼How hath he not also, with her, given us all things."* Thus it is that the holy doctors of the Church are prodigal in their expressions of praise and homage towards this favored creat- ure. " Be mindful of us, blessed Virgin !" exclaims St. Athanasius, " and in return for the feeble praise we offer thee, grant us rich gifts > 1 Peter v. 10. * Titus ii. 11. ^Bossuet, Sermon for the Feast of the Holy Rosary. * Rom. viii. 32. " Serm. in Annuntiat. from the treasury of thy graces."^ " In thee, our patroness and media trix with the God who was born of thee," cries St. Ephraim, "in thee the human race places all its joy ; in thee alone is found the refuge and the surety of those who trust in God;"^ and in another prayer, he says: "After the Trinity, thou art mistress of all ; after the Paraclete, another Paraclete ; after the Media- tor, mediatrix of the entire world." ^ "Because thou art the only hope of sinners," says St. Augustine, "through thee we hope for pardon of our crimes ; through thee, jssed one! we expect the heav- enly reward."^ " Mary is the ocean of grace," says St. Peter Chrysolo- gus,'-* St. John Damascene/" and St. Bonaventure.^^ She is the fountain through which all graces are poured forth on the world like a spring of living water : "the fountain of gardens," ^^ destined to "water the torrent of thorns," ^^ that is to say, to change our hearts, to make all virtues grow in them ; a « Op. groeco-lai., t. iiL >" Oral. i. de Nativit. ^ Op. grceco-lat., t. iii. " In specul v. « Serm. de Annuntiat. "^ Cant. iv. 15. » Serm. cxlvi. " Joel iii 18. 612 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. fountain so full of grace, that this sweet Virgin, according to the an- gelic doctor, has enough to bestow on all mankind."^ Let us, then, approach, how gi-eat soever our misery may be, let us approach, with an overflowing heart, to that "throne of grace," ^ established for himself in the bosom of the divine Virgin by the Son of the Eternal King. Let us evei* im- plore her assistance; even when our affairs appear to be in the most desperate condition, let us beseech her from the bottom of our hearts, " assured," says St. Bernard, " that we are thereby entering into the de- signs of Him whose w^ill it is that all should come to us through Mary."^ Mother of " the Word made flesh," who hast vouchsafed to " dwell amongst us, full of grace and truth,"* with the angel we salute thee, "full of grace!" Thy divine Son is the source, the inexhaustible, the infinite source of grace ; and in taking up his abode in thee first of all mankind, he gave thee the right to say, "In me is all grace." ^ Thy blessed hands are, as it were, the > p. iii. qusest. xxviL art 5. * Heb. iv. 16. • Serm. iL de Aasumpt. B. M. V. f favored channel whereby this divine treasure overflows the entire w^orld, refreshes all that is dry and arid, and " maketh tlie wilderness evevi as the garden of the Lord."*^ To thee, then, wiU we have recourse in all our wants ; in thee, after Jesus, do w^e place all our confidence; through thee, do we expect from him, un- worthy as we are of his mercy and goodness, the pardon of our num- berless transgressions, the assist- ance so necessary to our weakness, and the crowning grace of final per- severance. Mother of Divine Grace, pray FOR us. Mater divince gratice, ora pro nobis. MEDITATION XV. mother most pure, pray for us. IT was fitting," says St. Anselm, " that the sanctity of the Virgin- Mother should be such, that no greater could be conceived after that of God."^ For otherwise it w^ould have been manifest that God * St. John i. 14. • Is. li. 3. " Eccles. xxiv. 25. ^ De Concept., c. xyiii MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN. 613 did not raise her for whom he had reserved the intinite dignity of be- ing his Mother, so as to place her on a level with that high honor, and that he did not create her worthy of a rank which never had or never can have an equal in the world. This gave St. Thomas occa- sion to write those remarkable words: "It is possible for a creat- ure to exist so pure as that noth- ing purer could emanate from the hand of the Creator, and such was the purity of the Blessed Yirgin, of her who never knew either original or actual sin."^ God and sin are irreconcileable ; the opposition between these two terms is absolute, infinite. Where- fore it is, that we can only approach God by removing from evil, from which we also remove the farther the more we approach the " Holy of holies." ^ But how can we imag- ine a creature having such an inti- mate connection with God as the Mother of God ? How then can we conceive one who has attained, or can attain a purity of heart like that of the Blessed Yirgin ? ' I. Sent. disc. xliv. q. unica, art. Ill, ad, 3. Condi. Trid. Sess. v. et vi. • Dan. ix. 24. * Hence the Angel of the Schools teaches that " in her the effusion of grace was so abundant, so complete, that she enjoyed the closest possible union with the divine Author of grace, and thus deserved to receive into her bosom Him who is the source thereof."^ It would not be sufficient, then, to give Mary the first place in the hie- rarchy of creatures, even the holiest. She who approaches God as nearly as possible, is superior to them by the full height of her incomparable dignity ; she is distinguished as " the lily among thorns ;"* her sanc- tity overtops that of all the elect, of all the blessed spirits, as " going up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh and frankincense, and of all the powders of the perfumer."^ While admiring, in this august Mother, the privilege of special sanctity wherewith the Lord en- dowed her, let us endeavor to com- prehend the necessary hatred of God for all that is offensive to his divine Majesty. Sin, whatever it may be in its object and in its circum- * ' III. part., quaest. xxvii., art. v., ad. 1. * Cant. ii. 2. » Cant, iii. 6. 614 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. stances, is always a violation of the * moral oi-der — a real disorder which God must necessarily abhor, because he is himself order by his essence, order substantial, necessary, immut- able. Sin is a revolt against God, tliat sovereign power, that supreme power, that eternal power who for- bids it, and who cannot, in justice to himself, leave unpunished, in his universal empire, one single act of rebellion. Sin is an ingratitude towai'ds the first, the greatest of benefactors ; an ingratitude so much the blacker, in that we voluntarily ojBfend Him who preserves our life, at the very moment we are employ- ing it against himself, and that it is impossible to offend him without turning one of his own blessings against him. How could it be that God would not hate ingratitude with an infinite hatred, since even men brand it as odious and dis- graceful ? Ah I let us not pass lightly over truths so proper to inspire us with a holy horror for all, even the slight- est violations of the adorable will • Ps. XXXV. 4. » Ps. XXXV. 13. ' Prov. L 7. *Eocle8. vii 14. » Eccles. vii. 19. of God, 80 capable of exciting our zeal, our vigilance, our endeavora to shun even the smallest evil. Like him who " would not understand that he might do well," ^ we should be in danger of being " cast out " ^ by the Lord; or like those fools who "despise wisdom,"^ we should de- serve to be ourselves despised by the Most High, and given up to a reprobate sense.* Let us rather reflect seriously on these saving truths, and try to derive therefrom " that pious fear which neglecteth nothing,"^ having always in view that great maxim of the divine Master : " He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in that which is greater."^ thou whose admirable sanctity renders thee "fair as the moon,"^ from the depth of our hearts do we say to thee: "Thou art all fair, Mary, and there is not a spot in thee,"^ thou house of the Lord which holiness becometh,^ and thou tabernacle of the Most High which himself hath sanctified."^" Yes, we, thy cherished children, are rejoiced • St. Luke xvi. 10. • Cant. iv. 7. 'Cant. vL 9. »Ps. xciL 6. *Pb. xlv. 5. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 615 to contemplate in our august and tender Mother, that glorious privi- lege before which the Church, ever guided by the Holy Spirit, has sol- emnly bowed down, proclaiming to the Catholic world that she did not include thee amongst sinners.^ Ob- tain for us, Mary, a sensible feel- ing of the hatred which God neces- sarily has for sin, whose disorder never troubled the repose or marred the beauty of thy spotless soul; what horror we should feel for that act of rebellion and ingratitude, even though it did not go so far as to produce that deadly division be- twixt God and us which it effects, alas ! too often. Vouchsafe, by thy intercession, to preserve us from it ; deign to hear those who address thee in that pious invocation : Mother most pure, pray for us. Mater purissima, ora pro iwhis. MEDITATIOJSr XYI. mother most chaste, pray for us. Is there anything greater or more noble than the virtue which leaves the mind its freedom for * good, disengaging it from the sla- very, and, as it were, from the weight of the body, which it constantly maintains in the path of duty ? So it is that, in all ages, and amongst all nations, the most civilized and the most debased by Paganism, chastity has been honored.^ One would say that, by a sort of instinct, Memphis, Athens, Rome, and the savage tribes of America, were sen- sible of the pre-eminence of that virtue which raises man above his own nature, almost to a level with the pure spirits. But see the marvellous splendor of chastity in the divine Mother of Jesus. Although connected, like all the children of Adam, with a passible and mortal body, Mary, who had been preserved from orig- inal sin, was also preserved from the humiliating consequences of that birth-stain. Would it have been expedient or proper that the Lord, excepting her from the transmission of the sin of Eve, should still leave her that unhappy concupiscence which was unknown to Eve herself in her state of innocence He ' Con. Trid. Sess. v. et vi. « The Pope, by de Maistre, v. ii. ch. 3. 616 MEDITATIONS ON TEE LIT ANT OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. would, then, have made Mary a creature inferior to the companion of the fii-st man in her primitive condition, and the Mother of God would have had to send up to heav- en that comphiint of the Christian soul : " Unhappy that I am, who will deliver me from this* body of death ?"^ Ah! what truly pious heart would not reject such thoughts as injurious alike to the Son and the Mother. " I would be horrified to say," says St. Augustine, "that that sacred flesh which had furnish- ed the virginal body of Christ was delivered to worms after death." ^ But if it were freed from the cor- ruption of the grave, which, after all, is not out of order, how much more must it have been preserved by the Lord from all tendency to moral disorder. Mary was, therefore, in her body, as far as matter can be compared to spirit, what she was in her soul, all pure and all holy. Of her may be said, literally, what St. Augus- tine said figuratively of virginity, that "she had in her flesh some- thing not of the flesh," ^ something ' Bom. viL 24. * De Assumpt. t. ix., n. 23. • De Sancta Virginit. n. 12, t. vL which belonged to the angelic na- ture rather than to ours, something superhuman, which caused the King of glory to " not abhor the Virgin's womb."* But we must beware of thinking that, altliougli Mary had no combat to sustain, the glory of her chastity was at all diminished. How honor- able soever danger may be when crowned by victory, whatever glory there may be in succeeding in a struggle of which God is the wit- ness, the prize and the crown, it w^as assuredly much more honorable to be respected by that unclean spirit w^hose assaults have harassed the greatest saints, so that he never dared to make even the slightest attempt. Such was, by nature, the prerogative of the adorable Jesus; such was, by grace, the privilege of his Mother, whose " eye hath always been able to look down upon"^ the infernal powers overcome by the Cross of her divine Son.^ For us who experience but too ofen "the evil which is present with us,"^ and the combats arising from it, let us apply with filial confidence * Hymn Te Deunu » Ps. liii. 9. « Col. ii. 15. ' Bom. vii. 21. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 617 to the maternal protection of Mary. Let us remember that how weak soever we may be, " we can do all things hy the grace of God that strengtheneth us,"^ and that, by the intermediation of his Mother, we may hope never to want that grace. But let us not count on her protec- tion without using the means and taking the precautions pointed out by faitli ; that would be attempt- ing to render Mary the accomplice of our presumption and of our cul- pable imprudence. Let us " watch and pray." ^ Let us watch narrow- ly over our senses, our imagination, and the motions of our heart; let us shun even the appearance of dan- ger ; it is only by flight that chas- tity secures the victory. Let us pray " at all times," ^ let us pray espe- cially at the moment of danger, "that we enter not into temptation."* Mary, we bless the Lord for that, from the moment of thy con- ception, " thy heart and thy flesh rejoiced in the living God;"^ we bless him for that in thee are re- alized, in an admirable manner, ^ those words of the great Apostle, that " the fruit of the spirit is con- tinency and chastity."^ What con- tinency can ever be compared to thine ? Where is the chastity that is not eclipsed before that which God preserved from all the attacks of concupiscence, and to which, by the power of " the lion of * the tribe of Juda,"^ he gave the glory of a perpetual triumph ? ^ Alas ! but our lot is very different; and how inimical to us and to our eternal welfare are " the carnal desires which war against the soul,"^ and "the spirits of wickedness "^"^ by whom we are surrounded. In the name of thy glory, Mary, suffer not those who implore thine assist- ance, and who fight in the shadow of thy tutelary power, even to fail in the combat. Pray for us that " the God of Peace may crush Satan under our feet," ^^ and that " by the Spirit we may mortify the deeds of the flesh." ^^ Once more, then, we beseech thee — Mother most chaste, pray for us. Mater castissiTna, ora pro nobis. • Phil. iv. 13. * St. Mark xiv. 38. » Ephes. vi. 18. * St. Mark xiv. 38. * Ps. Ixxx. iii. 3. « Gal. V. 23. "> Apoc. V. 5. 8 2 Cor. ii. 14 9 1 Peter ii 11. » Ephes. vi. 12. >' Rom. xvi. 20. » Rom. viii. 13. 618 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. MEDITATION XVII. MOTHER INVIOLATE, PRAY FOR US. WHEN God revealed to the prophet of old, seven centu- ries before its accomplishment, the miracle of the Virgin-Mother, Isaiah said to Mary's ancestors : " Hear ye, therefore^ house of David ; .... a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son. and his name shall be called Emmanuel."^ This is, in fact, one of those prodigies which God draws from the treasures of his power when he wishes to strike men with awe and admiration, and this is also what the Church wishes us to praise and honor by the invocation, " Moth- er inviolate, prai/for tcs /" "0 prodigy! ineffable wonder!" exclaims St. Augustine, "a Virgin has become a Mother ! ' Yes, she is a Mother, but still a Virgin ! She has a son, but he has no father ac- cording to the flesh ; she has brought forth, but her purity remains un- touched."^ St. Bernard outdoes the immortal bishop of Hippo : " If," says he, " I wish to extol her virgin- ity, many virgins present themselves ' Is. vii. 13, 14 * Serm. xiii. de tempore. * Serm. iv. de Assumpt. B. M. V. to my mind as partakers in the glory of that virtue. If I set about praising her humility, I find many of the faithful who, at the bidding of her divine Son, became meek and humble of heart. If I undertake to laud the abundance of her mercy, are there not men of great mercy, and women who are models of compassionate goodness? But in this no one either before or after could ever be compared with her I In this she stands alone, viz., in the union of the joys of motherhood with the glory of virginity. Yes, this is Mary's exclusive privilege; no other creature can ever be so honored."^ Doubtless, this prodigy is beyond all the laws of nature. But if our first father came into the world by a simple act of the will of God, was it any more difficult for that omnip- otent will to unite, in a mortal, the flower of virginity and the divine fruit " of the Holy Ghost?"* And; moreover, does not the image re- ceived and reflected by "the un- spotted mirror"^ give us a suffi- ciently clear idea of how " the splendor of the glory of God "^ could * St. Matt. i. 20. • Wisdom vii. 26. « Heb. i. 3. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 619 come and manifest itself in the world in a manner as admirable as it is astonishing ? . . . For the rest, it would seem that the Lord wished gradually to prepare the human mind for believing this prodigy, the object of our faith; for the solemn prophecy which announced it so long beforehand amongst God's own people, found an echo amongst nearly all the pagan nations of antiquity ; their religious traditions all agreed in expecting a liberator in the Son of a Virgin.^ It would also seem that the mystery of a Man-God being in itself an un- paralleled miracle, its glory was to be manifested in his birth, as well as in his conception. Let us here praise the Lord for the admirable prodigies wherewith he dignified the mystery of his anni- hilation in human nature ; let us bless him for the glorious favors which he bestowed on the Blessed Virgin, and endeavor to penetrate ourselves more and more with a high esteem, a generous love for the virtue which he honored in Mary Dy such great marvels. Ah ! if we only knew how pleasing this virtue * is to that God who " is a spirit," and who " must be adored in spir- it,"^ and how our flesh participates, in its own way, as far as it possibly can, in the elevation, the dignity, the purity of that adoration ! . . . . What tmceasing efforts should we make to practise that chastity of the senses which refrains even from that which is permitted, for fear of exceeding the prescribed limits ; that chastity of the heart which excludes all excessive affec- tion, even when legitimate; that chastity of the imagination, which repels even the passing thought of any irregularity or of any dangerous object! And how carefully should we regulate our whole exterior so as to inspire others, by our modesty and reserve, with love and esteem for a virtue which can alone render our homage worthy of the Blessed Virgin. Mother inviolate, styled by the Apostle St. John "a great wonder,"^ we love to contemplate thee, with him, " clothed with the sun, having the moon under thy feet, and on thy head a crown of twelve stars." * The sun surrounds thee with his ' JLetter of M. Drach. ^ St. John iv. 23. ' Apoc. xiL 1. ♦ md. 620 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN dazzling radiance — a figure of the divine "Sun of justice,"^ whom thou didst bear in thy chaste womb, and who rendered thy purity as unalterable as his brilliant rays. Twelve stars compose thy diadem, their living splendor an image of thy miraculous purity. Thou hast the moon under thy feet, emblem- atical of the triumph of thy virgin- ity over all inconstancy, all imper- fection, represented by that ever- changing planet. Let us join in the pious transports of St. Ambrose, who, on the feast of Christmas, made all his people sing, "The whole world admires the miracu- lous childbearing of the Blessed Virgin. Such must be the birth of aGod!"2 We ardently desire to honor in thee, Mary ! the wonderful works of the Lord, by our fidelity in im- itating thy superhuman purity, as far as is consistent with our weak- ness. That we may obtain that grace. Mother inviolate, pray for us. Mater inviokUaj ora pro nobis. ■ Malac. iy. 2. * Quoted by Pope St. Celestine, Epist. decretal. Roman. Fonlif. MEDITATION XVm. MOTHER UNDEFILED, PRAY FOR US. TflO be worthy of God, the splen- J- dor of the miracle of the Vir- gin-Mother must necessarily be unalterable, and the chaste womb wherein "the Word was made flesh" must remain forever incorruptible, as a sanctuary " shut for the Prince of Peaces ^ So it is of faith that Mary was always a virgin, that nothing ever tarnished "the flower of purity in her so admirably united with the fruit of honor and riches,"^ and that this same flower, at the close of its mortal existence, was as fair and spotless as at its first opening. Furthermore, the Church tells us in her sacred liturgy that, far from losing aught of its perfec- tion, the virginity of Mary "received through the miraculous birth of the ^ Saviour, as it were, a divine conse- cration."^ This, then, is the "fountain sealed up,"^ this is truly that "garden enclosed,"^ which is the inaccessible dwelling of the divine » Ezec. xliv. 2. • Cant. iv. 12. * Eccles. xxiv. 23. ' Cant. iv. 12. ; * Miss. Eom. in Concept. B. M. V, MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 621 Majesty, guarded " by the cherubim - ^\ith a flaming sword." ^ Even if we had not on this head the certainty given by the infallible teaching of the Church, where is the Christian who does not under- stand that Mary, by her divine ma- ternity, became the true temple of the eternal Son ; that the uncreated Word, having dwelt for nine months in her virginal womb, it thereby became the purest and most august of sanctuaries ; that if " the place where his feet stood "^ was of old considered worthy of solemn vener- ation, this living sanctuary of the Divinity was incomparably more so ? . . . But, on the contrary, who could suppose without horror, that God would have permitted the prof- anation of that dwelling which he had chosen for his Son,^ that Mary could for a single moment cease to respect what God had made so venerable, or that she could ever have forgotten that sacred contract which she mentioned to the Angel Gabriel as "a treasure which she would not have resigned even for ' Gen. iii. 24. * Ps. cxxxi. 7. » Ps. cxxxi. 13. * St. Greg. Nys., horn, in Nativ. Ghr. the sublime maternity announced to her?"* Ah ! far, very far from us be such thoughts — thoughts which would be not only contrary to faith, but which would accuse Mary " of a sacrilege degrading to her, and a profanation degrading to Jesus Christ himself."^ Let us rather unite with the holy doctors who have celebrated the untouched pu- rity of the Virgin by excellence. Let us say with St. Jerome, "She remained ever holy both in soul and body, eternally a virgin ; " ^ and with St. Ambrose, "Mary is the mis- tress of virginity, whose glory was never eclipsed in her ; " ^ and with St. Peter Chrysologus, "By her bearing of the Man-God her purity did but increase, her chastity as- sumed a new lustre, her virginity became but the more inviolable."^ But from this truth let us draw a useful lesson for our soul. The holy and adorable Eucharist, as we have already seen, gives us a connection with Jesus so close, so honorable, as to have a wonderful similitude * Elev. sur les mysv^res, par Bossuet. « Ep. X. ad Eus. de ass. In Ezech. 1. xiii. "> De Instit. Virg. » Serm. cxlii. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. with that which existed between Mary and the Eternal Son of the Most High. "Why, then, is it that we do not gather from that ineffa- ble union, from that immense honor, a steady and persevering love of virtue, an invincible strength against the seduction of the senses? . . . Ah I it is that before communion we do not sufficiently estimate the value of the grace conferred upon us by God, and that, after communion, we too soon forget the incomparable favor we have received. When be- lieving " with the heart," ^ how can any one, before participating in the sacred banquet, say to himself with- out emotion, " A house is prepared not for man, not for an angel, but for God?"^ And after being so closely united with the Man-God, how is it that w^e do not " live in God, par- ticipating in the divine feelings ? " ^ After being nourished "with that virginal body, that body conceived and born of a Virgin,"* how can we consent, with the remembrance of such a favor before our minds, ever to be other than pure and • Rom. X. 10. * 1 Paral. zxiz. 1. ' Medit. sur I'Eu., by BosBuet. *]lnd. * spotless, even for a single moment ? Mary I " new paradise where pu- rity puts forth her fairest flowers,"^ in what terms shall we praise the glory of thine inviolate and per- petual virginity ?...." Unheard-of miracle," shall we say with St. Eph- raim, " inexplicable prodigy, incom- bustible bush, golden censer exhal- ing a delicious perfume, alone pure in soul and body, alone above all integrity, all innocence, and all vir- ginity?"^ Ah! let us, hencefor- ward, through thy protection, de- light in that virtue which was so precious in thy sight, let us "love that chastity" for which "thou shalt be blessed forever."^ " As the hart panteth after the fountains of wa- ter,"^ so may we sigh after that ado- rable mystery wherein we taste "the corn of the elect, and wine springing forth virgins."^ Above all, when we have had the infinite, the inexpressible happiness of par- ticipating therein, may we ever pre- serve the remembrance of it, and lead a "holy and a blameless" life, under the patronage of her to whom » St. Basil, Orat. xxx. • Sancti Eph., Opera grceco-lat., t. iii., p. 524-552 ' Judith XV. 11. « Ps. xlL 2. » Zach. ix. 17 MEDITATIONS ON TEE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 623 we address this supplication, weak and helpless as we are : Mother undefiled, pray for us. Mater intemerata, ora pro nobis. MEDITATION XIX. mother most amiable, pray for us. THE sacred canticle wherein the Holy Ghost typifies the union of the Incarnate Word with his Church, is also a magnificent paint- ing of all the qualities which secure to Mary the title of Amiable Mother. In that divine picture the heavenly Spouse represents her in the most varied colors, and under the bright- est and most captivating figures: flowers and fruits, and the rarest plants ; perfumes the most precious that art or nature can produce ; comparisons fuU of grace and sweet- ness ; delicate and graceful orna- ments of the rarest beauty. But all that belongs to earth is too much beneath the Ainiahle Mother; and hence it is that she is saluted by the mouth of the virgins of Jerusa- • Cant. vi. 9. • Serm. de laudib. Virg. * lem with that cry of admiration: " Who, then, is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun?"^ Yes, her loveliness has the brilliant hues of the early dawn, the mild radiance of the moon, the gorgeous splendor of the orb of day ; and justly did St. Epiphanius say to her with pious enthusiasm: "After God, thou art the first beauty : that of the cheru- bim, that of the seraphim, and of all the angelic choirs, is effaced be- fore thine." ^ How much more, then, does it exceed the charms of Rachel and Rebecca, the winning grace of Esther, the stately beauty of Judith, all honorably mentioned in Holy Writ!^ But let us not stop at the terres- trial ideas conveyed by the senses ; this beauty, this loveliness of the favored daughter of the King of kings, "is entirely from within,"^ and from the inestimable gifts wherewith the Lord has adorned her. If men were capable of seeing a soul in possession of sanctifying grace, they would find it of ravish- ing beauty; and if it be so with 3 Gen. xxiv. 16 ; Gen. xxix. 17 ; Esth. ii. 7 ; ^ Jud. viii. 7. * Ps. xliv. 14 624 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. any soul which enjoys that precious treasure, how great must be the beauty of those who, by their fidel- ity, their zeal, their fervor, merit every day, and, if one might say so, eveiy hour, an increase of that celestial gift, that magnificent, that divine adornment of the Christian soul ! What an idea must we then have of the interior beauty, the su- pernatural loveliness of Mary ! In her conception, she had received the efi'usion of grace in a degree far su- perior to that with which any other creature could be favored. The Lord having chosen her in his eter- nal counsels to be his Mother, she must, necessarily, be more pleasing to him than all others, even from her very origin ; and to remain wor- thy of her incomparable destiny, she must also be pre-eminently assidu- ous, united with God in mind and heart, and ever eager to increase her treasure by new acts of divine love. No other was enriched, like her, every moment, with new traits of supernatural beauty ; no other ever possessed, like her, the virtues in- separable from such an abundance of grace. Never, therefore, was creature so humble, so patient, so f charitable, so compassionate, so considei-ate ; never was heart so generous, so devoted, so pure, so noble, so great, so nearly resembling the adorable heart of her divine Son. Let us here learn to love, like Mary, before all else, that which is truly amiable — God, and the means of pleasing and being united to him. Let us learn to despise, like her, that frail external beauty which fades and withers away, and falls at length under the stroke of death, to give place to something hideous and disgusting. Let us fix our hearts on that interior loveliness, that spiritual beauty which renders us so amiable before God, that every Christian dying in the state of grace is by him associated in his glory and happiness. Finally, let us remember that while meriting for our soul the felicity .of heaven, we merit it also for our body ; and that, consequently, all that we do, in time, for the supernatural beauty of the soul, we do it, not merely to promote its eternal blessedness, but also to secure the glorification of our body for all eternity. ^ Mary ! masterpiece of Almighty C'tOtZc^ J^eni ptn MEDITATIONS ON THE LIT ANT OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN. 625 power, how dazzling is thy beauty to the eyes of faith ! Yes, thou art worthy " of being called," by excel- lence, "Amiable to the Lord;"^ for thou art adorned with all the per- fections which can make a creature amiable. How sweet it is, beloved Mother, to cry out with one of thy devout servants, that " thou dost ravish the hearts of those who con- template thee!"^ How sweet it is to assure thee of our sincere desire ever to love thee according to thy merit, to prefer, like thee, the beauty of the soul before all else, and to labor incessantly to increase it by the fervor of our charity ! Bless this desire, divine Mary ; and that we may obtain its accomplishment. Mother most amiable, pray for us. Mater amabilis, ora pro nobis. MEDITATION XX. MOTHER MOST ADMIRABLE, PRAY FOR US. MAN has made use of what God gave up to his patient indus- try, and has produced admirable * things. He has, by his inventive genius, mastered the most rebel- lious of the elements ; even light itself he has made subservient to his will ; he has made astonishing achievements, worthy the admiration of all who can appreciate the beau- tiful and the sublime in art. But what are all the works of man com- pared with what God has produced by a single act of his all-powerful will ? And what are all the works of creation in comparison with the admirable Mother f God, it is true, has drawn forth from the infinite treasury of his power wonders the greatest and most varied ; he has strewn them over illimitable space like the dust of our fields; he has adorned the earth with creatures of amazing strength and of enchanting beauty ; he has bedecked the heavens with azure, gold, and silver; he has es- tablished throughout the universe the most profound combinations of opposing elements, the most skillful harmony of laws, sublime in their diversity, in their unity, in their ' 2 Kings xii. 25. « Medit. in Antiph. Sdve Beg., attributed to ^ St. Bernard. 6S6 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. stability ; he has created man, who f is the king of nature, the living abridgment of all the wonders of creation. And yet he has done still more : he has created Mary, the ad- mirable Mother ; admirable in her grandeur and in her privileges ; ad- mirable in the incomparable prodigy of her d ivine maternity ; admirable in the august influence given her to exercise on the fate of men, denot- ing her co-operation in our salvation, as well as the immense efficacy of her intercession. All the elements seem to be submissive to her: at her voice the pestilential air loses its malignity, fire suspends its rav- ages, the swollen wave sinks again into its bed, the sterile earth re- sumes its fruitfulness. Mary is at once virgin and moth- er, the marvel of nature confounded by grace ; the creature of the Most High, and yet his Mother ; " the handmaid," ^ and the " Mother of God;" the daughter of fallen Eve, and yet the true Eve, the "true Mother of all the living."^ Mary I the epitome of all the goodness, the charity, the mercy, the power of the « St. Luke i. 48. » Gen. iiL 20. * Serm. ii. de Assumpt. * St. Luke i. 49. Creator, "the abridgment of his incomprehensible perfections," says St. Andrew of Crete.' She is, after God, the centre of the prayer and praise of the Catholic world ; she is, to faith, the Holy by excellence, inseparable from the Man -God ; their names are repeated every day by every mouth ; in their honor, the East and the West have united, and will always unite, their songs of praise and homage. " He that is mighty hath " there- fore "done ma/z?/ great things"* for this incomparable virgin ; he has so prodigiously glorified her in heaven and on earth, that, according to St. Cyril and St. Bernard, "the most eloquent tongue can hardly describe her glory and her greatness."^ But are we to content ourselves with a profound sentiment of ad- miration for this most perfect of God's works ? Let us enter into ourselves ; let us examine with the eyes of faith. Is there nothing wonderful in ourselves? Has not God made us truly admirable ? " We were by nature the children of wrath ; " ^ and we have become * St. Cyril, Homil. habita in Nestor. ; St. Ber- nard, in deprecat. ad B. Virg. « Ephes. iL 3. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 627 the "most dear children"^ of God, the objects of his tenderest love and most watchful solicitude. Moreover, we poor mortals, so mean and so contemptible, are raised, by grace and the Holy Eucharist, to the sub- lime life of the angels, to the divine life of heaven. We are destined to the everlasting enjoyment of the highest glory, even the glory of God, for it is written, that "we shall be like him,"^ and that we shall reign with him for ever and ever."^ Ah! if we were deeply penetrated with these magnificent teachings of faith, how great and how generous would be our devo- tion to God! how much better would our conduct correspond with his favors and the sublimity of our hopes ! Thou art, Mary, and shalt ever be, worthy of admiration, not only because of thy perpetual and mirac- ulous virginity, prefigured bj- the prodigy which appeared to Moses on "the mountain of God,"* but • Ephes. V. 1. « 1 John iii. 2. ^ Apoc. xxii. 5. * Exod. iii. 1 ; Brev. Rom. Office of the Circum- cision, because of the sublimity of all thy privileges, the superabundance of grace wherewith thou wert filled, the incomparable power given to thee, and the unequalled glory where- with thou art invested. "Wonder- ful"^ is the name by which the Heavenly Father would have his divine Son called ; the Church gives to thee the name of Admirable, as approaching the nearest to the ador- able greatness of the Man-God, and giving the most perfect reflection of his glory. August object of " the wonder of princes,"^ thou whose "magnificence is wonderful,"^ ah! render us sensible of the great dig- nity to which it has pleased God to raise ourselves in this land of exile and probation, and to the still more wonderful height of glory which he is pleased to promise us hereafter ; render us worthy, through thy inter- cession, of a destiny so high and so magnificent ! Mother most admirable, pray for us. Mater admirahilis^ ora pro nobis, » Isaiah ix. 6. • Wisdom viii. 11. ' Eccles. zliiL 32. ft28 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. MEDITATION XXI. MOTHER OF OUR CREATOR, PRAY FOR US. THE divine act of the Creator is the grandest, the most aston- ishing to our understanding; in it we have to contemplate, to fathom, as it were, the grand transition from nothing to being, a secret which G(xl has reserved for himself, and which can never come under the cognizance of human reason. Hence it is that God, who is so great in other respects, manifests himself to us, if we may say so, in all his power as Creator of the universe ; and the Church, penetrated with this truth, makes us here invoke Mary, under the title of Motlier of our Creator, in order to give us the highest possible idea of her dignity and greatness. Mother of our Creator! Is there not an apparent contradiction be- tween these two terms? What! can the stream produce its source ? the work its author? Who ever saw, who ever heard the like ? . . . . Undoubtedly, if there were in Jesus Chi'ist only the divine nature, this title could not belong to the Blessed Virgin : the Divinity exists by itself f from all eternity, and has no other principle than itself. But " the Word was made flesh," ^ and Mary, by an unequalled miracle, became the mother of his human nature. And the Word is Creator as well as the Father and the Holy Ghost, these three adorable persons having together produced all creatures by the indivisible act of their will. Let us then exclaim, with St. Peter Chrysologus, "Yes, truly, Mary brought into the world Him who created the world and her- self!"^ Let us offer to her our fervent congratulations, saying, with the same holy doctor, " For ever blessed art thou! thy Creator vouch- safed to be conceived in thy chaste womb ; thy first beginning was pleased to owe his birth to thee ; thy Heavenly Father deigned to be- come thy son ; thy God vouchsafed to become incarnate in thy flesh." ^ But for whom did the Creator of all things raise Mary to so high a degree of glory? It is for all of us ; by her he came into the world, came to effect a change in each of us more wonderful, perhaps, than the creation itself. In the ^ » St. John L 14 * Serm. 143. Serm. 142. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 629 beginning " God spal^e, and all was made." ^ What could resist the omnipotent power of his word? But in the admirable operations of " the grace which is given us by Jesus Christ," ^ God permits our free will to oppose an obstacle, in order to give us an occasion of merit ; and hence it is that grace, triumphing over our will, while re- specting it and allowing it to act in a meritorious manner, presents some- thing greater, we might almost say, in some respects, than the primitive act of creation. This is what St. Paul appears to imply when he makes use of the words new creature to express the transformation of man by the grace of Christianity. " If then any be in Christ," wrote he to the Corinthians, *' a new creat- ure:"^ and to the Galatians, "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircum- cision, but a new creature."* Alas ! we see not this new creature, and hence it is that we are little im- pressed by the admirable act of divine power whereby it is pro- duced. Accustomed as we are, ' Ps. cxlviii. 5. « St. John L 17. » 2 Cor. V. 17. * moreover, to behold human nature when, in some degree, transformed by baptism in its earliest infancy, we are less sensible of the favor, because we know not, by experi- ence, what it is to grow up and ad- vance in life under the fatal influ- ence of original degradation, without remedy and without supernatural assistance. Ah ! it was well under- stood by those converted pagans, to whom the great Apostle said, after describing the most humiliat- ing fruits of corrupt nature, " Such some of you were: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."^ Let us, then, think often of what we should be without baptism, and all the marvellous helps of which it is, as it were, the sluice ; let us compare ourselves with the unbelievers to whom God " hath not done in like manner,"^ and we shall give up our hearts, without reserve, to all the sentiments which the liveliest gratitude can inspire. Vouchsafe to make us understand, Mary, what gratitude and love * GaL yL 15. » 1 Cor. vi. 11. • Ps. cxlvii. 20. 630 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. we owe for the prodigious change wrought in us by the grace of thy divine Son — an ineffable favor, which makes us pass from the nar- row limits of our nature to a super- human order, incomparably more elevated than the fairest moral or- der I Considering " the renovation of the Holy Ghost," ^ and its blessed effects, with their inestimable value, our " heart should he inflamed, we should be brought to nothing"^ with wonder and admiration; but, alas I we are cold, ungrateful, and deliber- ately sinful. Permit us not, Mary, longer to delay in " giving to God the things that are God's,"' in offer- ing to the Creator, whose majesty " rested in thy tabernacle," * the sen- timents so justly due to him; and, in order that we may henceforward be grateful and always faithful, Mother of our Creator, pray for us. Mater Creatoris, ova pro nobis. MEDITATION XXTT. mother of our redeemer, pray for us. f the one dearest to Christian piety. Mother of our Redeemer ! that is to say, thou who, by thy co-operation in the divine incarnation, hast given us Him whose name of Jesus was re- vealed by the Angel Gabriel to thy chaste spouse, Him who was to " save his people from their sins!"* Mother of our Redeemer! thou to whom we are indebted for him whose adorable name should be un- ceasingly on our lips and in our heart, if we were only impressed with a lively sense of what we owe him ! In order to understand what Mary is to us, let us try to under- stand the nature of our obligations to that sweet Saviour whom she brought into the world. Two things give value to a favor, its own intrinsic importance, and the generosity with which it is con- ferred. Oh I how precious, then, how truly inestimable, is that which we owe to the adorable Son of Mary I What a fate should we have had for all eternity were it not for that divine Saviour! The Holy Ghost H ERE we have the most touch- ing of Mary's maternal titles ; ' Titus iii 5. t Ps. Ixxii 22. ' St. Luke XX. 25. * Eccles. xxiv. 12. » St. Matt, i 21. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 631 describes it as "eternal death :"^ * that is to say, a state without end, wherein the horrors of death are every moment renewed ; a life, im- perishable indeed, but deprived of the sovereign good, with a ceaseless and intense desire to possess it, and the fatal certainty of never obtain- ing it ; an eternal life of " eternal pains "^ But, as though it were a small thing to save us from such a fearful destiny, Jesus has merited for us the inestimable privi- lege of being one day seated with him " in the heavenly places,"^ of being "glorified with him,"* of liv- ing and reigning eternally with him,^ of being eternally "like to him ; " ^ that is to say, to be happy forever, happy beyond all human expression, happy beyond all con- ception or desire. And this two- fold service he has rendered to us with the most disinterested, the most magnanimous devotion. What were we to Jesus that his heart should inspire him with the thought of saving us by his own blood? Were we as dear friends, excellent brethren, for whom it is ' 2 Thess. i. 9. * 2 Thess. i. 9. 3 Ephes. ii. 6. * Rom. viii. 17. sweet to make a sacrifice, and whose fate inspires the liveliest interest? Not yet As strangers, deserv- ing of pity because of their virtue as well as their misfortunes ? Alas ! no: we were only wretched, sinful creatures, unworthy of a single glance from him, and from whom he had not even common gratitude to expect. What do I say? from whom he well knew he should re- ceive no other return than lament- able indifference, cold tepidity, or even a multiplicity of offences, often, alas! willful. Nevertheless, he loved us "unto death, even the death of the cross." ^ To love, to love even to excess, him who deserves not even sympathy ; to love him who loves not in return, nor will ever testify a just gratitude — what won- drous love ! . . . . But to die for him in whom there is nought but mis- ery, insensibility, from whom there is scarcely anything to be expected save base and obstinate ingratitude, what love could be purer, stronger, or more generous ? When shall we repay even a por- tion of our Kedeemer's love, of the » 2 Tim. ii. 12. « 1 John iii 2. 7 Phil. ii. 8. 689 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. gratitude we owe him? We who detest ingratitude in others, when shall we cease to be ungrateful ? . . . We would love a man who, at the risk of his life, had saved this cor- poral life, this life so frail, so mis- erable, so full of tears and bitter- ness; we would shrink from even the appearance of ingratitude, we would be horrified at the thoughts of doing him an injury. How un- grateful, then, are we to the adora- ble Son of Mary, who, by the most cruel and ignominious death, has delivered us from an eternity of wretchedness, and merited for us an eternity of happiness! And how much more ungrateful should we be, if, after having meditated on truths so capable of touching our hearts, we should still refuse to pay him a debt so every way sacred. Let us, therefore, belong, hencefor- ward, not to om-selves, for " we are not our own,"^ but His who pur- chased, "with a great price," '^ our love, our fidelity, our devotion. Mary, thy quality of Mother of the Redeemer associates thee in the work of man's Redemption, ' 1 Cor. vi. 19. • Ibid. 20. accomplished by his Passion, the torturing instruments of which, re- calling his sufferings and thine, speak eloquently to every feeling heart. Love, ardent, inviolable, eter- nal love to Jesus I After Jesus, to thee, most holy Virgin, fervent and faithful and unceasing love ! Be- loved and august Mother of that di- vine Son, whose name oi ^^ Saviour" ^ was revealed by an angel to the shepherds invited to visit his crib and adore his birth, how much more applicable to him is the title of " Saviour of the world," than to Jo- seph that of the Saviour of Egypt !* Joseph acquired the title by a ser- vice rendered to the people of Egypt, without any personal sacri- fice on his part; but Jesus bears the name, if we may say so, written on his adorable brow with his own blood. Obtain for us, Mary, that our hearts may return him, if not blood for blood, at least love for love — that true and perfect love which manifests itself by works I Mother op our Redeemer, pray FOR us. Mater Salvatoris, ora pro nobis. » Si Luke ii 11. * Gen. xli. 45. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIBGIN. 633 MEDITATION XXin. VIRGIN MOST PRUDENT, PRAY FOR US. HAYING made us honor Mary in all the glories of her ma- ternity, the Church makes us cele- brate her as a Virgin, and presents at once for our homage the pru- dence which distinguishes her from all the daughters of Eve, even the most perfect. From her childhood, she flies the corrupt atmosphere of the world to go breathe the pure air of the sanc- tuary; she hedges round with the most watchful prudence a heart which yet has nothing to fear from the seductions of the world, for the Lord possesses it from its very conception, and permits it not to know either the dangers or the at- tacks of concupiscence. When a prince of heaven appears before her with the most glorious message, Mary is troubled. She is accustomed to a life so solitary, so full of reserve, that "the presence of the angel in mortal form suf- ficed," says St. Ambrose, " to in- spire her with a holy fear;"^ and that fear increases, when she hears > De Offidis, lib. i., ch. 8. f from his mouth the announcement of a dignity naturally incompatible with the vow she has taken, that vow so dear to her heart. Then, prudence, truly admirable ! far from suffering her mind to dwell on the gloiy of the divine maternity, Mary thinks only of enlightening her conscience before she gives her consent. She states her perplexity to the angel with modest simplicity. The heavenly messenger gives her a satisfactory explanation, and imme- diately, without any further delay, she consents with a humility, a re- signation truly sublime : " Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word." ^ Now, what does she proceed to do? Does she not hasten to an- nounce the great mystery to her worthy spouse? No, she is silent, guided by superhuman prudence. But surely, when Joseph, that "just man,"^ is, soon after, a prey to the most cruel anxiety on her account, anxiety which she cannot fail to perceive, Mary will speak the truth : is she not bound to defend her own reputation? .... 0! let us here » St. Luke i. 38. » St. Matt, i. 19. 634 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. renew our adiiiiration of that trwst prudent Virgin. She understands that, to reassure her husband, some- thing more is wanted than the word of a mortal, especially one who would seem to be actuated only by her own interest ; she knows, on the other hand, that they who hope in the Lord are never confounded ; ^ she is, therefore, silent, aw^aiting the moment appointed by Divine Providence, and her confidence is speedily justified. Afterward, when she hears mar- vellous things said of her new-born Son, far from joining in the conver- sation going on, she restrains her inexpressible love, she keeps the words, " pondering them in her heart," '^ knowing that Jesus is not yet to be manifested to the world. When the day of purification ar- rives, she faithfully accomplishes the Mosaic law, "although there was no taint of impurity," says St. Bernard, " in the bearing of him who is the source of all purity;"' in that, she would, doubtless, give the example of an obedience which goes beyond duty; but she would, ' Ps. XXX. 2. • St. Luke ii. 19. ' Serm. de PuritcUe. * Ap. xix. 9. moreover, wish to conceal a miracle which it would not, as yet, be pru dent to reveal. For the same rea- son it is that, when she finds Jesus in the Temple amongst the doctors, she speaks to him in such a way as to conceal both the divinity of her Son and her own miraculous vir- ginity. But who knows not that, under another point of view, Mary was al- ways incomparably prudent ? That she was always the perfect model of those wise virgins mentioned in the Gospel, who are ever waiting to be admitted " to the marriage sup- per of the Lamb,"* keeping always in their lamps ^ the precious oil of the love of God and good works? " Yes," says St. Bernard, " the lamp of that glorious Virgin never lost its brightness, and its light was always so brilliant that the angels them- selves admired it as a prodigy."" And we also are invited to that divine banquet, and it is " at what hour we think not"^ that we shall hear the cry, "Behold, the Bride- groom Cometh, go ye forth to meet him."^ Do we, in good faith, en- « St. Matt. XXV. 4, 10. ' St. Luke xii. 40. «Serm. ii. in Assumpt. B. M. V. ' St. Matt. xxv. 6. MEDITATIONS ON TEE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 636 deavor to prepare as we ought for that hour, so uncertain ? We may be called " at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing;"^ in short, at any moment ; are we ready ? . . . Alas ! Mary, we, " the children of light," have been hitherto " less wise tlian the children of this world." ^ Furthermore, the Lord has given " understanding"^ to the bird whose song heralds the dawn, " wisdom to the" industrious insect who "pro- videth her meat for herself in the summer,"* and cunning to the ser- pent ; to us he has given that pierc- ing intellect which can observe, cal- culate, foresee misfortune, and bring about success ; we employ it skill- fully and well in conducting the affairs of time, but for the eternal interests we act as blind men, ''ene- mies to our own soul."^ Vouchsafe to ask for us the grace of making our salvation paramount over all, thou in whom we admire a pru- dence much more eminent than that of Abigail, praised in Scripture for having, by a generous sacrifice, gained the favor and good -will of one who was justly angry.^ Obtain ' St. Mark xiii. 35. " St. Luke xvi. 8. 3 Job xxxviiL 36. * for US that we may use the wisest precautions in all that concerns our soul and life everlasting: YlRGIN MOST PRUDENT, PRAY FOR US. Virgo prudentissima, ora pro no- bis. MEDITATION XXIY. VIRGIN MOST VENERABLE, PRAY FOR US. ALL that is great and noble, learning, virtue, a fair char- acter, makes an impression upon us more or less lively, tending to make us bow down and render homage ; and when that learning, that virtue, that character, are found united in one single person with exalted dig- nity, our respect is still more pro- found. Let us contemplate Mary with the eyes of faith. Never could hu- man science be compared to the sublime communications wherewith the Lord was pleased to favor her. To judge of them it is unnecessary to revert to the fact that, in her private life with Jesus at Nazareth, she drew at will, if one may say * Prov. vL 6. * Tobias xii. 10, 1 Kings XXV. 3. 686 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 80, from the " treasures of divine wisdom and knowledge;"^ it suf- fices to think of that supernatui-al ghince of her soul which, even be- fore the Saviour's birth, saw through- out the lapse of ages her God glori- fied in her by the perpetual homage which she was to receive from all the nations of the earth.^ Where else amongst all creatures ^an be found virtue so lofty, so pure, so sweet, so heroic ? To point out but a few instances ; what amazing chastity was that which, in early youth, made a vow w^hose accom- plishment naturally precluded the honor of giving birth to the Messiah, an honor, nevertheless, so coveted by the Jews, that amongst them barrenness was considered a dis- grace. "What sublime humility," says St. Bernard, " was that which maintained itself at the summit of greatness, nor failed under the weight of the greatest glory ! Mary is the Mother of her God, yet she styles herself his handmaid."^ And what considerate, delicate charity, when she requests her divine Son to work a miracle, in order to spare » Colos. ii. 8. « St Luke L 48. ■ » Bom. iv. super Missus est. * the feelings of the bride and bride- groom of Cana, at the humble ban- quet whereat he was pleased to assist!* Then, what incomparable fortitude, what strength of mind, when she witnesses the sacrifice of Calvary!" "The disciples have fled," says St. Ambrose, " the Moth- er is there standing at the foot of the Cross; she contemplates with inexpressible tenderness, but with superhuman courage, the bleeding wounds of her beloved Son; she thinks, not that he is going to die, but that by dying he is going to redeem the world." ^ Finally, what shall we say of her all but divine glory, crowned in heaven with a glory inferior only to that of God? "What is most respectable on earth," says the holy abbot of Clairvaux, " is the virginal womb wherein the Son of God was made flesh ; what is most eminent in neaven after the throne of Jesus, is that of his holy Mother, whose glory is in proportion to the incom- parable grace given her, in this world, above all other creatures."^ The Blessed Virgin is, therefore, * St. John ii. 3. » Serm. i, in Assumpt • S. Bern. Serm. de Nativ. B. M, V. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF. THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 637 most worthy of our humble homage: she is entitled to a profound vener- ation for her august name, for her festivals, her altars, the shrines dedicated to her, for all, in short, that is comprised in the boundless honor and affection which belong to her! Ah! let us faithfully fulfill this sacred duty to Mary, a duty founded on the respect due to God, and promoting it in an admirable manner. For, if it be ti'ue that the Catholic Church is the greatest school of respect which the world ever saw, first, for God, and conse- quently for all that is more or less like to him, it may also be said that in our holy religion the devotion to Mary gives a consoling sweetness to this sentiment of respect for God. When a pious mother instills into the mind of her child the veneration and love of the Blessed Virgin, she speaks of her by the sweet name of the Mother of God — a name which in- dicates, in a daughter of Eve, in a nature like to ours, her by whom that God, so great, vouchsafed to lower himself to us, in order to save us: does she not thus impress on that young heart a respectful and sooth- ing confidence in the Most High, * steering mid vvay between fear, prop- erly so called, and presumptuous familiarity ? King Solomon of old, wishing to honor his mother, arose from his throne, advanced to meet her, and having respectfully saluted her, seat- ed her on a throne on his right hand.^ This is to us, august and most blessed Virgin, a feeble image of the respect with which Jesus honored thee during his mortal life, and the glory wherewith he crowned thee on thine assumption into heav- en. Happy in rendering homage to her whom our divine Saviour so hon- ored, " we offer thee from the depth of our heart, and with the most de- voted affection, the tribute of our veneration," ^ which is, in the lan- guage of men, the highest expres- sion of respect. " Keep forever this will of our heart," ^ and for that end, obtain for us a boundless re- spect for God, and a corresponding reverence for all that is holy in heaven and on earth. Virgin most venerable, pray for us. Virgo veneranda, ora pro nobis. > 3 Kings ii. 19. » 1 Paral. xxix, 13. » S. Bern., Serm. deNativ. B. M. V. ' 638 MEDITATIONS ON THEl LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. MEDITATION XXV. VIRGIN MOST RENOWNED, PRAY FOR US. 1)I10PERLY speaking, God alone is worthy of praise. Still, meiit has a right to our praise, provided that praise reverts to Him from whom proceeds every good and peifect gift,^ and that it be kept within the bounds of truth. But where, on earth, is that merit to be found which can be praised without fear of error or exaggera- tion ? Alas I " God alone knoweth the heart ; and very often that which is high to men is an abomination before God."^ In eulogizing Mary, and proclaim- ing her worthy of all praise, cer- tainlv, we need not fear that we are mistaken, or praising her above her deserts ; for the Lord himself " weighed her merit in a just bal- ance,"' and she was saluted with incomparable praise. Have we ever duly considered how great and how gloi'ious to Mary w^as the salutation of the Angel Gabriel? We see in the holy Scripture many privileged persons honored with the visit of an f angel ; but nowhere do we find them saluted by a heavenly messen- ger in pompous and magnillcent terms. "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee : blessed art thou amongst women."* Could anything be said more honorable to a human being ? And is it not, according to St. Ambrose and St. Peter Chrysolo- gus, an unheard-of salutation, for which we can find no example ?** Nevertheless, nothing can exceed the merit of her to whom these sur- prising words are addressed : they are spoken by an angel, the faithful organ of "the God of truth," ^ who, soon after, passes a similar encomi- um on Mary, by the mouth of St. Elizabeth, the holy mother of St. John the Baptist. The Gospel, indeed, tells us that it was not of her own accord, but after being "filled with the Holy Ghost," that she " cried out with a loud voice and " repeated the words of the angel, " Blessed art thou amongst women," adding " Blessed is the fruit of thy womb."^ Words which wonderfully enhance the greatness of Mary by the ineffable ' St. James i. 17. » St. Luke xvi. 15. ' Job xxxi. 6. St. Luke L 28. * S. Am. in Luc. c. vi. ; S. Pet. Chrys , Ser. 140. « Ps. XXX. 6. ' St. Luke i. 41, 42. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 639 greatness of Him whose Mother, she * is! Elizabeth says of the Blessed Virgin that she is " blessed amongst women," and of her offspring, in an absolute manner, that he is "bless- ed." " Mary," exclaims St. Ber- nard, speaking on this subject, "that precious fruit of thy womb is not blessed because thou art thyself blessed amongst all the daughters of Eve, but thou art so blessed because He has himself re-endowed thee with his blessings. Whilst thou art blessed amongst women, he is not blessed amongst men or amongst angels : he is, according to the Apostle,^ over all things, God bless- ed forever."^ But has Jesus himself said noth- ing in praise of his divine Mother ? . . . Coming to teach men to be, like him, "humble of heart," ^ the Sav- iour took care to exalt before them her whose Son he was. Once, when a Jewish woman, delighted to hear him, cried out from amongst the crQwd : " Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck!" — But he said, "Yea, rather, blessed are they who hear ' Bom. ix. 5. « Serm. in Assumpt. B. M. V, ^ St. Matt. xi. 29. the "Word of God and keep it."* Thereby, according to the idea of the Venerable Bede, " He delicately stamped with his divine approba- tion that magnificent eulogy of his divine Mother, giving to under- stand that, if Mary was too happy in being the Mother of Incarnate Wisdom, she was still more so in faithfully observing its adorable precepts."^ And we also, let us give the Blessed Virgin all manner of praise, and say to her honor, with St. Basil of Seleucia, that " we need never fear to violate truth, whatever praise we give her, because no words of ours could ever compass her grand eur."^ Let us make up for our im- potence by our devotion to her ; let us avail ourselves of every oppor- tunity to speak of her greatness and glory, and to inspire others with a filial confidence in her protection; let us honor her, especially by the imitation of her virtues, so that see- ing and hearing us, men may have cause to glorify our divine Mother in her children. " Mary, how can we sufficiently ' * St. Luke xi. 27, 28. » Liv. iv., c. 40, in Luc. xL « Serm. de Incarnat. Verb. 640 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRQIK honor thee, who didst bear in thy f womb Him whose immensity the heavens cannot contain!"^ "The God of majesty " ' alone merits infi- nite praise; but, after God, thou alone art " above all praise." ^ " thou whom the Apostles loaded with praise, afterwards repeated through- out the earth;"* thou whom all pi'eachers of the divine Word, and all faithful Christian hearts, have ever delighted to "call blessed;"* thou whose " praise shall not depart out of the mouth of men;"^ ah! since we are not able to give thee fitting praise, grant that we may, at least, endeavor to do our duty to thee by zealously promoting thy glory, and faithfully walking in thy holy traces ! Virgin most renowned, pray for us. Virgo prcedidandoj ora pro nobis. MEDITATION XXVI. virgin most powerful, pray for us. I F Jesus Christ, as God, possessed omnipotence by natm-e; if, as • Brev. Rom. in Festis B. M. V. » Ps. xxviiL 3. » Eccl. xliii. 33. man, he held it from his personal union with the Deity, from the mo- ment of his incarnation, its splendid manifestation to the world after his resurrection, became the price of his sufferings and death : this he indicated to his disciples, when he told them "All power is given to me in heaven and in earth."' This sovereign power, the divine Son of Mary communicated to his august and blessed Mother in marvellous abundance. And did not Mary's co-operation in the mysteries of the Man-God, and her intimate participation in his suflferings and his sacrifice on Cal- vary, merit for her the privilege of being associated in Christ's domin- ion over all creatures? Moreover, was it not fitting that she who had so long exercised, in this world, the rights of a mother, and so admirably discharged the pious duties of that high ofiice, should retain, in heaven, that influence which the most per- fect of mothers should natur^ly have over the heart of the most affectionate of sons, so that " for her to be heard was to have her * St. Cyr. Alex., Serm. de Virg. contra Nestor. • Prov. xxxi. 28. « Jud. xiii. 25. ^ Matt, xxviii. 18. .^^9- MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 641 request granted ? " ^ Was it not fit- ting, in fine, that m such a mother, this incomparable power of inter- cession should have a character of grandeur and universality worthy of Him whom she brought into the world? . And that the Blessed Virgin has such power is attested in the Cath- olic world by the most striking proofs. Is there question of the greatest interests of kings and na- tions ? Glorious memory of Lepanto, you prove to all generations the ad- mirable power of Mary's interces- sion, the victory which went forth from Mary's throne, to break, terri^ ble and crushing, on the formidable fleet of the infidels, to save Christen- dom, and, with it, the civilization of all Europe! And you, magnanimous hero, who cried out, at the head of your warlike columns, in. the strong inspiration of faith, " Onward, the Mother of Grod is our guide," did you not. thereby show, illustrious So- bieski, to whom you owed your vic- tory over that fierce belt of hostile armies which encircled the walls of Vienna ? And you, also, inveterate enemies ' St, Bern., Serm. de Aquad. * of Catholic trath, are not you your- selves forced to become the trophies of the Virgin's power and glory ? . . . The Church solemnly felicitates her on having "crushed all heresies throughout the world ; " ^ and it pleased God, especially in the twelfth century, to give the most splendid manifestations of Mary's power against error. A dreadful heresy then overspread the south of France, overthrew temples and altars, slaughtered the ministers of the L(5rd, and committed everything sacred to the flames. Against this impious, this all-destroying devas- tation, rose up the humble St. Dom- inick. "Wherewith shall this new David arm himself; at least, with the shepherd's sling ? . . . . Not so ; it is with his rosary in his hand that he stops, subdues, gains over the blindest and most infuriate en- emies of the Church. And who could enumerate the signal instances of Mary's power in favor of all those who have piously sought her protection ? Ah ! how many sorrows has she consoled I how many sudden deaths has she prevented ! how many violent temp- « Brev. Rom. in Festis B. M. V. \ 642 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. tations has she enabled pei*sons to overcome ! how many graces of all kinds has she obtained for those who have asked her assistance on land or sea! Witness, in answer, the countless monuments erected to her honor, monuments so famous through the enduring remembrances which faith and gratitude attach to them. How many facts, too, admirable facts, have remained, and do every day remain, hidden in the hearts of men ? Amiable and holy bishop of Geneva, we well know that you owed to Mary your victory over a frightful temptation of despair; you, St. Andrew Corsini, your conversion and your eminent virtues ; and you, immortal Nepomucenes, noble mar- tyr of the seal of confession, the courage and the fortitude which gained you so much glory. In heaven only shall we be enabled to see and admire the innumerable eifects of that prodigious power given her by God to guide, to en- lighten, to heal the souls ransomed by the blood of her divine Son, ajid to overthrow the dominion of that infernal spirit whose head she was destined to crush.^ Let us, then, have recourse to that Blessed Virgin in all our trou- bles, in all our dangers, in all our wants, and let us always make it our pious duty to extol her power. Yes, august queen of the uni- verse, we will ever joyfully proclaim that in you the Lord " hath showed might in his arm;"^ that "in thy hand is power and might ;"^ that through you we "can do all things;"* that the glory of Jahel and of Ju- dith,^ victorious over the enemies of the people of God, is not even the shadow of that wherewith you are invested. Ah ! vouchsafe constant- ly to shelter under thy protection those who never cease to invoke thee. Above all, when the final moment shall arrive, when our trem- bling soul is about to appear before its Judge, vouchsafe to defend it against its enemies, strengthen and encourage it, and, on its entrance into eternity, receive it into thy maternal hands, and present it, to thy divine Son. YlRGIN MOST POWERFUL, PRAY FOR us. Virgo potens, "ora pro nobis. ' G en. iii. 15. * St. Luke i. 51. » 1 ParaL xxix. 12. * PhiL iv. 13. * Judges iv. ; Jud. xiii. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 643 MEDITATION XXVn. VIRGIN MOST MERCIFUL, PRAY FOR US. WHY does the Church make us implore the mercy rather than the goodness of Mary? Kind- ness has in it something so sweet, so affecting ; and in Mary that qual- ity is so amiable, so perfect ! Does she not unite in her immaculate heart all the kindness of the most tender mother, all the compassion, all the charity of those souls most eminent for their inclination to do good to all who mourn, to all who suffer, to all who groan under the weight of misery? .... Ah ! yes, undoubtedly. Mary is good, immeasurably good: she has a heart so tender as only to be sur- passed by that of her divine Son. But the Church, by making us in- voke her clemency, would remind us that our profound wretchedness as sinful creatures, our detestable ingratitude towards God, naturally render us unworthy the benign pro- tection of this august Mother. Be- ing identified with Jesus, towards w^hom we are so criminal, has she not much to pardon before she can interest herself in us? And, be- * sides, were it only our carelessness in imitating the virtues we contem- plate in her, it would be sufficient to prevent her from pouring down upon us the favors we expect from her, were she not the Virgin full of clemency and of sweet compassion, the Virgin most merciful ? Tes, that grand characteristic of noble hearts is admirably manifest- ed in that of Mary. "It is indeed of her," says St. Bernard, " that we may understand that magnificent image of a woman clothed with the sun, seen of old by the prophet of Patmos : for even as that orb of day sheds his light indiscriminately on the good and the bad, so is Mary regardless whether the person in- voking her has been more or less guilty in times past ; she shows her- self mild, merciful, clement to all who seek he** aid ; she clasps, as it were, in tho embrace of extreme charity, all their wants and all their miseries."^ And how could we con- ceive it otherwise? Has she not " brought us forth to the Church by her charity ? " says St. Augustine, ^ and must not that ineffable charity • Serm. de Assumpt. B. M. V. • De Sanctd Virginitate, No. 6, i vL 644 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. constantly inspire her with the feel- ings of a mother, but of a mother "whose heart is become," as it were, "like wax, melting" with com- passion "before the flame?" ^ "Yes, truly," says the immortal bishop of Meaux, speaking on this subject, " yes, truly, she is always the same to us ; always kind, always mother- ly. The love of our salvation lives always in her, and is neither less faitliful nor less efficacious than it was when she gave her consent to the august mystery of the Incarna- tion."^ It is not, then, without good rea- son that piety delights in represent- ing Mary, as well as Jesus, under the figure of the pelican who, to satisfy the hunger of hei' little ones, nomishes them, in some way, with her own substance ; and under that of the hen, who tenderly covers her young brood beneath her mater- nal wings. In giving us her Son for a Saviour, did she not give her own blood for all of us, whom Jesus honors with the title of brethren,' and whom she herself cherishes as members of the body of that divine ' Ps. xxi. 15. * Serm. pour la fete de VAnnonciat. ' St. John XX. 17. * Son?* And like that mother who aflfectionately runs at the cry of her chickens, to shelter them from all danger, does not Mary, when she hears our sighs and lamentations, cover us with her protection to save us from all that might become fatal? .... Hence, however un- grateful we may have hitherto been towards the Son, let us never de- spair of the Mother's mercy, but, joining confidence to repentance, cast ourselves fearlessly into her arms, sure of being well received. After having formerly experienced the sw^eet effects of that same clem- ency, if we are so happy as to re- main faithful, how much more may we reasonably count on the unfail- ing assistance of her who so ten- derly loves " them that are beloved in God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ!"^ "0 clement, pious, sweet Virgin Mary,"^ it may well be said of thee, as of the Lord, " that power belongeth to thee, and mercy ! " ^ If, on earth, an exquisite kindness, far exceeding that wherewith Eebecca treated Eliezer,^ induced thee to * Ephes. V. 30 ^ •St.Judei.l • Solve Be; 'Ps. Ixi. 12, 13 ' Gen. xxiv. 19. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIROIN. 645 request of thy divine Son the mir- acle of changing water into wine/ how prodigious must that kindness be in heaven, when " from this val- ley of tears "^ we humbly beseech thee to come to the assistance of unhappy creatures ransomed by the adorable blood of Jesus ! thou, on whose sacred " tongue is the law of clemency,"^ thou in whom that noble virtue is for us " like the lat- ter rain,"* which falls to refresh the earth, thou who art " nigh unto all them that call upon thee^''^ be pro- pitious to us, notwithstanding our ingratitude, till the last moment of our lives ! Virgin most merciful, pray for us. Virgo clemens, ora pro nobis. MEDITATION XXYIH. VIRGIN MOST FAITHFUL, PRAY FOR US. OH! how well does the title of Faithful Virgin characterize her who was always so faithful to the > St. John ii. 3. ' Salve Beg. » Prov. xxxi. 26. ■• Prov. xvi. 15. » Ps. cxliv. 18. • Apoc. xix. 11. Lord, so faithful to every duty, so faithful to grace, so faithful to the will of heaven, even in one of those extreme cases when it would be excusable for a mother's heart to give way to sorrow! Fidelity must be a thing fair and noble before God, since he calls him- self " Faithful and True,"^ and gives, by the mouth of the royal prophet, as a title of honor and distinction, the name of "the faithful of the earth "^ to the "just, upon whom his eyes are" fixed with pleasure.^ But if it be so of all the just, with what pleasure must the Lord regard that Yirgin, in whom fidelity, far from ever suffering the slightest injury, was, on the contrary, increasing from day to day, "going from virtue to virtue,"^ till the glorious moment when "the Lord, the just judge," rendered to her " the crown of jus- tice!"^" Conceived, not "in sin,"" like the rest of mankind, but " in holiness and justice,"^^ by a peculiar and inestimable privilege, she be- longed to God from the first mo- ment of her existence, and not only ' Ps. c. 6. * Ps. xxxiiL 16. * Ps. Ixxxiii. 8. w> 2 Tim. iv. 8. " Ps. 1. 7. " St.-iuke i. 75. 646 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. did she never relax that precious bond by the least fault, but she ceiised not to draw it closer and closer till the day of her translation from this land of exile to the celes- tial country. Hence it is that St. Anschn exclaims, in his admiration of her, "When I consider the im- mensity of grace which is in thee, Blessed Virgin, my mind is lost, my tongue is struck dumb ! " ^ " Oh ! how beautiful were thy steps," ^ we may add, with the spouse in the Canticles, how sublime were they in the ways of grace, beloved daughter of the King of kings. Virgin ever faithful, in all " faithful in the sight of God!"^ The little of it that it has pleased God to reveal to us is charming : what, then, must that be "which is hid within"* that sacred sanctuary which His eye alone can penetrate ! The Gospel, indeed, tells us of thee, Mary, that thou didst carry the love of duty so far as to decline accepting the dazzling honor of the divine maternity, till assured by the ambassador of the Most High that that inconceivable glory was com- patible with the vow which conse- ' Lib. de exceUent. Virg. » Cant, vii 1. t crated thee forever to the Lord. It also tells us that thou wert so faith- ful to the law as to submit to the humiliating ceremony of purifica- tion, thou who wert, on so many accounts, exempted from that which is obligatory on other mothers. And we admire thee, and bless God, who shows us in thee so fair and so noble an example. But when we consider thee on Calvary, when we there see thee so faithful to the adorable designs of Providence as to overcome the feelings of a mother, at the foot of the Redeemer's cross ; ah! then we are deeply moved, we are enchanted by thy sublime resig- nation and thy superhuman devo- tion. What a son was Jesus ! What a mother wert thou, Mary ! What inexpressible tenderness on both sides I ... Oh I how true, then, is it of thee, how emphatically true, that thou wert "faithful even unto death ;"^ yes, even to assist, even to join, with all the power of thy will, in the painful and humiliating death of thy only Son, that son the most amiable and most beloved! After this unexampled act of de- votion to God for men, need we be » EccL xlviiL 25. * Cant iv. 1. » Apoc. ii 10. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED ViRGm. 647 surprised that " it was never known, in any age, that any one who fled to Mary's protection, implored her help, or sought her intercession, was left unaided ?" ^ . ... Ah! this ad- mirable constancy of her merciful kindness to those who invoke her, IS it not sufficiently manifested by the sacrifice which her magnani- mous heart had the courage to make in our behalf? But if such be her goodness to all "poor ban- ished children of Eve, who send up to her, from this valley of tears, their sighs, mournings, and weep- ings,"^ how great must be her zeal for the interests of those who pro- fess a particular devotion to her, and who desire to be her " good and faithful servants."^ May we be of that happy number, and succeed in pleasing both the Son and the Mother ! Mary, thou didst prove thy- self, while on earth, " faithful before God."* And so, in heaven, hast thou also proved to men who, for more than eighteen hundred years, have constantly found in thee, after Grod, their safest and sweetest ref- ' Memorare. * Salve Regina. » Si Matt. XXV. 21. uge. Yes, thou art faithful to them in a way far superior to all human fealty, all human devotion : in com- parison with thy fidelity we can hardly reckon that of Kahab, who saved the messengers of Israel,^ or that of Michol, who, to save her husband, feared not to brave her father's anger.^ Ah! vouchsafe to obtain for us that we ourselves may be always faithful to Jesils and to thee, so that we may deserve con- stantly to experience the happy effects of thy special protection! YlRGIN MOST FAITHFUL, PRAY FOR US. Virgo fidelis, ora pro nobis. MEDITATION XXIX. MIRROR OF JUSTICE, PRAY FOR US. TSE Church, having, as it were, exhausted all the titles which could serve to honor Mary as Moth- er and Yirgin, goes on to another order of ideas in search of new themes for praise. And first she invokes her under * 2 Esd. ix. 8. » Joshua ii. • 1 Kings xix. 648 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. the image of a mirror, which ad- mirably reflects "the brightness of eternal light." ^ If it be true, in fact, of the Eternal Word that he is the splendor of his Father's " glory, and the figure of his substance,"^ is it not Mary who reflects with all possible fidelity the adorable attributes of that " Word made flesh? "^ Does she not resemble him more than any other rational creature? The Lord intended her to hold the first rank amongst all " the works of his hands ; "* to be, as St. Anselni has it, " above all that is not God;"" could he not adorn her with gifts and with merits the nearest to his own infinite perfec- tions ? . . . . Hence it was said by St. Peter Chrysologus, that " he who contemplates Mary without being ravished and amazed, is regardless of Grod himself, who has made her his most perfect mirror!"^ But wherefore does the Church call her Mirror of Justice? . . . First, because Mary is the faithful mirror of Him who is named the " Sun of Justice,"^ whose divine rays warm » Wisdom vii. 26. » St. John i. 14. « Heb. L 3. * Ps. cxxxvii. 8. • Lib. de exord., humance vitas, c. 7. f and fructify souls, until they bud and blossom into every Christian virtue. Jesus himself gives us the sum of these virtues when he tells us: "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice;"^ they who ardently desire to be perfect, and who labor with constancy and zeal to become so I ... . But there is in this word, as here used by the Church, another meaning, calculated to arrest the attention of every pious soul. The Apostle St. Paul gives the name of "justice"^ to the state of sanctifying grace which entitles the possessor to eternal bliss. This supernatural state, so honorable, so precious, man, by his disobedience; had forfeited for himself and all his posterity. But soon after his fall the Lord announces to him that a woman shall crush the head of him who made him fall : hence, he may contemplate in this daughter of Eve, as in a mirror, both the depth of his misery, which nothing less than the death of a Man-God could cure, and the necessity of penance, without « Serm. 104. ' Malach. iv. 2. « St. Matt. V. 6. • Eom. L 17. ■^»- MEDITATIONS ON TEE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 649 which he cannot profit by the re- demption to be effected by the Son of Mary. On the other hand, the faithful angels behold in this priv- ileged creature the Mother of Him who is the origin and the source of their perseverance and of their con- firmation in grace; for it may be said, on the authority of St. PauV and several holy doctors of the Church,^ that it is to Christ the good angels are indebted for the merit and the reward of their fidel- ity. Finallv, is not the fallen angel condemned to behold in Mary, con- ceived in grace, exalted on account of her humility,^ so profound even in the divine maternity, the folly of his pride, his immense misfortune in losing his supernatural beauty, and, by contrast, the hideous ugli- ness to which he is consigned? Does he not there see, at the same time, the enormity of his sin, for which there was no redemption, because he voluntarily fell from a state much higher than that of man, ' Ephes. i. 10 ; Col. i. 17, 20. * S. Jerome, in cap. i. ad Ephes.; S. Greg. 1. i. ch. 2, in lib. i. Reg.; S. Bern. Serm. 22 in Cant; S. Thorn., lect. 10, in cap. i. Joan., et quoest. 7, prceced., art. 9. * through pure malice, and without being exposed to the seduction of the senses ? And is he not forced to cry out with all heaven and earth, that " God is just, * and ren- ders to every one according to his works ?"« While considering in the Blessed Yirgin the inestimable favor of our deliverance from sin,^ ah! let us beware of imitating " a man who, beholding his natural countenance in a glass, went his way, and pres- ently forgot what manner of man he was!"^ Let us rather penetrate our whole minds with the thought that, " being made free from sin, we are become the happy servants of justice,"^ and that " as we have yielded our faculties to serve un- cleanness and iniquity," so let us "now yield them to serve justice unto sanctification."^ Thou, in whom "we see, as in a mirror," ^*^ the adorable perfection of the Most High, deign to shed on our souls some salutary rays from the ' St. Luke i. 48. * Apoc. xvi. 5. • St. Matt, xvi. 27 ; Rom. ii. 6 ; Apoc. xxii. 12, « Rom. vi. 18. « Rom. vi. 18. ' St. James i 24. " Rom. vi 19. » 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 660 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. dazzling radiance of thy sublime f virtues. Vouchsafe, by thy mild- ness, to correct our peevishness and impatience ; by thy humility, our pride and our vain pretensions; by thy purity, our sensual appetites ; by thy charity, our coldness towards God, our want of fraternal love for our neighbor! Deign, above all, by thy holy protection to restore us to the grace of God, if we have had the incomparable misfortune of fall- ing from it ; if we are so happy as to possess the friendship of God, that infinite treasure, deign to pre- serve it to us, and help us to be- come more and more " conformable to the image of thy Son,"^ by imita- ting thee, who art " his. living im- age."^ Mirror of justice, pray for us. Speculum justitice, ora pro nobis. MEDITATION XXX. SEAT OF WISDOM, PRAY FOR US. SON of the Eternal Father, ado- rable Word, "interior word, > Rom. viii. 29. ' S. Joan Damasc Orat. de Nativ. B. V. ' Bossuet, vii. Elev sur les myst., xii. semaine, thought, reason, uncreated substan- tial intelligence of God,"'' thou art the source of wisdom.* Yes, it was thou who " came out of the mouth of the Most High, the first-born before all creatures;"* that Wisdom " who sendeth knowledge as the light, whose thoughts are more vast than the sea, and her counsels more deep than the great ocean ; " ^ that Wisdom " that reacheth from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly."^ Thou art that infinite Wisdom that " rested " in the womb of the Blessed Virgin as in "a taber- nacle,"^ and whom Christian faith loves to contemplate on that divine Mother's knee, under the appear- ance of " the most beautiful of the sons of men!"^ And thou, Mary! thou art for that incarnate Wisdom a magnifi- cent throne, far more precious and more valuable than anything we can know or imagine of created beauty, or glory, or splendor! .... Sacred History, describing the mar- vellous grandeur of King Solomon's ivory throne, tells us that "there * Eccl. i. 5. » Eccl. xxiv. 5. * Eccl. xxiv. 37, 39. ^ Wisd. viii. 1. 8 Eccl. xxiv. 12. • Ps. xliv. 3. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 651 was no such work made in any * kingdom."^ Ah I let us not fear, then, to say that the Lord, in his Almighty power, never created any- thing to equal Her whom he made the living throne of his divine Son : " the incomparably excellent throne," says the blessed Peter Da- mian, " whereon the great God was pleased to rest ; " ^ " the august dwelling of the Supreme Euler of the world," says St. Peter Chrys- ologus ; the sacred " house which Wisdom hath built for herself; " the noble and magnificent sanctuary which she decorated with " seven pillars,"^ emblematical " of the sev- en gifts which the Holy Ghost pour- ed into the soul of Mary in such admirable abundance ! "* What heart was ever so wholly penetrated with that religious fear of displeasing the Lord, which is careful to weigh and consider even the most trifling actions of life ? Or what heart was ever so eminently endowed with that tender piety which inspires the soul with a boundless devotion to God, and > 3 Kings X. 20. * Serm. 140, de Annunc, » Serm. de Annunc. * Ps. cxi. 1. 3 Prov. ix. i. « Prov. ix. 10. » CoL iii. 3. makes it to " delight exceedingly in his commandments?"^ What hu- man creature ever received so rich an effusion of that " knowledge of the holy,"^ which enlightens man on all his duties, and marks out the road he has to follow in order to reach his last end ? The retreat of Mary in the temple while still a child, her entire consecration to the Lord, her words to the angel in the mystery of the Annunciation, her life at Nazareth, "hidden in God,"' all clearly manifest how highly that privileged soul was endowed with these precious gifts. And in what other but Mary on Calvary was the gift of fortitude ever fully displayed —that fortitude which soars above every trial? In what other than Mary, the most prudent Virgin, was ever manifested the gift of counsel, which directs and governs in the most delicate circumstances ; or the gift of understanding, which pene- trates the most elevated ways of grace, as in her " whose very re- pose," say the holy doctors,® " did in no wise interrupt sublime contem- « S. Amb., Lib. de Virg. ; 8. Antonin., t. 2, Serm. 5, art. 1, c. 2 ; S. Bernardin, t. 2, Serm. 51, p. 4, tit. 15, c. 2. 662 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN plation?" What other creature, in short, ever possessed in so high a degree the gift of wisdom, which cro\yns all others, and which con- sists in knowing well the Author and the end of all things — act- ing, living, breathing but for Him alone? And did not Mary always live for GcJd alone, and was not her sweet and glorious death "the effect of a last effort of divine love?"i Let us here, then, offer our hum- blest homage " to that royal throne,^ that divine throne^ of Eternal Wis- dom ; " and let us beseech her who has been raised to such immense dignity, to obtain for us, with an abundant participation in the pre- cious gifts which adorned her fair soul, the grace to value as we ought that Christian wisdom taught us by her divine Son ; the grace to make it the exclusive rule of our conduct, " seeking first the kingdom of God and his justice,"* and securing for ourselves, by our good works, "treas- ures that neither the rust nor the • Boss., 1st Serm. on the Assumpt. • S. Greg. Thaum., Serm. de Annunc. » S. Ephr., de Laudib. Deip. * moth doth consume, nor thieves steal."* Mary I let us never permit our- selves to be deceived by the false wisdom of the flesh which is the enemy of God, or by "the wisdom of this world, which is foolishness with God ! " ^ Obtain for us, rather, by thy powerful intercession, that we may be the faithful disciples of " the wisdom which is from above, which is chaste, peaceable, modest, full of good fruits;"^ which keeps the mind in evangelical calmness and moderation ; which represses the inordinate motions of the pas- sions; which inspires reserve and circumspection in judgment ; which teaches indulgence towards others, and severity towards one's self. Thou who wert the temple of Incar- nate "Wisdom, of that divine Jesus through whom "was made known the manifold wisdom of God,"^ beg of him a plentiful effusion for our souls. Seat of Wisdom, pray for us. Sedes Sapientioe^ ova pro nobis. * St. Matt. vi. 33. • St. Matt vL 20. « 1 Cor. iii. 19. ' St. James iii. 17. * Ephes. iii 10. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 65S MEDITATION XXXI. CAUSE OP OUR JOY, PRAY FOR US. WHEN the world was plunged in the thickest darkness, when no ray of Christian hope illu- mined humanity beyond the tomb, when the unhappy children of Adam were sunk in the triple degradation of the senses, the heart, and the understanding, true joy was not known on earth. Mary comes into the world ; God ordains that she shall co-operate in our salvation; she gives birth to the Eedeemer. Soon all is changed ! Man, restored to his primary condition, receives the surest and most consoling rev- elations on the nobility of his na- ture, the magnificence of his des- tiny, and the means of attaining it, the most abundant helps for the cure of his moral wounds and the alleviation of all the miseries of life. He may, henceforward, experience here below joys the purest and most delicious, which are, as it were, the pledge and foretaste of the divine and everlasting joys which the Sa- viour promises to bestow in the other world. Where were ye before the coming * of that good and kind Saviour^ given us by Mary, — where were, ye, holy joys of charity, chastity, modesty, humility — holy joys of the devotions inspired by faith — holy and sweet joys of Catholic piety, ineffable delights of the adorable Eucharist ? . . . . Yes, it is to Mary, after God, that we are indebted for aU that moves, expands, elevates the heart in the religion of Christ. It was she who secured to us so many precious gifts, so much hap- piness, even in this world, by her acquiescence with the words of the angel whom the Most High "com- missioned to ask her consent, before giving himself to us by his inter- position." ^ Hence, the illustrious martyr, St. Irenaeus, almost a contemporary of the Apostles, calls this acquiescence of the Blessed Virgin "the cause of the salvation of all mankind."^ "She has procured," says St. Au- gustine, after him, "the redemption of man, who, left to himself, were irretrievably lost."* "By Mary," * Titus iii. 4 * Bossuet, Deuxieme Serm. sur I'Annonciaiion. ' Lib. V. Contra Hoeres, c. 19. * Serm. 55, de Sanctis. 664 MEDITATIOXS ON TEE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. adds the blessed Peter Damian, f " in Mary, and with Mary, the Son of God would regenerate human- ity: without her nothing had been done;^ nothing reinstated, nothing restored."' It is, therefore, in this Virgin, ever worthy of our gratitude and love, that all the members of the Church find their happiness and joy. She was the object of the most fervent wishes of the primitive just, who, from afar, saluted in her person the mother of the divine Liberator, and in limbo awaited her biith as the dawn of that happy day which was to introduce them into the kingdom of God. She was on earth, after our Lord's ascension, the " support and consolation of all the faithful."^ She is, in the heav- enly country, the joy and pride of the elect ; for, in ascending to heaven, " she increased," says St. Bemardine, of Sienna, " the joy of its blessed inhabitants;"* "and their greatest glory, after the vision of God," says St. Bonaventure, "is to behold herself"^ She is also, • St. John i 3. • Serin, de Annuneiat. » Bossuet, 2 Serm. sur I'Assompt. according to the pious belief of the Church, the joy and consolation of the suffering souls in purgatory: " thou art their zealous advocate,'' says St. Andrew of Crete ;^ "I am their mother," said Mary herself to St. Bridget, " and I never cease to relieve them by my intercession."' She is, finally, the joy of all Chris- tians in this world. In all ages, in all situations, is not thy holy name, Mary! full of hope and sweetness, strength and comfort, to those who ti-ust in thee? Let us bless God for having given us in Mary a cause of joy ^o pure, so true, so lasting ; let us bless Mary for having given us the source of all joy. Ah! if the Jews of old testified their admiration and gratitude to Judith and Esther by public accla- mations and rejoicings,^ what should we not do to honor this divine Vir- gin, to whom our obligations are incomparably greater ! What devo- tion should we not have for her august person, what fervor in celc' * Serm. de Assumpt. « Orat. 1, de Dort ,. » In Spec. Lect. vL ' Lib. iv. EevelJ. c. 13S ■ Judith xvi. ; Esther xvi MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 655 brating her festivals with as much f joy as tender piety! thou good and tender Mary, whose simple salutation alone suf- ficed to make the holy Precursor leap for joy in his mother's womb,^ thou who canst " turn into joy^ all the sorrows" of the true believer, thou who, • after Jesus, art " our hope,"^ oh ! until we can enjoy with the angels and saints the happiness of contemplating thee, we will un- ceasingly bear in mind the charm of thy virtues, and repeat thy praises over and over. Yes, we love to cry out in the fullness of our gratitude and love : " If I foi'get thee, sweet Virgin ! let my right hand be for- gotten ! Let my tongue cleave to my jaws if I do not remember" all the claims thou hast on my affec- tion, and " if I make thee not," after thy divine Son, "the beginning of my joy |"4 May we, then, in perpetual re- membrance of thy benefits, Mary ! unceasingly repeat with increasing fervor — Cause of our joy, prat for us. Causa nostrce letitice, ora pro nobis. > St. Luke i. 44. « St. John xvi. 20. » Salve Begina. * Ps. cxxxvi. 5, 6. MEDITATION XXXH. SPIRITUAL VESSEL, PRAY FOR US. INASMUCH as mind is superior to matter, even so is the body ennobled while raising itself by the purity and righteousness of its acts towards the dignity, the natural sublimity of the soul. In like man- ner, by as much as the order of grace prevails over all that is most eminent in the order of nature, even so it is with the body of the Chris- tian who endeavors, on supernatural motives, to sanctify the use of all his faculties — it assumes a charac- ter of admirable greatness and no- bility. It is to honor, in Mary, this nobility, this greatness, that the Church here invokes her under the emblem of a precious vessel, a fig- ure so often used in the sacred writings,^ and it is in order to make us understand the sublime degree of that same greatness that she calls her Spiritttal Vessel. Does not that tell us in fact that this Virgin of virgins enjoyed be- forehand, if one may say so, a sort of transformation approaching that * Prov. XX. 15 ; Acts ix. 15 ; Rom. ix. 23 ; 1 Thess. iv. 4 ; 2 Tim. ii. 21. 656 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. which shall take place in the elect ^ on the great day of the general re- surrection ; that her sacred body possessing by anticipation some of the qualities of "a spiritual body,"^ her soul felt neither weight nor shackle in its intercourse with God, but could soar at will towards its Creator, and nourish itself with his adorable presence as though it were enslaved by no action of the senses. Mary had been preserved from original sin and the concupiscence which is its deplorable consequence.^ " She enjoyed," says Louis of Blois, " some of the privileges of our first parents in the terrestrial Paradise, when, during their state of inno- cence, the faculties of their soul were united to God, and all their senses in perfect subjection to the spirit."^ But, moreover, was it not fitting that that flesh which was to become the " divine flesh of Jesus," * should be made worthy of that im- mense honor by qualities analogous to the beauty of the soul which dwelt within it? The latter be- • 1 Cor. XV. 44 ' Medit. xvi priced. ' InstUut. Spirit , append, i., c. 2. * Serm. 8 de Assumpt. B. V. » Serm. 35 de Sanctis. • In Epist. ad S. Paul. longed wholly to God : " it was, as it were, transformed into God,"'' says the same Father, after St. Dio- nysius;^ how could it be supposed that her body, created by the Lord to have so great a share in the mys- tery of the Incarnate Word, could in any way impede the flight of that fair soul, or be but in perfect har- mony with its sublime destination ? Let us then joyfully adopt the sentiment transmitted to us by Richard de Saint -Victor from sev- eral Fathers of the Church, that " her exterior as well as her interior was wholly angelic,"^ and admir- ably reflected the marvellous- com- munion of her soul with God. If, in fact, " the eyes of John the Bap- tist, destined to see the Christ an- nounced by the other prophets, dis- dained to look on any creature,"^ no one can doubt but that Mary con- centrated in her divine Son the use of all her senses, and that all in her showed the life of a pure intelli- gence, rather than that of a human being. » In Cant., cap. 26 ; S. Amb., de Institut. Tirg., c. 7, 2 de Virgin ; S. Thomas, Sent., dist. 3, q. 1, art. 2 ad 4 ; S. Bonav., dist. 3, part. 1, art. 2. • S. Jerome, Epist. iv. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 657 Alas ! but we are far removed from such a model ; we who attach ourselves so strongly to vain idols, which time disfigures and bears away with the rest; we who gaze with longing eyes on the fragile things of this world, and foolishly put forth all our energy and activity in pursuit of their deceitful enjoy- ment ; we who seem to have but a doubtful faith in " the things which are not seen,"^ the things of eter- nity ; we who too often permit our- selves to be overcome by that body whose troublesome weight impedes our communion with Cod in prayer, and prevents us from walking joy- ously onward in the service of our divine Master. Ah! henceforward, let us generously endeavor to be- come "spiritual men,"^ remember- ing that "he that soweth in the spirit of the Spirit shall reap life everlasting."^ If we can in any way resemble Mary, that divinely privileged creature, let us, at least, restrain "with fervor of spirit"* the fatal influence of "the corruptible body which is a load upon the • 2 Cor. iv. 18. « 1 Cor. iii. 1. * Gal. vi. 8. * Bom. xii. 11. * Wisdom ix. 15. * soul,"^ and obstructs it in its sub- lime flight towards its Author. Mary, the Lord had made thee, from the first, " a most pure vessel."^ But when the Holy Ghost came upon thee,^ to operate in thy chaste womb "the great mystery of piety manifested in the flesh," ^ and to raise thee at the same time to the most august dignity amongst creat- ures, he rendered thee still more pure and holy, he filled thee more and more with that "perfect spirit"^ which makes man live for God and for the goods of eternity. We honor in thee that superhuman life so per- fect, and all the privileges where- with it pleased the Most High to invest thee. May we imitate thee as far as is compatible with our weakness, fi-eeing ourselves in all things from the captivity of the senses, " walking " towards the other world "as children of the light, in justice and truth," and in all "that is acceptable to God."^'' Oh ! do not refuse to ask this grace for us. Spiritual Vessel, pray for us. Vas Spirttuale, ora pro nobis. « Prov. XXV. 4 * 1 Tim. iii. 16. ' St. Luke i. 35. • » Ps. 1. 14. " Ephes. V. 8, 9, 10. U3 MEDITATIONS ON THE LIT ANT OF THE BLESSED VIRQIN. MEDITATION XXXffl. VESSEL OP HONOR, PRAT FOR US. IT is a great honor for a body to be united to a soul which is the image of Grod ; and the more beau- tiful that soul i8) and the more enriched with the gifts of the Lord, the greater the dignity to which that intimate union raises the body; it becomes thereby a vessel which is so much the more precious in proportion as the i)erfume it con- tains is rarer and more exquisite in the eyes of faith. What an honor is it, then, for Mary's body to be united to a soul which, after that of Jesus, is the noblest, the purest, the holiest, the most adorned with the favors of Heaven ! But how much more honorable is Uiat sacred body on account of the divine maternity ! It was, undoubt- edly, a high honor for Abraham of old to receive the Lord in the form of an angel ; ^ but God did not sub- stantially unite himself to that holy patriarch. It was a great honor for Moses to penetrate the awful cloud which covered the summit of Mount • Gen. rviiL '£xod.xix. ao. * 3 Kings TIT « St Luke xix. f Sinai, and to be enabled, in the midst of thunder and lightning, to converse face to face with the Most High ;* but God did not substan- tially unite himself to that immortal legislator. It was a great honor for Elias to hear and to see striking marks of the infinite greatness of the Supreme Being ;' but God, while manifesting to him his^ adorable presence, did not substantially unite himself to that faithful prophet It was a great honor for Zacheus to receive Christ at his table;* for Lazarus and his sisters to entertain him in their house, and even to en- joy the signal favor of his divine fiiendship ;^ but what are all these relations, precious and honorable as they are, to the intimate, the incom- parable connection between the Man -God and his Mother! . . . Ah ! let us not be surprised that the holy doctors, struck with admi- ration of that divine Mother, saluted in her, in the most expressive terms, that august womb wherein the Son of God assumed human nature. " Mary's flesh," says St. Augustine, " is the very flesh of Jesus.'"^ 'Her * St. Lake x. ; St John sL • Senn- de Asaumpt. B. M. V., cap. r. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF TBE liLEHHED VinOIN. 669 body is a living heaven," gays the Messed Peter Damian ; "it is the coipoial sanctuary of the fullness of the Divinity.'" "The Lord," says St. Thomas of Villanova, " the Lord, in making the daughter of Abraham his Mother, raised her to such a height, that neither man nor angel can look up to her."^ We justly honor the precious ves- sels wherein the Church presei*ve8 the holy and adoiable Eucharist But is there any propoition between that gold 01- that silver, magnificent- ly adorned, and thu august and ever ^ cnerable body which furnished for our divine Saviour the adorable blood wherewith he redeemed us? .... Yes, that is, by excellence, " the vessel of election,"' infinitely more valuable than "a massy vessel of gold adorned with eveiy precious stone;"* that is the pure and sacied body which, having so worthily borae God,"^ knew not the coiTUp- tion of the t^^mb, but, on the con- trary, according to the pious tradi- tion of the Church, was glorified by resurrection like the body of the divine Jesus. ' Orat de Naliv. B. V. • Senu. 3 de Nalio. B. IL ' Acid ir. 15. <£oelM.L10. Let us here reanimate our faith ; let us remember that, by the inefl'ji- ble mystery of the Eucharist, oui- body, corruptible as it is, is raised to a. sublime union, which makes it, too, a vessel of honor, and that we should always fear to defile it by the slightest stain Ah ! we do not meditate as we should on this adorable mystery in all its bearings. By communion, we become the tem- ples of Jesus; and not only that, not only sanctuaries of Jesus, taber- nacles of Jesus, but more still — ^we become sacred vessels, real living vessels, wherein Jesus rests What do I say ? we become living vessels, with whom he unites him- self in a manner so intimate, " that he and they are but one," says St Cyril.* We, then, who "are in honor," let us not be so unfortunate . as " not to understand," lest we " be compared to senseless beasts, and become like unto them."' We who have a just veneration for the sa- cred vessels of our altars, ah I let an learn, in all places, and at all times, to respect ourselves ; let us learn to keep our thoughts, oar afiectknifl^ • 1 Cor. vi 20. * Lib. ir. in Joan., etp. 11, ' Fa. zhiti. 13. eeo MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. our desires, our views, and all our actions, on a par with the nobility, the greatness, the admirable glory to which we are raised by a single communion I Mary, thou who, after God, art woi'thy of all praise, thou didst bear for nine months in thy chaste womb Him whose awful majesty the angels adore covered with their wings.^ How can we express our admiration of the honor he has done thee in borrowing from thy substance the body which he assumed, thus giv- ing thee a sort of "inefiable iden- tity with himself?"^ Receive here the humble expression of all the sentiments which so much great- ness and honor ought to inspire in the hearts of all the faithful. Make us feel how high the divine Eu- charist places ourselves amongst creatures, and how, becoming by it more august than the sacred vessels in which it is contained, we may conduct ourselves, always and in all things, as " vessels of honor pre- pared unto gloiy."^ Vessel of Honor, pray for us. Vas Jlonorttbile, ora pro nobis, la. vL 2. * B. Peter Damian, de NoMv. Virg. ' Eom. ix. 21, 23. MEDITATION XXXIV. • VESSEL OF SINGULAR DEVOTION, PRAT FOR us. PIETY, devotion, fervor! words wholly inadequate to express the burning zeal of Mary for the service of the Lord. Who could describe the lively ardor of her prayer, her intimate union with God, her ecstatic silence, her peaee, her spiritual joy, so sweet, so delicious, her continual aspirations to her be- loved, the holiness of her thoughts, the purity of her desires and affec- tions, her devotion, so generous, so magnanimous, so absolute, for the glory of her Creator ? Temple of Jerusalem, where she passed so piously the first years of her life, oh I what admirable secrets were concealed within thy sacred walls! August house of Nazareth, where she lived so long in the pres- ence and in the continual contem- plation of her God, become her Son; thou whose venerable walls speak so eloquently to the heart of the pilgrim of Loretto, tell us, then, something of all those wonders of adoration, praise, and love — those ^ superhuman communings of Mary's MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 661 Boul with the divine heart of Jesus ! - And thou, sacred abode, where she dwelt with the beloved Apostle, after the death of our Lord,^ ah ! what bursts of inoniparable devo- tion thou didst hide from the knowl- edge of men ! what transports, what ineffable sighs, when Jesus had as- cended, to heaven! "what impetu- osity of love, concurring with all that is tender in nature, all tJiat is efficacious in divine grace !"^ If Queen Esther could say to God, "Thou knowest that thy handmaid hath never rejoiced but in thee;"^ if the holy king David could bear testimony of himself that the praise of the Lord "was always in his mouth ;"^ if he exclaimed in the fervor of his soul, " Oh ! when shall I come and appear before the face of God ?"^ if the Apostle St. Paul could say, "I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me," and my desire is " to be dissolved, and to be with Christ" forever ;« finally, if the il- lustrious missionary of the Indies, amid the enervating emotions of • St. John xix. 27. * Bossuet, 1 Serm. sur I'Assompt. 3 Esther xiv. 18. » Ps. xlL 3. *Ps. xxxiii. 2. » Gal. ii. 20 ; Phil. i. 23. his tender piety, feeling himself fainting away with love^ begged of God to moderate his favors, "Enough, Lord! enough!" what must we think of the august Mother of the Saviour, she whom the Saints called " a furnace of divine love," ^ and whom the Spouse in the Canticles compares to "a lamp of fire and flames?"^ Was there for her a day, an hour, a 'moment, in which her thought, her speech, her will, every act of her being, had not God for its sole object ? a moment in which she did not "do the things that please Him,"^ and that with an eagerness, a purity of intention, a devotion hardly to be conceived? Rather let us ask the Angels and the Seraphim, "ravished," says St. Bernard, " with the warmth and the brightness of the sacred flame of her devotion."^" And who could tell the joys, the sweetness, the marvel- lous delight with which that devo- tion overflowed her heart? Thou thyself, Mary ! givest us some idea of it by that joyful e'xclama- ' S. John Damas, de Dormit. B. V. ; S. Bern, of Sienna, Serm. 9 de Visit. ' Cant. viii. 6. » St. John. viii. 29. 'o Serm. 2, in Assumpt. 662 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. tion of tliy holy canticle, " My spirit doth rejoice in God ray Saviour."^ piety I sweet and tender Christiiin piety, the origin and the support of all the magnificent works of charity I thou, that givest resig- nation to the grief -fraught heart, and strength to the soul assailed by despair; thou, that drawest forth from the eyes of repentance tears of sweetest consolation, and excitest heavenly rapture in the pure heart intlamed with divine love, come, oh I come to penetrate us with thy pre- cious unction; come and make us "vessels unto honor, sanctified and profitable to the Lord, prepared unto every good work!"'^ that by thy celestial influence all our mem- bers may be in the hand of God " instruments unto justice,"^ to fight and overcome sin ! that our bodies may become "a living sacrifice, holy cmd pleasing to God!"* Vouchsafe, Mary I "admirable vessel^ work of the Most High,"^ vouchsafe to obtain for us the grace to be pious, and to show ourselves both sweet and firm in our piety. In ancient days, when, at the bid- ^ ding of the prophet Eliseus, a poor widow, oppressed by a merciless creditor, made her sons procure a great number of empty vessels, she poured into each a small portion of the little oil she had; suddenly and miraculously the vases were all filled, so that she had not only wherewith to pay her creditor, but the means of supporting her fam- ily.* To thee, likewise, holy Vir- gin I at the bidding of the Angel who saluted thee as "full of grace,"' at the bidding of the Church, who calls thee Vessel of Singular Devo- tion^ we present our hearts, alas ! too void of Christian piety and the good works of which it is the source. Do not refuse to give us of thy su- perabundance, so that we may not only satisfy the divine justice by our fervor, but acquire precious merits for heaven. It is written that " piety has promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come;"® that this consoling prom- ise may be fulfilled in our favor. Vessel of Singular Devotion, PRAY for us. Vas insigne devotionis^ora pro nMs, ' St. Luke i. 47. » 2 Tim. ii. 2L * Rom. vi. 13. * Rom. xii 1. » Eccles. xliii. 2. • 4 Kings iv.* ' St. Luke i. 28. • 1 Tim. iv. a MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 663 MEDITATION XXXy. MYSTICAL ROSE, PRAY FOR US. IN the Sacred Books we hear the voice of the celestial Bridegroom comparing his spouse to a garden redolent " with all the chief per- fumes."^ "Arise," says he, "arise, north wind, and come, south wind, blow through my garden, and let the aromatical spices thereof flow."^ Christian piety loves to recognize the Blessed Virgin under the figure of all the plants and odoriferous flowers of that garden mentioned by the Spouse in the Canticles. It is Mary whom we delight to call, with St. Sophronius, "the true pleasure-garden, abound- ing in the sweetest flowers, and the celestial odor of all the virtues."^ Amongst these flowers the Church chose the Rose to give a name to that Beloved of the Lord, thus giv- ing her the most delicate and grace- ful praise, the fittest to -captivate our mind and heart. Rose, whom the Creator has made so sweet and so fair, so rich in beauty and in perfume ; Queen » Cant. iv. 14. « Cant. iv. 16. ' Serm. de Assumpt. f of all those earthly flowers, so mag- nificent in their matchless attire, and yet so varied in the shades oi their colors and in their odorous exhalations, how joyfully do I hail thee as the emblem of Mary, my divine Mother ; that Queen of all intelligences, even the most adorned with grace ; that Queen of all the spiritual flowers which form and shall fonn the ornament of the Church of heaven and on earth; that Queen, in fine, of all creatures. Like thee, but in a manner infi- nitely superior, Mary is radiant in beauty and charming in the sweet- ness and perfume of her divine vir- tues ! . . . . Never did the fair soul of the Blessed Virgin undergo any, even the slightest alteration ; never did the lightest breath of evil tarnish the freshness, the lustre of that Mi/s- tical Rose; never did the calix of that marvellous flower, so truly the Beloved of God, cease to exhale the sweet incense of love and praise — of love the most ardent, and praise the most pious. Although planted, like her sisters, in a soil where so many storms bend and blight their stems and wither their briUiant 684 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. petals, never did she lose aught t either of her original beauty, the sweetness or the excellence of her perfume. ^ Thou hadst thy thorns, it is true, Mystical Rose, sharp and piercing thorns, but they were only for thy- self. Thou couldst not but resem- ble, Mary, the divine Head of the elect, that adorable Saviour who, through sufferings, was to enter into his glory I " ^ And, moreover, was it not expe- dient that, like thy divine Son, thou shouldst learn by experience . to " have compassion on our infirmi- ties,"^ and to feel for us that lively sympathy attendant on the endur- ance of the same sufferings But to us, thy brethren according to the flesh, thy beloved children according to grace, to us thou art "a rose without a thorn." .... " Thou hast nothing hurtful," says St Ambrose, "nothing but what is the very expression of universal benevolence."^ "What is there in thee," says St. Bernard, "to excite fear or distrust? Thou hast noth- ing stern, nothing austere ; to us « St Luke xxiv. 26. » Heb. iv. 15. ' Lib. de Virginit., cap. 2. thou art all sweetness Peruse attentively the whole Gospel his- tory," adds this holy doctor, "care- fully examine its sacred pages ; if thou findest in Mary the least trait savoring of reproach or severity, the slightest indication contrary to meekness, I will agree to speak no more of that divine Mother."* Ah ! let us " run to the celestial odor" of that immortal rose which embalms the innocent heart, and constitutes its joy and its delight; "let us run after her."^ Let us be- ware of being seduced by the ephe- meral perfumes of the earth, the foolish incense of worldly flattery, or of suffering ourselves to be daz- zled by the deceitful beauty of creat- ures which "in the morning grow up like grass, in the evening fall, grow dry, and wither."^ Let us re- member that every thing in this world was given us to raise our souls to God, and that, far from fix- ing our hearts on sublunary things, as though they were our last end, we should employ them to excite in us the desire and the eager pursuit of that true country where there * Serm. 1 de Assumpt « Ps. Ixxxix. 6. » Cant. i. 3. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 665 are none but immortal flowers, and where the Mystical Rose is the ad- miration of saints and angels. Maiy, thou art "exalted as a rose -plant in Jericho/ thou hast budded forth as the rose planted by the brooks of waters,^ thou art fair as the lily,'' and as the flower of roses in the days of the spring."* But who shall give us an idea of "the good odor of Christ."" so sweet- ly exhaled by thee. Who shall tell us how much the perfume of thy virtues exceeds " the sweet odor of the best myrrh and the purest balm?"^ Yes, thou art that chosen flower which alone,* in the arid vale of this world, "drew down the di- vine dew, the just by excellence."^ blessed Flower ! marvellous Flower ! Flower of heaven ! it is there only that it will be given us to know thee well, and to praise thee as thou deservest. Grant that we may walk "to the odor of thy ointments,^ in the unspotted way"^ of the true children of God, so as, one day, to have the happiness of seeing thee and glorifying thy Son » Eccl. xxiv. 18. « Eccl. xxxix. 17. ' Is. XXXT. 1. * Eccl. L a * for all the favors so lavishly be- stowed upon thee! Mystical Rose, pray for us. Rosa Mystica^ ora pro nobis. » 2 Cor. u, 1& MEDITATION XXXYI. TOWER OF DAVID, PRAY FOR US. IF the pride and the strength of Jerusalem was the tower of David, built with bulwarks, a thou- sand bucklers " hanging upon it, all the armor of valiant men," ^^ is not Mary the glory and the invincible fortress of the Church? And, be- sides, does not the blood of David flow in her veins — the blood of that holy king who, before he reached the throne, knew how to unite the modest bearing of the shepherd with the heroic valor that overcame the Philistine giant? How justly, then, may Mary be called the Tower of David, she in whom we admire so much humility with so much greatness and so much glory ! . . . But in what sense should we • Eccl. xxiv. 20, 21. » Is. xlv. 8. 8 Cant. i. 3. » Ps. c. 2. •" Cant. iv. 4. 866 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. specially apply to the Blessed Vir- gin the image of a " great tower," ^ tlefending a beleaguered city? It is especially on account of her pro- tecting, from the incessant assaults of Satan, the Church, who is the depositary of the truth brought from heaven by our Lord Jesus Christ. " Oh I but she is powerful against hell, that august Queen!" exclaims St. Bonaventure. " She is more ter- rible than an army in battle array." ^ .... So it is that the Evil Spirit has never failed, when attacking the Church, to attack, at the same time, that glorious Virgin who is, as it were, its impregnable fortress. Ever since the second century, when the impious Cerinthus dared to dispute one of the prerogatives "secured by the Catholic faith to Mary, there has scarcely been a heresiarch whose tongue or pen did not, either directly or indirectly, as- sail her; not one whose audacious folly Mary did not confound by the dread authority of the Church, ever ready to defend Jesus Christ at- tacked through his august Mother. Hence it is that that faithful guar- dian of the divine doctrine is pleased f to represent "the old serpent"' as always trying to life his head from under the conquering foot of the di- vine Virgin, whose wondious power against error it pleases the Lord to. manifest, in an especial manner, in these latter ages. It is worthy of remark, that those nations who are the most devout to Mary have been preserved, either wholly or in a great measure, from the ravages of the heresy of the sixteenth century. Look at Italy, Spain, Belgium ; Ipok at France, . . . France, where the protection of the Queen of Heaven was manifested anew, and in a striking manner, at the end of the eighteenth century. It was then worse than heresy — it was impiety, infidelity, armed with political power, reigning with abso- lute sway. No more temples, no more altars, no more priests ; faith itself was a crime deserving of death .... Mary ! canst thou, then, for- get that France has ever been thy favored country ; that it was conse- crated to thee by one of its kings, of pious memory?* Wilt thou not hear the fervent sighs of thy ser- vants, still so numerous amidst all » 2 Esd. iii. 27. * Cant, vi 3. ^ » Apoc xii. 9. ♦ Louis XIIL MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 667 this grievous apostacy ? and do not ^ our pastors, in the land of exile, unite their pious supplications with those of the faithful flocks from whom they have been compelled to fly ? .... Oh ! that good and tender Mother will not forsake her own people ; all the assaults of exulting infidelity shall at last fail before this new Tower of David. A little while, and the temples are re-opened, the altars are raised again, the pastors are restored to their hearers; and it is on the very day of the Assump- tion of the Blessed Virgin that the Sovereign Pontiff signs the famous concordat which secures the restora- tion of the Church of France. Let us here felicitate ourselves, before God, on our happiness in being born in a land which belongs to Mary by solemn consecration,^ a consoling pledge of the preservation of the precious treasure of faith in our beloved country. But, let us never forget that the Apostles of old, although assured by the prom- ise of their divine Master that the . persecution of the Synagogue should ' It will be remembered that this work was originally written in French. — Tbans. • Acts iv. 24. ' St. John xiv. 6. be powerless against the infant Church, did, nevertheless, " with one accord lift up their voice to God," ^ to ask of him victory. Let us also beg of the Lord that the faith of Mary's chosen people may never fail ; and in all our tempta- tions, especially those which are contrary to that fundamental virtue of Christianity, let us fly to her, and take refuge in that Tower of David where the darts of the enemy cannot reach us. divine Mother of Him who calls himself "the Truth," ^ it is to thee that thine adorable Son seems to have confided the care of his Church; for it is to thee that that same Church* refers the glory of hei triumph over all the errors that have assailed the true doctrine, and sought to shake the foundations of "the city of God."^ Thou art for her " a tower of strength against the face of the enemy ;"^ thou art the "strong tower "^ which saves her children " in the day of tribula- tion."^ Ah! protect us, holy Vir- gin, against any danger that might * Brev. Kom. in Festis B. M. V. * Ps. Ixxxvi. 3. ' Prov. xviii. 10. « Ps. Ix. 4. • Ps. xix. 2. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. assail our faith ; shield us, especial- ly at the hour of our death, and pre- pare us for that final struggle which is to insure our eternal triumph. Obtain for us, from God, a lively and unshaken faith. Tower of David, pray for us. Turris Davidica^ ora pro nobis. MEDITATION XXXVIL TOWER OF IVORY, PRAY FOR US. IVORY has a dazzling whiteness, a remarkable polish, pleasing to the eye, and at the same time a so- lidity, a strength analogous to the gigantic animal which furnishes it for the use of man : a double figure, equally applicable to the Blessed Virgin. In what other human being could we find, as in her, that innocence, that purity of soul which the angels themselves admire, that lustre of virginity which, during the time of her mortal pilgrimage, was diff'used over her whole per- son, and penetrated all hearts with • S. Den. Areop., Ep. ad Paid apvd Carthus., Sent in 1 dist. 16, q. 2. * Cant viL 4. ♦ an indescribable feeling of re- spect?^ But, without dwelling here on that amazing purity which has al- ready been several times the object of our meditations, let us apply ourselves to consider the mystical "Tower of Ivory "^ as the model and the support of our perseverance in the service of the Lord. What was the perpetual devotion of Mary to her God, amid all the sacrifices which filled up her holy life in this world I From the part- ing with her family, which the Most High demanded of her at so tender an age, what tribulation, what an- guish, what certain and heart-rend- ing anticipations, what excruciating sorrows raised even to sublimity her constancy in the path of duty! The perplexity of St. Joseph on account of a mystery which prudence forbade her to reveal to her chaste spouse ; the journey to Bethlehem, so painful in every respect; the poverty and desolation of the stable, the only shelter left the infant God; the double prophecy of the holy old man Simeon, regarding the unjust perse- cution which the Saviour was to ^ undergo, and " the sword which was MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 669 to pierce his mother's heart ;"^ the flight into Egypt, with all the hard- ships and privations of exile ; the losing of Jesns for three days after the feast of the Passover; the humil- iating labors to which she saw him subjected in the poor workshop of Nazareth ; all the fatigues, all the troubles of his public life ; the in- trigues, the persecutions, the atro- cious calumnies of his enemies, whereby she was so deeply affected ; all the ignominy, all the unheard- of sufferings of his passion ; finally, the cross standing before her mater- nal eyes, and she at the foot of that cross. Oh ! what an unbroken series of hard trials, very fit to shake and to subdue the courage of a daughter of Eve! But in the midst of all these trials we see Mary always calm and serene, Mary always sub- missive, always inseparably united to the will of her God, Mary always strong and self-devoted, Mary always the same ! What an example ! what an eloquent lesson for us who are so infirm, so inconstant in good ! So long as the dangerous occasion is far from us, or temptation leaves us at rest, or the world is not dis- ' St. Luke ii. 35. f posed to quarrel with us for dis- charging our duty to God, so long do " our feet stand in the direct way;"^ they even run after salva- tion. But no sooner do obstacles arise in our path, no sooner is it necessary to do violence to our own inclinations, to break the deceitful spell of the heart or of the senses, or to withstand the foolish laughter of "the children of the world,"' than we feel ourselves fail at once. Ah I if we imitated Mary, far from being discouraged by the tempests which Providence permits us to encounter, we would consider them as precious means of expiating the past, of ac- quiring a holy distrust of ourselves, and an entire confidence in God alone, of confirming us in good by resisting evil, of gaining inestimable merits for eternal life. And you, also, pious souls, if you walked in the footsteps of her whom you love to call your good Mother, would you not bear with more courage and confidence the weight of the interior troubles which may assail you ? . . . Ah ! never forget, then, that one day of fidelity to God in dryness or dark- ness of mind, in weariness or dis- ^ Ps. XXT. 12. » St. Luke xvi. 8. 870 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. gust, is worth more than a thousand days passed in the holy joys of devotion. There are two ways, ac- coi-ding to St Augustine, one of which depends on the other : " that of trial, which we have to undergo ; that of beatitude, which we are to expect"^ In the second life, every one of your sighs and tears, every act of resignation, will be available before God; and you shall find them at the feet of " the just Judge," ^ transformed into so many precious pearls, whose celestial brightness shall enhance the beauty of your immortal crown. Mary, incomparably more beau- tiful in the eyes of God by thy virtues, thy merits, than were ever, in the eyes of men, " the house of ivory," ^ built by the seventh king of Israel, or King Solomon's " great throne of ivory,"* we will always " lift up our eyes " to thee, as the tower of help, " from whence help shall come to ils''^ against the world and the devil, the evil inclinations of our own nature, the darkness of our undei-standing, and the feeble- ness of our will. Considering the ' Lib. 2, de Act. cum Fd. Munic., c. 10. • 2 Tim. iv. a f temptations of every kind, of which our life is but one continued series," perseverance in virtue is a blessing above all price, and we cannot ask it too earnestly or too frequently. It is through thy gracious interces- sion that we hope to obtain it ; and it is in thine immaculate heart that we will henceforward take refuge, as a safe and sure asylum. thou, whom we here invoke with the full- est confidence, Tower of Ivory, pray for us. Turris Ebwmea, ora pro nobis. MEDITATION XXXYEI. HOUSE OF GOLD, PRAY FOR US. HOW marvellous was the Tem- ple of Jerusalem raised by King Solomon I Not to speak of the rare stones of which its walls and foundations were composed, how admirable were the ceilings of cedar sculptured with so much art, the cherubim, the palms in relievo, the golden flowers, the very pavement covered with plates of * 8 Kings xxii. 39. * 3 Kings X. 18. * Ps. cxx. 1. • Job vii. 1. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 671 that precious metal, which was lavished in such profusion that " there was nothing in the temple that was not covered with gold,"^ so that it might be literally styled a house of gold ! But how much more does that name apply to the Blessed Virgin, the living sanctuary whom the Lord made for himself ; " the august and sacred dwelling which he hath cho- sen for himself;"^ or rather, with whom he united himself by sancti- fying grace more closely than with any other creature, and by the divine maternity, in a manner the most approximate to the mystical tie which makes the Eternal Word and the . Son of Mary one and the same person! Even before the Incarnation, thou wert, incompar- able Virgin, in a marvellous sense, " the house of the Lord," his House of Gold; thou whom he had adorned with so many prerogatives, infinite- ly more precious than all the gold of this world; thou whose every thought, desire, word and action were, in his eyes, far more valuable than gold is to men, who seek with ceaseless ardor that seductive metal, ' 3 Kings vi. 22. 2 Ps. cxxxi. 13. * too often the mainspring and the idol of their entire life I But on the ever-memorable day of the -Annun- ciation, thou didst become, in a still more admirable sense, his House of Gold; for of thy most pure sub- stance the Word then and forever formed his own; he dwelt within thee the first nine months of his expiatory life on earth, living with thine own life ; and that sublime connection, that ineifable union, " made thee worthy of being called blessed by all generations, blessed by all the. prophets, by all the heavenly powers; yes, blessed in thy mind, in thy heart, blessed by the common voice of our praise."^ And besides, how justly is the title. House of Gold., bestowed on that Virgin endowed with perfect purity, a quality of which gold is the best symbol ; that Virgin in- flamed with divine love, of which gold, from its fiery color, is also the emblem. Is not her perpetual in- tegrity, in reality, one of the great- est miracles of the Lord ? " Does not the excellence of her purity," says St. Anselm, "incomparably surpass the purity of all creatures ? » S. Ildefonso, Lib. de Virginit. B. M 679 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. And was it not that which rendered f her worthy of becoming the reno- vator of the world, plunged in the deepest abyss of perdition?"^ No less surprising is her love of God. " Who can doubt," exclaims St. Au- gustine, " that Mary's womb, where- in the God of charity reposed cor- porally for nine months, was wholly transformed into charity?"^ Where- fore it is that St. Bernardino said of this Blessed Virgin : " So great was her love that she would will- ingly have died for her Son, not once, nor a thousand times, but an infinite number of times, if it had been possible."^ Alas! that it is not so with us, at least as far as our frail nature would permit! Why is it that we who, by baptism, by confirmation, by the eucharist, have been con- secrated to God " as his temples,"* show ourselves so little worthy of the Holy of holies,'' who has vouch- safed to make us his living temples? Why are we so eager to adorn our dwelling when it is to have the honor of receiving a distinguished • De excd. B. V., c. 9. • Quot by S. Bonav. in Spec., c. 14. » Serm. de Nat. B.V. *2 Cor. vL 16. guest, yet so negligent in making our soul and body a Bouse of Gold for the reception of the Lord ? Why, once more, instead of being in- flamed with love of the divine good, do we suffer our hearts to be en- snared by the " bewitching of van- ity,"^ and are coldly indifferent to that God so entrancing in beauty and in love ? Shame and confusion for us ? But also repentance, and, henceforward, frequent acts, as fre- quent as possible, of piety, of devo- tion, of ardent love for him whose temples we are, by a special favor, permitted to become ! It is through thee, Mary, through thy powerful intercession, that we hope to have accomplished in us that saying of thy divine Son : " If any one love me he will keep my Word ; and my Father will love him, and he will come to him, and will make an abode with him."^ In thee the Lord chose to dwell in a wonderful manner,^ and he filled thee with his glory ^ in a more mar- vellous way than he formerly filled Solomon's temple. Oh ! if we Dould • Dan. iii 24 ' St. John xiv. 23. « Wisdom iv. 12. « Ps, cxxxi. 14. • 3 Kings viii. 10 ; 2 Paral. v. 8. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 673 but comprehend the dignity to which he raises us by making us his living temples, how faithful we would be in preserving ourselves pure and holy ; faithful in immolat- ing nature to duty on the altar of our heart, and the transitory joys of the present for the future and permanent joys of eternity ; faithful in keeping the fire of holy love con- stantly burning there ! Pray for us, that w^e may have that inestimable happiness. It is with all our heart that we beseech thee, House of Gold, pray for us. Domus Aurea, ora pro Tiobis. MEDITATION XXXIX. ARK OF THE COVENANT, PRAY FOR US. IF the magnificent temple of Solo- ' mon, where, we may say, all was gold, be an emblem of Mary, what was most august in that "house of the Lord,"^ the ark of the covenant, is a still more strik- ing figure of this divine Virgin. The ark was made of incorrupt- ible wood,^ although it grew from ' 3 Kings viii. 11. ' Exod. xxv. 10. » Exod. xxv. * a corruptible stem. And thou, Mary, although the offspring of a guilty race, thou wert preserved from the original stain, and beyond the reach of corruption. The ark was overlaid within and without with pure gold ; it was surmounted by a golden crown, and closed with the mercy-seat, which was likewise made of that precious metal ; two cherubim, also of gold, with their wings outspread, shaded the mercy-seat, from which the ma- jesty of God gave directions to the children of Israel.^ And thou, Mary, "full of grace," ^ how dazzling, how pure, how priceless is the gold wherewith thou art clothed ! What a throne thou didst offer in thyself to the Lord! May we not say of thee, with St. Andrew of Crete, that " thou art the universal propitiatory of the world," ^ the living sanctuary whence the Incarnate Word pro- nounced the words of salvation for the whole world? In the ark were deposited "the golden urn that had manna, the rod of Aaron that had blossomed wdrac- ulously, and the two tables of the Testament,"^ given to Mount Sinai. * St. Luke i. 28. » De Dormit. Virg. • Heb. ix. 4 GU MEDITATIONS ON TEE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIIiOIN. And thou, august Virgin, thou ^ hast had the happiness of conceiv- ing and bringing forth Him who was made for us the true celestial manna, "the living bread which came down from heaven."^ Thou hast had the infinite honor of be- coming the Mother of a Son who was formed in thee and born of thee by a prodigy much greater than that which struck the twelve tribes with admii'ation when they saw the withered rod of the high-priest cov- ered with fruit and flowers.^ Thou hast borne within thee, by an un- paralleled favor, the very Author of the two tables of the law ; thou art become, as it were, " the depository of the sacred titles of the Old and New Testaments,^ the abridgment of all the divine oracles,* the book of the divine Word, whose sacred pages are opened by the Eternal Father himself to the eyes of all the world.'"^ In ancient times God inspired his people, sometimes even the Gen- tiles, with a profound respect for ' St. John vi. 51. • Numb. xviL * Rupert., in Cap. 4 carU. * Andr. of Crete, Serm. de Assumpt. * Serm. de laudib. Virg., attributed to St. Epiph. ^ the ark of the covenant, by means of divers prodigies of which it was the occasion ;^ before it the Israel- ites prostrated themselves to render heaven propitious,^ and its sojourn in the house of Obededom drew down on him and his household the blessing of the Lord.^ Before thee, Mary, do the faithful prostrate themselves to obtain from thy di- vine Son the favors of which they stand in need, knowing that it is through thee he is pleased to pour out his gifts on men, and that " all grace flows from thy hands."^ Thou- sands and thousands of miracles, both in the temporal order and in that of salvation, are wrought by thee to the great admiration of the faithful ; and does not thy holy image, piously venerated in Chris- tian families, draw down upon them innumerable blessings ? • Finally, who does not see in Da- vid's solemn introduction of the ark into Jerusalem, the figure of thy glorious and triumphant assump- tion, Thou ! Ark of sanctity, raised ^ Exod. XXV. ; Josh. iii. vi. ; 1 Kings v. vii ' Josh. vii. 6. * 2 Kings vi. 11. • Bern., serm. 3, de nomine Mariae. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 67S from earth to "thy resting place" in heaven/ to sit at the right hand of God,^ there to show thyself a Mother^ to all who have recourse to thee ? Ah ! may we show ourselves true children of Mary, and find in that august Ark of the new covenant a continual safeguard and a source of celestial blessings. " Whosoever neglects the service of the Blessed Virgin," says St. Bonaventure, " runs the risk of dying in his sins, but whosoever honors her worthily shall be justified, shall be saved ;"'^ for she is, according to St. Peter Chrysolo- gus, " the gracious Mediatrix be- tween man and the Man - God ;" ^ " and if the merits of the supplicant are insufficient," adds St. Anselm, " those of the divine Mother who in- tercedes for him are accepted in his behalf."^ As the ark, going before the He- brews across the Jordan, introduced them into the promised land, even so dost thou, Mary, conduct us in safety through the perilous waters ' Ps. cxxxi. 8. < In Fsalt * St. M ark xvi. 19. * Serm. de Annunc. * Hymn Ave 3Iaris Stella. * De excellent. Virg. of this life; thou art "the living Ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth." '^ Ah! undoubtedly, the covenant wherewith " the God of Majesty"^ was formerly pleased to honor Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their children, was very pre- cious. But yet it was only a figure, a sha*dow of that wherewith the Eternal Son favored us by becoming man in thy womb, regenerating us by his adorable blood, the merits of which he applies to us by sacred rites, which sanctify us at our birth, aid, strengthen, and console us dur- ing life, and at our last hour encour- age and prepare us for the dreadful passage to eternity. Thou, by whom all these blessings come to us, "paradise of the new Adam,*^ living palace of the Most High,"^*^ obtain for us the grace to make a holy use of them, and always to say to thee with the fervor of a faithful heart, Ark of the Covenant, pray for us. Foederis Area., ora 'pro nobis. ^ Josh. iii. 11. * Ps. xxviii. 3. » S. John Damas., Orat. de Dormii. B. M. '« S. J. Chrys., Homit. 2, in Fest. S. Joan. 676 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. MEDITATION XL. GATE OP HEAVEN, PRAY FOR US. I AM the door,"^ says Jesus Christ; "no man cometh to the Father but by me."* In calling Mary the Gate of Heaven^ do we not, therefore, attribute to her what belongs solely to the Man-God ? do we not trans- fer to the Mother some of the in- alienable rights of the Son ? Ah ! assuredly, the Church, " who is the pillar and the ground of truth," ^ does not forget the saying of St. Paul, that as "there is hut one God, so there is but one Media- tor, between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus." ^ But she teaches, with St. Jerome, that " all honor paid to Mary, tends to the glory of Jesus as its end;"^ and with St. Anselm, that " if Mary hath so much power, it is from Jesus she holds it, and with him she exercises it."^ It is, therefore, to the greater glory of the Man -God that the Church here invokes the Blessed Virgin as the Gate of Heaveii^ a title ' St. John X. 9. *1 Tim. ii. 5, 6. » St. John xiv. 6. » Ad Eustach. * 1 Tim. iiL 15. « De excell. Virg., o. 12. ' St. Matt. i. 23. admirably adapted to that divine Mother. Was it not through Mary that heaven was, as it were, trans- ported to earth, when she brought amongst men him whose name sig- nifies "God with U8?"^ for she had " conceived him in her heart," says St. Leo, " before she conceived him in her womb."® Was it not by her that "the goodness and kindness of our Saviour God appeared"* in human form, " Him who is the res- urrection and the life,"^" and whose triumphant ascension could alone introduce into the mansions of bliss even the holiest souls of those who died before he " entered into his glory?"" "Was it not for Mary," says St. Augustine, " that God came visibly on earth, so that by her men might merit heaven ? " ^^ And art thou not, " sweet Vir- gin Mary,"^^ an all-powerful help to those who seek thine aid, who hum- bly entreat thee to help them to procure admission into the regions of bliss ? How justly did St. An- selm say," that " it is by thee poor * Serm; 1. de Nativ. Dom. " St. Luke xxiv. 26. " Titus iii. 4. " Serm. 18 de tempore. " St. John xi. 25. " Salve Begina. " In medit. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 677 exiles are called to their eternal * home ! " Thou dost enlighten, en- courage, support them ; for thou art, according to the immortal bishop of Hippo, "the Mother of all the faithful who are the members of Jesus Christ, since thou by thy charity hast co-operated in their spiritual birth ;" ^ and if they did not counteract, by their malice, the powerful influence of thy benign protection, thou wouldst happily conduct them to the port of sal- vation. It was this thought that drew from St. Antoninus, after St. Anselm, those remarkable words, "As it is impossible that he from whom thou turnest away thy merci- ful eyes should be saved, so is it certain that he for whom thou dost intercede, shall obtain justification and glory." ^ If, then, we have hitherto endea- vored to render ourselves pleasing to the Blessed Virgin, let us rejoice and bless the Lord " who inspires," says St. John Damascene, "with a tender devotion to Mary those whom he predestines for salvation."^ Let us joyfully raise our eyes to the ' Lib. de sancta Virginit., c. 6. ' De excellent. Virg., c. 11. eternal paradise of pleasure : there we shall see, not a cherub armed with a fiery sword, forbidding our approach, as of old at the gate of Eden, but we shall have the conso- lation to see a Mother, the sweetest, the most tender, the most consider- ate of mothers, constantly watching us w^ith eyes of love, as we wend our weary way through this same valley of tears once marked by her own blessed footsteps ; we shall see her, with her hands stretched out towards this place of exile and pro- bation, inviting us to trust in her protection, to do violence to our- selves in order to gain that king- dom^ which the blood of her divine Son opened to our hopes and wishes. If, hitherto, we have had the mis- fortune either to forget Mary, or to have for her only a feeble devotion, too often belied by our works, let us deplore our ungrateful coldness, and tear the veil from our illusions. A mother's mercy is great ; what, then, must be the mercy of such a Mother as Mary ! But let us, henceforward, have a devotion for her worthy of Jesus, whom we ought to love and 3 IV. Part., tit. 13, c. 14 * Oral, de Assumpt. 678 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. glorify in Mary; worthy of Mary, * whom our bretliren should learn to love and glorify after "^he example of those who call themselves her servants. The patriarch Jacob, seeing in a dream a mysterious lad<ler, from the top of which the Lord announced to him the sublime destiny of his pos- terity, cried out, in an ecstasy of holy fear, " How terrible is this place I this is no other but the house of God and the gate of heaven!"^ What shall we say of thee, holy Virgin, with whom that same God vouchsafed to contract the ties of nature and of blood, the closest and the sweetest! Ah I thou art ever worthy of our respect- ful fear, because of thine admirable greatness. But the motherly ten- derness with which thou dost " open the doors of heaven, and rain down in marvellous abundance the manna of every grace,"' can only inspire us with tilial confidence. It is with that sweet feeling that we recognize thee as " the true gate of the Lord, by which the just enter ^ their eter- nal rest,"* and by which we our- ' Gen. xxviii. 17. » Ps. Ixxvii 23 21 » Ps. cxvii. 20. * Heb. iv. 10. selves hope to enter. Pray, then, for us, unworthy as we are. Gate of Heaven, pray for us. Janua Cod% ora pro nobis. MEDITATION XLL MORNING STAR, PRAY FOR US. IMMORTKL Mornhig Star! divine Mary ! thou art as grateful to our eyes as thou art radiant and sparkling. If thou dost not, like the sun, shed torrents of light which illumine, warm and fructify all na- ture, thou shinest, at least, like the star which heralds the approach of that giant of the heavens ! ^ But who can tell the beauty of that new day which thou didst announce to the earth, glorious star of Jacob,^ who appeared on the horizon of idolatrous humanity, " to enlighten them who sat in the shadow of death ? ^ "Who can paint the happiness of the world in being able to salute thee as the herald of its deliverance, the august and holy dawn of that adorable " sun of jus- » Ps. xviii 6. « Numb. xxiv. 17. ' St Luke L 79. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 679 tice,"^ who, after having, as it were, * veiled his splendor in thy chaste womb, manifested himself gloriously to the eyes of men, diffusing on all sides his radiant beams, giving to those who were misled by error the light of truth, communicating to the unhappy " sons of death "^ the only true life, that is, life everlasting ? Star of salvation, thou didst shine "as the sun when it shineth;"^ thou art truly " the bright and mornii*g star"* of that blessed day when the w^orld beheld the rise of the divine orb of its redemption and ineffable regeneration! be thou forever blessed by every heart and by every tongue! for thou wert, as it were, the inestimable pledge of the reconciliation of earth and heaven,^ of our sanctitication through Christ,^ of our eternal salvation,^ of our vocation to the kingdom and glory of God.^ And even now, is not that mys- tical Morning Star the pledge of our hopes, and of our salvation? " Without Mary," says St. Bonaven- ture, " what should we be, unfor- tunate as we are ? what should » Mai. iv. 2. • 1 Kings xxvi. 16. » Eccles. 1. 7. * Apoc. xxii. 16. become of us amid the darkness of this world, w^ere we deprived of her mild light?"* Alas! who knows but there are perilous moments when the light of faith appears eclipsed by thoughts contrary to her divine teachings ; moments when we feel strongly inclined towards what our will hates and despises ; when the imagination takes lire, and is induced to delight in things which the soul abhors when once the false charm is dis- pelled and tranquillity returns ? But if we then raise our suppliant voice to that Star of Benediction, she fails not to show her consoling rays, and all is again quiet. Who knows not, too, by sad experience, that there are hours of bitter dis- gust, of consuming weariness, of dark and gloomy dejection, of pro- found sadness, when the heart seems ready to fail, if it be not sustained by a supernatural pow- er? But if, in those hours of gloom and despondency, our fer- vent sighs ascend to Mary, her radiant brow speedily dispels the storm, and restores us to ourselves ; " Col. i. 20. « 1 Cor. i. 30. ■> Heb. v. 9. « 1 Thess. ii. 12. » In Spec. B. M. V €80 MEDITATl NS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIIiOIN. for " in all the tempests that assail us hei*e below," says St Bernard, "it suffices to regard that tutelary Star, and we ai*e saved from ship- wreck."» Let us, then, fervently implore the assistance of Mary; let us entreat her to disperse " the powers of darkness,'" as the first rays of the orb of day drive back the wild beaists to their dens f let us beseech her to guide us safely over the stormy sea of this life to the shore of a happy eternity. She takes pleasure in saving the mariner who trusts in her protection ; and the grateful mariner takes pleasure in repeating to the winds and waves the praises of "the Star of the Sea." and singing, with enthusiasm, the name of the Virgin of Safety, the Virgin of the Watch, the Virgin of Good Aid. Ah ! how much more does the sweet Mary love to sus- tain, to direct, to save, the pious Christian who invokes her amid the storms of the heart, the storms of the mind, the storms of the senses ! And we who have, perhaps very often, been consoled by the cheer- • HomiL guper Missus. * Ephes. vi. 12. » Ps. dii. 22. ing rays of that beloved Star, how grateful and how faithful should we be to our celestial bene- factress, honoring her by a life pure as the changeless beams of her light I Thou, sure refuge of the tem- pest-tost mariner, Virgin ever help- ing, shield us from the storms and quicksands of this peiilous ocean on which is launched the frail bark that bears our eternity, happy or un- happy. Heavy clouds, surcharged with calamity, may lower above us, but they shall never hide thee from our loving eyes ! " Star ever radiant, ever consoling, ever pro- tecting ! following thy mild light, we never go astray ; imploring thee, we never lose hope ; with thy support, we cannot fail ; under thy shield, no more fear ; under thy guidance, no more fatigue; under thine auspices, we are sure to gain the wished-for haven ;'^ and as the sea-star guides the mariner to the port, so dost thou conduct Christians to glory." ^ Deign, then, to work all these wonders, Mary, on behalf of those who, in calm and * S. Bernard. Horn. 2, sup. Misswi. » S. Thomas, op. 8. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED, VIRGIN. 681 in storm, will always say to thee, with tenderest love, Morning Star, pray for us. StMa Matutma, ora pro 7iobis, MEDITATION XLH. HEALTH OF THE WEAK, PRAY FOR US. SUFFERINGS! they are the lot of humanity. For one child of Adam who advances lightly and cheerily on the road of life, there are a thousand w^ho drag their lingering steps along, a prey to disease or infirmity, more or less painful, now sighing in sadness or dejection, and again groaning aloud in anguish. But in the midst of this mournful concert of human lamentations, there is heard one name — a name of sweetness and of majesty — a name of strength and consolation to the suffering Christian : and that name, piously invoked, soothes pain, restores strength, relieves and even cures the most inveterate evils, the most incurable maladies; that name is the divine name of Mary. And to whom, after Jesus, f could the suffering Christian so fitly apply ? Ah ! did not Mary learn to pity while contemplating the long and bitter sufferings of her adorable Son on the ignominious tree? Did she not, at the foot of the cross, receive from his divine lips, as an inalienable inheritance, all the faithful, in the person of the be- loved disciple?^ Has she not, ever since, gathered us all, with ineffable tenderness, into the sweet embrace of her incomparable charity? . . . And they who invoke that heavenly Mother in their weakness, do they not know that her power equals her love? .... It is only in certain places that the devotion of nations has raised monuments of gratitude and devo- tion to other saints; but to Mary it is all over the Christian world. Who has not heard of those famous shrines dedicated to that divine Mother, and who has had the hap- piness of visiting any of them, without being piously moved by the sight of the innumerable testi- monials of corporal favors obtained through her intercession ? . . . . In- scriptions dictated by gratitude; > St. John xix. 26. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. divers gifts offered at her altar; buinau liuibs of gold or silver, laid at her feet as ti'ophies of her power over diseases which defeated the ai*t of man ; wooden crutches which had supported her supplicants as they dragged their helpless limbs to the holy place where they were healed by her intercession, hung up around the sacred walls, as a sim- ple and touching homage to her glory : oh I how eloquently do these speak to faith! what lively confi- dence they excite in her whom the Church justly styles. Health of the Weak! Doubtless, she does not always obtain for us what we ask, because the accomplishment of our wishes, far from being conducive to our true happiness, which is that of the other world, would be often preju- dicial to it. But still that Mother of grace becomes our health in infir- mity ; still, if the suppliant heart interposes no voluntary obstacle, she obtains for it the grace to make its sufferings available to salvation ; she clothes it with patience and fortitude, fills it with resignation and tranquillity, duiing the long, sleepless nights and wearisome f days ; still does she penetrate it with the sentiment which animated the holy man Job when he exclaim- ed, " That this may be my comfort, that, afflicting me with sorrow, he spare me not in this place of proba- tion, nor I contradict the words of the Holy One I " ^ And when, at the appointed time, the last hour ar- rives, to them who suffer under the auspices of Mary, it is neither ter- rifying nor torturing, but peaceful and serene, like the joyful transition from the toil of battle to the reward of victory, from " this valley of tears "^ to that magnificent kingdom where " God himself shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."'' Let us, then, apply, with entire confidence, to the Blessed Virgin, in all the corporal ailments where- with God permits us to be afflicted ; and let us never fail to solicit her intercession with the adorable Jesus, remembering those words of St. Ber- nard : " God has given her absolute power in heaven and on earth ; he has placed in her hands our life and death."* Let us specially implore her for our last moments, and, hi • Job vL 10. » Sdv. Beg. * Apoc. vii. 17. * Serm. 1, sup. salve. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 683 order to make sure of her powerful succor at that decisive moment, let us " die daily," ^ that is to say, let us spend every day as though it were to be our last. Thou whose tender heart might say with still more justice than the great Apostle, " "Who is weak, and I am not weak ? " ^ praises be to thee for that thou dost so often, arid in such an admirable manner, display thy power for the relief or the cure of our corporal sufferings. Ah! thou art for all of us a never-failing re- source, whilst the pool of Bethesda healed only at times, and none but the one favored person who first went into it after its waters had been troubled by the Angel of the Lord.^ "We bless thy divine Son for that " a virtue goes out from thee^ and heals all;"^ and we be- seech thee to manifest it especially for us at that dread and final hour when we are about to enter upon eternity. sweet Virgin, who " vouchsafes to receive with maternal kindness the last sigh of him who confidently commends himself to thee,"^ grant ^ 1 Cor. XV. 31. « 2 Cor. xL 29. » St. John V. 4. that, at our last moment, we may experience, in all its extent, the efiicacy of that pious invocation of the Church: Health of the "Weak, pray for us. Salus Infirmorum, ora pro nobis. MEDITATION XLHI. REFUGE OF SINNERS, PRAY FOR US. IT is in the natui'e of man to have a great apprehension of appear- ing before him whom he knows he has offended, even were it to tes- tify his repentance and solicit for- giveness ; this is especially the case if the ofi'ender be much inferior, and has shown himself very ungrateful towards a generous benefactor. Ah! what relief, what consolation for him, when a common friend, a de- voted, influential friend, comes for- ward to mediate and to facilitate the reconciliation. But if it be the mother of the injured benefactor who presents her- self as a mediatrix, who deigns to « St. Luke vL 19 ' S. Jerome, ep. 2 ad Eustoch. 684 MEDITATIONS ON THE lATANY OF THE BLESSED VIROTN. intercede with a son full of tender- ness for her, what joy 1 what hap- piness ! Sinners, whosoever you be, ble'ss the divine Mary, who comes, with marvellous goodness, to place her- self between you and her adorable Son. whose incomparable blessings, whose infinite love you have over- looked, whose supreme majesty you have audaciously offended. Ah I undoubtedly you are but too guilty towards him. Were you only to regard the Saviour-God whom you have, alas I so grievously offended, would you not be tempted to fly "from the wrath of the Lamb,"^ from " the avenging lion of the tribe of Juda,"^ and cast yourself head- long into the gulf of despair ? But behold ! his august Mother looks tpon you with eyes of sweetness and compassion ; she recalls, on your behalf, the days when the Man-God lay a babe in her arms, thereby rendering her, as it were, the depository of the infinite treas- ure of his graces. Take courage, then, were you a thousand times more guilty; she is powerful enough ' Apoc. vi 16. * Apoc Y. 6. f to obtain your pardon, and she is well disposed to ask it. Can she be ignorant of all the ineffable compassion of her divine Son for the helpless children of Adam, the wretched slaves of sin? Ah ! no one on earth ever manifest- ed so tender an interest in them as Jesus : he even went so far with it that his enemies made it a subject of reproach and accusation.^ But dM not his sweet Mother participate his sentiments more intimately than any other creature ? and, ascending to heaven, did she not carry with her to that blessed abode that heart always so good, so sensibly inter- ested for the salvation of souls, re- deemed by blood which she knows to be beyond all price ? " Her mercy," says St. Bonaventure, " did but increase with her glory; now that she reigns with Jesus, that compassion of hers is so much the greater, as she sees more clearly the unhappy state of men"* who dis- regard the admirable mystery of redemption. Hence it is that the holy doctors, speaking of her compassionate kind- » St. Matt. ix. 11 ; St. Luke vii 34 < In SpecuL. B. V., c. 5. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 685 ness to sinners, extol it beyond measure. St. Ephraim calls her ''the most powerful resource of all sinners, the sure haven of all who have suffered shipwreck."^ "Thou art their only hope, Mary!" ex- claims St. Augustine.^ "I consent to speak no more of thy mercy," says St. Bernard, " if ever any one could say that he asked it in vain ! "^ " Mary I " cries St. Bonaventure, " the sinner, were he even the out- cast of the world, is never reject- ed by thee ; but thou dost welcome him with maternal kindness, and quittest him not till thou hast recon- ciled him to his dreadful Judge!"* Admiration, praise, eternal bene- diction to that God who has left such an asylum for the miserable transgressor of his laws ! Confi- dence, boundless, unfailing confi- dence in Mary, whether we beseech her to obtain forgiveness for our sins, the conversion of our brethren, or the cure of our spiritual infir- mities. Confidence, once more, in Mary, when discouragement or even despair threatens to destroy our good > De Laudib. B. V. « Serm. de Annunciat. » Serm. de Assumpt. * In Psalt. resolutions and our virtuous incli- nations ; let us, therefore, exclaim with the Church, "Hail, holy Queen ! Mother of mercy ! our life ! our sweetness! and our hope!"^ As the Apostle St. Peter saw, in a vision, a vast number of unclean creatures purified by the power of God and taken up to heaven,® so do we see, Mary, with admira- tion, a multitude of souls defiled by sin, converted through thy interces- sion, cleansed from their sins, and "brought to the haven of eternal salvation." ^ Ah ! thou art truly, for the greatest sinners, a more secure asylum than was the fortress of Bethsura for the Jews of old " who had forsaken the law ;" ^ surer than the altar of which Adonias " took hold" in order to escape the ven- geance of King Solomon.^ Many and many a time might the just Judge, appeased by thy mediation, say to thee as David said to Abi- gail : " Thou hast kept me to-day from coming to blood, and reveng- ing me with my own hand."^° How often hast thou deigned to " be * Scdv. Beg. ' Acts X. ' Ps. cvi. 30. » 1 Mac. X. 14. » 3 Kings i. 50. "> 1 Kings XXV. 3a MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIROIN. mindful of" the little acts of hom- age done thee by those who might well be likened to the sinful "Ra- hab, or the children of Babylon,"^ and saved them from the gulf of perdition. Multiply, Mary! mul- tiply unceasingly these instances of thine admirable goodness to so many poor, misguided sinners, who are hastening to everlasting destruc- tion; they are, by the close bonds of Christian charity, as it were, " members of ourselves," ' and hence it is that we say to thee. Refuge of Sinners, pray for us. Refugium peccatorum, orapro Twbis. MEDITATION XLIV. COMFORT OF THE AFFLICTED, PRAY FOR US. WHERE are the souls without affliction, hearts without an- guish, or eyes without tears ? This world is for man but a school of misfortune, where he must learn to rise to God, to humble himself be- fore him, to pray to him, and to aspire to a better world, to the Ps. IxxxvL 4. » 1 Cor. xii. 27. * felicity of heaven ; and to all the many sorrows of life is added the natural horror of death, which is, nevertheless, inevitable, and, meet- ing us at every turn under divers forms, seems to say, "Your turn shall soon come." Ah I if we only considered the griefs, the cruel de- ceptions, the profound sorrows, the inconsolable mournings, the heart- rending cares, known to God alone, should we not be tempted to ex- claim, in the words of Bossuet, " Sad it is that we must live ! " But for us. Christians, God, in his admirable goodness, has deigned to prepare, side by side with these troubles, an inexhaustible source of ineffable consolation : it is the heart of Mary — a heart full of compas- sion ; the heart of a Mother, such as never was or never shall be here below; the heart of a Mother who identifies herself with her children, who in some measure forgets herself to "weep with them that weep,"^ and to relieve, by the most tender attentions, the various ills where- with they are afflicted. Mary ! what a precious gift art thou from God to us, who mourn * Bom. xii. 15. MEDITATIONS ON TEE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 687 and weep in this valley of tears.^ Beloved Mother, the very remem- brance of thee is enough to lighten the load of sori'ow which oppresses the heart, to assuage the bitterness with which it is filled to overflow- ing, to heal its most inveterate and most painful wounds ! Thou wert thyself so grievously afflicted, thou so holy, thou the august Mother of our God ; thou hadst to drain a chalice far beyond all human power to bear ; thou wert plunged into an ocean of inconceivable affliction I And yet, even in thy greatest ex- tremity, thou wert so calm, so re- signed, so entirely given up to the divine will. Where is the sinner (and wo are all sinners) that does not feel relieved in his affliction, seeing that thou, notwithstanding thine innocence, hadst to bear the full measure of human grief, and to undergo the most excruciating tor- tures ? Who is there, besides, that does not feel a sentiment of pious consolation, thinking of all thy ma- ternal tenderness for us, thy lively sympathy, thy devotion, thine ever- active and compassionate charity? ' Lamentations of Jeremias, ii. 18. » Cant. iv. 11. » Cant. ii. 13, 14. Yes, our divine Mother has fot us, unhappy as we are, an expan- sive and benevolent tenderness be- yond our reach of comprehension. The celestial Spouse compares the sweetness, the gentleness expressed in all her words while on earth, to every thing sweetest in nature. " Thy lips," says he, " are as a drop- ping honeycomb, honey and milk are under thy tongue." ^ And, else- where, wishing to excite our admi- ration of Mary's ravishing sweet- ness, he is, as it were, captivated by it himself. "Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come, let thy voice sound in my ears, for thy voice is sweet." ^ Hence St. Ber- nard might well say that " she was all benignity, all goodness, that she made herself all to all, and showed unto all a superabundant charity."* " Mary ! " exclaims that holy doc- tor, "0 Mother, inexpressibly ami- able, still and always does thy name penetrate the heart with a holy emanation of that divine sweet- ness wherewith the Loxd enriched thy fair soul !"' " No, no," adds St. Antoninus, " there is not one among ♦ Serm. de Verbis Apoc. Signum magnum. • Serm. Paneg. B M. V. 688 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. the saints in heaven who compas- sionates our miseries like that bless- ed Virgin Mary."^ Let us then apply to that heaven- ly comfoi-ter in all our troubles, es- j)eciaHy our spiritual troubles; let us pour them forth into her mater- nal heart; she will not betray our confidence, for " she is the sweetest relief for anguish," says St. John Damascene, "the surest remedy for moral sufferings." ' Who could measure, blessed Virgin, "the breadth, and length, and height, and depth"' of thy mer- ciful goodness ! " From thine in- fancy mercy grew up with thee, and it came out with thee from thy Mother's womb ;" * it was for men, he/ore the foundation of the Church, like the morning-star in, the clouds ; after^ like the full-orbed moon ; and since thou hast ascended to heaven, it has shone with all the splendor of the glorious sun. Thou whom we love to call, after God, " the com- fort of our life,'* our hope in the day of affliction,"^ thou whom the Lord employs to change our grief and mourning into joy, as he formerly » p. 4, t. 15, c 2. » Orat 2 de Dormit. Deip. » Ephes. iii. 18. f made use of the pious Esther to succor and console his people, be also our support in our sufferings and our desolation ! "We will ap- proach thee, Mary, with that lively faith, that sincere piety, which ought to distinguish thy true servants. Grant always that sighs and tears, sorrow, and suffering, and tribula- tion, may be profitable to all who say to thee, in the fullness of their filial affection. Comfort of the Afflicted, pray FOR us. Consolatrix Affllctorum, ora pro nobis. MEDITATION XLV. HELP OF CHRISTIANS, PRAY FOR US. THOU wert, in every age, Mary, the succor, the protect- ing arm of thy Son's disciples, and the Church their mother; but this was especially the case on certain memorable occasions when all seem- ed to conspire for the annihilation of the admirable work of the divine Jesus ! * Job xxxi. 18. » Tobias x. 4. « Jerem. xviL 17. ITliWYOKK, D. k J SAiLIER A CO MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 689 Islamism, in the sixteenth cen- tury, threatened to invade Europe and destroy Christianity. A for- midable fleet sailed proudly into the Gulf of Lepanto, under the ensign of the Crescent; the ships of the faithful, though inferior in number, hesitated not to range themselves before them in battle array, trusting in thy protection, and Juan of Austria, their chief, made a vow to visit, in person, thine august sanctuary of Loretto. Meanwhile, the city of Rome re- sounded with the solemn and public singing of the Rosary, intended to propitiate thee on behalf of the Catholic arms. On a sudden, the holy Pope, Pius Y., cries out, under thine inspiration, "The Christian fleet has conquered !".... And so it had ; ofiicial news speedily ar- rived announcing the entire defeat of the Mussulmans ; and, in memory of such a magnificent testimony of thy protection, the same holy Pon- tiff added to the Litany which we all so love to repeat in thy honor, that new invocation. Help of Chris- tians^ pray for us ! . . . . Often since then, glorious Queen, hast thou vouchsafed to manifest thy protect- * ing care of thy people in a manner equally striking. Under the walls of Vienna, in the seventeenth century, two hundred and thirty thousand Turkish soldiers were put to flight by a Christian army incomparably less numerous. This took place within the octave of thy Nativity, and on the very day when solemn supplications were offered up, in the city of Munich, to Mary the Help of Chris- tians. The honor of that brilliant victory was referred to thee by the conqueror himself, who, on the morning of the action, having as- sisted at the holy sacrifice and participated in the divine myste- ries, had encouraged his officers by promising them the assistance of Heaven through thine intercession. Thirty years after, the Emperor Charles YL obtains a signal victory over the same enemies of the Chris- tian name, on the day when thy protection, divine Yirgin, was solemnly invoked for him in Rome I and, very soon after, on the octave- day of thy glorious Assumption, Corfu hails thee with joyful accla- mations for having put to flight the infidels by whom it was besieged. 690 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. Admirable series of victories gain- ed over the Crescent by Mary's assistance! They shall live for- ever in the grateful hearts of the faithful, who owe her the conso- lation of celebrating, every year, the solemnity of the holy Rosary throughout the whole extent of the Catholic world! But that was not enough for the glory of tlie Blessed Virgin I Provi- dence had oi*dained that her title of Help of Christians should be con- secrated by a special festival. Dur- ing his long and arduous struggle against the most formidable prince and captain of modern times, Pius VII. had never ceased to invoke that heavenly Help, His confidence was not betrayed. Napoleon, that mighty Colossus, fell ; the venerable old man returned in triumph to the Eternal City, and he decreed that the annivei-sary of that joyful day should be solemnized by the special feast of Our Lady, the Help of Chris- tians. Yes, the constant, the powerful, the universal Help of Christians! Help against the might of armies ; help against the oppression of polit- ical power; help against persecu- * tions; help against all the storms that hell can raise around the Church of God on earth, and which tend to retard her precious con- quests, to diminish the number of the faithful, to draw multitudes of souls to destruction. Let us every day invoke, with new fervor, the Help of Christians^ that she may vouchsafe to avert all these dan- gers. But let us also supplicate her for ourselves, that we may be confirmed in faith and in virtue; that we may prevail over the scan- dals of every kind by which we are surrounded ; for it is written, " Let him who stands, take heed lest he fall."^ Let us, then, have recourse to her with all the confidence she deserves. "All is subject to her control," says St. Antoninus.^ " Thy name alone is omnipotent, after God," exclaims St. Bonaventurel^ Mary I " invincible shield " * of Christians, who hast so wonderfully manifested thy protection, to thee, still more than to Judith, it belongs to say, " Wo be to the nation that riseth up against my people : for the Lord Almighty will take revenge • 1 Cor. X. 12, » Serm. 6L ' In Can.. 4. * Wisdom V. 20. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 691 on them."^ Eternal glory be to thee for having " broken," in our behalf, "the powers of bows, the shield, the sword, and the battle," ^ and for having given us such con- soling motives for trusting in thee against all the enemies of God's children and of his holy Church. With her we love to say, " Vouch- safe to assist those who groan under the weight of their misery; deign to animate the slothful, to strengthen the weak, to console the afflicted. Vouchsafe to pray for all Christian people, to intercede for the clergy, and for the devout female sex. Let all the faithful feel the effects of th}^ powerful succor, but especially those who are mindful of thee,"^ and implore thee with a sweet and filial confidence. Help of Christians, pray for us. Auxilium Christianorum^ ora pro nobis. MEDITATION XLYL QUEEN OF ANGELS, PRAY FOR US. L ET US rise on the wings of faith to that immortal country where t God himself is the infinite reward of the just,* and renders to every man according to his works.^ What shall we see there ? The thrones of pontiffs, martyrs, apostles, proph- ets, patriarchs, and @ur eyes will contemplate with delight, with ec- stacy, that vision of grandeur and glory. But in vain would we look for Mary there. Let us go still higher, even up to the choirs of angels ; the cherubim, the sera- phim, all those " thousands of thou- sands"^ of pure spirits who shine before "the holy of holies"^ like changeless suns ; is it there that the Virgin by excellence enjoys her beatitude? No, no, higher, higher still. Above angels and archangels, near the throne of the glorified Man-God, another throne will meet our dazzled eyes, another throne only lower than that of Jesus, and loftier than those of all the heav- enly powers ; and on that throne sits a daughter of Eve invested with glory only less than that of Jesus, but richer, more entrancing than that of even the highest angels of the heavenly hierarchy ; it is the » Judith xvi. 20. » Ps. Ixxv. 4. * Sancta Maria, Succurre miseris, etc. * Gen. XV. 1. » St. Matt. xvi. 27. * Dan. vii. 10. ' Dan. ix. 24 692 ME.)ITJTIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. most Blessed Virgin, the Creator's masterpiece, the Queen of Angels. "She is, in fact," says St. Epi- phanius, "above all beings, except God alone." * " Her dignity as Mother of the Creator," says St. John Damascene, "makes her the Queen of all creatures."^ "She who is en- titled to call God her Son," exclaims St Bernaixi, "must necessarily be superior to all the choirs of angels. Ah! do homage, ye heavenly spir- its, to the Mother of your divine King, ye who adore the blessed fruit of our beloved Virgin's womb!"' •• Jesus," says St. Antoninus, " has placed on her head a diadem of glory and magnificence, which makes the angels themselves subject to this divine Queen."* And was it not this future great- ness and glory of the Blessed Virgin that the Archangel Gabriel honored beforehand, when he saluted her with so much veneration, and in terms so pompous and magnificent ? Veneration and honor lawfully due to her who was to be invested with the admirable quality of beloved * De Landib. Virg. * Lib. 4 Fidei orthod., c. 15. * HoiL.il. super Missus est. Daughter of the Eternal Father, be- loved Mother of the Son, beloved Spouse of the Holy Ghost, and who was to be raised by her divine maternity above all the powers of earth and heaven. Moreover, how could the celestial messenger fail to recognize " his Queen in her whom he saluted as Mother of his divine King ?"^ And if the angels are in- finitely inferior to the human nature of the Incarnate Word, for St. Paul says, " To which of the angels hath God said at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?"^ why should they not be in- ferior to lier who could likewise say to that same Jesus, Thou art my Son,^ I bore thee in my " womb, and nourished thee?"® But who then is this creature of such exalted dignity, before whom the angels bow down penetrated with respect and admiration, this creature whom they hasten to serve, repeating in a transport of holy joy, " Rule thou eternally over us and thy Son ?"^ Ah ! it is the humble daughter of Anne and Joachim, it * Serm. de Assumpt. » St Athan., Serm. de Deip. • Heb. i. 5. ' Heb. i. 5. » 2 Mac. vii. 27. » Judg. viii. 22 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 693 is the obscure Virgin once betrothed * to a poor mechanic ; it is the piti- able young Mother who found in Bethlehem only a stable, a crib, a little straw whereon to place her new-born infant, who was forced to fly her native land and take refuge in a strange country to save the precious life of her adorable child, who lived always simple, always hidden, even after the glorious re- surrection and ascension of her di- vine Son. The way to glory, solid glory, the only glory worthy the name, eternal glory, is, then, the way of humility in this world. To be little in the eyes of others, little in one's own eyes, and great before the Lord, by a simple, unostenta- tious virtue, this is the precious secret which Mary teaches us by her life, as Jesus teaches it by his divine precepts and his divine ex- ample, as he remains ever before our eyes in the ineffable mystery of the Eucharist. Let us imitate him, let us imitate his divine Mother, and humble ourselves that we may be eternally exalted.^ > St. Matt, xxiii. 12. "Hail, O Queen of Heaven enthroned, Hail, by angels mistress own'd ! " * What is there, after God, so great as thee, who received infinite ma- jesty into thy womb, thee whom that infinite majesty vouchsafed to obey ! " Miracle on both sides," justly observes St. Bernard. "In the Son a miracle of humility, in the Mother a miracle of greatness and elevation!"^ Mary! Queen of Angels, vouchsafe to be mindful of thy servants on earth, look down on them with pitying love and kind- ness, as .afflicted brethren, unfortu- nate children. Deign to assist us, to keep us ever in the way of sal- vation, till the moment of our final departure from this world of trial ; vouchsafe to send our angels to visit and console us if we aj-e condemned by divine justice to the temporary fire of expiation, and plead for us that we may be speedily admitted into heaven. May we merit these inestimable favors by constantly saying with sincere devotion: Queen of Angels, pray for us. Regina Angelorum, ora pro nobis * Hymn Ave, Beg. cad. ' Homil. 1 sup. Missus est. eM MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIBOIN. MEDITATION XLYH. QUEKN OP PATRliUlCHS, PRAY FOR US. ON earth, the holy patriarchs had "saluted from afar"* with a lively faith, a sweet and firm hope, that wondrous woman whom the Loi"d had announced, in the be- ginning, as about to bring forth the Saviour of the world. In heaven they offered her, with unequalled joy, the tribute of their love and veneration, as having, through Our Lord Jesus Christ, introduced them "into the everlasting dwellings."^ Fii-st, it is Adam who admires and blesses in Mary the new Eve, the true "Mother of all the living,"' whose heel has crushed the head of the infernal serpent,* the seducer of the first Eve; she whose divine Son came to repair the primitive fall in 80 marvellous a manner that the Church cries out in the fervor of her gratitude, " happy transgression ! which obtained for us a Redeemer so great and so admirable!"^ After Adam, Noah, chosen to be the second fathw of mankind, doom- * ed to perish' in the Deluge, contem- plates with delight her whom the Church calls " our life and our hope ;"* Abraham, who did not hesi- tate to sacrifice to God his only son, on whose life naturally depended the existence of the people destined to bring forth the Messiah, Abra- ham honors and praises with trans- port the Mother of the adorable only Son of whom Isaac was the symbol,^ and in whom " all the nations of the earth have been blessed,"^ accord- ing to the promises of God. Then it is Jacob who celebrates the glory of that excellent Virgin, of whom was born on earth "the salvation of the Lord,"^ the object of his most ardent wishes. Again, it is Joseph, the Saviour of Egypt,^" who renders solemn homage to the Mother of " the Saviour of the world," " whose sanctity, sufferings, and glory were so admirably prefigured by his own innocence, misfortunes, and subse- quent elevation ; Moses, too, admires and extols her who has since given to the world " the divine Prophet, like unto him;"^'^ like him, legislator, ' Heb. xi 13. • St Luko xvL 9. * Gen. iii 20. * Gen. iii. 15. » Rom. Miss., Holy Sat • Salv. Reg. •> Heb. xi. 19. • Gen. xxii. 17, 18. » Gen. xlix. 18. " Gen. xli. 45. »' St John iv. 42. " Deut xviii 15, 18. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 695 miracle-worker, and liberator; in a word, all " the chief fathers and heads " of the elect of the Lord, now happy inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem,^ all delight to acknowl- edge that it is through her the im- mortal diadem encircles their radi- ant brow, crying to her forever : " Thy dominion is of truth, and meekness, and justice ; and thy right hand shall conduct thee won- derfully I "^ But what was it that merited for them this inestimable crown ? Their fidelity to God, their faith in the future Redeemer, and their de- sire to "see his day,"^ — fidelity, faith, desire, which had attained the highest degree of perfection in the soul of the Blessed Virgin before she was favored with the blissful embassy from above. If, for in- stance, the faith and fidelity of Abraham were little less than mir- aculous, how must it be with Mary, elevated so high in heaven above that holy patriarch, in heaven where each takes precedence according to his merit ! If Abraham so longed to see the coming of Christ, how ' 1 Paral. viii. 28. « Ps. xliv. 5 ' St. John viii. 56. * Orat. 6, in S. Deip. intense must have been that same desire in the soul of her of whom St. Proclus said, that " no patriarch could in any way be compared to her!'"^ For us, ineffable happmess I we have not to desire, we have but to enjoy ; we have not only the sweet consolation of hope, but the delicious fruit of reality. Jesus came "from heaven;^ he hath visited the earth f^^ he hath enlightened, sanctified, and saved it, endowed it with gifts the most magnificent, and spiritual resources the most pre- cious. Still more, he has fixed his dwelling "in this valley of tears," ^ which would have been but too highly favored by possessing him for some years, nay, moments Alas ! and we are regardless of his continual and adorable presence ; and we neglect to visit that divine guest, who seems to forget himself, and to make it "to delight to be with the children of men!"^ Oh I might it not be truly said of us what John the Baptist said of the Jews, contemporaries of the divine Jesus: "There standeth one in the « St. John iii. 13. « St. Luke i. 78. ' Salv. Reg. « Prov. viii. 31. me MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. midst of you, whom you know not ; the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose I" ^ Mary I " sweet hope of the pa- triarchs,"^ who didst possess in a manner so intimate Him who was their "desire," make us appreciate the infinite happiness that we en- joy in possessing Him ourselves, together with all the graces of which he is the inexhaustible source. As the Messiah to come had been the centre of thy most ardent wishes, so the Messiah, when he did come, was the centre of all thine afifections; and he has been, under thine auspices, the only ob- ject of the love and devotion of those illustrious founders of religious ordei"s known in the Church as the Patriarchs of the New Testament. May it be so with us, divine Mother! May our faith especially become so lively, that we may clearly see and sensibly feel that, by the adorable mystery of the con- tinual presence of Jesus on our altai-s, "earth becomes a heaven,"* and that the holy Eucharist ought to be the chief object of our • St John i. 26, 27. • St Ephraim, de Laudib. B. V. * thoughts, desires, and affections! In order that we may faithfully dis- charge this pious duty to the glory of thy divine Son, Queen of Patriarchs, pray for us. Regina Patriarcharum, ora pro nobis. MEDITATION" XLYIH. QUEEN OF PROPHETS, PRAY FOR US. LIVING prodigies of supernatu- ral knowledge, the prophets of old drew the most perfect picture of the Messiah, many ages before- hand. "The most ancient made, as it were, the first sketch; those who came after them successively finished the imperfect work of their predecessors. The nearer they came to the event, the more lively became their colors ; " and when the picture was completed, the last, as he with- drew, pointed out the holy Precur- sor who was to say, 'Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world!'"* » S. Chrys., Homil. 24, in 1 Cor. * Letters of M. Drack, a converted Babbin. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 697 But while painting the several * stages of the Saviour's mortal life, the divers characters of his person and ministry, the marvellous fruits of his mission, could they not per- ceive the august Mother of the Man- God, that admirable daughter of Eve, whose glorious co-operation in the salvation of the world had been announced by the Lord himself at the very beginning?^ Ah ! undoubtedly the sweet and majestic figure of Mary must often have made their hearts throb as they wrote the prophetic history of her divine Son ; how often must this have been the case with David,^ with Ezechiel,^ with Isaiah,^ who were favored with special revela- tions of the greatness of the Virgin- Mother I Now that they behold her glory unveiled, in the mansions of eternal bliss, now that they see her crowned " as universal sovereign of every creature,"^ how joyfully do they render homage to their heavenly Queen ! how profoundly do they venerate the excellence of the di- » Gen. iii. 15. » Ezech. xliv. 2. * Ps. xliv. * Is. vii 14. * S. J. Damascene, Lib. 4, de Fide Orthod. vine lights wherewith she herself was favored by the Lord! It was only on certain phases of , the Redeemer's life that each of the prophets was enlightened : but thou, Queen of Prophets, thou didst em- brace the whole course of their pre- dictions, thou didst penetrate their whole meaning, according to the thought of St. Liguori;*' thou hast seen and heard what they desired to see and hear ! ^ The prophets, animated by the sacred fire of in- spiration, reached an elevation of thought and tone which charms and astonishes us in their writings ; and thou, filled with the Holy Ghost,^ transported with joy in God thy Sa- viour,^ thou hast composed, in his honor, a hymn of gratitude, in which we find a fullness of fueling, a sub- limity of expression, a divine enthu- siasm far exceeding these ancient oracles of the Most High ! Thou didst predict, thou, the poor and humble daughter of the tribe of Juda, that "all generations should call thee blessed;"^*' an astontshing prophecy which all ages and all * Sermon on the Sorrows of Mary. » St. Luke X. 24. • St. Luke i. 47. « St. Luke i. 35. " St. Luke i. 48. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRQIN. nations have constantly fulfilled for eighteen centuries! Thou didst like- wise foretell the future destiny of the Church, the true people of Grod, the ti'ue Israel which the Lord "hath received, being mindful of his mercy ; as he spoke to our fa- thers, to Abraham and to his seed," which is to last "forever;"^ and the perpetual combats, the perpetual triumphs of the Church have ever since testified the divinity of the inspiration which dictated the words I "How happy are we," says the great bishop of Meaux, speaking in this connection; "how happy are we, in that God has vouchsafed to bind himself to us by promise ! He might have given us what he would ; but "why promise it to us, if not, as Mary said, to transmit his mercy from age to age ;"^ that mer- cy so admiiably manifested by the coming of the Messiah, who himself promises to preserve his work "even to the consummation of the world." ^ Let us rest, with unshaken faith, on his divine word: "heaven and earth shall pass away, but it shall not * pass away."* Let us profit by the faithful accomplishment of Mary's prophecy and her Son's promise, from the dawn of Christianity to the present day, in order to revive our confidence in the other words of the Holy Gospel ; and let us give ourselves wholly up to the blessed hopes of faith, wherein we ought "to drown all the false hopes with which this world seeks to amuse ' St Luke i. 54, 55. • Elev. sur le* llyst. * St. Matt, xxviii. 20. * St. Matt. xxiv. 35. "5 US. In the ecstasy of thy gratitude to the Lord, the future was opened to thine eyes, Mary, and thou didst announce the pious and solemn worship wherewith " all genera- tions" were to honor thee, together v^ith the perpetuity of the Church, which is to live, and struggle, and triumph, "even to the consumma- tion of the world." Ah ! it is with sweet consolation that we behold the marvellous fulfillment of thy words, through the lapse of so many ages; it is with heartfelt joy that we recognize in thee, with St. Basil, her whom Isaiah had designated under the title of "prophetess,"^ and to whom " the seers of IsraeV * Bossuet, Elev. sur les Myst. • In. Is. proph., c. 8. » Is. XXX. 10. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 699 give testimony"^ in their predic- tions regarding the divine Redeem- er. thou whom David calls " the glorious daughter of the king, clothed round about with varieties ! " ^ vouch- safe to obtain for us that we may always join our feeble voices in the universal concert which proclaims thee " blessed ; " to rest always on the infallible oracles of the Gospel ; never to let ourselves be shaken either by scandals or by persecu- tions, but to " persevere faithfully to the end,"^ in the faith and works which she alone inspires. Queen of Prophets, pray for us. Regina Prophetarum, ora pro no- bis. MEDITATION XLIX. QUEEN OF APOSTLES, PRAY FOR US. TT/^HAT the most learned phi- ' » losophers, the most eloquent orators, the ablest and most power- ful men never thought of undertak- ing; nay, what they could never have accomplished, even if they had dared to attempt it, twelve poor ' Acts X. 43. « Ps. xliv. 15. » St. Matt. X. 22. * fishermen of Galilee, without any human resource, not only undertook, but happily accomplished. The Apostles divided the world amongst themselves for conquest, to establish " all over the earth a new worship, a new sacrifice, a new law, promul- gated by Jesus, crucified in Jeru- salem. All the inducement they had to offer was this : Come and serve Jesus ; whosoever gives himself to Him shall be happy after his death ; but in the mean time he must undergo all manner of suffering."* And, to preach this doctrine, they brave torments, nay, death itself; and they " draw all things to thein- selves"^ and soon the whole heathen world adores Jesus and follows his Gospel. Divine zeal, divine devotion, and, undoubtedly, divine success ! But what part had Mary in this gieat work, to merit the title of Queen of Apostles ? Ah ! that august Virgin, who had a right to that title from the very pre-eminence of her divine maternity, contributed wondeifully to the formation, increase, and sup- port of the infant Church. * Bossuet, Panegyric on St. Andrew. » St. John xii. 32. ATtoas or UTJLXT OF ZBE BiEvam wmRiw J^wmkwet Inr, mtke lMgi»- » of vhoM StAwAi ui StBosi. ini^ tlHf^ pMB idfoift br 1 i uiImu did Bot ht MUIe. to a j d»A|piiliespnpMittaft> I "&at tef were tke disc^ln of Her I fill, to As SiTioH^ \ wko bffo^ghl Him falkJ^ fMOHHMBdttlin, to "^reoeif^ tte I AaA, m tet, H was Wuy wbo «f tke HoIt Gkoet,"' do we | ■»! kave lemled totteApasOn irst^ *Jk^ wk» csoM ; tones whick ecnld sol toive saiTs St Aatoaton^ *ttat I id» toeer nigmianc e: ud wUch feel icccite wttk tiMs. en f ^h^ woe jet to ■■ke kaown to Ike ^ rf lVjrtmjfet tte mmiiI | the wokU: it was Aewto Ind to ■kufifl b tter were aD londsii fhon witk Ike predous end hw Ike Hoir Gkost m eoBsofii^ detoOs ef tiw kiddoi fife be waMt- of JJesae : fer. a cc oidu ^ to Ike : wxuds of tbe Gospel, ''eke kepi all Yeis torihi;* uhmiiui SL TWwm l X Ikei&e iSkemm, pu ade iia g Ikeai in ker »X m\ tte to&e ApoeOeB a^ BfaBgeEsto.** Aad doiiii ibai ske was St A^braee said Ikal ""It of God; 1 ker Ikat St Jbk^ tbat saUEne LM. of Ike diviatt^ of Ike Worf?^ firy,e.SI:& *aL]i^»a.]9L «.T; .^rs^ ■* MEDITATIONS ON THE LIT ANT OF TEE BLESSED VTRGIN. im be called Queen of Aposdles from ho* benign influence on the spread of the GospeL Her example was an effective lesson: was she not, in a woitL the most faithfiil image of the divine Jesus, ''the most strikii^ reflex of his life?"* says St Law- rence Justinian. Her disocmrae had a marvellous efficacy: it is writtai that *- from the fuUness of the heart the mouth speaketk"' and the ^beaat of Mary was," says St BCTnardine, "a furnace erf divine love."* Ho* prayers were at once the poresl^ the most humble, the most fervent; and who can tell with what zeal and fervor that divine Mother begged of Heaven the development of her Son's great work? In imitation of Mary, let us ever concur, as far as we are able, in promotii^ the interests of the Church, and assisting the pious missionaries who still carry on the work of the first apostles. Let us be apostles ourselves, by our ex- ample, our discoorse, our co-opera- tion in good works, so that " the * name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be gl<HTfied in ns"* O Mary, whom Jesus left on earth, after his glorious ascension, to exer- dse a zeal more than ^xistolic, ^ to be the strength and support of his Church;"* thou who didst not only partidpate in all the giflbs whidi the Apostles received from Heaven, but wast also their light and th^ model, oh! how justly art fliou called the Queen of those tw^e heroef whose names are written in the foundati(His of "the holy dty.*** May thy heart, so zealous for die glory of Jesus, conununicate to oars some sparks of tlmt saered fire which pioiK souls always seek to diffuse aroond them! Grant, at least, that by a good and bdy life. "mar light may so shine before men, that they may see amr good woiks, and glorifr our Fatiier who is in heaven."' Qama cm Afobtlss, US. Regima Apotkiormm, arm pro bis. De trimmpk agom, Ckrid. > SL JUtL si. 31. «S iz.de Fiae. ^tAT POE * Boa., Serm. mr T twwjrf • Apo& zzL 10^ 14. «aL]fitt.^l6. 702 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. MEPITATION L. QUEEN OF MARTYRS, PRAY FOR US. TT7H0 will give us to describe the sorrows of the Virgin- Mother in suitable terms ? Mary I how well mightest thou say that thy affliction was "great as the sea."^ Attend and see if there be any sorrow "like unto my sorrow!"^ We are moved by the sight of blood, we cannot view with indiffer- ence that of one of our fellow-creat- ures shed by violence; we suffer cruelly if it be that of a friend, still more if it be that of a brother; more, ah! much more, if it be that of a loving and beloved son. But, if it be the most tender of mothers who has to witness that sad spec- tacle, how much deeper and more acute is the feeling ! And, if the son whom she sees immolated be an only son, endowed with the rarest qualities, ah I no human tongue could express the extremity of that moral suffering. Thou wert that Mother, Mary! Jesus was that only Son, that in- comparable Son at whose execution • Lament, ii 13. < Lament ii. 12. * Stahat. * St. Luke ii. 35. t thou hadst to assist. thou whom the Church so aptly styles " the Mother of sorrow,"' tell us — for we can neither feel nor describe it — tell us how sharp the sword was which pierced thy heart,* at every stroke of the hammer when Jesus was nailed to the Cross; tell us how great was thine anguish, what a long and fearful agony was thine, w^hen, for three hours, thou wert forced to contemplate that most amiable Son so cruelly suspended on an infamous gibbet. Or rather be silent, divine Mary! keep up that silence, so heroic, so eloquent, so sublime, which thine immense grief imposed on itself on Calvary ; that superhuman silence tells us more, infinitely more, than all the cries, all the groans, all the sobs of a desolate mother! .... Oh! how willingly wouldst thou have given thy life for his ; what a consolation it would have been for thee at least to mingle thy blood with his. But no ; it was necessary that thou shouldst be "more than martyr," according to St. Bernard^ and St. Bonaventure,^ by suffering all that » Serm. 12, de Prcerogativis B. M. V. • In Spec., lect. 4. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 703 must naturally have killed thee, with the certainty that death would not come to terminate thy inex- pressible torments. Thus it was that thou wert to win the glorious title of Queen of Martyrs by the unheard-of excess of thy sufferings, compared with which St. Anselm "estimates lightly all the sufferings of all the heroes of Christianity,"^ who, nevertheless, "endured scourg- ing, chains, and imprisonment, were stoned, sawed asunder, tortured in every possible way, they of whom the world was not worthy."^ But Calvary was not the only scene of the Virgin's martyrdom. When the sacred body of our Lord had been taken down from the Cross, tradition says that it was laid in her arms before being con- signed to the tomb. Who, then, can conceive w^hat was passing in the heart of such a mother at such a moment? To hold in her arms the inanimate body of her beloved San, that body so cruelly torn and mangled ; to regard with her lov- ing eyes the deep wounds through which had flowed the precious blood • De excellent. Virg., c. 5. » Heb. xL 36, 37, 38. f that was to regenerate the worl'^ ; to retrace in her mind all the fright- ful scenes of the passion — oh, what torture ! St. Augustine says that " all the sorrows of Jesus had been the sorrows of Mary, that the Son's cross and nails had been also th6 Mother's."^ Hence, all that she had before felt, all that had crushed and torn her tender heart, was renewed, but with still increased bitterness, with extreme desolation, with un- equalled and inexpressible suffer- ings. What a lesson for us all, children of the Gospel! Jesus and Mary entered upon eternal glory by the way of suffering and pain. Jesus, the Holy One, by excellence ! Mary, the holiest of creatures ! And we, sinners by nature, sinners by inclination, would we pretend to gain it by any other way ? The Cross is the earthly portion left us by the Man-God— the Cross, which is, as it were, the sure pledge of the "inheritance incorruptible and undeiiled,"* which he promises to our patience, to our resignation, to our tried fidelity, for it is written, * Serm. de Pass. Dom. * 1 Pet i 4 704 MEDITATIONS CA' THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. "If we Buflfer we shall also reign with him."* tender Mother, who didst en- dure, at the foot of the Cross, suffer- ings much more excruciating than the martyrdom of the body; Thou whose prayer and example must have greatly encouraged all those '' who overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony,"^ in whose name the glo- rious St. Stephen offers thee his palm and his crown, deign to com- passionate our troubles and sus- tain our weakness. Turn away the chalice from us if it become too bitter for om- feeble virtue, or, other- wise, obtain for us strength to say boldly with the Saviour, " Thy will be done I" ^ Make us well under- stand that saying of the divine Master, that "whosoever doth not carry his Cross and go after him^ cannot be his disciple;"* and that we may have the happiness "in our patience always to possess our souls." '^ Queen of Martyrs, pray for us. Regiiia Martyrum, ora pro nobis. ' 2 Tim. ii. 12. » St. Matt. xxvL 42. • Apoa xii 11. * St. Luke xiv. 27. ' St Luke xxi. 19. MEDITATION LI. QUEEN OF CONFESSORS, PRAY FOR US. GLORY to you, noble confessors of the faith, who counted it as precious " gain " to brave the wrath of the enemies of Christ, and boldly proclaim yourselves his disciples at the peril of your lives! Glory to you, who, when Providence did not call you to such trials, still pro- fessed your subjection to that divine Master by the practice of every evangelical virtue, by the eminent sanctity of your life! But still greater glory to Mary, by so many titles your august Queen! You proved yourselves ever and always the devoted servants of the divine Saviour ; but was not Mary still more, more courageously de- voted to her divine Son? Your heart was penetrated with an ar- dent and generous love for him; but was not Mary's heart a furnace of incomparable love ? You braved, for him, outrages, dangers, obstacles of every kind; but did not Mary participate in all the sufferings and privations of his mortal life, and in all the persecutions which he had to undergo? How many times was %f/>*\^\^ V-^l# MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN. 705 he calumniated, reviled by his ene- f mies ! How many times did the contumely heaped on the Son revert to the Mother ! Consider the scoff- ing tone in which those who refused to believe in Jesus said, " Is not his mother called Mary?"^ how, even in the extremity of his torment, his enemies loaded him with derision, contempt, and bitter reproach ; and Mary, standing beneath the in- famous gibbet, must she not have had her share of their hatred and vituperation ? In the midst of all the ribaldry, all the blasphemous sarcasms ut- tered by the persecutors of Jesus, Mary, "0 woman, by excellence, the pride and glory of thy sex, how gi'eat is thy faith," ^ how admirable are thy love and thy devotion ! All the Apostles of Jesus deserted him, with the single exception of St. John; even Peter, their chief, who had so boldly protested that he would be faithful even unto death, denied him three times publicly and on oath ; and thou, in presence of the furious Jews, in presence of the executioners reeking with the blood of Jesus, thou display est the heroism • St. Matt. xiii. 55. * St. Matt. XV. 28. i » Serm. 146, of thy great soul, thou regardest the bleeding Victim with adoration, love, and tender devotion, when Heaven itself seems to abandon him ! Who, then, can ever be com- pared with thee, Mary! thou whose faith in the divine Redeemer was so magnanimous! And who, moreover, ever equalled this divine Virgin in the sublime practice of all the virtues which distinguish a holy soul and make its life an eloquent Gospel lesson, or in the possession of the precious gifts which secure an eminent rank in heaven? Purity, modesty, hu- mility, meekness, detachment, pov- erty, obedience, piety, fervent love of God, inexhaustible charity for her neighbor, burning zeal for the glory of God, perfect submission to his adorable will, absolute abandon- ment to his providence, patience in every trial; in a word, all the vir- tues shine in Mary, in the very highest degree. Hence it is that St. Peter Chrysologus calls her " the living assemblage of all the treas- ures of sanctity;"^ St. John Da- mascene, " the sanctuary of all virtues." * * Lib. iv. de Fide Orthod. 706 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. Let US learn of this aduiirable Queen of all confessors to despise human respect, and to live as wor- thy disciples of Jesus Christ. Amid all the sarcasms of the world let us proudly raise our heads, marked with the noble sign of the Cross in baptism and in confirmation ; let us bi*ave, with a holy courage, the threats and scoffs of "the children of this world," ^ remembering that infallible saying of Him who will judge them as well as us: "Who- ever shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven ; but who- soever shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven."^ Let us not forget that earnest admonition of the divine Master : " Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven !"^ Most august Virgin, before whose throne the confessors of the faith of Christ prostrate themselves, and ' St Luke xvi 8. » St Matt. v. 16, • St Matt X- 32, 33. * Apoc. iv. 10. » Deat TTTiii 3, f render homage, Mome for the "crowns"* which they have worn, under thine auspices, to his greater glory; others for the heavenly "doc- trine" which shone in their lives and in their writings, and which they had, as it were, "received"'* through thy benign protection. thou who • didst always and in all things confess the name of "the Holy One,"^ obtain for us grace to " tight the good tight of faith,"^ amid the impious and corrupt world in which we are placed. Thou who wast always the perfect created model of every evangelical virtue, obtain for us grace to make our faith honorable by our works, " lest the name and doctrine of the Lord be blasphemed ;"^ and that " by do- ing well, we may silence the ignor- . anee of foolish men,"^ and induce them by our example to "glorify God,"^° whom we beseech thee to propitiate by thy powerful interces- sion. Queen of Confessors, pray for us. Regina Confessorum^ ora pro nobis. • Eccl. xlvii. 9. » 1 Tim. vi. 12. • 1 Tim. vi. 1. • 1 Pet ii. 15. » 1 Pet ii 12. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 707 MEDITATION LE. QUEEN OF VIRGINS, PRAY FOR US. YES, thou art the Qimen of Vir- gins, admirable Mary, who, first amongst the daughters of Eve, and contrary to the prejudices of thy nation, " promised to the Lord a perpetual chastity!"^ If was thou who, according to St. Ambrose, " raised the standard of virginity," ^ thou who didst carry the angelic virtue to such perfection, that St. John Damascene calls thee " the treasure of virginal purity."^ And certainly it required all that in her who was destined for an in- comprehensible greatness. "Incor- ruption bringeth near to God," says the Holy Ghost himself, in the book of Wisdom.* It must, then, have been sufficiently perfect in Mary to render her as worthy as possible of " the closest union with a person of infinite majesty;"^ "a union so admirable," says Albertus Magnus, "that Mary could not have been more closely united to the Deity, ' S. Augustine, Serm. 20 de tempore; Tract. 10 in Joan; S. Gregory of Nyssa, Grot, de Nativ. Dom.; Ven. Bede, in cap. i. Luc.; S. Anselm, de excel. Virg., c. 4 ; S. Bern., Serm. 2, sup. Missus, etc. unless she were identified with him!"« But it is not solely on account of this marvellous privilege that all virgins salute Mary, in heaven, as their queen : Was she not for them, on earth, a safeguard, as well as an encouragement and a model ? Ah ! they felt the value of purity, seeing that for a virgin was reserved the ineffable prerogative of the divine maternity ; they understood the pro- digious honor done their sex, in Mary's person, and the immense blessing of restoration which the Christian woman has received through her ; their hearts yearned to testify their gratitude to' the Lord, by devoting themselves "to please Him,''"^ and to love him alone in the world, either contemplating and praising him in solitude, or serving him in the person of the poor and unhappy. And who could enumerate the myriads of admirable acts of virtue which have illustrated these countless generations of vir- gins, from the beginning of the * Lib. de Institut. Virg. ' Horn, vi., contra Nestor. * Wisdom vi. 20. » S. Thomas, i. p., q. 25. * Super Missus, c. 180. ' 1 Cor. vii. 32. 708 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. Church I How many times has the ^ astonished world beheld young and timid daughters of Mary fearlessly braving every danger, every obsta- cle, every plague, every threat, every torment I Every day do we still behold religious communities say- ing, often at the peril of their life, to all human ills, "Be my father and my brethren ;" to all the infir- mities, to all the necessities of mind and body, "Be my mother and my sistei-s!" Sublime spiritual prog- eny of the divine Virgin, ah! it is she who protects, who sustains you as " chaste virgins," reserved for "Christ,"^ and against the weak- ness of your sex, the seductions of the world, the assaults of hell, and, when necessary, against persecutors and all the instruments of their cruelty ! The Church puts in her mouth those words of "Wisdom: "I love them that love me.'"^ But the greatest proof of love that can be given her, is it not the imitation of the vii-tue by which she was most distinguished, and which is, to our fallen nature, the most difficult; is it not the vow which you made, like ' 2 Cor. xi. 2. « Brev. Rom. in Festis B. M. V.; Prov. viii. 17. - ; her, to live "as angels'" in a mortal body? It is from this same vow that the spirit of devotion and of sacrifice derives its origin and its strength ; for, by disengaging the heart from family ties, it leaves it free to con- secrate all its energies to the ser- vice of God and good works. She who has no other spouse than Jesus " thinketh on the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit."* Let us admire that truly celestial spirit which produces, in the true Church, such marvellous fruits as to excite the envy of the numerous sects, sterile because they are separated from her. Let us beg of the divine Jesus that we may each have a share, according Xo our special' vocation, in that zeal for voluntary immolation to his glory, and to practise, also, according to our state, that sublime virtue which, according to St. Ambrose, "makes the heroes of martyrdom, and makes us brethren of the angels ;" ^ which even raises our merit above that of the celestial spirits ; " for," says St. Jerome, "to gain angelic glory » St. Mark xii. 25. * 1 Cor. vii. 34 * Lib. 1 de Virg, circa initium. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 709 in a mortal body, is much more f than to possess it by nature."^ divine Queen of Virgins, who come, triumphant, to lay before thee the lily of their purity, the palm of their victory, august Mother of that divine Lamb who is " the guide of virginity,"^ how joyfully do we glo- rify thee for having, by thine exam- ple and assistance, called forth and fostered so many wondrous virtues on this earth. Ah! vouchsafe to multiply, more and more, the num- ber of thy beloved daughters, who adorn the Church like blooming flowers, and embalm it with a per- fume whose sweetness is not of this world. Deign to inspire us, Queen, with love and respect for a virtue which does so much honor to humanity, which "took its rise in heaven,"^ where it enjoys, as its reward, the privilege of forming the train of the Lamb.* thou under whose aus- pices so many thousands of virgins have gained everlasting glory, grant that, attracted by the celestial " odor of thy virtues,^ we may be brought to the King of kings,'" ^ following in ' Serm. de Assumpt, * Jerem. iii. 4. ' S. Ambrose, Ibid. * Apoc. xiv. 4 the pure way which thou hast mark- ed out for us ! Queen of Yirgins, pray for us. Regina Virginum, ora pro nobis. MEDITATION LIIL QUEEN OF ALL SAINTS, PRAY FOR US. THE Saints have illustrated the Church by fair and admirable virtues; they have astonished the world by the heroism of their zeal, their courage, their devotion, the prodigies of their humility, their patience, their charity; they enter- ed this everlasting dwelling with an abundant harvest of merits, which the Lord "weighed," even to the least, " in a just balance," ^ and en- dowed with " a great reward." ® Mary ! thou art their queen : if the Saints have been, amongst the faithful, as so many rare flowers adorning the garden of the militant Spouse of Christ, thou didst shine, in that mystical garden, as the queen of all flowers; thou didst show forth, by thine incomparable * Cant. i. 3. « Ps. xliv. 15. ^ Job xxxi 6. • Heb. X. 35. 710 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRQIN. example, " that immense treasure of ^ grace wherewith thou wert endow- ed, a treasure incomprehensible to man or angel I" ^ The Saints manifested in them- selves, more or less sensibly, some traits of the life of their divine Master ; in each of them there shone some particular virtue, and "in the Father's house," where "there are many mansions,"^ each receives that share of special glory which he gained during his time of probation. Mary! thou art their queen: what each had of particular merit thou hadst whole and entire ; every characteristic of Jesus, thine ador- able Son, was retraced in thee as clearly as it could be in a creature : all his virtues were practised by thee, and in a degree so high, so perfect, that St. Anselm said of thee, that " after the sanctity of the Holy of holies, there is not, nor can- not be, any like to thine !"^ And now, in the celestial regions, thou art invested with a glory commen- surate to thy sublime merit ; thy • S. Bernardine, Serm. 5, de Nativ. B. F., c 12. • St John xiv. 2. crown is composed of the united splendor of the crowns of all the Saints ; yet that is not enough : thy glory surpasses theirs, even as all their virtues are inferior to thine, and that it is through the merits of Him whom thou didst bring into the world, that they obtained grace to practise those same virtues. The Saints have wonderful influ- ence with God on our behalf: " The Lord," says St. Leo, "is truly admir- able in giving them to us, not only for models, but also for most power- ful protectors. " * Innumerable facts proclaim to the world that "they reign for ever and ever*^ in the city of God,"® and that, from the height of their sublime thrones, they also reign over the earth by a mysterious influence. Mary! of all these powerful intercessors, of all these immortal kings, thou art still the Queen. Thou prayest not as they do, but " commandest in some way : for how could it be, Blessed Virgin ! that He who was born of thee, al- though omnipotent, could resist that » De excel. Virg. * In Natcdi 8. LaurenL » Apoc xxii. 5. • Ibid. iii. 12. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 711 maternal authority which He him- self gave thee." ^ Yes, " thy re- quests are almost orders," says St. Antoninus,^ " and what thou wili- est," says St. Anselm, " is sure to be done ! " ^ Ah I may that admirable Virgin, to whom all Saints do homage for their crowns, be one day our Queen I And for that end, what have we to do? To be holy while on earth. Now, to be holy is to live " the life of God,"* according to the magnili- cent idea of the great Apostle of nations; it is to possess his grace, and to labor constantly to preserve and increase it in one's self; it is to love the Creator sincerely, " with our whole heart, and with our whole soul, and with all our strength :"* for he who loves him so is • united to him in an ineffable manner ; and " he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved," ^ he shall become eternally, in heaven, a "partaker of the divine nature,"^ of the glory and beatitude of God. " Oh ! let us raise," says St. Augustine, "let us ' S. p. Damiau, Serm. de NcUiv. B. V. « T. II., in 3 part. » De excellent. Virg. c. 12. * Ephes. iv. 18. * raise our hopes and direct all our desires to that eternal possession of God, who is the sovereign good and the source of all true goods." ^ Let us beware of incurring the an- athema reserved for those who " set at nought the trim desirable land,"^ so worthy of all our most fervent aspirations. Mary! who admirably united in thine own person all the merits of all the Saints ; thou who didst surpass them all, in this world, by thy virtues as well as privileges, and who, in heaven, art so superior to them in power and glory — with them, with all the happy inhabit- ants of the heavenly Jerusalem, we bow before thee, august Mother of our Eedeemer, who " standest on his right hand, in gilded clothing ! " ^® Thou rulest all the elect, living "habitation j^f God;"" placed, as it were, *^on the top of mountains, and high above the hills ! " ^^ If we con- sidered only thy marvellous great- ness we would not dare to raise our eyes to thee, heavenly Queen ; but " St. Luke X. 27. « St. Matt. xxiv. 13. » 2 Peter i. 4. • In Psalm. 102. » Ps. cv. 24. '• Ps. xliv. 10. " Ephes. ii 22. " Mich. iv. 1. m MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. we know all thy charity, all thy goodness, all thy mercy, and our confidence in thee is unbounded ; by thine assistance we hope to lead a holy life, and to gain a share of that kingdom of God where we shall ever rejoice for having said to thee, here below, with a piety worthy of thy sweet majesty: Queen of all Saints, pray for us. Ragina Sanctorum omnium^ ora pro nobis. MEDITATION LIY. QUEEN CONCECVED WITHOUT SIN, PRAY FOR us. IF we have now the sweet* con- solation of being able to salute Mary as Queen conceived without Sin, we owe it to the piety of our bishops, who petitioned the Holy See to that effect. The Scripture calls God, in an absolute manner, "the King,"^ to express the excel- lence of his supreme Majesty ; is it not fitting, then, to honor the sover- eignty of her who is "above all, except God,"^ by calling her the • Pa. iliv.: cxliv. * S. Bern., Serm. 6, c. 6. » Acts of the Martyr St. Andrew. Queen f And after the invocation which implores her as Queen of All Saints, what other could be more appropriate than that which honors at the same time her regal grandeur and the privilege of her exemp- tion from original sin ? — a privilege which w^ould, of itself, distinguish her from all the elect, even though she were not, by so many other titles, superior to them — a privilege constantly proclaimed by the tra- ditions of the Church, the faithful echo of the Apostolic teaching. In his discourse to the proconsul Egius, St. Andrew hiuiself gives Mary the title of " Immaculate ;" he compares her to " that earth where- of the first man was formed, which had not received the malediction of the- Lord, the consequence and punishment of the primitive fall."^ Origen, who lived, very near the time of the Apostles, speaks of her as "formed in grace, free from the pestilential breath of Satan;"'' St. Amphilocus, as " without spot or stain ;"^ St. Epiphanius, as "fairer by nature than all the angelic host, the immaculate sheep who brought * Homil. vi. in Luc. » IV. Disc, in S. Deip. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 713 forth tbe divine Lamb ;"^ St. Ephra- * im, as " Virgin without spot, or stain, or corruption, an absolute stranger to all sin, to all imperfection ;" ^ St. Cyril, as "preserved from the orig- inal stain." ^ Is it necessary to quote other organs for the transmission of the primitive belief? Who does not know that St. Jerome,* St. Augus- tine,^ St. Fulgentius,^ St. Ildefonso,^ St. John Damascene,^ St. Peter Damian,^ St. Anslem,^" St. Bonaven- ture," and even St. Thomas,^^ likewise bear witness to this uninterrupted tradition of the Church ; that the testimony of the holy doctors is supported by the monuments of both the Greek and Latin churches, the words of the sacred liturgy, the customs of dioceses, and those of religious orders ; finally, that on the invitation of the illustrious Pius IX.,^^ the several bishops of the Cath- olic Church have attested, in an au- ' De Laudib. Virg. » Orat. in S. Dei Oen. » In Evang. Joan. I., vL c. 15, < In Fs. 77. » De natura et gratia, c. 36. «• Serm. de Laudib. M. » Dispul. de V. M. « Orat. de not. B. V. M. thentic manner, the attachment of the faithful to this belief. So that this truth is recommended by its antiquity, universality, perpetuity, which are the principal foundations for the dogmas of Christianity. Moreover, who does not under- stand, that, if the personal union of the divine nature and the human nature in Jesus Christ rendered ab- solutely necessary the conception of the Man-God in the state of grace, the divine maternity, "the nearest possible approach to that union," ^* would have been totally incompati- ble with the conception of Mary in a state of sin? What! she whom God had announced from the begin- ning of the world as one who was to escape the bite of the infernal serpent, as one destined even " to crush his head,"^^ could she ever have been struck by his dart, or be for one moment "under his pow- er?"^^ Could she who was to be 9 Or. 12 de nat. M. " De concept. V., c. 18. » Serm. 11 de B. V. " In Lib. I. Sent. disc. 44, q. 1, art 3. " Encyc. Let. 2d Febr. 1849. " Dionys. Garth. 1. 2 de laud. V. •* Gen. iii. 15. •« lOid. 16. n4 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. the repairer of Eve's transgression, be left inferior to Eve, who was created in the state of grace ? She, in fine, who was to live for nine months the same corpoi*al life with the Incarnate Woi*d, could she have been, at the first moment of her existence, struck with the divine malediction, odious to the Lord, " a child of wrath ?"^ Oh ! no, no ; such could never be the case. Virgin so tenderly beloved by God and man ! Ah ! the latter well understands and feels it, thanks to the ideas of sin, of grace, and of the infinite sanctity of God given us by Christianity; the latter loves to proclaim, in the face of heaven and earth, that it would be neither just nor possible that the Son of God would have to turn away in disgust, even for one moment, from her who was to be his mother. But man also attaches a measureless import- ance to the shunning of sin ; he con- sidei-s it, as Mary did, the greatest of all happiness to be in favor with God; man "watches and prays "^ assiduously, in order to preserve the treasure of divine grace; man « Ephes. ii. 3. • St, Mark xiii. 33. tries, by his good works, daily to strengthen its sacred bonds, daily to increase its inestimable fruits. Mary ! blessed Queen ! Queen of queens I Queen conceived without Sin I this is the last flight of our hearts to thee ; this is the last ray of glory which, on earth, we add to thy crown I What a happiness for us to be able to say to thee, that "the Lord possessed thee in the beginning;"^ that " thou art undeflled, and fair, and without spot or stain!"* Ah! be always the Queen of our hearts, thou who hast the signal honor of being exempt from the original anathema pronounced on all men ; and, that this dominion may be pleasing to thee, grant that we may apply our- selves more and more to serve God with purity, with fervor. Hoping to obtain that grace, we say to thee, with all possible humility, confi- dence, and love. Queen conceived without Sin, PRAY FOR us. Regina sine Lobe concepta, ora pro nobis, » Prov. viii. 22. • * Cant V. 2 ; iv. 7 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 715 MEDITATION IN. 9 LAMB OF GOD, WHO TAKEST AWAY THE SINS OF THE WORLD, SPARE US, O LORD. THE Church terminates all her invocations in honor of the Vir- gin by a passionate appeal to her adorable Son, under the touching emblem of "the Lamb who taketh away the sins of the world." ^ And first, she makes us consider him as the Judge whose mercy we have to implore ; the Lamb who sitteth on a lightning throne;^ he who is to judge us by his Cross, " the sign of the Son of Man,"^ the sign of "ruin and of resurrection"* to all of us, according as our works have been contrary or conformable to the sa- cred maxims which proceed from it. Alas I we do not, as often as we should, consider Jesus in his char- acter of Judge. We love to con- sider him under the figure of a good Shepherd,^ a good Father,^ a tender Mother,^ and that is only what we are bound to do, since he seems to delight in representing himself un- « St. John L 29. * Apoc. iv. 5 ; v. 6. » St. Matt. xxiv. 30. * St. Luke ii. 34. » St. Luke XV. 'Ibid. der these similitudes in the holy Gospel, in order to make us sensi- ble of the inefi"able treasures of his goodness and his love for us. But we forget that if we do not worthily correspond to so much love and so much goodness, we are but the more criminal for having " detained the truth of God in our hearts ;"^ we for- get that, the greater that goodness, the more ardent and the more gen- erous that love, we are the more bound to be sensible of it ; we for- get, in fine, that, if we are so un- grateful to that " Lamb of God," ^ so mild, so amiable, so tender to us, as to violate his absolute right to our will, our affections, the use of all our faculties, we expose our- selves to find only in him, in the other world, " the terrible lion of the fold of Juda,"^** before whom the reprobate shall one day cry out " to the mountains and to the rocks : Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb."^^ But what! is not that Lamb all ' St Matt. xxiu. 37. ' St. John L 29. • Rom. L 18. '" Apoc. v. 5. " Apoc. vi 16. 716 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. goodness, all meekness, all charity ?^ * Oh yes ! Jesus has well proved it to us; he did for us things that men do not even for those they tenderly love. But then he is as just as he is good, all his perfections being equally infinite ; and if we reject the mild reign of his incomparable love, must not his justice reign in its turn at the end of this life, which is given us to choose one or the other? Now, let us sincerely "judge oui*selves :" ^ is it not true that we have but little gratitude? What do I say ? is it not true that we are ungrateful, that we treat Jesus as though we owed him nothing, and sometimes even as if we were anx- ious to irritate his justice against us? Is it not true that whosoever it stiikes has well deserved eternal punishment ? . . . . Yes, if, on the subject of the ineffable mystery of the Eucharist, we may truly say, considering the mystery of the Cross, Love explains love! so, re- gai-ding on one «iide the prodigies of the goodness and tenderness of Jesus for men, on the other, the in- difference, the odious and obstinate ' 1 John iv. 8. « 1 Cor. xi. 31. » Ps. L 19. ingratitude of so many sinners, we may well exclaim. The Incarnation, the Redemption, the Eucharist, Heaven, sufficiently account for Hell I . . . . And even Hell itself, is it not, in the adorable designs of Providence, as it were, the last means of forcing men to work out their salvation when all nobler mo- tives have failed to effect it. But we who have, perhaps, often deserved that Hell, we who have perhaps too long overlooked the claims of the Lamb of God, we who have abused his blessings, outraged his love, ah! let us ask pardon of him for our unworthy conduct; let us excite ourselves to a profound sentiment of sorrow, thinking of the grievous wrongs wherewith he has to reproach us ; let us pi-ostrate ourselves before him, with a truly " contrite and humbled heart," ^ say- ing to him still more by feeling than by word : " Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world," ^ spare us, Lord! Spare us, sovereign Mas- ter of all things, sovereign "Judge of the living and of the dead,"^ * St. John L 29. • Acts X. 42. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 717 spare us! It is true we are but ungrateful sinners, who have slight- ed thy ineffable love, foolishly despised thy rewards, as though heaven were not worth some exer- tion, and who have braved thy justice, as though the threat of its chastisements were not serious ! . . . 1 how culpable we are! .... But treat us not according to our merits, treat us, rather, according to thine infinite mercy, which we now im- plore, striking our breast like the humble publican,^ and crying with all our heart, " Spare, Lord, spare thy people ; " ^ that, by the interces- sion of thy divine Mother, thy clem- ency may be glorified in us ; ^ that in us may be fulfilled the saying of the Prophet Joel, "The Lord hath spared his people."* Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, Lord. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mun- di, parce nobis, Domine. ' St. Luke xviii. 13. » Joel ii. 17. ' Isaiah xxx. 18. * Joel ii. 18. » Apoc. i. 18. MEDITATION LVI. LAMB OF GOD, WHO TAKEST AWAY THE SINS OF THE WORLD. GRACIOUSLY HEAR US, LORD. AFTER having asked the divine Lamb to forgive us, we urge and beseech him to vouchsafe to hear our request. The first cry of our heart was one of lively repentance, of profound and bitter sorrow. The second is a cry of humble supplica- tion, imploring Infinite Goodness for a great and signal favor, on which depends our eternal salvation : Gra- ciously hear us, Lord ! The Church makes us here repeat the title of Lord to " the Lamb who taketh away the sins of the world," in order to penetrate us more and more with the infinite greatness and majesty of that incomparable bene- factor whom we have had the mis- fortune to offend, and to render us more and more contrite for our of- fences. But it is also to remind us that He to whom we pray is the absolute master of all things; that he has " the keys of death and of hell;"^ and that, consequently, our prayer cannot be too humble, too fervent I Ah ! let it be then with rl8 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. all our hearts that we ejaculate, Graciously hear us^ Lord I For we know too well, alas! that we are very guilty, but we know not, and can never know with certain- ty, whether God has forgiven us. AMierefore it is that we should every day bewail our sins, every day endeavor to repair them before the Loi-d, and every day, with new ardor, beseech our good God to for- get "our former iniquities."^ David, though assured of his pardon by the mouth of the prophet Nathan, who said, "the Lord hath taken away thy sin,"^ had still his crime con- stantly before his eyes;' he be- sought the Most High to "wash him yet naore from his iniquity;"* even in the night he watered his couch with his tears.* Ah! what, then, should we do, we who "have wrought iniquity,"^ alas! too often, and have not received from the infallible lips of a prophet the as- surance of our reconciliation with God! St. Paul, that great Apostle, who merited to be taken up to the third • Ps. IxxviiL 8. • 2 Kings liL 13. » Ps. L 6. «Ps.L4. » Ps. tL 7. f heaven, has not he also said, " I am not conscious to myself in anything; yet in this I am not justified?"^ What then ? that admirable servant and minister of God, who had re- ceived so many marks of his good- ness and love ; that illustrious saint, who had performed numberless achievements for the glory of his divine Master,^ in a word, the in- comparable St. Paul dares not be- lieve himself justified ! And we whose life has been so far from resembling his, we who, after com- mitting many and grievous sins, have done little or nothing to ex- piate them, we live as though we were sure of going straight to heaven. Ah ! rather, how great should be our humility, how un- ceasing our contrition! "The no- bler the victim," says Bossuet, " the more acceptable the oifering : there is no doubt, then, that it is incom- parably more meritorious to humble our heart before God than to mor- tify our body for his sake."^ But while humbling our soul before the Lord, let us at the same time bewail • Ps. cv. 6. » 1 Cor. iv. 4. • 2 Cor. xi • n. Panegyric on St. Francis of Paula, p. 203. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 719 unceasingly our misfortune in having defiled our baptismal robe of inno- cence, and in some sort "trodden under foot"^ the adorable blood of that divine Lamb who became our victim. " The more we deplore the misery into which we have fallen, the more do we approach the good we have lost. Let us, then, never cease to pour forth tears so effec- tive, that our sorrow, substituted for an eternal punishment, may, in some measure, iiftitate that intoler- able perpetuity by continuing at least till our last agony.'-' ^ Lamb of God, adorable victim, " slain in figure from the beginning of the world," ^ in every oblation offered under the Mosaic law ; slain in dread reality on the rock of Cal- vary, on the very spot where Adam of old was buried,'^ "so that as all die in Adam, in thee all may receive life;"^ immolated, ever since, in a mystical, but not less real manner, on our altars, where thou art always, " as it were, slain ;"® when we pray. • Heb. X. 29. ' Bos., II. Panegyric on St. Francis of Paula, p. 196. ' Apoc. xiii. 8. * S. Ambrose, Origen, Tertullian, S. Athana- * entreat thee to be propitious to us, do we not correspond with the de- sire of the heart which loved us even to excess ? ^ No, no, it belongs not to the designs of thy justice to treat us without mercy, since it is thou who givest us the grace to re- pent, to implore thee with our whole heart, and to wish to efface the sins of the past by penance. It is, then, thy will that, uniting with the au- gust Pontiffs, and other ministers of the Church, who pray unceas- ingly for all its members, with the Blessed Virgin ever pleading for us all, we should say to thee, with the deepest soitow and humiliation, but also with the most firm confidence, that " so having prayed, we shall be heard." ^ God our Saviour, graciously hear our supplication : Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, graciously HEAR US, Lord. Agnus Dei^ qui Mis peccata mundi^ exaiidi nos, Domine. sius, S. Epiphanius, S. Cyril of Jerusalem : See Biblioth. Choisie des Peres, par Guillon, t. ix. * Origen, in Maith. ' Ephes. ii. 4 J, « Apoc. V. 6. • Eccles. xxxiii. 4. 720 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. MEDITATION LVU. LAMB OF GOD, WHO TAKEST AWAY THE SINS OF THE WORLD, UAVE MERCY ON US. HERE we still peiisist in asking pardon for our sins, and be- seech the divine Lamb to have mercy wi us. This time we do not add the title of Lord; we wish so to speak that the divine Jesus may forget his greatness and his majesty so out- raged by us, to remember only his infinite mercy, that adorable com- passion which he himself made so lively and so tender by deigning to be "tempted in all things like as we are."^ Thus we make a last appeal to the adorable heart of our Saviour — an appeal which cannot fail to be efficacious. Is it not, in fact, as if we said to him, Thou " who delivered thyself for us,"^ who art "the propitiation for our sins,"' ah ! doubtless we do not deserve to be heard when we ask thy forgive- ness for those we have had the misfortune to commit, but we ap- peal to that ineffable pity which thou feelest for us; save us, save us, divine Lamb, save us, at least, ' Heb. iv. 15. » Ephes. v. 2. '1 John il 2. f through pure compassion, through pure mercy I . . . . If David formerly said to God with a sublime confidence, based on a sublime sentiment of his in- finite mercy, " Thou wilt pardon my sin, for it is great;"* if, before the Incarnation or Redemption (mys- teries wherein that same mercy was so fully manifested), he had so high, so enlarged an idea of that abyss of goodness which loves to pour itself forth, on th6 penitent sinner in a dew of grace and pardon ; what an idea, what sentiments should we ourselves have when we address ourselves to that infinite goodness manifested to us in the divine na- ture of a God become our victim! .... Ah ! if we would know how deeply the tender and loving heart of that divine Lamb is moved by any appeal to his compassion, let us open the Gospel. During the whole course of his mortal life, who ever said, Have mercy on its ! with- out obtaining his request? Two blind men follow him crying, Son of David, "have mercy on us!"' He touches their eyes, and they are opened to the light. A Chananean * Ps. xxiv. IL • St. Matt. ix. 27. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN 721 woman, whose daughter is torment- ^ ed by the devil, cries out in her turn, " Son of David, have mercy on nie ! " " Be it done to thee as thou wilt," says Jesus answering,^ and her daughter is cured that very mo- ment. " Have pity on my son," said an afflicted father to him ; " he suffereth much."^ Jesus instantly cures him. Near Jericho, a blind man, named Bartimeus, also im- plores his compassion — " Son of David, have mercy on me ! " ' Jesus speaks, and the blind man recovers his sight. Ten lepers cry out from afar off, " Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"'^ and they obtain their cure. That admirable sympathy for all human miseries, that tender pity which made St. Peter say of him that he ''went about doing good,"^ can it be that Jesus, glorified, has ceased to feel it ? Ah ! see, rather, how he delights to manifest it more and more by the continual prodigy of the adorable Eucharist ! Does he not in that mystery place his blood and his merits at our dis- posal ? Does he not offer himself every day and every hour as a vic- ' St. Matt. XV. 22, 28. * St. Matt. xvii. 14 '^ St. Mark x. 4.7. tim of propitiation for our sins, and of impetration for all the graces of which we stand in need ? Does he not therein make a continual sac- rifice of his glory, which is, as it were, annihilated under humble spe- cies ; the sacrifice of his liberty, bound in some way to the will of his ministers ; the sacrifice of the operation of his justice, so often provoked by the crimes of sinners, and suspended by the marvellous mildness of his mercy ? For nearly two thousand years has this Lamb of God unceasingly manifestcid in this stupendous miracle his incom- parable devotion to our salvatiijn ; how then could we doubt the liveli- ness, the tenderness, the generosity of his compassion for hearts touched with repentance and desirous of his love? Let us, then, wholly give ourselves up to the sweetest confi- dence, and say to him: " Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world," have mercy on us, who are much to be pitied, and so utterly unworthy of thy goodness. Ah ! if thou didst but consider thine infinite justice, thou wouldst * St. Luke xvii. 13. » Acts X. 3a T2'2 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGTN. strike the ungrateful wretches who have returned thee evil for good, coldness or insult for tlie tenderest love. But we implore tliat pity, that inexhaustible mercy wherewith thy heart overflows for penitent sin- nei*8 ; we implore that adorable blood which quenches the fire of "the wrath of God,"^ and effects " the remission of sins ;" '^ and that our prayers may be more effectual Apoc. XV. 7. « Col. i. 14. with thee, we unite them with those of the Blessed Virgin, our good and sweet Mother, and by her sacred lips wo offer thee this pious sup- plication which the Church places on those of her children, w^hatsoever their condition may be — Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy ON US. Agnus Dei., qui toUis peccata mundi, <f miserere nobis. LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. O UB tuum prsesidium confugimus, ^ Genitrix, nostras deprecationes r sancta Dei y ITE fly to thy patronage, holy Mother " ^ of God, despise not our petitions in our le despicias in necessitatibus njDstris ; sed a periculis cunctis necessities ; but deliver us always from all dan- libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. gers, glorious and blessed Virgin. Kyrie eleison. Lord, have mercy. Kyrie eleison. Lord, have mercy. Christe eleison. Christ, have mercy. Ghriste eleison. Christ, have mercy. Kyrie eleison. Lord, have mercy. Kyrie eleison. Lord, have mercy. Christe audi nos. Christ, hear us. Christe exavdi nos. Christ, graciously hear us. Pater de coelis Deus, Fili Redemptor mundi Deus, »l God the Father of heaven, H| God the Son, Redeemer of the world, § § Spiritus Sancte Deus, i*'! God the Holy Ghost, § | Sancta Trinitas, unus Deus, 3 Holy Trinity, one God, ^ Sancta Maria, Ora pro nobis. Holy Mary, Pray /or us Sancta Dei Genitrix, Holy Mother of God, Sancta Virgo virginum, Holy Virgin of virgins. Mater Christi, Mother of Christ, Mater divinge gratise, Mother of divine grace. Mater purissima. Mother most pure. Mater castissima, ? Mother most chaste, Mater inviolata. Mother inviolate, ^ Mater intemerata "S Mother undefiled, **i Mater amabilis, 1 Mother most amiable, ^ Mater admirabilis, 1 Mother most admirable, g Mater Creatoris, Mother of our Creator, Mater Redemptoris, Mother of our Redeemer, Virgo prudentissima, Virgin most prudent. Virgo veneranda. Virgin most venerable. Virgo prsedicanda. Virgin most renowned. Virgo potens, Virgin most powerful, Virgo Clemens, Virgin most merciful, 1 Yirgo fidelU, Speoulam jastituB, Sedes npientiaB, Causa nostne laetitia, Yas spirituale, Yas honorabile, Yas insigne deTotiom% Bosa m jstioa, Turris Davidioa, Turris ebnmea, Domas anrea, Foederis area, Janna cceli, Stella matatina, Solus infirmorum, Befuginm peccatomm, Consolatrix afflictorum, Auxilium Christianomm, Regina Angelorum, Regioa Patriarchamm, Regina Prophetamm, Rf^na Apostolomm, Regina Martyrnm, Regina Confessorum, Regina Yirginnm, « Regina Sanctorum omnium, Regina sine labe originali concepta, Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi. Farce nobis, Domine. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Exaudi nos, Domine. Ag^us Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi. Minerere nobis. Chrisie audi noa Ckrixte exaudi nos. Ant. Sub taum prsesidium confugimus, sancta Dei Genitrix, nostras deprecation es ne despicias in neoessitatibus nostris ; sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper. Viri»o gloriosa et benedicta. V. Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genitrix. B. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi. I f Yii'gin most faithful, Mirror of justice, Seat of wisdom, Cause of our joy. Spiritual Vessel, Vessel of honor, Vessel of Singular devotion, Mystical Rose, Tower of David, Tower of ivory. House of gold, Ark of the covenant, Gate of heaven, Morning star, Health of the sick, Refuge of sinners, Comforter of the afiiicted. Help of Christians, Queen of Angels, Queen of Patriarchs, Queen of Prophets, Queen of Apostles, Queen of Martyrs, Queen of Confessors, Queen of Virgins, Queen of all Saints, Queen conceived without original sin, Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, Spare us, Lord. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins ol the world, Graciously hear us, Lord. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins o^ the world. Have mercy on us. Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear u.% Ant. We fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God, despise not our petitions in our neces- sities ; but deliver us always from all dangers, O glorious and blessed Virgin. V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God. B. That we may be made worthy of the pro- mises of Christ. 1 MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 725 Oremus. Let us pray. Gratiam tuam, qusesumus, Domine, menti- Pour forth, we beseech thee, Lord, thy bua nostris infunde : ut qui, Angelo nuntiante, grace into our hearts ; that we to whom the In- Christi Filii tui Incarnationem cognovimus, per carnation of Christ, thy Son, was made known Passionem »J« ejus et Crucem ad Resurrectionis by the message of an angel, may, by his Pas- gloriam perducamur. Per eundem Christum sion *J« and Cross, be brought to the glory of Dominum nostrum. his resurrection. Through the same Christ our Lord. R. Amen. R. Amen. V. Divinum auxilium maneat semper nobis- V. May the divine assistance remain always cum. with us. R. Amen. R, Amen. Saluc E eg in a. O ALVE, Regina, Mater misericordiae ; *^ Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve. TTAIL. holy Queen, Mother of mercy ; -*--■- Our life, our sweetness, and our hope, all hail. Ad te clamamus, exules filii Hevse ; To thee we cry, poor banished sons of Eve ; Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac To thee we sigh, weeping and mourning in lacrymarum valle. this vale of tears. Eia ergo, Advocata nostra, Therefore, our Advocate, Illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos con- Turn thou on us those merciful eyes of verte ; thine ; Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui And after this our exile, show us Nobis post hoc exilium ostende, The blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus, Clemens, pia, dulcis Virgo Maria. merciful, O kind, sweet Virgin Mary. V. Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genitrix. V. Pray for us, holy Mother of God. R. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus ChristL R. That we may be made worthy of the pro- mises of Christ IHcmorarc. J^TEMORARE, piissima Virgo Maria, non •^'^ esse aiiditum a sseculo, quemquam ad tua "O EMEMBER, most gracious Virgin Mary, -*-^ that never was it known, that any one currentem prsesidia, tua implorantem auxilia, who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, tua petentem suffragia, esse derelictum. Ego, and sought thy intercession, was left unaided. tali animatus confidentia, ad te, Virgo virginum, Lispired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, Hater, oarro. Ad te veuiu ; coram te gemens peooaior asaiaia Noli, Mater Yerbi, verba mea despioere, sed audi propitia et exaudi. Amen. Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To thee I come ; before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful.* O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen. * Here you may make your request For taying the "Salre Begin* " in the morning, and the "Idtany of the Blessed Virgin" in the evening, adding to «adi the following Tersicle : V. Dignare me laadare te, Virgo sacrata. B, Da mihi virtutem contra hostes tuos. V. Benedictus Deus in Sanctis suis. R. Amen. V. Vouchsafe that I may praise thee, O sacred Virgin. a. Give me strength against thy enemies. V. Blessed be God in his Saints. S. Amen. Ist An indulgence of 100 days every day. 2d. An indulgence of 7 years and 7 quadragentB every Sunday. 3d. A plenary indulgence on any two Simdays in every month, on all the Feasts of the Blessed Virgin, on the Feast of All Saints, to thow who repeat the above-mentioned prayers every day, with the usual conditions ; and also at the hour of death. An indulgence of 800 days every time the three following ejaculatory prayers are said, to obtain a happy death : Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, I give you my heart and my life. Jescs, Joseph, and Mary, assist me in my last agony. Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, may I die in peace in your blessed company. For saying any one of them, 100 days. Sixtns v., anxious to propagate more and more the devotion to Mary, and to induce the Faithful to have recourse to her intercession, granted by the Bull "Reddituri," of the 11th July, 1687, two hundred days' indulgence to those who should redte, with a contrite heart, the "Litany of the Blessed Virgin," with the versicle "Ora pro nobis," etc., and the prayer "Qratiam tuam," etc. Benedict XIII. confirmed this grant, approving of a decree of the Congregation of Indul- gences of the 12th of January. 1728. Pius VII., by his decree "Urbis et Orbis." of the 30th September, 1817, extended the indulgence to 300 days, made it applicable to the souls in purgatory, and added a Plenary Indulgence, which may be gained on the Feasts of the Conception, the Nativity, the Annunciation, the Purification, and the Assumption, by those who say this Litany every day, provided that they go to confession with due contrition, receive the Holy Commimion, visit a church oi public chapel, and pray there according to the intention of the sovereign pontiff. ' MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 727 MEDITATION UPON THE ANGELICAL SALUTATION. After the TiOrd's Prayer, tlie use of the Antrelical Salutation has now become ever3'where more general among the pious Faithful ; how rightly and justly, has been very often shown, and is proved by the fact itself. Be it that the envious gna^li their teeth, tliat the -'Scourge uf Mary.'" and infidels cavil; yet the custom of saluting, and tlie form of praying to the Virgin cannot be otherwise than strongly approved by us. since it was brought from heaven by a messenger of God ; for who is there who can doubt that he came an ambiissador taught by God ? So. therefore, will it be just and right, even at this day, to honor the Virgin now. whom it has been the will of God BO Ui honor of old. What, then, we now propose to do is, to point out the use and object of the Angelical Salutation. For terse as it is in expression, yet fruitful in mysteries, its frequent repetition, with the aid of a little attentive reflection, will cause it to be relished the more. Assuredly, notliing is so becoming and suitable to a Christian, as frequently and devoutly to call to mind his Redemp- tion : but becau.se the Incarnation of the Son of God is its first and chief mystery, and it was ordered by the Divine Wisdom that this should be accomplished by means of an embassage sent from heaven to a Virgin, how can it be denied that it is a pious duty, both becoming and well-pleasing to God, often to reflect upon the very words with which it was his will that the angel should announce so great a mystery, expected during so many ages, and longed for with sighs so many and so great ; and so to take delight in the Salutation with which the heaven-sent ambassador first accosted the Virgin who was destined to so great a work ? And when this is done with the special oi)ject of saluting a Virgin who was so highly beloved and chosen of all by God to be his Mother, we may, with feelings of the utmost gratitude recall the benefit of our Eedemption, and the work of our Lord's Incarnation. Now. when we salute the Virgin, what kind of salutation may we expect from her in return ? To thost. >yl".o salute her, undoubtedly she will on her part render her good wishes for, or rather her aid towards, their salvation. For how can it be that a Mother would ever refrain from pouring out a heart so tender, so maternal as hers, upon those who are destined to be co-heirs with her Son, especially when we bear within us the grateful recollection of so great a mystery that of old was accomplished in herself? Surely, then, she will rejoice in addressing her Son with suppliant prayers for the promotion of its beneficial effects tipon ourselves. For what can be more pleasing to so merciful a Mother than to obtain for us the very thing for the sake of which she became the Mother of God. or for which God in herself was made man? But in vain is she God's Mother, and God man, if man become not partaker of the divine nature, and attain salvation. That God may avert this from us, let us beseech him through his Mother, in saluting her from our hearts. Hail Mary. TTAIL. and rejoice, O most blessed, most -*— *- pure, and most worthy Virgin Mary! O most illustrious Star of the sea! who shinest more brightly than all the rest over the dark- ness of this world ! who art so honorably saluted by the Archangel sent to thee from heaven, and by thy kinswoman, Elizabeth, by the teaching of the Holy Ghost ; and now, too, by all the congregation of the faithful from the desire of thy honor and love ! Behold, I praise thee and salute thee, and gratulate thee, O most holy Virgin and Mother ! and I praise in thee God the Father, who made his only Son to be thine * also, and to be at the same time the Brother of us all. I praise God the Son, who has chosen thee to be his Mother, that by thee he might show himself our Saviour ; I praise God the Holy Ghostj who, by his own wonderful power, has accomplished that unspeakable work in thy womb! Full of grace. ■^RATH and malediction is on all the children of Adam ; but thou hast found grace with God ; nay, thou art full of grace, free from everj' fault, and filled with all virtues and endowments of gractf. What marvel is it if •2S MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. thoa Art fall of grace, when the fiiUneRS of the Qodhead has dwelt corporeally > in thee I when tilt very Fountain of grace and salvatiun has pDined himself entirely into thee alonu ; and by thee, as by a river or channel, has willed him- Ki-lf to be poured out upon us all! In less uieiuiure has grace been given to the rest uf the Saints ; but the very fullness of grace has pour- ed itself into thee. For even though we do read uf some who were full of grace, yet thou art so in a manner exceedingly and pre-emi- nently different from those. For when vessels are tilled, both great and small, all are full ; but tht! vessel which holds the most has the grt-utest quantity of liquid. How great, then, must be the grace that is in thee, to enable thee to con- tain God, whom not the whole world is able to contain ! to* enable thee, I say, to be the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven, the Mistress of the Angels, the Mediatress and the Advocate of men ! But to what purpose art thou fvdl, if not to overflow to us also ? O that thy fountains may be conveyed abroad,* that those sweet odors, those gifts of graces, may flow forth upon us, that we may, all of us, receive of a fullness so great ! Let thy goodness, O Blessed Virgin, diffuse abroad that very grace of which thou art full, that from the overflowing stream of thy bounty the guilty may receive pardon, the sick cure, the faint-hearted strength, the afflicted consola- tion, the endangered aid and deliverance. O that I may merit to obtain even one small drop out of a fullness so great, to water my dry and thirsty heart ! The Lord is with thee. TTOW rich and blessed must be the posses- -^-^ sion of her who possesses the Lord her God ! What good must there not be there, where is present the Lord, who himself is the CoLa.9. « Prov. V. 16. Fountain of all goodness 1 Doubtless when all things are God's, nothing is lacking to him who possesses God. True, the Lord is with thee, as he is with all just persons ; but far more pre- eminently, by special grace, and by a particular providence, is he with thee ; with thee in thy heart, with thee in thy womb ; Ihe. Power of the Most High {Qod the Father) ahall overxhadovb thee. The Holy Ghost has come upon thee. The Word made flesh has come forth of thee. The Lord is with thee and in thee, as a king upon his throne, as a bridegroom in his bridal chamber, as dear, nay, far more dearly and closely than is a friend in a friend. Obtain, O Lady, that my Lord may be with me by grace, who was with thee by the closest union of love and corporal presence 1 Doubtless all blessings will be with him in whose company is the Lord, neither shall I fear any evils, if the Lord is with me. Blessed art thou among women. "OLESSED indeed among women, since thou -*-' alone of so many thousands hast pleased the King most high. Justly blessed, who hast been the object of so many prayers and sighs, expected for so many ages, foretold by so many oracles ! Truly blessed among women, who art exempt from the common curse and condition of women, so as neither to continue barren, nor to lose thy virginity, nor to bring forth with pain! There lies, moreover, a hard necessity and a heavy burden upon all the other daughters of Eve. If they are fruitful, they suffer pain and defilement ;' if barren, they are cursed.^ Thou art at once both fruitful and pure ; and, by being devoid of pain, hast turned into a blessing the curse of Eve. Cursed of old was the earth in the work of the sinner, which, even when cultivated, sprouts forth thorns and briers to the heirs of maledic- * Gen. iii. 16. * Eiod. xxiii. 26. MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 729 tion. But blessed is the earth now in the work of the Eedeemer, which brings forth to all men remission of sins, and the fruit of Life, and has destroyed the sentence of the original curse upon the sons of Adam. O Blessed One, in that thou art the Mother of a Son, in whom all nations shall be blessed I Therefore shall all generations call thee blessed, because he that is mighty has done to thee great things. For thou conceivest, but without con- cupiscence ; thou art heavy with child, but not overburdened. Thou bringest forth, but with- out travail. Thou knowest not a man, and yet thou bearest a Son. O what a Son is he ! Thou becomest the true mother of him, whose true Father is God : thou bearest God, and conceivest of God : a fruitful Virgin, a chaste and inviolate Mother. How can it then be that thou art not blessed among women ? And blessed is the fruit of thy wombj Jesus. "pijESSED, I say, because he in whom all -*-^ nations are blessed is the Author of grace and the foiintain of all blessing. Him do we bless and praise in thee, O Blessed Virgin, whom likewise thy soul praises and magnifies alone above all, because he has done to thee those great and wonderful things which we admire and venerate in thee, who is mighty over all things, God blessed forever ! Eve ate the fruit of death, and, with herself, brought us to ruin. Thou hast brought forth to the world the Fruit of Life, and, behold ! we have lived again. O how blessed is the womb that has borne and produced for us such fruit ! Thou rejoicest, O holy Parent! and feastest now, but in another form, upon the Fruit of thy womb. Be satisfied, then, O Mother ! with the glory of thy Son, but scatter to thy little ones thy crumbs ! Now thou art Mistress at the table ; we, the dogs, under the table. As the eyes of the handmaid are on the hands of her mistress, so do our attendant souls expect of thee the Sustenance of life. By thee have we partaken of the Fruit of Life at the Table of the Mysteries that are thereon ; by thee let us par- take of Jesus, the blessed fruit of thy womb, at the table of everlasting joys ! Amen.' ' Thus much more has been written than our purpose required, for the benefit of those who dislike the frequent repetitions of the " Hail Mary." Pope Paul V. has granted an indulgence of a hundred days to those who recite the "Hail Mary " at the stroke of the clock. >s*' /■ THE J^^^ SHALL BUD LIKE THE LILY, AND BLOSSnw VTFPNALLT BEFORE THE LORD. THE ADMIEABLE LIFE OF THE GLORIOUS PATRIARCH SAINT JOSEPH: TO WHICH IB ADDED THX LIVES OF ST. JOACHIM AND ST. ANNE TAKEN FROM THE CITE MYSTIQUE DE DIEU, (ths utstical citt ov aoD.) TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF THE ABBIJ J. A. BOULLAN, DOCTOR IN THEOLOGY, BY MRS. J. SADLIER. PUBLISHED WITH THE APPROBATION OF THE LATE MOST REV. JOHN HUGHES, D. D., AND THE MOST REV. J. McCLOSKET, D. D., ARCHBISHOP OF NEW YORK. ▲ NSW, ENLABQED AND BSYISSD SDITION. PUBLISHED BY D. & J. SADLIER & CO., 31 BARCLAY STREET. ' MONTREAL :— CORNER OF NOTRE DAME AND ST. FRANCIS X.iVIER STS. 1873. TO THE DIVINE HEART OF JESUS, AND TO MARY IMMACULATE. JESUS I Son of the Eternal Father! Divine Eedeemer of our souls, whom Thou hast redeemed by the effusion of Thy precious blood ! Thou hast deigned, during Thy mortal life, to call by the sweet name of father, the glorious St. Joseph, and Thou hast chosen to be named by men the son of Joseph. Word of God 1 Master of eternal wisdom 1 to whom, unless it be to Thy Sacred Heart, can I more worthily make the offering of this Uttle book, in honor of the incom- parable Patriarch? Deign, I implore Thee, to bless it, and its author. All unworthy and miserable as I am, I beseech thee that this life of Thine adopted father may bear fruits of grace to many soula — that it may become a blessing to the dwellings which receive it — that the sinner may be converted, and the just encouraged to become holy, by meditating upon it. O Sacred Heart of Jesus 1 vouch- safe to grant that grace, and these favors, in memory of Thy complaisance in the fidelity and love of Thy glorious servant. Saint Joseph I Mother of Jesus 1 Immaculate Virgin 1 Spouse of St. Joseph, thou who hast deigned to com- municate to us by means of thy beloved daughter, Mary of Agreda, all that forms the subject of this volume, disdain not. Queen of Mercy, to bless it. I place it in thy hands. Thou knowest, that, overwhelmed by the weight of my miseries, I have had recourse to thy glorious spouse, whom thou hast permitted me to call my father; and that in acknowledgment of his miraculous benefits, I have applied myself, by thy consent, to this work. May this Life serve as an instrument to aug- ment the devotion to St. Joseph among the children of the Church. Thou hast warned us, O Mother of Pity, that lh& damned shall weep bitterly for not having knoton this means, so powerful and 90 efficacums, for their salvation, and for not having availed themselves of it. (Book V., ch. XVI.) May those who yet live on earth, know and profit by it, to forsake the ways of sin, and to recover the grace of the just Worthy father of the Queen of Heaven, St. Joachim, thou whom the blessed Mother, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, have given me for my patron in the new vocation to which I have been so freely predestined and called, deign to present the humble offering of my book to the great Patri- arch St Joseph, and obtain for me, by your efficacious intercession, that I may be worthy to per- severe to the end in the way which his mediation with Jesus and Mary has opened for me. JesnsI Mary! Joseph 1 all hail! Thb Abbe J. A. BOULLAN. Pabu, Norember, 1856. THE ADMIRABLE LIFE OF THE GLOKIOUS PATRIAECH, ST. JOSEPH. CHAPTER L ESPOUSALS OF THE CHASTE ST. JOSEPH WITH THE BLESSED VIRGEST VARIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH ACCOMPANIED THIS MYSTERIOUS MAERIAGE. HE Blessed Virgin Mary, after her entrance into the Temple, had made, in the pres- ence of all the angelic hosts, a vow of chastity. This most chaste dove had renounced earthly attachments, and the love of all creatures, that she might have no other spouse than God himself;' but at the age of thirteen years and a half, it was manifested to our sweet Lady in a vision, that she should enter into the marriage state. "The Lord tempted Abraham," said Moses, — and the Lord also tempted our august Mistress ; in which we discovw the truth of these words: "The judgments of the Lord ^- are incomprehensible, and His ways are above our ways." The thoughts of the pure Mary were far removed from those of the Most High, for she had desired and resolved to have no husband, so far as it depended upon her own will. The Lord spoke in a dream to the high-priest, who was St. Simeon, and commanded him to make preparations for the marriage of Mary, daughter of Joachim and Anne, of Nazareth, and to convoke an assemblage of the other priests to deliberate upon the subject. St. Simeon obeyed the divine behest, and the assembled doctors, inspired by a celestial impulse, resolved, that in an affair upon which the Lord had de- clared His good pleasure, they ought to consult His holy will by praying, that He would manifest, by a sign, him who should be the husband of Mary, and that he should be of the house and lin- eage of David, that the law might be fulfilled. They therefore resolved to appoint a day when all the young men of that family, present in Jerusalem, should be invited to assemble in the Temple. It was precisely the day on which our blessed Lady had attained her fourteenth year. The priest Simeon summoned the chaste Mary, in order to make known to her this resolution. It was nine days before that on which their designs were to be put into execution. During this time the most blessed Virgin re- doubled her prayers, her tears, and sighs, for the accomplishment of the will of God in an event which caused her the greatest pain. The Lord con- soled her, saying: "I will give you a spouse who will not oppose your holy desires, but who will rather, by the help of my grace, confirm them. I will choose him for you perfect, and accord- ing to my own heart, and I will elect him for you from among my servants." The holy angels also consoled her, say- ing: "The Most High will guide you in the way which is the best, the most perfect, the most holy." Joseph was born at Nazareth ; nev- ertheless, by the disposition of the Most High, he had come to dwell in Jerusalem, because of certain reverses of fortune, which resulted so favorably for him that he had the happiness to become the spouse of her whom God had chosen to be His own Mother, under the circumstances that we are about to relate. The day aj)pointed by the priests arrived. Our blessed Lady had com- f pleted the fourteenth year of her age. The young men of the tribe of Judah, and of the family of David, from whom the august Mary was descended, who were in the city of Jerusalem, were assembled. Joseph, originally of Naz- areth, but now an inhabitant of the holy city, was invited to be with them, l)ecause he, too, was of that I'oyal race. He was then thirty-three years of age, well-made, and possessed of an agree- able physiognomy, which expressed an incomparable modesty. He was indeed as chaste in his thoughts and deeds, as in his inclinations ; and having made a vow of chastity when but twelve years old, his life was pure and irreproach- able before God and man. He was re- lated to the Virgin Mary in the third degree. Inspired by the Most High, the chief priest placed in the hands of each of these young men a dry rod, in order that by this means the Lord should manifest him whom He had chosen to be the husband of Maiy. All united their prayers to those of the priests, for none were ignorant of the virtues and modesty of this holy maiden, nor of the reputation of her beauty, and her pos- sessions, as an only child ; and each de- sired to make her his wife. Joseph alone, the most humble, the most pious among them, deemed himself unAvorthy of so great a boon ; and, calling to mind his vow of chastity, he resolved anew to observe it, resigning himself LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 737 to the divine will even to the end of Ms life. But this did not prevent him from entertaining for the virtuous maiden veneration and esteem beyond any of his compeers. All were engaged in pi-ayer, when they saw blossoms burst forth from the rod borne by Joseph, and at the same instant a beautiful dove was seen to descend, which alighted on the head of the saint. The Lord, at the same mo- ment, spoke to him interiorly, and said : "Joseph, my servant, Mary shall be- come your spouse; receive her with assiduity and respect, for she is very agreeable in my eyes ; she is good and most pure in body and mind, and you will do all that she will tell you." The priests, upon this sign from heaven, determined to give St. Joseph to Mary for her husband. They then called for her, who was more excellent than the sun, more beautiful than the moon, and she appeared with a majesty more than angelic; with a loveliness, modesty, and grace incomparable ; and the priests es- poused her to Joseph, the most chaste and the most holy of men. The august Mary, with mingled modesty and ten- derness, took leave of the priests and of her mistress, — asking pardon of her companions, and expressing her grateful •sense of all the kindness she had receiv- ed from them; then, accompanied by many of the most distinguished minis- ters of the Temple, she departed with her saintly spouse for Nazareth, tlie * country of the newly married pair, where lay the possessions of the blessed parents of our sweet Lady. On their arrival they were received and visited by all their relatives and friends, with the rejoicings usual on similar occasions ; and having religious- ly acquitted themselves of all those duties which custom commanded in their intercourse with the world, our holy spouses at length found them- selves alone in their house. It was a custom among the Jews, that tke newly espoused, during the first days of their union, sbould study together their nat- ural inclinations, in order to promote their future peace. On one of these days, St. Joseph said to his spouse Mary ; " I give thanks to tbe Most High God for having granted me the favor to choose me for your hus- band, when I did not in the least merit this honor, and when I believed myself unworthy to bear you company. But His Divine Majesty, who can, when He will, uplift the poor, has shown His Mercy towards me. I desire that you will aid me with your goodness and your virtues in offering Him my thanks- givings. In all that regards His service, I will be your servant. I pray you to supply my deficiencies in those qualities which I have not, but which, as your husband, I ought to possess. Only make your wishes known to me, that I may fulfil them." His most holy consort replied to the T» LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. fj^nt : " I am well pleased that the Most f High, having destined me for marriage, has had the goodness to choose you for my husband and my master, and, with your permission, I will now express the thoughts and intentions which I wish to impart to you on this subject." The grace of the Most High inflamed anew the heart of St. Joseph wdth His divine love, " Speak," he said, " for tiiy servant heareth." The Queen of the universe was attended by her thou- sand angels; for the most pure Mary comprehended the respect and attention to be observed in conversation with her spouse; and that she might have more abundant grace and merits, the Lord had continued in her the reserve and fear that she had in speaking alone with a man, which had never before happened to her, except it might be in some casual encounter with the chief priest The august Virgin then said to St Joseph: "It is just that we offer thanks, and give glory and praise to our God and Creator, who has made His mercy to shine upon us, in choosing us for His service. In my most tender youth, I consecrated myself to God by a vow which I made, to be, during all my life, chaste -in body and mind, and my desire to preserve my faith to Him is unchangeable. I trust that you will help me to fulfil this vow, and in all things else I will be your servant. Accept, my husband, this holy resolu- tion, and confirm it by your own, so that we may obtain the eternal joys to which we aspire." The chaste Joseph, filled with joy, replied : " In declaring to me your chaste thoughts and holy resolutions, you have penetrated and opened my heart, which, until you li;id revealed your own, I was unwilling to uncover. The Lord called me, also, at an early age, that I should love Him with an upright mind. Know, then, thai in my twelfth year I, too, made a promise to serve God in perpetual chastity. I now renew this vow, and, with His grace, I will be your faithful servant, and I pray you to receive my chaste affections, and to regard me as your brother." During this conversation the Most High confirmed anew in the heart of St. Joseph the virtue of chastity, and the pure and holy love which he should bear to the blessed Virgin, his spouse. Thus he was possessed by this love in an eminent degree, and our august Queen augmented it, and enraptured his heart by her conversation. By this divine assistance the holy spouses en- joyed inexpressible consolation. The august Queen promised to second the desires of St Joseph, and the Most High imbued him with such an exalted purity, and such an absolute control of his passions, that he served his consort * without obstacle, and with a grace as admirable as it was extraordinary. In serving her, he followed the will and the good pleasure of the Lord. {Snx Laiii of tk jUjotshti]. LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 739 They made a division of the eifects which St. Joachim and St. Anne had left to their blessed child. One part was offered to the Temple, where she had been educated ; the second was de- voted to the service of the poor; and the third was placed at the disposal of St. Josej)h. For herself, our Queen re- served only the care to serve and em- ploy herself within the house, for she dispensed herself always from the affairs of buying and selling. In his youth St. Joseph had learned the carpenter's trade, as being one of the most useful to gain a livelihood, for he was without property. He inquired of his saintly spouse if she would con- sent that he should practice this trade to gain something for the poor, and also as a means to avoid idleness. The most prudent Virgin consented, and reminded St. Joseph that it was not the will of God they should be rich, but poor, and protectors of the poor, so far as their means permitted. After this, the two holy spouses had an humble dispute, in which each wished to obey the other as superior. But the most humble Mary, who was the humblest of the humble, was victorious in her humility, and the man being the head, she would not per- mit the order of nature to be reversed. She therefore obtained the consent of her husband to receive her obedience in all things. She asked only permission to give alms to the poor, to which the saint conseited. ^ During these first days, St. Joseph, by a new light from above, had pene- trated the character of his spouse. Her rare prudence, her profound humility, her incomparable purity, and her pos- session of every virtue beyond all that he could have hoped, enraptured him with admiration. With a spirit full of joy, and his heart inflamed with ardent affection, he ceased not to praise the Lord, and to offer Him thanks for hav- ing bestowed on him so unmerited a treasure. The Lord had also so ordered, that the Queen of Heaven, by her mien and by her presence, inspired her spouse with such mingled sentiments of rever- ence and respect, that we find no terms to express them. To the eyes of St. Joseph a radiant splendor shone from the features of our Lady, like that of Moses when he descended from the mount. Afterwards, in a vision, the Blessed Virgin heard these words : " You per- ceive how faithful I am in my promises : the companionship of my servant Joseph will aid you to preserve the laws of my spouse; obey him as you ought, and be careful of his happiness." She replied : " With the divine favor and helj), I will obey Thy servant Joseph, and serve him." Their marriage had been celebrated on the 8th of September, and until the 25th of March, when the Word became Incarnate, the two spouses had lived in such wise that the Most High prepared them for the work for which they had been chosen. But let U8 pause to express our joy on witnessing the fortunate destiny of the happiest among nioi-tals, St. Joseph. Whence comes to thee, O man of God, so eminent a benediction, that among all the children of Adam it can be said of thee alone, that God has been so entirely thine that He was taken for thy Son? The eternal Father gives thee His daughter ; the Son places His own Mother in thy charge; the Holy Spirit confides to thee His spouse, and places thee in His stead, and the Holy Trinity gives thee its elect, its only one, for thy lawful spouse. Great saint, dost thou then comprehend all thy dignity? Dost thou fathom all thy greatness? Dost thou know that she whom thou hast just received as thy wife is Queen and Mistress of heav- en and earth, and that thou art the depositary of the inestimable treasures of God himself? Behold, O man of God, the precious pledge thou hast, and know that if thou dost not render the angels and the seraphim envious, thy happiness, and the wonderful mys- tery of thine espousals excite their wondering admiration. For such joys and favors receive congratulations in the name of the whole human race. For thou art the spouse of her who has only God above her. Thou shalt be powerful and happy among men and angels. Be mindful of our poverty f and wretchedness, and of me, miserable worm of the earth, for I desire to be thy faithful servant, and to be enriched and favored by thy powerful protec- tion. CHAPTER H. THE GLORIOUS ST. JOSEPH, CONSIDERED IN ALL THE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT CONCERN THE MYSTERY OF THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN, HIS WIFE. IT is recorded in the Holy Scriptures (Prov. xxxi. 11), in reference to Mary: " The heart of her husband trusteth in her, and he shall have no need of spoils." Certain it is that the holy Joseph was called the husband of Mary, because she was his lawful wife. It is equally evident that he trusted in her, hoping that through her incomparable virtue, all things to be desired would follow her. But he trusted in her, most of all, a little later, when, still in ignorance of the mystery, he saw her with child ; because, then he believed, and trusted in hope against hope, for, from the evi- dence which appeared, he could find no satisfaction but in his confidence in the holiness of such a woman. And although he resolved to leave her, because he saw the effect before his eyes, knowing nothing of the cause, still he dared not doubt either her modesty or her discre- tion, neither could he separate himself LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 741 from tlie pure and holy love witli which the most chaste heart of such a wife had inspired him. Thus he neither considered himself deceived nor poor in spoils — for if all be termed spoils which is above what is necessary, all was in superabundance for this happy husband, when he was made acquainted with the dignity of his wife, and of that which was inclosed within her bosom. In fact, the truly chaste and faithful Joseph (who took the ut- most care of all that concerned our holy Esther, and who influenced her continu- ally to pray for the freedom of his peo- ple, for this was the ordinary occupation of our incomparable saint and his most pure spouse) was elevated by her means to such an extraordinary sanctity and so excellent a dignity, that the Supreme Majesty gave him His seal-ring, so that by this mark of honor he should com- mand the same God made man, who was submitted to him, as it is said by the Evangelist, Luke ii. 51. Let us not forget to record that the Word made man, as soon as He had been conceived in the chaste womb of the most pure Mary, having first performed His duties towards God, prayed for His Mother and for St. Joseph, supplicating for them eternal blessedness. The august Mary, aged fourteen years, six months, and seventeen days, had conceived in her blessed womb the Word made man under the miraculous circumstances which may be seen in her * Life. Now she learned from the dis- course of the celestial ambassador, St. Gabriel, that her cousin Elizabeth had conceived six months before. The Most High had revealed to her that the. son of Elizabeth should be great before the Lord, that he should be a prophet and the precursor of the Incarnate Word. At the same time, our blessed Lady knew that it would be pleasing to the Lord if she should visit her cousin, in order that the son, whom she bore in her womb, might be sanctified by the presence of their Saviour. The Most High said to her : " I will that you go and visit Elizabeth, because We choose her son for great things, which are of Our good pleasure." The prudent Mary replied : " My heart and my desires are entirely consecrated to Thy divine will, and I will execute with diligence all that Thou shalt command Thy most humble handmaid to perform. Allow me to ask permission of Joseph, my husband, that I may make this jour- ney with his consent." After this vision, the humble Mary resolved to ask the permission of St. Joseph; and, without revealing to him the command of God, but with rare pru- dence, she said: "I know, by a divine illumination, that the goodness of the Most High has favored my cousin Eliza- beth, wife of Zachariah, in giving her a son, whom she had so greatly desired. I think I am obliged by customary usage to go and visit her, to offer my lii LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. sympatliy, and to promote her spiritual welfare. If this journey be agreeable to you, I will make it, with your per- mission, being entirely submissive to your wilL Consider what will be for the best, and tell me what I shall do." The discreet silence and humble sub- mission of Mary were pleasing to the Ijord. He therefore disposed the heart of Joseph by a divine light to do as she desired. Guided by this celestial light, the holy husband replied : " I confide as I ought in your great virtue, because I know that your well-regulated will would undertake nothing which is not for the greater glory of God, as this journey must be. And that no one may be surprised to see you go with- out your husband, I will, with the greatest pleasure, accompany and serve you. Determine, then, the day of de- parture." The Blessed Virgin thanked her pru- dent spouse for the affection which he manifested for her, and they decided to set out immediately for the house of Elizabeth. St. Joseph prepared pro- visions for the journey, — some fruit, bread, and a few small fishes, which he purchased. He had also a little beast of burden, which was lent him to carry his provisions, and his spouse, the Queen of all that is created. With this equipage they set out for Judea. Tliey had scarcely left their house, when our Queen, kneeling before St. Joseph, asked his blessing, in order to ♦ begin the day in the name of the Lord. The saint hesitated, for, by long expe- rience, he knew the excellence of his spouse, but the holy and sweet impor- tunities of the august Mary conquered, and he blessed her in the name of the Most High. " At that time," saith the sacred text, "Mary, rising up, went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Ju- dea." Now the chaste spouses, Mary and Joseph, having left their father's house, and forgotten their people, took their way towards the house of Zacha- riah, among the hills of Judea, distant twenty- seven leagues from Nazareth. The roads were rough, and they pos- sessed no means of transport except such as were afforded by their little animal; nevertheless the most humble and modest of creatures, Mary, prayed St. Joseph to use it for himself. The discreet spouse would not, by any means, consent to this ; but in com- plaisance, he allowed her from time to time to go on foot with him, requesting her with great respect not to refuse him this gi'atification ; and the Queen of heaven obeyed. They continued their journey in these humble debates, and thus they so well employed their time, that there was not a moment which was not filled by some act of virtue. They walked alone, but the angels assisted them in all things; yet they were visible only to the august Mary. Occasionally she LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 743 conversed with tliese angels, and the most pure heart of our sweet Lady was kindled anew with divine love. St. Joseph contributed to all this by his dis- creet silence, concentrating his thoughts within, and yielding himself to sublime contemplation. At other times the spouses conversed together upon many things regarding the salvation of their souls, the coming of the Messiah, the prophecies which the ancient fathers had received on this point, and other mysteries and secrets of the Most High. During this journey there happened to St. Joseph something which excited his wonder. Inspired by a special grace, he bore to his spouse a most tender and holy love, and the saint, being of a noble nature, amiable, agree- able, and obliging, was inclined to an ever watchful care for her. Now, as the Queen of heaven carried in her virginal bosom the Incarnate Word, the saint was sensible that, through the words and conversation of his spouse, new impressions were made upon his soul, but of the cause he was ignorant. He found himself more and more in- flamed by divine love, and in a higher knowledge of those mysteries which formed the subjects of their conversa- tion; and the further they advanced on their way and in their discussions, the more these favors were augmented. He felt also that the words of his spouse served as the organ, by means of which these favors were comrauni- * cated to him. It was not possible that the discreet St. Joseph should not re- flect upon this new and wondeiful in- fluence. But although it would have afforded him, filled as he was with wonder, the greatest gratification, with- out curiosity, to have been informed of the cause of it, his modesty was such that he could not venture to ask to be enlightened. Our blessed Lady penetrated the thought of her spouse, but, ignorant of the way by which God would con- duct this mystery, her great prudence and her own discretion taught her, al- though she had no command from the Lord to conceal it, how good it was to guard the secret of the most sublime of all mysteries. She therefore con- cealed it, without making it known to her spouse, either on this occasion, or afterwards, during the interior pains which St. Joseph suffered on this ac- count. What admirable prudence ! Our sweet Lady prayed to God for the saint, imploring the divine assistance, of which she foresaw he would have need, and of which we shall treat in the following chapter. This was the first journey which the Incarnate Word made in this world, four days after his entrance into it. Our blessed Lady thus served as a car for the true Solomon (Cant. iii. 9). This journey lasted four days, during which our holy travellers, besides those interior virtues which have God for Hi LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. their object^ peiformed many acts of charity towards their neighbors. The Blessed Virgin cured, among othera, a poor sick girl, in a village through which she passed, on the first day after her departure. At length the august Mary and her spouse, Joseph, arrived at the city of Judea, where Elizabeth and Zachariah then dwelt. This city was distant, as I have said, twenty-seven leagues from Nazareth, and about two leagues from Jerusalem, near the spot where the tor- rent of Sorec has its source. It was afterwards entirely ruined, but the Lord does not permit the memory of places so venerable to be altogether lost. The Visitation was made at the same place where these divine mysteries are now honored by the faithful who dwell in Palestine, and by pilgrims who go there to offer their devotions. St Joseph went on before to give notice to the inmates of the house, and, having knocked at the door, he saluted them, saying : " May the Lord be with you, and fill your souls with His divine grace." St. Elizabeth had been already warned of their coming, for the same Lord had revealed to her that her cousin Mary of Nazareth was on her way to visit her. Now, having heard of her arrival, she came forth quickly, with others of her family, to receive the holy Virgin, who saluted her first, saying: "The Lord be with you, my dear cousin." "And may the same Lord," replied Elizabeth, "reward you for having taken the trouble to give me this consolation. The two cousins having retired to- gether, it was then that the great mys- tery of the sanctification of John the Baptist was operated ; but those facts do not belong to this history. Coming out of their retreat in the dusk of the evening, St. Elizabeth, who was in- formed of the happiness of the chaste St. Joseph, of which he was himself ignorant, bestowed upon him every mark of esteem and veneration. After the saint had passed three days in the house of Zachariah, he asked per- mission of his blessed spouse to return to Nazareth. He took leave, with the promise to come and conduct our sweet Lady home when she wished to return. St.. Elizabeth offered him presents, pray- ing him to accept them, but he received only a few things, because this man of God was not only a lover of poverty but he had also a magnanimous and generous heart. He then took the road to Nazareth with the little beast that he had borrowed. Having arrived at his house, he was served there, in the absence of his spouse, by a relative who lived near, — the same who had been accustomed to bring them supplies from without, when the holy Lady was there. After having passed three months, less two days,* in the house of Zachariah, * In counting eight days after the Word was incarnate, the holy Virgin and St. Joseph arriv- LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 745 in the midst of events and prodigies which do not belong to this histor}'^,* the august Mary thought of departure. St. Joseph, having been notified by St. Elizabeth, left Nazareth to re-conduct his spouse to her home. On his arrival at the house of Zachaiiah, he was re- ceived with the highest marks of respect, for the holy priest already knew that the great patriarch was the depositary of the mysteries and the treasures of heaven. The Blessed Virgin received him with discreet demonstrations of joy, and having placed herself on her knees before him, according to her cus- tom, she asked his benediction. After he had taken some repose, they fixed on the day of departure. Having taken their leave, the happy patriarch, rejoiced to possess his treasure again, although he knew not as yet its full value, set out for Nazareth. The Blessed Virgin, as usual, asked his blessing, and, pursu- ing their way, in four days they reached their place of destination. During their route, the same effects attended their divine colloquies as those which have been already indicated. The discreet Mary perceived that she could not long conceal her condition from her chaste and faithful spouse. But the Lord guided all by means the most conducive to His glory, and to ed on the 2d of April, towards evening, at the house of Zachariah. If we add three months, less two days, which should commence the 3d of April, we come to the 1st of July inclusively, * obtain merits for St. Joseph and the Virgin Mother. For this reason He did not make known to them His good pleasure. On their journey, the august Queen met with a woman who had once been virtuous, but who, tempted by the devil, was led into sin, and after- wards possessed by him. As soon as our blessed Lady saw her, she discov- ered her malady, and, using her queenly power, commanded the evil spirit to depart from the woman, and, having delivered her from the consequences of her sin, she obtained for her the gift of perseverance. Our holy travellers arrived one day at an hostelry, the master of which was of a vicious disposition, and led a dis- orderly life. The Lord ordained, as the preparation for his coming happi- ness, that he should receive the august Mary and St. Joseph with marks of benevolence and consideration. He bestowed attentions and rendered them services beyond those he was accustom- ed to offer to other strangers. Our Queen, who knew the depraved state of his conscience, offered prayers for her host, and procured the justification of his soul, and the amendment of his life. At length they reached Nazareth, when the Queen of heaven, assisted by the holy angels, put her house in order. which is the eighth day after the birth of John the Baptist, and that of his circumcision. * All these details will be found in the Gitk Mystique of Maria d'Agreda. 746 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. St Joseph occupied himself, as usual, for the subsistence of our Lady, and she did nothing to damp the hopes of her spouse. After her return home, Lucifer tempted the august Mary in every way, but he was vanquished with all his infernal legions, and precipitated into the depths of hell. While the Lord had permitted Lucifer to show himself, this enemy had contrived to sow discord among the neighbors of St. Joseph. They came together, and, having called for the innocent Mary, they accused her in the presence of her husband, and in the bitterest terms, of troubling the peace of their families. This reproach was keenly felt by our Queen, because of the pain which it caused to her spouse, for he had begun to remark something of her condition ; and already suffered anxiety and trouble on this ac- count, as we shall see in the following chapter. Now, the demon, ignorant of the real cause of this trouble, strove to plant the seeds of discontent within the bosom of St. Joseph, so as to make him impatient of his poverty ; representing to him at the same time that his spouse Mary remained too long in her retreat and devotions, and that she was idle. But St. Joseph being of an upright and magnanimous heart, and of great perfec- tion, despised these diabolical inventions, and utterly rejected them. Besides, his internal suffering regarding the state of his spouse, occupied him so exclu- sively, that it obliged him to forget every other. The Lord delivered him from this temptation by the intercession of the holy Virgin, leaving only that of which we are about to speak in the following chapter. CHAPTER IIL ST. JOSEPH DISCOVERS THAT MARY IS ABOUT TO BECOME A MOTHER, WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO PENETRATE THE MYS- TERY HE ENDURES GREAT SUFFER- INGS ON THIS ACCOUNT. TT was about five months since the -^ eternal Word had become incar- nate in the chaste bosom of the Virgin Mary, when St. Joseph began to ob- serve indications of it, and to entertain suspicions. It was the more apparent, because the proportions of her pure form were so perfect, that the least change was percetible. Deeply concern- ed and anxious, St. Joseph, as he one day observed her coming forth from her oratory, perceived that it was no longer possible to doubt the testimony of his own eyes. The heart of the man of God was penetrated with profound sorrow, and he was unable to resist the harrowing reflections that torment- ed his spirit. It may not be without utility or in- terest to notice some of these reflec- tions, which increased the violence of his gi'eat affliction. In the first place LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 747 he entertained a most cliaste and sin- cere love for his faithful spouse, to whom, since the commencement of their union, he had devoted all the tender- ness of his heart. Besides, his desire to serve her was augmented from day to day by the unequalled holiness and attractive manners of our blessed Lady. Our saint, therefore, was impelled, by a desire natural to his love, to find a response to it on her part. The Lord so ordered it, that, from this same desire, the holy Joseph was still more careful to serve and respect our blessed mistress. Thus St. Joseph fulfilled with great zeal his obligations as a most faithful husband and guardian of the mystery which, as yet, was hidden from him. But the more assiduous he was to serve, to honor his spouse while bear- ing for her a love, so pure, chaste, holy, and just, the more eager w^as his desire that she should reciprocate his aifection. Nevertheless he did not disclose this internal conflict; either because of the respect produced by the humble maj- esty of his spouse, or because in wit- nessing the discreet deportment of Mary — her sweet converse, and her more than angelic purity — the revelation would have been too painful. At the view of what had become so evident, he was lost in amazement. Still, though convinced, he would not allow his imagination to go beyond appearances. Being a just and holy * man, and seeing the fact, he suspended his judgment without entering into the cause. What an example for us ! It is most probable that if he had been convinced of the culpability of his wife, the violence of his grief would have put an end to his existence. In the second place, his reflections reminded him that he had had no agency in this condition which was but too apparent. Dishonor was inevitable when it should become known ; and, as St. Joseph was of a generous and noble heart, this apprehension gave him great pain. Be- sides, he considered, with rare pru- dence, the affliction which their own infamy would bring upon them if the matter came to be divulged. But that which caused the greatest grief of all to the holy spouse, was the fear that his wife would be stoned, according to the law which ordered this punishment ; for he could not make himself an accomplice to hide the crime, if it existed. All these considerations pierced the heart of St. Joseph with the deepest grief, in which he found no consolation except in the irreproachable conduct of his spouse. Still, on the other hand, though appearances con- vinced him, he could neither find means of excuse, nor even dare to communi- cate the subject of his grief to any human being. Our saint was then like one environed by the sorrows of death, and he felt the force of the words, " Jealouay is as cruel as TielV He would have sought some allevi- atioQ for his pains in spiritual consola- tion, but grief suspended the powers of his soul. If his i*eason inclined to fol- low the suspicions suggested by his senses, the reflections that he made on the tried holiness of his most wise and prudent spouse caused them to vanish like ice in the heat of the sun, or smoke before the wind. If he strove to check the affections of his chaste love, it was impossible, since he found his spouse always more worthy of being loved. And although the truth was concealed from him, she had more power »to attract, than the seeming deception of her infidelity to repel him. The sacred ties of love could not be rent asunder, because they reposed on the solid foun- dations of truth, reason, and justice. Our saint did not then judge it expe- dient to declare his grief to his blessed spouse : added to this, the gravity, ever equal and divinely humble, which he saw in her, did not permit him to take this liberty; for, although he saw marks so unequivocal, a conduct so pure and holy as hers could ill accord with infi- delity. Such a fault could not in any manner be compatible with so much purity, holiness, and discretion; nor with that assemblage of graces whose growth was each day more visible in the august Mary. In these perplexities the saintly hus- band addressed himself to God in prayer. Placing himself in His pres- ence, "Eternal God and my Lord," he said, " my desires and my groanings are not hidden from Thy divine Maj- esty. I find myself struggling with violent agitations, I have given my heart to the spouse whom I received from Thy hands, I have trusted in her purity, but the strange appearances which I discover in her cast me into the most afflicting perplexity. It would be rash to think that she had been unfaithful and had offended Thee, see- ing in her such gi-eat purity and so eminent a holiness. It is, nevertheless, impossible to deny the evidence of my senses, and sorrow must destroy me unless there be here some mystery that I have not discovered. Reason excul- pates, but the senses condemn her. I see plainly that she conceals from me the cause of her condition. What shall I do ? I suspend my judgment, igno- rant of the cause of what I see. Re- ceive, O God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, my sighs and my tears, as an acceptable sacrifice. I cannot believe that Maiy has ofi'ended Thee ; but, being her husband, I cannot presume the existence of any mystery of which I can be unworthy." Saint Joseph persevered in his sup- plications and united with them many other affections and prayers. He thought there must be in all this some mystery, but his humility hindered him from being assured on this point. All the reasons that presented themselves LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 749 in favor of tlie holiness of our most sweet Lady, contributed only to per- suade him that she had committed no fault. At the same time the saint nev^er thought of her being the mother of the Messiah, for he could not have believed himself worthy to be her spouse. Sometimes he suspended his suspic- ions ; at others appearances augmented them. Sometimes he was overwhelmed by agitation; sometimes in an aching calm, without power to resolve or to believe any thing. He could neither vanquish his doubts nor appease his heart, nor find that certitude of which he had so much need, to regulate his conduct and to calm his mind. And thus it was that the sufferings of the holy Patriarch were so cruel. They serve as evident proofs of his incom- parable prudence and sanctity, and they gained him such merits before God as to render him worthy of the favors he was about to receive. Throuo^h the knowledo;e and infused light which she possessed, our blessed Lady saw all that passed in the breast of St. Joseph. But, though filled with tenderness and compassion for the suf- ferings of her spouse, she spoke not on the subject of his pain, but content- ed herself to serve him with submis- sion and exactitude, because it was not proper to disclose the secret of the great King, without an express com- mand from the Lord. * During this period, while he was in ignorance of the mystery of his spouse, St. Joseph thought it his duty to main- tain his superiority, yet with great mod- eration. In this he imitated the an- cient Patriarchs, from whom he would not degenerate, whose wives were very submissive. Although just and good, he therefore allowed himself to be served and honored by the Blessed Virgin after their espousals, preserving in all things his authority as chief, which he sweetened by his rare humil- ity and great prudence. And he would have had cause for this if our Lady had been like other women. On her part, the august Mary was most sub- missive and obedient to her husband, and, although she was above all, none ever equalled her in these qualities. She served her spouse with an incom- parable respect and promptitude, and thus she gave opportunities to our saint, while she served him at table, or occupied herself in other domestic affairs, to observe her closely, and, to the great affliction of his soul, assure himself more positively of the truth. It was impossible that in her actions the signs of her condition should not be more evident, but this did not hin- der her in her tasks. She desired nei- ther to excuse nor to justify herself, because this would not have accorded with the truth, nor with her angelical candor, nor with the grandeur and gen- erosity of her most noble heart; and 750 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. the pains of St Joseph found no alle- | viation. The Queen of heaven could easily have alleged the truth of her irreproachable innocence — having excul- pated herself, and relieved St. Joseph of his pain by disclosing the mystery, but she would not hazard the justifica- tion of so mysterious a truth upon her own testimony, and, with great wis- dom, she abandoned hei*self to the di- vine Providence. She strove to console and please him in all things, often ask- ing what he would have her to do. Many times she served him on her kne6«, and although these loving ways might in some sort console the saintly spouse, they gave him, also, additional causes of aiBiction in considering the many motives to love and esteem her who plunged him in such perplexity. St. Joseph could not entirely conceal his grief: thus he often found himself pensive, sad, and thoughtful. Preoc- cupied by his sorrows, he sometimes spoke to his spouse with more harsh- ness than formerly. But this was nei- ther fi'om anger nor revenge, for he had no such thought — it was merely the ef- fect inseparable from a wounded heart. Our most prudent Lady, on her part, changed nothing in her sweet manners ; on the contrary, she took greater pains than ever to comfort her spouse. She served him at table, or offered him a seat Without doubt, this painful sea- son was one of those which most exer- cised not only St. Joseph but our bless- ed Lady. Our incomparable Queen offered continual supplications for her spouse to the Most High, that He would vouchsafe to regard and console him. In order better to understand the profound humility and the sublime vrisdom of the august Mary in these circumstances, it should be understood that the Lord had not commanded her to keep the secret of the mystery of the incarnation. He did not even dis- close His will on this point with as much clearness as in other matters. It seemed that the Lord left all to the wisdom and to the divine virtues of His chosen one. Thus the divine Providence gave oc- casion to the most pure Mary, and to her most . faithful spouse, to exercise by heroic actions, each according to their capacity, the virtues and gifts which He had allotted them. He was pleased, as one might say, to witness the faith, the hope, the love, the humility of these upright hearts in the midst of so poignant an affliction. The Lord seem- ed deaf, accoi-ding to our manner of speaking, for His greater glory, in or- der to give to the world this example of sanctity and prudence. He waited until the proper time, to speak was come. Let us understand from this the designs of God, and His secret ways with the souls whom He cherishes, and whom He would render capable of receiving His favors and His gifts. We ought to use every effort, and employ LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 751 all our care to acquire efficaciously a true resignation, to this divine Provi- dence. If men only knew tlie loving care of this Father of mercy, they would be happy to forget themselves, and cease to plunge into cares at once bur- densome, useless, and dangerous. It is of the utmost importance to the crea- ture to let himself be guided by the hand of the Lord, because men are igno- rant of His operations, and the ends to which they are to be led by them. If God were susceptible of being touched like men, by pain or jealousy, He would suffer, in perceiving that His own creatures desire to seek the least thing in any other than Himself. The Lord regards the actions of men ; He lovingly corrects their faults ; He fore- sees their desires ; He protects them in danger ; He fortifies them in their trials ; He assists them in their afflictions. None can resist Him, or hinder His will. He executes what He can ; He can exe- cute all that He wills, and He will give himself entirely to the just who are in His grace and confide in Him alone. Who can conceive the greatness and the nature of the gifts which He pours into hearts disposed to receive them ! Let us leave all to His providence, for the Most High will give us what- ever is most sure and necessary for our salvation. Except the pains which the august Mary endured from those which were suffered by her most holy Son, the most severe of all her life were caused f by the afflictions and perplexities of St. Joseph in the circumstances which we have just related. CHAPTER IV. THE SUSPICIONS OF ST. JOSEPH INCREASE, AND HE RESOLVES TO LEAVE HIS SPOUSE THE ANGEL OF THE LORD DECLARES TO HIM THE MYSTERY OF THE INCAR- NATION. ST. JOSEPH endeavored to calm the painful agitation of his heart by doing his utmost to remove the convic- tion of his mind respecting the condi- tion of his wife. But the indications which became every day more visible in her holy person served only to con- firm it. The further our Lady advanced, the more amiable, vigorous, active, and beautiful she became; and her invincible charms attracted his chaste love, with- out entirely allaying these conflicting passions. At length all hesitation was at an end ; he could no longer entertain a doubt of the evidence. His heart was conformed to the will of God ; nev- ertheless, through the weakness of the flesh, his spirit was exceedingly sorrow- ful, and nothing remained to dissipate his sadness. He felt his bodily strength diminish — and, although no particular malady manifested itself, he grew thin, and his countenance bore the marks of deep affliction. And as he preserved m LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. sUenoe, not seeking consolation else- where (as men usually do), the suffer- ings of the saint were naturally more intense. The heart of the gentle Mary was penetrated by a sorrow not less pro- found ; but she resolved to redouble her cares for the health of her spouse. She continued to conceal the mystery which she had no command to dis- close, in order to honor and to pre- serve the secret of the celestial King. So far as regarded herself, she left nothing undone to promote his comfort — entreating him to remind her of any thing which might contribute to re- store his declining health. She be- sought him to repose himself, and to partake of some little refreshment ; for it was but right to supply the wants of the body, in order to obtain strength to labor for the Lord. St Joseph, attentive to every move- ment of his spouse, and sensible of the holy effects of her conversation and presence, said within himself: "Is it possible that a woman so holy, in whom the grace of God is so percepti- ble, can cast me into such perplexity ? Who can I find to equal her, if I leave her? Where find consolation, if she fail me ? But all these trouble me even less than the infamy that may result fix)m this unhappy affair; or that I should give cause to believe that I have been the accomplice of a crime. If I make myself the author of her condi- ^ tion, it will be a falsehood unworthy an honorable man, and opposed to my con- science and my reputation. In such a state of embarrassment, what shall I do ? The least evil that can happen is to absent myself — to leave the house." Our blessed Lady being sincerely afflicted by the .resolution, which her spouse had just taken, addressed her- self to the angels of her guard : " You," she said, " who obey with promptitude all the commands of the Lord, listen now to my prayers. Prevent my spouse, I conjure you, from executing this intention which he has formed of absenting himself from me." The angels obeyed their Queen, and silently con- veyed many holy inspirations to the heart of St. Joseph. They persuaded him anew of the sanctity and perfection of his spouse — that God was incompre- hensible in His works, and impene- trable in His judgments, and that He is most faithful to those who trust in Him. The troubled mind of St. Joseph was somewhat soothed by these inspirations, although he knew not from whence they came, nor by what order he re- ceived them. Yet as the cause of his grief remained, he always sank again into sadness, and returned to his first resolution to desert his spouse. Then our blessed Lady addressed herself directly to her Son whom she bore in her virginal bosom. " It would not I be becoming," said she, " that thy ser- LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 753 vant should be without a husband who assists and shelters her from calumny: do not permit him to execute his design of abandoning me." The Most High I'eplied : " I will speedily console my servant Joseph, and after I shall have declared to him, through my angel, the mystery of which he is ignorant, you may speak with him concerning it. I will fill him with my spirit, and enable him to accomplish all that he should do in these mysteries. He shall aid and assist you under all circumstances." The august Mary comprehended how important it was that St. Joseph should have to endure this affliction, by which his spirit was exercised and prepared for the great charge that was to be confided to him. He had now passed two months of suffering, and, overcome by his apprehensions, he exclaimed : " I find no remedy for my grief but absence. I acknowledge that my spouse is perfect, but it is not possible for me to penetrate the mystery of her con- dition, and I will not insult her virtue by subjecting her to the penalties of the law. I will depart forthwith." The saint resolved to set out during the night. He therefore prepared a small packet of clothing. Having re- ceived a trifling sum of money which was due to him for work, he deter- mined to leave the house after mid- night. But as he was accustomed to meditate, he reflected on the importance of the undertaking. "Great God, of * our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," he exclaimed, " the sorrow which breaks my heart is not hidden from Thy divine clemency. Thou knowest, besides, O Lord (though in other things I am not free from sin), my innocence touching the subject of my grief. I choose the lesser evil in quitting my spouse, and go to end my days in some desert, there to abandon myself entirely to the care of Thy providence. Forsake me not, for I desire only what is for Thy glory." St. Joseph prostrated himself, and made a vow to ofifer in the Temple of Jerusalem a part of the small sum which he had reserved for his journey, praying the Lord to defend his spouse from calumny, and preserve her from all evil. Such was the great rectitude of this man of God, and such the esteem which he preserved for our blessed Lady. After this prayer, he took a little repose, intending to depart without seeing her. Our blessed Lady, from her oratory, observed all that St. Joseph did, or proposed to do ; for the Most High revealed it to her. The divine Majesty permitted that the Blessed Virgin and her holy spouse should endure these interior sufferings, in order that, besides the merits which so long a martyrdom would procure for them, the succor of the divine con- solations should be to them more ad- mirable and more remarkable. The august Mary practised many virtues 754 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. during this period, whereby she teaches ^ U8 to hope for relief from the Most High in the greatest afflictions. And what an example is not that of St. Joseph I No one had ever stronger grounds of suspicion, nor more of dis- cretion to control his judgment than he. The passion of jealousy produces sharp wounds in him who is attacked by it, and no one ever felt its effects so sensibly as St. Joseph, though, in fact, there was no foundation for it, if he had but known the truth. He was endowed with a singular intelligence to penetrate the sanctity and the lovely character of his spouse. But this, in augmenting his esteem for her whom he was about to lose, augmented his sorrow to find himself necessitated to abandon her. St. Joseph was not subject to the disorders of common jealousy, in which the passions of concupiscence are en- gaged, which neither reason nor pru- dence can vanquish. The jealousy of the saint arose only from the depth of his love and a conditional suspicion, viz.: whether his chaste spouse recip- rocated his affection ; for a pledge so dear as the affection of a wife must not be shared by any other. When love is so well founded, the chains that cement it are very strong, and the more so because there are fewer imperfections to weaken them. There was nothing in our sweet Lady which could dimin- ish the love of her spouse. On the contrary, all that she had received from grace and from nature gave him new subjects every day to strengthen his affection. After the saint had offered the prayer, of which we have already made men- tion, he fell asleep in this sadness, which had sunk into despondency. He was sure that he should awake in time to depart at midnight, without being seen, as he thought, by his spouse. Our Lady, on her part, awaited the remedy, and earnestly sought it by her humble prayers. She was con- soled by an assurance that the pains of her spouse had now reached their highest degree — the hour of mercy and consolation for that sorrowing heart could not long tarry, and her desires would soon be accomplished. And now the Lord sent the archangel Ga- briel, to disclose, by a divine revela- tion to St. Joseph, while he slept, the mystery which was to be accomplished in his spouse. The archangel acquitted himself this embassy, appeared iu a dream, as related by St. Matthew, and declared to him, in the terms quoted by that evangelist, the whole mystery of the incarnation and redemption. There are various reasons why the archangel spoke to St. Joseph in a dream, and not in his waking hours, although the mystery had been mani- fested to others when awake. In the first place, St. Joseph was' so prudent LIFE OF ST, JOSEPH. 755 and so filled with esteem for tlie Bless- ed Virgin, that stronger proofs were unnecessary to convince him of the dignity of Mary, and of the mystery of the incarnation ; for the divine in- spiration penetrates easily into well- disposed hearts. In the second place, his trouble had begun with his senses, and it was but just that they should bQ mortified and deprived of the angelic vision, since they had permitted the entrance of illusions and suspicions; therefore the truth ought not to enter by their means. The third reason is, that although St. Joseph committed no sin in these circumstances, yet his senses had undoubtedly contracted a species of stain, and it was proper that t:ie angel should fulfil his embassy at a time when these senses, which had been scandalized, were interdicted by the suspension of their operations. Be- sides these, there was the reason which should overrule all others, that such was the will of the Lord, who is just and holy, and perfect in all His works. St. Joseph saw not the angel through any image or form — he heard only the internal voice, and understood the mys- tery. He heard what St. Gabriel said, " that he should not fear to remain with Mary his wife, because her con- dition was the work of the Holy Ghost. That she should bring forth a son, whom he should call Jesus; that He should deliver His people from their sins ; and that in this mystery would ^ be accomplished the prophecy of Isaiah — ' A Virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son, who shall be called Em- manuel, which means, God with us.'" We perceive from the words of the celestial ambassador, that the saint had separated from the pure Mary in in- tention, since he was commanded to receive her without fear. St. Joseph awoke, informed of the mystery which had been revealed to him, and instructed that his spouse was the Mother of God. He found himself divided between the joy of his happiness, and his unhoped-for dignity, and sorrow for what he had been about to do. He prostrated himself instantly on the ground, and made, with humble fear and inconceivable contentment, heroic acts of humility and gratitude. He gave thanks to God for the mystery whidi had been disclosed to him, and for having made him the spouse of her whom He had chosen to be His mother — him, who did not deserve to be her servant. The doubts and uncertainty which St. Joseph had suffered, laid in him the foundations of the most profound hu- mility, necessary for him to whom was confided the dispensation of the most holy counsels of the Lord. The remembrance of what had passed served as a lesson for his future life. Having rendered thanks to the divine Majesty, the holy man began to re- proach himself. " O my divine spouse," said he, "most sweet dove, chosen by the Most High to he His own mother, how hath thy unworthy servant dared to call in question thy fidelity! How could he, who is only dust and ashes, suffer her who is Queen of heaven to serve him ? Why have I not kissed the earth thy steps have trod, and served thee kneeling? How shall I dare to raise my eyes in thy presence, or open my lips to speak with thee? Lord, give me grace, grant me strength to pray for pardon ! Inspire her to show me mercy, so that she may not reject her unworthy servant as he deserves. Alas ! how clearly she must have penetrated all my thoughts : how can I have the boldness to appear in her presence ? I see now the grossness of my conduct, and my stupid mistake ; and if Thy justice for my chastisement had permitted me to execute my impru- dent intention, what wretcheness would now be mine! Thanks to Thee, my God, throughout eternity, for so great a blessing. I will present myself to my princess, my spouse, confiding in the sweetness of her clemency, and, prostrate at her feet, I will beseech her pardon, so that for her sake, Lord, Thou wilt regard me with pity, and pardon my fault." St. Joseph went forth from his hum- ble chamber very unlike what he was before his recent slumber. Now he was happy: yet he dared not disturb our blessed Lady, who was still absorb- ^k ed in the S"jveets of her contemplation. While awaiting the favorable moment, the man of God, with tearful eyes, un- bound the little packet that he had prepared — but with sentiments far dif- ferent from those which had previously occupied him. Having learned the honor due to our blessed Lady, our saint watered the house with his tears ; he swept it and prepared other little household work, which, while ignorant of her dignity, he had intrusted to the care of his blessed spouse. He now resolved to change his de- portment towards her, by appropriating to himself the office of servant, reserv- ing that of mistress for her majesty. Further on we shall relate the loving disputes which he had with our queen to decide which of the two should serve and take the humbler place. At the proper time the saint presented himself at the chamber of our blessed Lady, who awaited his coming with the sweet- ness and complacency which we shall recount in the following chapter. Let us take an example from St. Joseph, who believed, without delay and with- out doubting, that which the angel revealed to him, in such wise that he merited to be elevated to a great bai-d, and to a sublime dignity. And if he abased himself with so much humility, not having committed any sin in what he did, but only in having been greatly troubled under circumstances which seemed to give so much occasion for LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 757 anxiety, consider how mucli we ought * to humiliate ourselves — we, who are nothing but miserable worms of the dust — by weeping over our negligence and our sins, so that the Most High may regard us as father and spouse. CHAPTER y. ST. JOSEPH ASKS PARDON OF THE HOLY MARY HIS SPOUSE HE RESOLVES TO SERVE HER IN ALL THINGS WITH PRO- FOUND RESPECT. ST. JOSEPH, after the discovery of his error. Waited until our blessed Lady should come forth from her re- treat. As soon as he thouo-ht it was time, he opened the door of the little chamber occupied by the mother of the heavenly King, and, throwing him- self at her feet, he exclaimed, with humility and profound veneration : " My spouse. Mother of the Eternal Word, behold your servant prostrate before you. By the same Lord whom you bear in your most chaste bosom, I pray you to pardon my presumption. Sure I am that none of my thoughts can be hidden from your wisdom, nor from the divine light which you have received. Great was my blindness to think of deserting you ; but you know that I did it in ignorance, because neither the secret of the great King had been re- vealed to me, nor the greatness of your dignity. Forget, I ei treat you, the many deficiencies of a vile creature who offers his heart and his life to your ser- vice ; I will not rise from your feet until you have pardoned my folly — until I have received your forgiveness and your benediction." The august Mary listened with min- gled feelings to the humble words of her spouse. She rejoiced in the Lord to learn that St. Joseph was informed of the mysteries of the incarnation, and that he revered them with such pro- found faith and humility. But she was troubled by the resolution he had taken to change his conduct towards her, and with the respect and submission with which he addressed her. Knowing how much she ought to esteem humility, she was disturbed by the apprehen- sion that St. Joseph, recognizing in her the mother of the Lord, would deport himself in all things as her inferior. Insisting that he should rise, she pros- trated herself at his feet, although he made every effort to hinder this, but it was not possible ; for in humility she was invincible. Then she said to the saint : " It is I, my spouse, who ought to beseech your pardon for the pain and sorrow that you have had to en- dure on my account, therefore I beg you will forget them." Our blessed Lady, for the consolation of her husband, continued : " I could not reveal to you the hidden mystery which the Most High had inclosed 758 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. within me, because it was my duty to await the expression of the will of the Lord. Thus my silence should not be considered as arising from any want of esteem for you, for in all things I regard you as my master and my husband. I am, and always will be, your faithful servant; but do not make any change in the demeanor which you have al- ways preserved towards me. The Lord has not elevated me to the dignity of being His own Mother to be served, but to be the servant of all, and of you especially. This is my office : it is but just that you should leave it to me, since the Most High has so ordained in giving me your protection." St. Joseph, by these reasons and many others, sweetly efficacious, found his spirit enlightened in a singular man- ner. He received, through this purest of creatures, extraordinary divine influ- ences, and, entirely renewed in heart, he replied: "Thou art blessed among women ; thou art blessed among all nations. May the Creator of heaven and earth be glorified by eternal praises, for that He has chosen thee for His dwelling. In thee alone He has accom- plished the promises that He made to our fathers and to the prophets. Let all generations bless Him that He has not exalted Himself in any creature as in thee, and that He has chosen me, the vilest of men, to be thy servant." The saint was enlightened by thd divine Spirit after ^ the manner of St. Eliza- + beth ; but the light and knowledge which St. Joseph received were, in a certain sense, more admirable, because of his dignity and ministry. The august Mary replied by the Mag- nificat and other new canticles ; and while chanting them, inflamed by the divine fire, she was rapt in a sublime ecstasy, and, lifted up from the eai-th in a globe of brilliant light which en- circled her, she was transformed as in a glory. St. Joseph was filled with admiration and joy inconceivable at this view of his holy spouse, for he had never yet seen her surrounded with such glory and excellence. She appear- ed to him quite transparent, and, at the same time, he discovered the integi-ity and virginal purity ot our queen and the mystery of her dignity. He saw, also, and recognized in the chaste bosom of Mary the holy humanity of the In- fant God and the union of the two na- tures in the person of the Word. He adored the Infant God with a profound humility, acknowledged his true Re- deemer, and offered himself to His ser- vice with fervent acts of divine love. The Lord regarded him with great favor, and distinguished him among all men, for He accepted him as His re- puted father, and gave him the title. And to render him conformable to this new and honorable name, He imparted to him all the knowledge and divine gifts to which Christian purity can oi ought to aspire. LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 759 If it were a proof of the magnan- imity of the glorious St. Joseph that he did not die of jealousy, it is also a subject of admiration that he was not overwhelmed by the joy which he felt on this occasion. In the first case his holiness appears, but in the second he received such augmentations of graces and gifts from the Lord, that, if His divine Majesty had not dilated his heart, he could not have been able to receive them. He was entirely renewed and enlightened so as to converse wor- thily with her who was the Mother of God, and, conjointly with her, to dis- pense all that concerned the incarna- tion and the charge of the Word made man. It was also manifested to him, in order that he should recognize the obligation imposed on him to serve his holy spouse, that all the gifts he had received from the Most High were re- ceived through her and for her. He knew that the gifts he had received before his espousals were bestowed because the Lord had chosen him for this office, and that those which he now received were because she had merited them for him. And as our blessed Lady had been the instrument by which the Lord had wrought the sanctiiication of John the Baptist, and his mother, St. Elizabeth, she was the organ, also, by whom St. Joseph received the pleni- tude of grace. This most happy spouse knew all this, and he responded to it like a faithful and grateful servant. The holy evangelists make no men- tion of these great mysteries, nor of many others which were known to our blessed Lady and St. Joseph, because, for many reasons, they were not suit- able to be made known to the Gentiles on their first conversion. These thincrs were reserved, by the impenetrable judgments of Providence, for times which the divine wisdom judged more suitable,* or when the Church should have need of the intercession and sup- port of our holy Queen. The faithful St. Joseph, after having been made aware of the dignity of his spouse, and the mystery of the incarnation, con- ceived so lofty an esteem for her, that, although he had been always pure and perfect in his life, he now became as a new man. He resolved henceforth to change his conduct, and to redouble his veneration towards our blessed Lady. This was in conformity with the wis- dom of the saint, and due to the excel- lence of his spouse, for he was servant, and she mistress of the universe. St. Joseph knew all this by divine illumi- nation. Now, to satisfy the desire he had to honor her in whom he recog- nized the Mother of God, when he spoke to her, or passed before her, if alone together, he bent the knee. He would not suffer her to wait on him, nor that she should occupy herself in * Jesus said, " I have yet many things to say to you : but you cannot hear them now." — SL John, xvi. 12. no LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. Other bumble offices, such as sweeping ^ the house, cleansing the vessels, and many other things which he thought ilerogatory from tlie (liofiiity of our queen. But our saintly Lady, who was the humblest of the humble, and whose hu- mility wa.s not to be overcome, prayed St Joseph not to pay her such honors as to bow the knee to her. This ven- eration, she said, was doubtless due to the Loi*d, whom she bore in her bosom ; but while He remained there, the per- son of Christ could not be distin- guished from her own. The saint, yielding to her humble desires, render- ed this worship to the Lord, who was in the bosom of Mary, and to her as His mother, only when unperceived by her. They had also humble disputes re- specting their servile employments. St. Joseph could not consent to allow our amiable mistress to perform them, and strove to prevent it. On her part, she did what she could, but while she was retired in her oratoiy the saint found time to do many things, and thus our sweet Lady was frustrated in her de- sires to be the servant. At these times she addressed her meek complaints to the Lord, and prayed Him to oldige her spouse not to hinrler her in the exercise of humility. This virtue is so agreeable at the tribimal of God, that we ask for no common grace when we pray for it; for humility imparts a certain great- ness to all things, and inclines God to clemency. The divine Majesty heark- ened to the request of our blessed Lady, and his guardian angel, said, interiorly, to the blessed St. Joseph, *'Do not frustrate the humble desires of her who is above all creatures in heaven or on earth. Permit her to serve you in external things, and pre- serve for her in your interior the great- est reverence. Render to the Word made man, in all times and in all places, the homage that is due to Him. You can, meanwhile, assist His mother, and honor always the Lord of the universe who is within her." Having received these orders from the Most High, St. Joseph no longer refused her humble exercises to our sweet Lady. Thus both offered to God the sacrifice of their will. The most pure Mary, in practising her pro- found humility, and faithful obedience to her spouse ; and St. Joseph, by obe- dience to the Most High, with a holy confusion to see himself served by her whom he recognized as mistress of the universe and mother of the Creator. Thus our saint was compensated for the humility which he could not exer- cise ; for, to see himself served as he was, humiliated him far more, and obliged him to abase himself still more profoundly in contempt of himself. In these dispositions St. Joseph meditated upon the Lord, whom the august Mary ^■<fili)if <&!(^4ii|)' S fJ ^D ^^p 'Y A- - y' LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 761 bore in lier chaste bosom, adoring and rendering to Him honor and glory. Then, in recompense for his sanctity and his respect, mingled with fear, the Infant God, made man, sometimes manifested Himself in an admirable manner. He saw Him in the bosom of His most pure mother, as through a luminous crystal. Afterwards, our incomparable Lady conversed more familiarly with her blessed spouse upon the mysteries of the incarnation, for she knew that he was now inform- ed of the secrets of the hypostatic union of the two natures, divine and human, within her virginal bosom. No tongue can relate the celestial discourses that were held between the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph. And who can describe the effects produced on the gentle and pious heart of this holy man, on finding himself the spouse of her who was the true mother of his Creator, and to see her performing for him the duties of a simple servant ? If the Almighty enriched the house and the person of Oben-Edom with such plenteous benedictions for having received the ark of the Old Testament, what benedictions would He not be- stow upon St. Joseph, to whom He had confided the true Ark, and the Legislator Himself who was inclosed within it? The happiness and the fidelity of this saint were incomparable, not only because the living Ark of the New f Testament abode in his house, but be- cause he guarded it like a faithful and prudent servant. The Lord placed him over His family, also, that he should provide for it according to its neces sities as a faithful administrator. Let all nations acknowledge him, bless him, and publish his praises, since the Most High has never done for any other what He has done for this in- comparable saint. In view of mys- teries so august, I will glorify this adorable Lord, and confess Him as holy, just, merciful, wise, and admirable in all His wondrous works. CHAPTER VL MODE OF LIFE OF THE AUGUST MARY AIS^D ST. JOSEPH. CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN THEM, AND OTHER REMARKABLE CIR- CUMSTANCES. THE humble house of Joseph, which our saints made their dwelling- place, consisted of three chambers only. St. Joseph slept in one of these, and used another as a workshop, where the tools were deposited which served for use in his trade of carpenter. The third, which contained a small bed, the work of our saint, was appropri- ated to the Queen of heaven, who slej)t there, and made it her ordinary abode. This order was established from the- date of their marriage. 78S LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 3«fore he was informed of her dignity, the saintly husband rarely, except when some affair obliged him to ask her advice, visited his wife, because he was engaged with his work, and she remained in her retreat. But after his happiness was made known to him, the holy man became more as- siduous, and went very often to seek our blessed Lady, to renew the offer of his services. Yet he never ap- proached her but with great humility and reverent respect. Before speaking to her he was careful to observe how she was occupied. Thus, many times he saw her rapt in ecstacy, and sur- rounded by a radiant light ; at others, he found her discoursing with angels. Often she was prostrate, in the form of a cross, and speaking with the Lord. In these circumstances our saint con- tented himself with the liberty of gaz- ing upon her with the most profound reverence. It was granted to his merits to hear the harmony of the angelic chants, and to inhale a delicious fra- grance that strengthened him and filled his whole being with spiritual joy and consolation. The holy spouses were alone in their house, for they kept no servant — not only because of their great humility, but also that they found it most con- venient to have no witnesses of the prodigies that were of such frequent occuiTence with them. Our Lady never left the house, unless ^ obliged by some pressing circumstance; but a woman, their neighbor and rela- tive, she who had served St. Joseph (luring the sojourn of the Blessed Vir- gin at the house of Zachariah, took charge of their extei'nal affairs. She was abundantly recompensed for these services, not only in her own advance- ment in perfection, but her family also felt the beneficent efiects of the protec- tion of the Holy Family. The august Mary many times healed their maladies, and filled them with heavenly bene- dictions. Their nourishment was very frugal ; but they partook of it every day, and together. St. Joseph sometimes ate flesh meat, but the holy Virgin never although she prepared it for her spouse Their ordinary diet consisted of fruits fish, bread, and cooked vegetables. But this was always taken with great mod- eration, and only so much as was need ful, but the quality varied according to circumstances. St. Joseph never saw his holy spouse asleep. He did not know, from his own experience, whether she slept at all. Her place of rest was the little bed made by the saint. It had two coverings, between which she was ac- customed to place herself to take a brief and light repose. The under-gar- ment of the august Mary was a tunic or chemise, but little softer than wool- len stufi; She never left it ofl*, except when it was worn, nor soiled it, and no _i '■9 '■^^ .^ ^^. Z^%,jfM.^. >*it>flfii^%?«sr ■ -' ' ' --•^^*^5)P-i^H^'^'' LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 763 one in the world saw it, not even St. * Joseph. In all her works, and in what- ever she did for St. Joseph, the greatest cleanliness was observed. Before St. Joseph was informed of the mystery of . the incarnation, our blessed Lady, at certain times when he was not occupied, used to read to him from the Holy Scriptures, particularly from David and the Prophets. She explained them like an experienced instructress, and her holy spouse ques- tioned her on many points, her replies to which gave him such cause for admi- ration, that both united in praising and blessing the Lord. But after the saint had discovered the grand secret, our Lady addressed him as the chosen of God, to be the coadjutor of the works and mysteries of the Redemption. They discoursed then openly together, and with a more clear understanding, of the prophecies which referred to the conception of the Word by a Virgin Mother, His birth, and His most holy life. Our august Lady explained all ; and then they spoke of what they should do when the day, so much desired, should come — when the Child should be born, when He should be in her arms, and she should nourish Him from her virginal breast, and when, alone among mortals, her holy spouse would be the only one who should participate in this inconceivable happiness ! But she said little of the death and the passion, for she was unwilling to afflict the tender heart of her spouse. The faithful and happy St. Joseph was all enkindled by divine love in these gracious conversations, and, shed- ding tears of joy, he cried out : " Is it indeed possible that I shall see my God and Redeemer within thy chaste arms ? — that I shall adore Him there? — that I shall hear His sweet voice? — that I shall touch Him? — that my eyes shall see His divine face? — that the sweat of my brow shall be employed in His service, and for His support? — that we shall speak and converse with Him? Whence comes to me such bliss as none could ever have deserved ? Why have I not rich treasures, that I may lay them at His feet ? " Our august Lady replied : " The great God comes not into the world to find riches, for He needs them not ; for them would He not descend from heaven. He comes on earth only to repair the disorders of the world, and by sure ways to conduct it to eternal life ; and these ways are none other than humility and poverty. For this He has chosen our poor habitation. He wills not that we be rich in worldly goods, which are but vanity and vexation of spirit." The saint often besought the holy Virgin to instruct him in the character of the virtues, especially that of the divine love, in order that he might understand how to conduct himself in a suitable manner towards the God man, 7«4 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. ■o as not to be rejected as an unprofit- * able servant The Mistress of the Vir- tues condescended to his request, and explained to her spouse the properties of the virtues, and the manner of prac- tising them with all possible perfection. Nevertheless she deported herself in these instructions with such great dis- cretion, that she appeared in no wise the mistress of her spouse, for she inter- rupted the saint and insti-ucted him by her questions. They mingled these conversations, or readings from the Scriptures, sometimes with manual labor, when the saint was obliged to continue at his work. Our most amiable Lady added to them the consolations of the celestial doctrines ; and thus the happy husband made greater advancement in virtue than with the work of his hands. She show- ed to him the great fruit that may be drawn from labor. Believing herself unworthy to be maintained by her spouse, she was humbled, in thinking how much she was indebted to him. She felt herself as much obliged as if she had been the most useless of all creatures, and, being unable to assist our saint, she served him whenever it was possible. About this time St. Jo- seph saw, one day, a great number of birds come to entertain the queen of creatures. They fluttered around her, as if to form a choir, and sang with a delicious melody. St Joseph had not before witnessed this marvel, and, over- flowing with joy and wonder, he ex- claimed : " Is it possible that unreason- ing creatures acquit themselves of their obligations better than I? It is just that if they recognize, serve, and honor thee, so far as they are capable, that thou shouldst pennit me also, to acquit myself of what is justly thy right." But the most prudent Virgin replied: " I am but a simple creature, yet I ought to induce all creatures to praise the Most High." It often happened that they found themselves in want of necessaries, for they were very liberal to the poor, nor were they careful, like worldly people, to provide for their wants beforehand. Now the Lord so ordered it, that the faith and patience of His holy Mother and St. Joseph should not be idle. These privations were an inexpressible consolation to the august Mary, not only because of her love of poverty, but also of her humility, through which she considered herself undeserving of the necessary aliments of life. She prayed the Most High only to supply the wants of St. Joseph. The All-Powerful forgot not His poor, and, while giving them occasion to augment their merits and to exercise their virtues, He gave them also food in season. Sometimes He inspired their neighbors or acquaintances to assist them by a gift Oftener St Elizabeth sent them help from her own house • for, since the visit of the Queen of LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 765 heaven, she had resolved to assist them, and our sweet Lady sent in return some work of her own hands. Our holy Mistress sometimes exercised the power with which she was endowed over creatures, and the birds brought fruits or bread. Her happy spouse was frequently a witness of these events. They were also sometimes assisted, in a wonderful manner, by the minis- try of angels. But before recounting these, it is well to remark that the nobleness of heart, the faith, and the generosity of the saint were so exalted, that his soul was free from every taint of avarice, or sordid care for the future. And although the holy spouses devo- ted themselves to labor, they never demanded the price of their work, nor would they enter into bargains, for they did not labor from motives of in- terest, but to exercise charity towards those who had need of it, leaving the acknowledgment of it to their discre- tion. When any payment was made to them, they received it not as a price or recompense, but as an alms. It often happened that no recompense was offer- ed for their work, and that they found themselves entirely destitute of food, and then the Lord provided it. One day, when their usual dinner-hour was passed, and no morsel of food was to be found in the house, they remained a long time in prayer and thanksgiving to the divine Majesty, for this affliction. t During this time the hoi}' angels pre- pared a repast. They arranged the table, and placed thereon fruits, bread of a very delicate kind, fish, and a sort of conserve of wonderful sweetness and excellence ; and then some of these blessed spirits went to call their Queen — others, St. Joseph. Each of them recognized the heavenly gifts, and, with holy tears of joy, renewed their thanks giving to the Most High. At length they partook of the repast, which, be- ing finished, they united in chanting praises, truly sublime, to the beneficent giver of every good gift. The august Mary and her spouse often experienced wonders of this character, for there were no witnesses from whom it was necessary they should be concealed. The Lord was very liberal towards them, whom He had appointed admin- istrators of the most wonderful prodi- gies which had ever been wrought. It is necessary to remark, that when our blessed Lady composed canticles of praise, either alone, or with St. Jo- seph or the angels, we are to understand that they were always new, like those composed by Anna, mother of Samuel ; Moses; Hezekiah, and other prophets. If they had been written, they would form a large volume, which would have been the adnairation of all the world. The providence of the Most High declares Himself protector of the hum- ble who confide in Him, because the divine Majesty regards them with love. 786 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. He is pleased with them — He bears them iu His bosom — He is attentive to all their desires and all their pains. The august Mary and St. Joseph were very pt>or, and often found themselves iu great want, but never did they al- low the poison of avarice or cupidity to enter their hearts. They sought the glory of God alone, abandoning them- selves entirely to His most loving care. We ought to be content with what is necessary, and to be convinced that the providence of our Creator can never fail. If He be slow sometimes to send us His help, we should not be afflicted nor lose hope. He who has abundance ought not to fix his heart upon it. We should attribute to God both abun- dance and poverty, and make a holy use of both. Let us practise this doc- trine, and abandon ourselves to Provi- dence, and nothing that is needful for us can ever be wanting. CHAPTER Vn. PREPARATIONS FOR THE BIRTH OF THE INFANT JESUS EDICT OP AUGUSTUS THE BLESSED MARY AND ST. JOSEPH GO TO BETHLEHEM. rpHE Mother of the Eternal Word, -*- the holy Mary, seeing the period of the birth of the Infant God approach, would not undertake to make the neces- sary preparations for it, without the f command of her husband, and the will of God. Although she was able to decide for herself in whatever concern- ed the maternal office, she preferred to practise the duties of an obedient and most faithful servant. She therefore con- sulted her holy spouse, St. Joseph. "It is time," she said, " to begin the prepa- rations for the birth of my most blessed Son. With your permission, I will provide the swaddling-clothes to receive Him. I have some linen, spun by my- self, which will serve for a part, if you will seek for the finest and softest that can be found for the rest. And that all may be well done, let us ofier a special prayer to His divine Majesty that we may do whatever is most agree- able to Him." St. Joseph replied : " If it were neces* sary to give the purest of my blood to testify my readiness to render service to my God, and to do what you request, I should esteem myself happy to pour it out in the cruellest torments. Order all as it seems best, for I desire to obey thee as thy servant." While they were engaged in prayer, the Most High re- plied to each in particular by the same voice. " I have descended from heaven to earth to elevate humility, and to debase pride — to honor poverty, and to make riches contemptible. For this reason, it is my will that you treat me in the humanity which I have assumed, in all things exterior, as if I were the child of both of you — and interiorly LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 767 you will recognize in me the Son of my * eternal Father, and true God, with the veneration and love due to me, being man and God at the same time." The august Mary and St. Joseph were confirmed by this divine voice in the wisdom that should guide their actions in all the services which they were to render to the Infant God. They resolved to practise the most sublime and perfect mode of honoring their true God, and never among mere creatures was He so perfectly honored. But before the eyes of the world they treated Him as if they were conjointly His parents, because it was the Lord's will that men should so believe. The celestial inhab- itants were in admiration at the conduct of the holy spouses, as we shall relate further on. They resolved also to de- vote to the Infant God all the services which their condition admitted, without attracting observation, so that the secret of the great King should be concealed ; neither should he want for any thing, for, in ministering to Him, they could manifest their ardent love, so far as it was possible. St. Joseph, having received payment for some of his work, purchased, accord- ing to the wishes of his spouse, two pieces of cloth, one white, and the other nearer violet than gray — the best that could be found. Our lovely Lady made of them swaddling-clothes -for her most holy child. She made little shirts of the linin that she had spun during the j early period of her marriage, with the intention of offering it at the Temple. Happily her intention was changed ; nevertheless she made an offering of what was left. The Blessed Virgin had woven this linen on her knees, with tears of inexpressible devotion. St. Joseph also purchased flowers and aro- matics, from which the holy Mother composed the most delicious perfume that ever was made. With this she sprinkled the swaddling-clothes con- secrated to the Victim, and, folding them, she placed them in a case which she and St. Joseph carried with them to Bethlehem, as we shall see. It is hardly necessary to remark, that all these works recounted here, ought not to be regarded simply as facts. Their objects, and the intentions which inspired them, redolent of sanc- tity, and enriched with the highest per- fection, must be taken into view. The divine Mother, her heart all glowing with love, offered all the sacrifices which the ancient law contained in figure. She realized, in truth, the an- cient figures, by the exercise of virtues and acts both interior and exterior. Her happy spouse, on his part, accom- panied her in many of them. If the smallest portion of grace that a creature, whoever he may be, receives, by means of a virtue that he has prac- tised, is worth more than all the uni- verse, who can estimate its gi'eatnesa in her who surpassed the merits of the 768 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. highest Seraphim! Our holy Lady ^ saw the humanity united to the Divin- ity in the person of the Word, saw all the interior acts of the most holy soul of her divine Son, and the prayers that He offered for her, for St. Joseph, for the whole human race, and especially for the elect The Most High had determined, by His immutable will, that the only Son of the Father should be born at Beth- lehem. The ancient prophets had long since announced it. The Lord disposed all things for the accomplishment of His divine decree; and it was by an edict of Caesar Augustus, who com- manded, as it is recorded by St. Luke, a census to be made of the whole world. It consisted in acknowledging the authority of the Emperor of Rome, and paying a certain tribute. To effect this, every one was obliged to inscribe himself on the register of his native city. This edict being published at Naz- areth, St Joseph was informed of it. Returning home, in much trouble, he related to his blessed spouse what had happened. The most prudent Virgin replied : " The edict of an earthly po- tentate ought not to disturb you in this manner, since the Sovereign of heaven and earth takes care of all things that belong to us. His Provi- dence will assist us. Let us abandon ourselves with confidence to His guid- ance.' The holy Virgin was instructed in all the mysteries of her divine Son, and she knew that He was to be born in Bethlehem, poor, and a stranger; but she said nothing of this to St. Jo- seph. They conferred together upon what they ought to do, for the period of the birth of the Infant God ap- proached. At length St. Joseph said to his spouse: "It seems to me that I cannot be dispensed from executing this edict of the emperor. And although it would suffice to go alone, I dare not leave you, for I should not have a mo- ment's rest — my heart would be in per- petual alarm. It would be risking too much to propose to you to accompany me to Bethlehem ; it would expose you, too evidently, to danger. This appre- hension gives me great pain. Present, I entreat you, my supplications to the Most High, that He may not separate me from you." The humble Mary obeyed the re- quest of St. Joseph, only to prove her obedience, for she was not ignorant of the divine will. She therefore laid the desires of her faithful, spouse before the Lord, who replied to her : " Obey my servant Joseph in what he has pro- posed and desires. Bear him company in this journey. I will be with you, for it is my will that you should go." The Lord ordered nine thousand angels to join the thousand who formed hei guard. Our blessed Lady confided to St. LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 769 Josepli this response, and declared that it was the will of the Most High that she should accompany him to Bethle- hem. The saintly man was full of joy, and expressed his humble gratitude for this favor. He said to his spouse : " I have no other anxiety in this journey except the pain which it will cause to you. But I hope to find relations and friends who will receive us with kind- ness." The kind heart of the good man induced him to believe this, but the Lord had disposed otherwise. The saint was mistaken in his expectations, and suffered much from the disappoint- ment. Our sweet Lady forebore to reveal to St. Joseph what was already known to her touching the event to be accom- plished. They appointed the day of departure, and St. Joseph went to en- gage a beast of burden. It was very difiicult to find one, because of the great number of persons who were go- ing to their different cities to be enroll- ed, in obedience to the imperial edict. At length he found a little ass, which, if he could have known it, was the happiest of all his race, since he car- ried the Queen of the Universe, and the King of kings, and was present at the birth of the Infant God. During five days the august Mary and St. Jo- seph were engaged in preparations for the journey. Their provisions consist- ed of bread, fruits, and fish, as in go- ing to the house of Zachariah. And ' as the most prudent Virgin knew that she would be long absent from the house, she secretly arranged her affairs according to the will of God. Finally, they recommended it to a person who was to take charge of it until their return. The hour of departure arrived. The blessed Joseph, who treated his be- loved spouse with renewed respect, sought, like a vigilant and faithful ser- vant, to find reasons to serve and please her. He entreated her, with much af- fection, to make known to him all that she desired for her comfort, and for the good pleasure of the Lord whom she bore in her virginal bosom. Our Queen meekly accepted the holy affec- tion of her spouse: she even consoled and animated him to endure the fatigue of the road, for His divine Majesty willed that they should accept the in- conveniences of the journey with an equable and joyous heart. Before setting out, our blessed Lady knelt to ask St. Joseph's blessing. The man of God excused himself because of her dignity, but the ever invincible humility of the august Virgin con- quered, and obliged him to give it. She then prayed him to offer himself anew to her most holy Son, and to ob- tain for her His divine grace. After these holy preparations they set out for Bethlehem, in the depth of winter, which made the journey more painful and more inconvenient. 770 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. The august Mary and the glorious St Joseph left Nazareth to go to Beth- lehem I Poor and humble travellers they were, in the eyes of the world, which had no more esteem for them than it had for humility and poverty. But, oh ! wonderful secrets of the Most High ! hidden from the proud and im- penetrable, from the wisdom of the flesh, our travellers were not alone, nor poor, nor despised. They had a mag- nificent suite, inestimable riches, and a glory unparalleled. They were the highest objects of the care of the eter- nal Father, and of His immense love. They bore with them the treasures of heaven, and the Divinity itself. All the celestial court revered them. The insensible creatures recognized the living ark of the Testament far better tnan the waters of the Jordan recog- nized that which was only the type of Her With them were the ten thou- sand angels, appointed for His divine Majesty and His holy Mother. The incomparable Mary and her saintly spouse marched with this regal train, unseen by the eyes of mortals. The angels chanted canticles to the Lord, and to His blessed Mother, acknowledg- ing her sometimes as a car, incorrupti- ble and living — sometimes as the fertile ear, which contains the living wheat — sometimes as a richly freighted vessel. The holy travellers were five days on the way; for the careful husband would not make long journeys. There was no night for our Queen during this time, for the angels threw so bright a radiance around her that the lij^ht was equal to the most serene day. St. Joseph enjoyed this favor, and also the view of the angels. They formed a celestial choir, in which our august Lady and her spouse responded to the blessed spirits by caniicles and hymns of praise. The Lord united to these favors some sufferings. The great number of persons who thronged the hostelries to obey the imperial edict, were causes of much pain to the modesty of the saintly Mary and her spouse. They were thrust aside as sordid poor, and received less attention than others who seemed richer. Thus our holy travel- lers, weary and worn, were often re- ceived with harsh words at these hos- telries. Sometimes they were even sent away as troublesome, and unworthy of consideration ; at others, the mistress of heaven and earth was put into a corner of the vestibule, — and even this could not always be secured, and she and St. Joseph retired to places still less proper or decent in the world's estimation. The troop of angels followed them everywhere, so that the couch of the true Solomon was guarded from the alarms or surprises of the night. The faithful spouse, seeing the mistress of the universe so well cared for, reposed in peace, so as to recover a little from LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 771 the fatigues of tlie day; for it fre- quently happened that, being in the most rigorous season of the year, and arriving at the hostelries half frozen by the snow and rain, they were obliged to take refuge among the animals, be- cause men gave them nothing more commodious. The mistress of creatures might easily have commanded the winds and snows, but she forebore, that she might imi- tate her divine Son in His sufferings. The faithful St. Joseph, nevertheless, took great care to put her under shel- ter, and also the holy angels; in par- ticular the prince St. Michael, who al- ways assisted on the right of the queen. Knowing that it was the will of the Lord, they sometimes protected her from the rigor of the weather, and ren- dered other services to our sweet Lady, and to the blessed fruit of her womb, Jesus. CHAPTER VIH. ARRIVAL AT BETHLEHEM BIRTH OF JE- SUS IN A GROTTO ST. JOSEPH IS PRES- ENT AT THIS MYSTERY. OUR holy travellers, the blessed Mary and St. Joseph, reached Bethlehem on the fifth day of their journey, on Saturday, about four o'clock in the afternoon — the hour when, at the winter solstice, the sun * is near his setting, and the night ap- proaches. They entered the town to seek a shelter, and having made in- quiries, not only at the inns, but among their relations and friends, they were refused with rudeness and contempt. Our august Lady followed her spouse, who went from house to house — from door to door, in the midst of the crowds who arrived. And, although she knew that the houses of men, like their hearts, were closed against them, she willingly endured all this mortification in obe- dience to St. Joseph. At the same time it was more painful to find herself in the midst of such a crowd, than to be disappointed in finding a lodging. In wandering about the city, they found the house where the register was kept, and, to avoid the necessity of returning there, they inserted their names, and paid the tribute. Then, pursuing their way ' to find a place of refuge, they applied at more than fifty houses, and were everywhere refused. The holy angels admired the wonderful mysteries of the Lord, the patience and sweetness of the Virgin Mother, and the insen- sibility of men. It was nearly nine o'clock in the evening when the faithful St. Joseph, deeply grieved, turning towards his prudent spouse : " My courage fails me," he said, "to find not only that I cannot lodge thee according to thy mer- its, but that I cannot even secure for thee such a shelter as is rarely or never 772 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. refused to the poorest and most con- ^ teroptible applicant. Doubtless some mystery underlies this. I remember to have seen, without the city walls, a grotto where the shepherds ai'e accus- tomed to fold their flocks. Let us go there, for if the place is not occupied, we shall there receive from heaven the hospitality which men reftise to us." The most prudent Virgin replied : " Do not afflict thyself, my spouse. The place thou speakest of is quite conform- able to my desires. Change thy tears into joy, for we love and we possess poverty, which is the inestimable treas- ure of my holy Son. He comes from heaven to seek it. Let us go with pleasure whither the Lord conducts us." Lumediutely the holy angels guided the saintly pair towards this place ; they found it unoccupied, and, full of celestial joy, they praised the Lord. The palace which the King of kings and Lord of lords had prepared in this world to receive His only Son, incarnate for men, was the lowly and humble grotto to which the most pure Mary and St. Joseph had retired, after having been repulsed by all, as has been re- lated. This place was so unpromising, that, in spite of the extraordinary con- course of strangers at Bethlehem, no one had deigned to occupy it. In fact, it was suitable only to the masters of humility and poverty, and the wisdom of the eternal Father had reserved it for them. The august Mary and Joseph entered the place, and, by the radiance of the angels, they saw that it was as poor and solitary as they could have wished. They then fell upon their knees, prais- ing the Lord with thanksgivings for this blessing. The grotto was formed out of the natural rock, and was so rough and uneven, that it was fitted only for the lodging of animals. The angelic spirits assumed a corpo- real and human form. St. Joseph saw them, for it was proper that, on this occasion, he should enjoy this favor, either to diminish his pain, or to ani- mate his spirit and elevate it for the events which the Lord had prepared for this same night. Our blessed Lady, informed of the mystery which was about to be accomplished, resolved her- self to cleanse the grotto. The holy Joseph, attentive to the dignity of his admirable spouse, entreated her to leave that care to him. He therefore began to sweep and purify every part of it, and our humble Lady seconded him to the best of her power. The angels also assisted them, until in a short time the grotto was brought into a decent con- dition, and they filled it with a delight- ful perfume. St. Joseph kindled a fire, of which there was much need, for the weather was very cold. They afterwards supped from the scraps of food still left ; but our sweet Lady ate only on the press- ing solicitations- of her spouse, whom LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 773 slie desired to o.bey in all things. At * tlie close of their repast, they returned thanks to God as was their custom, and afterwards discoursed together concern- ing the mystery of the incarnate Word. The most prudent Virgin knew that the hour approached. She entreated St. Joseph to seek repose, for the night was far advanced. The man of God yielded to her solicitations, praying her to follow his example. In order to provide for her the means of rest, he arranged their luggage in such a way as to make up a species of crib, on the floor of the grotto, and, leaving to the august Mary this sort of bed, he withdrew into an angle at the entrance to engage in meditation and prayer. The Holy Spirit came to visit him, and he felt himself drawn by a gentle force that rapt him in ecstacy, during which the events of this night were manifest- ed to him. He remained in this ecstasy until called by his holy spouse. This mysterious slumber of Joseph was more sublime and more fortunate than that of Adam in paradise. [This would be the place to speak of the wonderful birth of the Infant God, and to admire the prodigies of every kind that accompanied it; but since it is impossible to relate all, we prefer to confine ourselves to what regards St. Joseph exclusively. The reader who desires to be informed of all these cir- cumstances, is referred to the great work of Maria d'Agreda. It is not without lively regret that we omit here the narration of those facts which have commanded the admiration of heaven and earth.] The evangelist St. Luke relates that the Virgin Mother, having brought forth her first-born Son, wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger. He does not mention who placed Him in her arms. But the two princes, St. Michael and St. Gabriel, were the ministers on this occasion, and they presented Him to her with as great a reverence as when the priest exposes the holy host. The holy Moth- er received the Infant God into her arms from these two celestial princes. She served as the altar and sanctuary, which the angels of her guard ap- proached to adore their Creator, and venerate that youthful virgin of fifteen, so worthy to dispense these great mys- teries. It was time for the prudent Lady to call her faithful spouse, then in a state of divine ecstasy, in which he knew, by revelation, all the mysteries of the sacred birth of that night. It was but just, that, before any othel mortal, he should enjoy the honor of seeing, and the consolation of adoring, by means of his senses, the Word. made man, since he had been chosen to be the faithful guardian of this sublime mystery. The saint returned from his ecstasy, m LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. and, having recovered the use of his senses, the first object that met his view was the Infant God, in the arms of His N'irgin Mother, and leaning upon her sa- cred face and chaste bosom. He adored Hmi, on this living altar, with the most profound humility, and with warm tears of tendei'ness. He kissed His feet with new joy, and with such rapturous affec- tion, that, but for the divine assistance, he could not have survived it Cer- tainly, but for the help of God, he must have lost his senses upon this occasion. After St. Joseph had adored the In- fant, the most discreet Mother asked permission of her Son to seat herself, for she had, until then, remained kneel- ing. The saint gave her the swaddling- clothes which they had brought, and she wrapt the Infant in them with the highest possible reverence, devotion, and neatness. Afterwards, as it is re- corded by St. Luke the evangelist, she laid Him in the manger, carefully plac- ing therein a little straw and hay, to sei-ve for the first bed of the Incarnate Word on earth. It was then that, guided by the Divine will, an ox came from the field, and joining the ass which they had brought with them, they warmed, by their breath, the Infant God whom men had refused to receive. And thus was miraculously accomplish- ed the prophecy of Isaiah : " 27ie ox hnoweth hie owner ^ and the a-ss his mas- tei'^a C7'ib, hU larad hath not hnown me." —la. L a. The heavenly courtiers, having cele- brated, in the grotto of Bethlehem, the birth of their Incarnate God, and our Redeemer, many of them were sent to different places to announce the happy tidings to those who were prepared to hear them. The prince, St. Michael, was directed to the fathers in Limbo, to inform them that the only Son of the Eternal Father, who was made man, had just been bom. He bore messages, on the part of the blessed Mother, to St. Joachim and St. Anna. For this numerous assembly of the just it was the day of great consolation. Another, angel was sent to St. Eliza- beth and her son John, who adored their Incarnate God. As soon as St: Elizabeth heard of it, she instantly dis- patched a messenger to Bethlehem with presents to the Mother of the Infant God, consisting of a small sum of money, linen, and other things, to sup- ply the wants of the poor Mother and her saintly spouse. But the messenger had no orders but to visit her cousin and St. Joseph, to leave her gifts, to infoi-m himself of their necessities, and quickly to bring her news of them. On his return, he recounted to St. Elizabeth the poverty of her relative, of the Child and Joseph, and the strange feelings that he had experienced while with them. Other angels also went to announce the same glad tidings to Zachariah, to Simeon and to Ajina the prophetess, because the Lord found eacli prepared to receive them with advantage. All the just then living on the earth, al- though unacquainted with this mystery, were, nevertheless, sensible of its divine effects when the Saviour was born. To some, indeed, the Lord revealed it, and of this number were the Magi, who were inspired with renewed desires to seek Him. The neighboring shepherds were blest above all others. They were of those who waited for and desired the coming of the Messiah ; and, humble and poor, they were engaged in watching their flocks at the time of the birth. Hence they were in a state of holy prepara- tion : they merited to be the first-called. The archangel St. Gabriel was sent to them. They were troubled at seeing him, but the celestial prince reassured them. Illuminiited by the divine wis- dom, they set off for Bethlehem, to wit- ness the miracle of which they had just heard. On entering the grotto, they found, as it is said by St. Luke, Mary and Joseph, and the Infant laid in a manger. The divine Infant looked upon them, and, prostrate, they adored the incar- nate Word. The blessed Mother was attentive to all. She spoke with the shepherds, and instructed them. They made, afterwards, several other visits, during the sojourn of the holy family in the grotto, and brought them pres- ents proportioned to their poverty. * They did not speak of what they had seen until after the blessed Mary, the Infant, and St. Joseph had departed from Bethlehem. Their testimony was not believed by all ; but Herod believ- ed, only not with a holy faith. They were, nevertheless, saints, and filled with divine science, even to their death. The coming of the incarnate Word was terrible only for hell. Many things were concealed from Lucifer and his agents, which he might naturally have known ; but he considered it an idle fancy to believe that the Word would come and establish His power in so obscure and humble a manner. The Mother of wisdom penetrated all the deceit of Lucifer. She glorified the Lord, and offered prayers for all of the human race, who, by their sins, had made themselves unworthy to recognize the Light, who had just been born to redeem them. CHAPTER IX. SENTIMENTS OF THE AUGUST MOTHER AND ST. JOSEPH FOR THE INFANT GOD THE CIRCUMCISION THE SPOUSES GIVE HIM THE NAME OF JESUS. TOURING the time that our august '-'^ Lady abode in the grotto, which was a dreary place, and exposed to the inclemency of the weather, she took the greatest care to protect her tender 779 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. and sweet Child. She had brought coverings with her for this purpose, and she held him almost constantly in her arras, except when she left Him in those of St Joseph. She wished to afford him the gratification to aid her in this service, and that he should serve the Incarnate God in the office of father. The first time the saint received the Infant God, our blessed Lady said to him, "Receive within your anus, my spouse, the Creator of heaven and earth. Enjoy His sweet companion- ship, so that my Lord and my God may take delight in thee." And speak- ing interiorly with the divine Infant she said, ''Rest in the arms of thy servant and friend Joseph, my spouse. It pains me to be without thee for a single instant, but I wish to share my blessing with him who is worthy of it." The faithful St. Joseph, conscious of this new happiness, humbled himself profoundly. "Queen of the universe," he replied, " how can I dare, I who am 80 unworthy, to hold in my arms the same God in whose presence the pillars of heaven tremble. Supply my defi- ciencies, my baseness, and pray His divine Majesty to regard me with clem- ency." The holy man, hesitating be- tween his desire to receive the Infant God and the respectful fear that held him back, offered to Him acts of love, faith, humility, and respect. He fell on his knees, and received Him with a holy trembling and inconceivable veneration from the hands of His bless- ed mother, shedding gentle tears of joy. The Infant God regarded him with a caressing air; and at the same time renovated his soul by His divine influence. The faithful Joseph, finding himself enriched by so many and such magnificent favors, gave utterance to new canticles of praise. After enjoy- ing for a time the ineffable delight of folding the Lord in his arms, he re- stored Him to His blessed mother. They both placed themselves on their knees to give or to receive Him, and at all times with the same veneration. They made three genuflexions before approaching His divine Majesty, kiss- ing the earth with the greatest humil- ity and adoration. Much more might be said of the veneration observed by the blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, and the angelic spirits towards the Infant God. When the saint was occupied, St. Michael or St. Gabriel bore Him in their arms. No tongue can do justice to the can- ticles of praise and glory which the Queen of heaven chanted with the angels and St. Joseph, who, of all mor- tals was most happy and most favored in this respect. Besides these favors, he received another, most precious to his soul. His most gentle spouse, in speaking with him of the Infant, called Him often, thy son: not that He was really the Son of St. Joseph, for LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 777 He was the Son only of tlie Eternal Fa- ther, and of His Virgin Mother. This favor was an unspeakable joy to the Saint, and his spouse often renewed it. In regard to the circumcision of her Son, the wise Mary had no express order from the Eternal Father. She considered, on the one hand, that her holy Son came to confirm the law in fulfilling it Himself, and more than this, to sufler for mankind : hence He would not refuse the pain of circum- cision. But, on the other hand, ma- ternal love and compassion led her to desire the exemption of her beloved Son from the sufferings consequent upon it. She confided her sentiments regarding this mystery to her chaste spouse, who so tenderly sympathized in these min- gled feelings, that he was moved to tears. Before the eight days after His birth were accomplished, the Queen of heaven addressed herself in prayer to the divine Majesty, who thus respond- ed: "Thou knowest well that thou must offer me thy Son and mine to endure this, and other far greater suf- ferings. Let Him then shed His blood, and give me the first-fruits of the eternal salvation of men." The august Mary then explained to St. Joseph, with rare prudence, the reasons why he should prepare himself for the circumcision of the Infant God. She reminded him that the time pre- scribed by the law approached, and ^ that they must submit to it, having no order to ' the contrary. Her saintly spouse replied, that " he would conform himself to the divine pleasure in all things made manifest by the common law." He then inquired how the cir- cumcision should be performed. The blessed Virgin said, that, in fat- filling the law, she would not be sep- arated from the Infant, nor place Him in charge of any other person, but that she would support Him in her own arms. Yet since, from His tempera- ment. His pain would be greater than that of ordinary children, it would be necessary to be prepared with remedies for the wound. The careful mother prayed St. Joseph also to seek a vial of crystal in which to gather the pre- cious blood, which she wished to pre- serve; and she had linen cloths also ready, so that not a drop should fall on the ground. St. Joseph then went to call a priest, whom he begged to come to the grotto to perform the rite of circumcision, as being the legitimate minister for that ofiice. The august Mary and St. Joseph dis- coursed together respecting the name which they should give to the Infant God in the circumcision. " When the angel," said St. Joseph, " declared to me the great mystery of the incarna- tion, he commanded me to call thy di- vine Son Jesus." The Virgin Mother replied : " He made the same declara- tion to me when the Word was made 778 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. jflesh in my bosom. ITierefore we will reqticst the priest to give Him this nnine on the register of circumcised cljildren. While the Queen of heaven and St. Joseph held this discourse, innumerable troops of angels descended from heaven in human form, and of incomparable beauty. They bore a device, upon which was engraved the name of Jesus. The two archangels, St. Michael and St. Gabriel, each held in their hands a lu- minous globe of wondrous beauty and splender, within which was written the most holy name of Jesus. They thus addressed their Queen : " This name which thou seest is that of thy Son. The Most Holy Trinity have given it to thy only Son our lord, with power to save the human race. He will chas- tise His enemies, and reduce them to serve as His footstool. He will exalt His friends, and place them in gjory at His right hand. But all this must be purchased by His sufferings and His blood." The most happy St. Joseph saw and heard all. He was unable to penetrate the mysteries of the redemption like the mother of wisdom, but he discov- ered some of them. The holy spouses were filled with joy and admiration: in brief, there passed between them, or in their presence, at various times, so many wondenul things, that it would be impossible to convey any just idea of them There was at Bethlehem a synagogue, not for offering sacrifices, Avhich could be oft'ered only at Jerusalem, but for the reading of the Law of Moses. The priest, who was minister of the law, was also of the rite of circumcision. Nevertheless, any one could circumcise. Our august Mother desired, because of the dignity of the Infant, that the priest should be the minister, and for this rea- son it was that the happy St. Joseph summoned him. The priest came to the grotto. At the view of the Mother and the Child his heart was sensibly touched with singular devotion and tenderness. The happiness which he enjoyed in touching the flesh of the Infant God renewed him by a secret power, and rendered him holy and agreeable to the Supreme Lord of the universe. In order to perform the circumcision with all the respect that was possible in such a place, St. Joseph lighted can- dles. The priest requested the Virgin Mother to withdraw for a little space, to avoid the pain of witnessing the sac- rifice, but she prayed the minister of God to permit her to assist at the sac- rament. The priest then consented that she should support the Infant in her arms. Thus she was the consecrated altar upon which the realities repre- sented by the ancient sacrifices began to be accomplished. The blessed Mother unswathed her divine Child, and, drawing from her LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 779 bosom a linen cloth, slie placed it un- * der the Infant, so that it should receive the blood and the relics of the circum- cision. The priest accomplished his office, and the Infant God offered to the Eternal Father three things of such infi- nite value, that each would suffice for the redemption of a thousand worlds : the first was the form of a sinner ; the second, the pain He suffered as man; the third, His most ardent love, with which He began to shed His blood for the redemption of men. The tender and affectionate Mother gathered the sacred relics and the blood shed upon the linen, and placed the whole in the care of St. Joseph. The priest inquired of the holy spouses what name they intended to give to th^ circumcised child. Our sweet Lady, always attentive to the respect which she bore to St. Joseph, requested him to declare it. The saint, turning towards her with veneration, intimated that so sweet a name should be pronounced by her lips — when, by a divine disposition, Mary and Joseph said, at the same moment: ^^ Jesus is His namey The priest replied : '' You are of one mind in this, the name you give to the Infant is great." In writing it he was touched by a great interior tenderness, saying to them : " I assure you that I believe this Child will be a great prophet of the Lord." The august spouses replied to the priest, by an humble acknowledgment, and, having given him the wax lights, and some other trifles as offerings, he departed. The holy Virgin and her spouse re- mained alone with the Infant. They celebrated anew the mystery of the cir- cumcision by canticles, which they com- posed in honor of the most sweet name of Jesus. The careful Mother dressed the wound of the Infant God with the usual remedies. Slie invited the angels to sing. The ministers of the Most High obeyed their Queen, and with heavenly melody they chanted the same canticles which she and St. Joseph had composed in praise of the sweet name of Jesus. CHAPTER X. THE EOYAL MAGI COME TO ADORE THE INFANT GOD IN THE GROTTO OF THE NATIVITY ST. JOSEPH IS PRESENT AT THIS MYSTERY. OUE. blessed Lady knew, by infused science from the Holy Scriptures, that the Magi would come from the East, to acknowledge and adore her most holy Son. She had been informed of this approaching mystery by the angel who had been sent to these kings to announce the birth of the incarnate "Word. St. Joseph had received no intelligence of this mystery, because it had not been revealed to him : there- fore, the circumcision having been cele- brated, the holy man proposed to our sweet Lady to quit their poor abode, for now they could easily find some hostelry in Bethlehem to which they could retire, until the time should come to present the Infant in the Temple of Jerusalem. This most faithful and careful spouse was in continual distress at not being able to procure for the Son and His mother the comforts which they had need of, yet he refeiTed all to the wishes of his spouse. The humble Mary re- plied, without revealing the mystery : " I am ready to do all that you com- mand; do whatever you judge to be best." This virtuous indifference threw St Joseph into greater perplexity, for he had hoped that his spouse would decide what should be done. While they conferred together, the Lord answered by the ministiy of the princes St. Michael and St. Gabriel : " The Divine will ordains that the three kings who come from the East to seek the King of heaven shall adore in this same place the Word made man. It is ten days since they began their journey, and they will very soon be here." By this new information, St. Joseph was consoled and informed of the will of the Lord. The Blessed Virgin remarked that, " Although this place may be poor and uncomfortable to the eyes of the world, it is, nevertheless, precious, since the Lord is content with it." These words of our prudent Lady afforded a * sensible joy to St Joseph, who replied, that "they could, perhaps, remain in that holy place until the day of the presentation in the Temple, without returning first to Nazareth, because of the distance and the severity of the season ; and if they should be obliged by stress of weather to leave it, they might easily find a shelter in Jerusalem, since it was only two leagues distant from Bethlehem." The august Mary conformed in all things to the wishes of her husband. She prepai'ed the grotto for the recep- tion of the Magi, as well as the poverty of the place admitted, and used her power over creatures to protect her Son from the rigor of the winter; Neither the wind, the snow, nor the rain dared to approach Him, but paused at a safe distance. The Mother, nevertheless, suf fered from the cold ; while St. Joseph enjoyed, with the Infant God, the be- nign effects of that privilege; but he knew not that this exemption was owing to the command of his blessed spouse. It often happened that while our sweet Lady held the Infant God in her arms, she knelt to adore Him. She intrusted Him to St. Joseph with the respect which we have already men- tioned. She embraced His feet, and when she desired to kiss Him on the face, she requested, in an interior voice. His consent. In all she was most pm- dent, most perfect, without deficiency LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 781 or excess. But there were between the Infant God and His Virgin Mother, other caresses far more sublime. She was made acquainted with the interior acts of the most holy soul of her Son. His humanity was manifested to her as in. a luminous crystal, and the Blessed Virgin beheld the hypostatic union, the soul of the divine Child and all its operations. Then our humble Lady imitated Him in His works and in His prayers. The most happy St. Joseph enjoyed not only the favors and caresses of the Infant God, as an ocular witness of those which passed between the Son and the Mother, but he was found worthy to receive them from Jesus himself. When our blessed Lady was engaged in pre- paring their food, or in other household occupations, she placed the Infant God in his hands. While St. Joseph held Him, his pious soul thrilled with divine emotions, for the Infant Jesus regarded him with satisfaction ; He reclined on his bosom, and bestowed on him marks of infantile affection. Whenever the august Mary separated herself from the Infant God, she took with her the relics of the circumcision, which St. Joseph usually carried about him for his own consolation. Thus the two spouses were always enriched — the sacred Virgin by her divine Son, and the happy Joseph by the precious blood that had been shed, and the deified flesh. They preserved these holy relics * in the little vial of crystal, which the saint had purchased. Our blessed Lady placed in it the flesh that was removed, and the blood that was shed in the cir- cumcision, for she had cut out all those places of the linen which had received it. She afterwards placed this precious deposit in charge of the Apostles, and left it to them as the property of the holy Church. The Magi kings, who came to seek the new-born Infant God, were natives of a country east of Palestine. David, and Balaam also, had prophesied their coming. They were very learned in the natural sciences, and in the Scriptures of the people of God. They had some belief in the advent of the Messiah. For the rest, they were men of great probity, loving truth and practising jus- tice. They were neighbors, and lived in intimate friendship and faithful cor- respondence. They had noble, great, and generous souls, free from the avarice which too frequently degrades the hearts of princes. They were warned, by the ministry of angels, of the bii'th of the incarnate Word. With clear and abundant instructions, the guardian an- gel of each declared to them in a dream, and at the same time, the mystery of the Incarnation and the birth of the Redeemer. They knew that this new- born Infant was true God and true man, whom they ought to adore as their Creator and Redeemer, and that the star, which Balaam had predicted, Bhould be given as tlieir guide to con- * • luct them to the place where He would )'(• found. Tlie Magi kings awoke, and in spirit they adoi*ed tlie immutable being of God, and glorified His mercy for that the Word liad taken human flesh in the womb of a Virgin, to redeem the world, and they prepared to depart, that they might find Him. At the same time, the holy angel formed a star which was suspended in the air, to conduct the kings to the grotto. In leaving their homes they saw it, and followed the I'oute which it indicated. Thus guided, tliey arrived at Jerusalem, when it dis- appeared. They then inquired where was the King of the Jews, who had just been born. Herod, as it is recorded by St. Mat- thew, assembled the chief priests and scribes, who replied : " According to the prophecy of Micheas, the Messiah is to be born at Bethlehem." Herod called the Magi, and inquired of them the time when they had first observed the appearance of the star. He then said to them: "When you shall have found this Child, inform me of it, so that I, too, may go and adore Him." On passing out of Jerusalem, the Magi again saw the star, which stood over the grotto of the Nativity. The Lord had made known to the august Mother the coming of the Magi, and when she heard they were near the grotto, she mentioned it to St. Jo- seph, in order that he might remain at her side, which he did. Although the Evangelists make no mention of it, it is nevertheless certain that St. Joseph w^as present when the kings adored the Infant Jesus. The Maij^i already knew that St. Joseph was not His real father, and that His mother was a Virgin. The admirable Mother awaited these pious kings with the Infant God in her arms. An extraor- dinary splendor shone forth from the Infant, and our sweet Lady was ex- ceedingly beautiful. They were lost in admiration, adoring the Infant, and acknowledging Him as true God and true man. Then rising up, they bent the knee before the Mother in testi- mony of their veneration, and offered their felicitations on the happiness she enjoyed in being the Mother of the Son of the Eternal Father. The three kings prostrated them- selves anew, and adored the Infant Jesus. Afterwards they addressed tiiemselves to St. Joseph, and con- gratulated him on his happiness in being the spouse of the Mother of God. Having passed three hours in the grotto, the kings requested permission to go and seek ,a lodging in the city, to sojourn there. Several persons ac- companied the Magi, but they alone participated in the effects of grace and knowledge. The holy Mary and Jo- seph remained with God, and glorified the divine Majesty in new canticles of praise, because His holy name began to * be known and adored among the nations. The three kings left the grotto to seek repose in an hostelry of Bethle- hem. They passed a great part of the night in discourse, intermingled with many tears and sighs, respecting what they had seen in the Infant God and His holy Mother. They ceased not to admire the splendor that shone from the Infant Jesus, the modesty of the blessed Mother, the holiness of the. happy St. Joseph. During this conference, the Magi were not unmindful of the great desti- tution of Jesus, Mary, and St. Joseph, in the grotto, and they therefore sent to them, by their servants, liberal supplies of provisions. The august Mary and Joseph received them with gratitude, nor did they reply by empty thanks, but by efficacious benedictions. The Magi disposed themselves to sleep, and the angel warned them of the way in which they should proceed. As soon as it was day they returned to the grotto of the nativity, to offer the gifts they had brought. They pros- trated themselves before the celestial King, and adored Him with profound humility : afterwards, opening their treasures, as it is related in the Gos- pels, they offered to Him gold and frankincense and myrrh. Our blessed Mother received these gifts of the kings, and presented them to the Infant Jesus in their name. They also offered to the sweet Mother their services, their re- sources, and all that they possessed. Our prudent Lady thanked them for all these offers, but she would accept noth- ing. The kings then besought her not to forget them, which she promised. They asked the same of St. Joseph. Having received the benediction of Je- sus, Mary, and Joseph, they took leave, with such an effusion of tenderness and affection, that it seemed as if their hearts would melt. To avoid meeting Herod, they resolved not to pass through Jerusalem. All the remaining lives of these blessed kimrs were in harmony with their divine vocation. After their departure, our Lady and St. Joseph chanted new canticles of praise. They compared these wonder- ful incidents with the Holy Scriptures, and with the prophecies of the Proph- ets and Patriarchs, and they saw, with unspeakable joy, that their predictions began to be accomplished in the Infant Jesus. CHAPTER XI. OUR LADY AND ST. JOSEPH LEAVE THE GROTTO OF THE NATIVITY, AND REMAIN AT BETHLEHEM UNTIL THE PRESENTA- TION OF THE INFANT JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. AFTER the adoration of the Infant Jesus by the Magi, our saints r> solved to quit the grotto, since nothing more was expected there. The prudent Mother said to St. Joseph : " My spouse, these presents, vhich the Magi have left for our God, ought not to be use- less. I must not occupy myself with temjwralities, therefore I pray thee dis- pose of all as belonging to my Son and to thee. The faithful spouse replied, with his accustomed humility and meekness, that " it was but right she should distribute them herself." The Blessed Virgin per- sisted, saying: "You ought to do it, to exercise charity towards the poor, who claim the part that belongs to them." After this humble contest, the august Mary and St Joseph decided to divide the gifts into three parts: one for the Temple at Jerusalem, another for the priest who had circumcised the Infant, the remainder for the poor. The Almighty, to induce them to leave the grotto, inspired a poor woman, who was honest and charitable, to visit our Queen. She lived in a house that stood against the wall of the city, quite near the holy place. Having heard of the coming of the Magi, she inquired of the Blessed Virgin if she knew that certain wise men, who were said to be three kings, were come to seek for the Messiah. Our princess took occasion from this to instruct her, without de- claring the mystery of her Son ; where- upon this woman offered them her house, pressing her strongly to accept the invitation, seeing the inconvenience ♦ of the grotto for our Lady, her spouse, and the Child. Our Queen did not refuse the oiler. A little time afterwards she spoke of it to St. Joseph, and they detennined to . make their abode iu that house until the time should come for the purifica- tion and the presentation in the Temple. That which decided them was, that a crowd of people began to come to the grotto. Our sweet Lady, St. Joseph, ,and the Infant left it with much regret, because of their veneration for it, and directed their steps to the house of the poor woman, who received them with the greatest cordiality. After they had quitted it, the Lord sent an angel to guard the grotto, and this angel still guards it with a flaming sword, so that no animal has entered it since that time. K he does not hinder the entrance, of the enemies of the faith, it is by the secret judgment of the Most High. Christian princes could aid in this mir- acle if they set themselves with ardor to recover the holy places. It has been declared to me, that veneration for the Holy Land is one of the most powerful and efficacious means to establish and confirm the Catholic monarchies. The august Mary prepared herself, by fervent desires, to offer in the Tem- ple her adorable Infant to the Eternal Father. She embellished her soul by the practice of the highest virtues. The Infant Jesus conversed with His Mother, but in an intelligible voice only when LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 785 she was alone. Her lioly spouse did not enjoy this happiness until a year after His birth. During the time which our august Queen passed at Bethlehem, she was visited by many persons, who were nearly all of the poorest class. They Sjioke of the arrival of the Magi, and of the coming of the Messiah. By a dis- position of divine Providence, the ap- proaching birth was a subject of public conversation among the Jews. The pru- dent Mother had various occasions to practise great virtues. Those good peo- ple held such fabulous discussions upon matters of religion, that the ingenuous St. Joseph smiled at them, but, at the same time, admired the impressive re- plies of our great Lady, and the divine wisdom with which she instructed them. The Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph remained with the divine Infant, in their humble dwelling at Bethlehem, until the close of the forty days pre- scribed for presenting Him- in the Tem- ple. This period being fulfilled, our Lady and St. Joseph prepared for the journey. They resolved to ofi*er the only Son of the Eternal Father accord- ing to the law, knowing His desire to be submissive to the law, and to be offered to His divine Father. Having fixed the day of departure, they took leave of their pious hostess, whom they left crowned with celestial benedictions. They went first to visit the grotto of the nativity. The blessed Mother gave * the Infant to St. Joseph, and, prostrate on the earth, she venerated this holy place. Her holy spouse did the same, with inexpressible devotion. Then the Blessed Virgin requested leave of St. Joseph to make the journey barefooted, and to carry the holy Infant in her arms. Our august Lady usually wore a kind of shoes which covered the feet. The thread was taken from a plant resembling hemp, which was suitable for the poor. St. Joseph, having requested her to rise, thus replied : " The Son of the Eternal Father, whom I have within my, arms, gives you His benediction. I am well pleased that you should go on foot, carrying Him, but not barefooted. Be content with your pious desire, which will be agreeable to the Lord, who has inspired it." St. Joseph some- times used authority towards the august Mary, but it was always with great respect. He used this authority as head, only that she might not be de- prived of the consolation she enjoyed in the practice of humility and obedience ; and as the saint obeyed her in so doing, he mortified and humbled himself in commanding her, and thus both were obedient and humble. St. Joseph refused to allow her to go to Jerusalem barefooted, because he feared the cold might injure her health ; but his fears arose from his ignorance of the admirable nature of her virginal constitution. Our blessed Lady, im- 166 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. plicitly obedient to her spouse, did not iii.ikf the journey barefooted. They Ift't the grotto, after having asked the benediction of the Infant God, who be- stowed it, perceptibly, upon them. St. Joseph loaded the ass with the package of swaddling-clothes, and that portion of the gifts of the Magi which they had reserved as an offering at the Temple. All the celestial court accompanied tlhiii, in visible forma. Our blessed Lady and her spouse enjoyed their vis- ion. These heavenly spirits celebrated the mystery by new and admirable can- ticles, and, thus disposed, they traversed the two leagues which separated Beth- lehem from Jerusalem. The weather was severe — nor did this happen with- out the particular providence of God. Nothing was to be seen but frost and ice, so that the Creator made man trem- bled with cold, like one of mere human birth. He wept in the arms of His loving Mother. Our potent Queen ad- dressed herself to the winds and ele- ments, and commanded them, authorita- tively, to become milder. They obeyed the order of their legitimate mistress for the Infant, without changing towards her. During this time, and while our bless- ed Lady was on the way with the Infant Jesus, the chief priest, Simeon, had a revelation that the incarnate Word was coming to the Temple, in his Mother's ai-ms, to offer Himself to God. The same i-evelation was made to the holy widow Anna, and it was revealed to her, and the high-priest also, that St. Joseph was with his most pure spouse. And hav- ing communicated to each other what had just been revealed to them, they agreed to send the steward of the Tem- ple to meet them, after having instruct- ed him how to recognize our holy trav- ellers. The steward executed the order he had received, which proved a great consolation to our august Queen and St. Joseph. The fortunate host left them in his house, and went to give an account of his mission to the high-priest. The saintly spouses formed their plana the same evening. Our ever-prudent Lady advised St. Joseph to go at once and present the gifts of the kings at the Temple, so as to avoid attracting public attention. She also prayed him to bring, on his return, the turtle doves, wiiich they intended to offer publicly the fol- lowing day. St. Joseph executed all in such a manner that he seemed only an ordinary stranger, who offered myrrh, incense, and gold to the receiver of the gifts at the Temple. He did not use any portion of them to purchase a lamb, because this would not have accorded with their poor and humble condition. Neither did they depart, in the least particular, from the poverty and humil- ity which they held in such high esteem, even though it might have tended to- wards good and pious ends. Simeon was, accorded to St. Luke, a just man, fearing God, and awaiting the LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 787 consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he should see Christ the Lord before his death. On that night he was instructed by divine illumination, and discovered, by great clearness, all the mysteries of the incar- nation and redemption of the human race. By the knowledge of these sub- lime revelations he was elevated above himself. The same night St. Anna had also a revelation of many of these mys- teries, from which she received unspeak- able consolation. The day having come when the Sun of Justice was to appear, our ble'ssed Lady prepared the turtle-doves and two lights. She then wrapped the Infant Jesus in His swaddling-clothes, and set out, with her saintly spouse, for the Temple. Arrived at the gates, the happy Mother adorSd the Lord in spirit and in truth, and made an offering to the divine Majesty of herself with her Son whom she held in her arms. The most fortunate of men, St. Joseph, felt at the same moment a new and sweet effusion of the Holy Spirit, which filled him with joy and divine light. Conducted by the same Spirit, the high-priest Simeon came to the Temple, and, approaching the place where Mary stood with J*esus, he beheld them all radiant with light. Anna approached and saw it, also, Simeon took the In- fant in his arms, and offering Him to the Eternal Father, intoned the cele- brated canticle : " JSfoiu Tltoti dost dis- * miss Th/y servant., O Lord, according to Thy word., in peaceP Afterwards he announced the cruel passion which the heart of Mary must suffer at the sight of the sufferings of Jesus. The blessed Mary and St. Joseph admired the sublimity of the Spirit which had inspired Simeon. The holy old man gave his benediction to the happy parents and to the Infant. When the holy priest prophesied the passion^ the Infant humbly inclined His head, in testimony that He accepted the proph- ecy, and would fulfil it. The tender mother comprehended all the mysteries included in this prophecy. On his part, the holy St. Joseph also penetrated many things concerning the redemption and the sufi^erings of Jesus, but his knowledge was less comprehensive than that of his spouse, because he was not to witness their accorriplishment on earth. The Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph took leave of the high -priest, after hav- ing received his benediction, and that of St. Anna, and returned to the house which had been prepared for them. Here they resolved to remain nine days longer, to visit the Temple, and to re- new there, each day, the offering of the most holy Host, with devout thanks- givings. The number nine had always been dear to the holy family. They began their novena and remained in the Temple from before the hour of tierce to the evening, choosing the most hum 788 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. Me and retire«l quarter. It was at this * time the divine Majesty promised that the auffust Mother should obtain all that she would ask for those who were devoted to her, as long as the world should last, and even for great sinners, if they would avail themselves of her intercession. CHAPTER Xn. THE LORD PREPARES OUR BLESSED LADY FOR THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT THE ANGEL REVEALS IT TO ST. JOSEPH — JESUS, MARY, AND JOSEPH COMMENCE THE JOURNEY. ON the fifth day of the novena, after the Presentation, the Blessed Vir- gin had a vision of the Divinity, in which she was warned to fly into Egypt, because Herod sought to destroy the new-born Messiah. The Lord referred her to St. Joseph, to be guided by him in all things relating to this journey. But the exceeding affection of our Lady for her most holy Son grieved her heart, on considering the pain which so young a child must suffer in executing this command. She was touched with com- passion, and could not restrain her tears. The faithful St. Joseph observed the affliction of his spouse, and supposed it to be the effect of the prophecy of St Simeon. But as he had a tender affec- tion for our Queen, and was also of a most compassionate temper, he was troubled at the affliction of his spouse ; and it was for this reason that the an- gel appeared to him in a dream. Dur- ing this same night, as it is related by St. Matthew, the angel of the Lord said to him, " Arise, and take the Child and His Mother, and fly into Egypt, and be there until I shall tell thee. For it will come to pass, that Herod will seek the Child to destroy Him." Filled with zeal and anxiety, St. Joseph arose on the instant, and, ap- proaching the place whither his Jbelov- ed spouse had retired, he said to her: " It is the will of the Most High, that we shall be afflicted, for His angel has declared to me the command of His Majesty, that we shall fly with the In- fant into Egypt, becfiuse Herod designs to destroy His life. Prepare, then, for the fatigues of this journey, and tell me what I can do for your comfort, and for the service of our most sweet Infant." " My spouse," replied our Queen, " If we receive so much good at the liberal hands of the Most High, it is but just that we should receive from Him tem- poral pains and afflictions." The blessed Mother and St. Joseph approached the cradle where the Infant Jesus slept ; nor was this slumber with- out mysteiy. The holy Mother thus addressed Him: "Flee away, O my beloved, and be like to the roe, and to the young hart ; come, let us go to the LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 789 fields." St. Joseph added: "Thy power cannot be limited by that of the kings of the earth, but Thine exalted wisdom would conceal it. Who can fathom the impenetrable secrets of Thy Provi- dence ? " Our august iady then awak- ened the Infant. Our loving Saviour, willing to show, by certain marks, that He was of true human nature, and to affect His parents, wept a little, but soon He became quiet. The holy Virgin and St. Joseph ask- ed a benediction of the divine Infant, which He bestowed in a manner not to be mistaken. Then gathering their humble garments, they departed, with- out further delay, a little after mid- night, making use of the same beast of burden which they had brought from Nazareth to Bethlehem. They travelled with all diligence towards Egypt, quit- ting Jerusalem to go to another country, concealed by the silence and obscurity of the night. It is not possible to find faith and hope more firm than that of our Queen and her faithful spouse, but they were pained because of the Infant Jesus. They knew not what might happen to them on this long journey, nor where it was to terminate, nor how they would be received in Egypt, nor how they could educate the Child. But the an- gels strengthened them in such wise, that, issuing from Jerusalem by the gate towards Nazareth, they began their journey with great ardor. The Blessed Virgin could have wish- ed to pass through Hebron, where St. Elizabeth then tarried, and because it was but little out of their way ; but the prudent St. Joseph, who was in great apprehension of Herod, could not consent to the least delay. " I think," said he, " that it is of the greatest im- portance not to retard our journey for even a moment, but to hasten it as much as possible, so as to be removed from danger. For this reason we ought not to pause at Hebron, where we should, perhaps, be sought after sooner than elsewhere." The Blessed Virgin obeyed St. Joseph, not only in that which he commanded, but she would not even send an angel to her cousin without his consent. What an admira- ble example to teach us to renounce our own will, which is often so prejudicial to us ! The angel having instructed St. Eliza- beth, she desired to come and adore the Infant Jesus, but the celestial ambas- sador prevented her. She then sent a person to convey, in all haste, food and money to the holy family, with clothing for the Child. This messenfjer found them at the city of Gaza, distant twenty hours from Jerusalem, by the road that leads from Palestine to Egypt. Our holy travellers remained two days in this town, on account of the fatigue of St. Joseph, and to give rest to the ass, which carried our Queen. They dismissed the servant of Elizabeth, r 790 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. aud St Joseph charged him to reveal to no one the place where he had found them. The Loi*d appointed a better means of securing this silence. He de- 8ti\)}'ed liis memory of the fact. The charitable Mary shared the pres- ents of Elizabeth with the poor, whom she never forgot. Of the cloth she made a covering for the Infant, and a mantle for St Joseph, capable of pro- tecting them from the severity of the weather. She also prepared such of the provisions as could be preserved, to provide for the necessities of her Son and St. Joseph, without having recourse to miraculous assistance. The happy St Joseph was a witness of the mysteries which passed between the blessed Mother and the Infant Jesus. The holy Mary understood, through intellectual visions, the unity of the divine Essence with the Trinity of per- sons ; the eternal generation of the Word, and the procession of the Holy Ghost without priority or posteriority. Finally, the august Mother contemplated all the interior acts of her only Son, and imitated them. The happy Joseph was often a witness of these divine mj'steries, and received illumination from them which smoothed the difficulties of the road. From time to time our saint took care to inquire of his spouse how she found herself, and if she had need of any thing for the Infant or herself. He approached Him and adored: he kissed His feet t and asked His benediction. Sometimes he took Him in his anns. Thus our great patriarch overcame gently all the fatigues of the journey. His holy spouse encouraged him ; yet external things never interfered with her sublime thoughts and affections. Three days after their arrival at Gaza, our saintly travellers set out for Egypt. They then entered the sandy desert called Beei'sheba, which has an extent of sixty leagues befoi-e reaching Ileli- opolis, near Cairo. They made short journeys, because of the sand. Many events happened to the holy family. The Most High allowed them to suffer from the hardships of the desert. Our blessed Lady was much distressed, but she supported them with patience for the sake of her Son and husband. St. Joseph, on his part, suffered greatly from his inability to protect the Infant and Mother, notwithstanding all his cares. In traversing the desert, it was abso- lutely necessary that they should pass the nights in the open air, and without shelter; and it was in winter, and the month of February. The first night which overtook them, obliged them to stop at the foot of a hill. The Queen of heaven seated herself on the sand with her Son in her arms, and they supped on what they had brought from Gaza. The Blessed Virgin gave milk to her Infant Jesus, and His Majesty consoled them in many pleasing and caressing ways. The saint raised a sort of little tent LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 791 witli liis mantle and some sticks, so that the Incarnate Word and His holy- Mother should not be exposed to the night air. Our great Lady knew that her most holy Son offered this affliction to the Eternal Father, together with His sufferings, and those of herself and St. Joseph. She united with Him in prayer. St. Joseph slept on the ground, his head supported by the little box of swad- dling-clothes and their other poor ap- parel. The following day they con- tinued their route, and then their pro- vision of bread and fruits failed them, so that the Mistress of the universe and her holy spouse, feeling the pressure of hunger, found themselves in the direst distress, and, although that of the saint was the most severe, both were in the greatest affliction. Thus they passed one of the first days of their journey, until nine in the eveninof, without nour- ishment. Our blessed Lady then ad- dressed herself to the Most High. "Eter- nal and Almighty God," said she, " I offer Thee thanks, and I bless Thee. How, being only a poor useless creature, how shall I dare to ask any thing for myself. But have regard to Thine only- Son, and grant the means to sustain His natural life, and to preserve that of my spouse ! " The Most High permitted that to the rigors of the elements should be join'^d those of hunger, exhaustion, and this sort of abandonment — and then came a tempest of wind and rain, which we<*ried them extremely. The careful Mother, exercising her power as Queen of creatures, command' ed the elements not to offend their Cre- ator, and to reserve for her their rude attacks. The Infant Jesus, to recom- pense this loving care, gave commands to His angels, and they formed a lumin- ous globe, impenetrable to the weather, which inclosed their God made man, the Blessed Virgin, and her spouse. This protection was bestowed on other occasions, also, while crossing the des- ert. But food was wanting, and this want, which could not be supplied by any human industry, was most pressing. The Lord then helped them by the min- istry of angels, who furnished them with bread and excellent fruits, and brought them, besides, a beverage of delicious flavor. Upon this, they sang canticles of praise to the Lord, who feeds all flesh, at a convenient season. Such was the repast which the Lord made for His three travellers in the same desert, where Elias, flying from Jezabel, was strengthened by bread baked in the ashes which the angel of the Lord brought him. None of the miracles wrought in fa- vor of the Jewish people are worthy to be compared with those which the Lord wrought during this journey for His Son made man, and the august Mary and St. Joseph, to preserve the natural life on which depended the salvation of the human race. But tlie Lord'alwaya 7d2 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. waited until the necessity was moat ^ urgent Let the poor rejoice in this example — let not the hungry be cast down — let those who sufter persecution t'.\j)ect help in season, and let none com- plain of divine Providence ! When was it ever that the Ijord failed to help those who put their trust in Him? Come ! come to Ilim with humility and confidence! The eyes of your Father regard you with fixed atten- tion. The Most High not only took care to nourish our pilgrims, but He also offer- ed them sensible recreations, to soothe the weariness of the way. It often hap- pened that the blessed Mother, pausing with the Infant God, was speedily sur- rounded by large numbers of birds. The blessed Queen received them, and commanded them to praise their Crea- tor: the birds obeyed, and the devoted Mother amused the Infant Jesus by the sweetest canticles. The holy angels joined their voices to that of our lovely Lady. The Son and the Mother sometimes held interior communications, so sub- lime, that words are inadequate to ex- press them. The holy St. Joseph par- ticipated in some of these mysteries, and their divine consolations made him forget his fatigue while he enjoyed the delights of such society ; but he knew not that the Infnut conversed with His Mother. CHAl^ER XIIL THE HOLT FAMILY ARRIVE AT HELI0P0LI8 THEY FIX THEIB RESIDENCE IN THAT CITY. milE flight of the Incarnate Word -■- had other mysteries, and other ends, besides that of withdrawing from the effects of Herod's anger. It was rather the means employed by the Lord to visit Egypt, and there to operate the wonders of which the Prophets had spoken — Isaiah, in particular, ch. xix. 1: " The Loi'd will enter into E<jypt^ and the idols of Egypt shall he moved at His presence^'* etc. But we will not here pursue this point. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, continuing their journey, arrived at the inhabited portion of Egypt, and before reaching Heliopolis, where they were to sojourn, the angels led them through many other places. From this cause they employed more than fifty days in the journey, passing over two hundred leagues, al- though they might have arrived much sooner at Heliopolis if they had follow- ed the direct road. The Egyptians were strongly inclined to idolatry and superstition, and idols were placed everywhere. There wei-e many temples where devils made their abode, and they were so given to the worship of demons, and so blinded by their delusions, that nothing short of the omnipotent arm of the Lord had power to reform this misguided country. LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 793 Now, the Infant Jesus, with His Mother and St. Joseph, entered the habitations of the Egyptians. And when He en- tered, in the arms of the angust Mary, raising His eyes towards heaven, and joining His hands, He prayed for the salvation of the poor people enslaved by the devil. Then exercising His pow- er over these evil spirits, He precipi- tated them into the abyss. The idols fell at the same moment with a loud noise, the temples sank into ruins, and the altars were overthrown. The cause of these prodigies was known to our Lady, who united her prayers to those of her divine Son. St. Joseph also discovered that all these wonders proceeded from the Incarnate Word, and filled with holy admiration, he praised and blessed Him. The de- mons failed to discover the cause. The Egyptians were amazed, although the most learned still preserved certain tra- ditions of prophecies of Jeremiah, when he was in Egypt, that a King of the Jews should come into their kingdom, and the temples of their idols should be destroyed. In their trouble, some of the people came to vi&it our blessed Lady and St. Joseph, and discoursed with them on the ruin of their temples. The Queen of wisdom availed herself of the occa- sion to instruct them. Her words were so sweet and so forcible, that the rumor of the arrival of our holy travellers was spread abroad. Jesus and Mary passed t through many towns of Egypt, chasing the demons not only from the temples, but from the bodies of the people. Our Princess and St. Joseph instructed many persons in the path to virtue and to eternal life. They arrived at Heliopolis. Many idols were possessed by demons ot great power, particularly one which dwelt in a tree at the entrance of the city. When the Word made man passed it, the demon was cast into the depths of the abyss, and the tree bowed itself to the earth. Several authors have record- ed this miracle, for the leaves and fruits of this same tree, afterwards, cured many maladies. Various writers have recorded this sojourn of the Holy Family in Egypt. Some mention their residence in one city, some in another. All may be true in referring to different epochs, for the Holy Family were at Hermopolis, Mem- phis, Mataria, and other towns, but they fixed their abode at Heliopolis, because the angels had said to our blessed Lady and St. Joseph, that they were to stop at this place. Thus this city of the sun, according to its name, saw the Sun of justice and of grace. Immediately upon their arrival, St. Joseph sought a lodging, offering a fair price. The Lord guided him to a poor habitation, a little out of the town, as the Queen of heaven had wished, and they took possession of it at once. On entering it with her Son and St. Joseph, 794 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. our blessed Lady prostrated liereelf and kissed the earth with profound liumil- ity. She then Ix'gan the lowly tavsk of cleansing her huml)le abode, and, so indigent were their circumstances, that she was obliged to borrow the broom with which she swept the house. Although our holy strangers were content to be lodsjed within the bare walls of this poor tenement, food and furniture were still wanting. The mi- raculous succor, which they had been accustomed to receive by the ministry of angels, had ceased since they had entered inhabited regions. The Lord placed them at the table of the poorest poor, which is to have recourse to alms ; and, while suffering from hunger, St. Joseph went to ask for food for the Son of God. By this example he teaches the poor never to complain of their wants, nor to be ashamed to beg, when all other legitimate means have failed, since it was necessary to beg at so early a period to support the life of the Lord of all created things. During the three first days, after their arrival at Heliopolis, our blessed Lady had no other food for herself and her adorable Son than that which St. Joseph received as alms, nor until he began to gain some- thing by his labor. (The same thing happened in divers places of Egypt.) Having received payment for certain work, he made a little bedstead, entirely of wood for the Mother, and a cradle for the Infant For himself he prepared ^ no other bed than the earth. Nor was there any furniture in the house, until, by the sweat of his brow, he acquired money to purchase some indispensable articles. In this extreme poverty, Mary and Joseph never spoke of their house at Nazareth, nor of their parents and friends, nor of the presents of the wise men. They regretted none of these things, and supported their indigence without uttering the least complaint, ■ or without dwelling on the past, with- out fear of the future. On the contrary, they were always joyous — abandoning themselves entirely to divine Providence in the hour of their greatest need. Oh, the baseness of our infidel hearts I With how many troubles, cares, and pains are they not possessed, at the smallest inconveniences ! The example of our blessed strangers should serve as a grave rebuke for our pusillanimity in times of trial and afiliction. Our pru- dent Lady and her spouse, deprived of all temporal goods, lodged, with joy, in their destitute habitation. Of the three chambers it contained, one was con- secrated as a sanctuary for the Infant Jesus and His most holy Mother. In it were placed the cradle and her little bed. The second was appropriated to St. Joseph for prayer and repose, and the third served as a shop, where he worked at his trade. Our august Lady, seeing their extreme indigence, and that her spouse was obliged to increase his LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 795 ordinary toil to enable them to live, resolved to aid him by her own labor. She judged it best to employ the day in work, so as to gain what was necessary for their food, fbi* the clothing of St. Joseph, and to furnish their house, re- serving only the night for her spiritual exercises. The Infant God approved this prudent decision of His Mother, and regulated the order of her life and her manual labor. But when the holy Mother saw that it was time to relieve St. Joseph, by procuring for him the society of her Son, she said to Him: " My Son and my Lord, regard your faithful servant with the love of a son for his father." And, addressing the saint : " Receive, my spouse, within your arms, the Lord, who holds within His hands the heavens and earth, and who will sweeten the fatigues of your toil." The saint was accustomed to receive this favor with great humility and grati- tude, asking his holy spouse if he might take the liberty to caress the Infant. Reassured by the pradent Lady, the consolation he received in these caresses made him forget all his pains, so that they seemed easy and most sweet. When the holy spouses took their repast, the Blessed Virgin held the Infant. Hav- ing placed whatever was necessary on the table, she took Him again from the arms of St. Joseph. All that I can say of any thing that our saints did, is, that they were the admiration of the angels, and that they were according to the * good pleasure of the Lord. When Isaiah prophesied that the Lord would enter Egypt on a light cloud, to make His won- ders shine there — by this cloud he meant His most holy Mother. After the Sun of Justice had enlightened Egypt, and the cloud, free from every taint of sin, the august Mary, had fertilized it, this land brought forth abundant fruits dur- ing many ages, as we have seen in the great number of saints and anchorites whom, in the sequel, it produced. The Lord sojourned at Heliopolis, and when He entered the temples, the idols and altars were overthrown, with a frightful noise. The whole city was in the greatest terror, and many persons of both sexes went to visit the strangers, and spoke of it to our blessed Lady and St. Joseph. Our blessed Mother con- versed with them with much prudence, wisdom, and sweetness. She withdrew them from their errors, and at the same time healed some diseased persons. The rumor of these miracles spread abroad to such a degree that our blessed Lady, seeing herself approached by multitudes of people, inquired of her divine Son what He would have her to do. The Infant God replied, that she should im- part to them the knowledge of the true God, and instruct them in His worship and of the means to wipe away their sins. The blessings which these souls thus obtained, were so abundant, that it would require many volumes to record T96 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. the wonders that were manifested dur- ing these seven years. Two years later, St Joseph also began to heal the sick. Our blessed Lady devoted herself chief- ly to the cure of women; she herself dressed their wounds ; but for men, she healed them by her words only. During the period of their sojourn, lleliopolis was infected by the plague. This misfortune, and the report of the wonders which they wrought, brought tliem great numbers of sick people, who went away healed in body and soul. But the Lord wishing to extend His grace, determined, at the request of our blessed Lady, that St. Joseph should instruct and cure the sick. And she o})tained for him a new interior light, and a singular grace of holiness for the exercise of this ministry, so that, in the third year after their arrival, St. Joseph began the exercise of these gifts from heaven. He usually instructed and cured the men, and our blessed Lady the women.* We can easily conceive the good they wrought, but it is impossible to give the details of it. King Herod was much disappointed when he heard that the Magi had visit- ed Bethlehem — had seen the august Mary and St. Joseph, and had already left Palestine. He was also informed of what had passed in the Temple. He then gave orders to make a strict search for our Queen, her Infant, and St. Jo- seph. But the Lord, who had com- manded their departure from Jerusalem by night, concealed their journey. And now it was that the demon inspired Herod to murder all the children of that region who were under two years old. Herod promulgated this diabolical command in the sixth month after the birth of our Redeemer. Her most sweet Son, and the august Mother, prayed to the Almighty for the holy inno- cents. The divine Providence was most gracious towards these infant martyrs, and they all received, some more, some less, the use of reason, and a sublime knowledge of the being of God. They exercised heroic acts of faith, adoration, respect, and love of God. They will- ingly received martyrdom, and the angels who assisted them bore their souls to Limbo. CHAPTER XIV. THE INFANT JESUS SPEAKS TO ST. JOSEPH A YEAR AFTER HIS BIRTH ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF THE MOST HIGH, THE HOLY FAMILY RETURN FROM EGYPT TO NAZARETH. ONE day, while the blessed Mary and St. Joseph discoursed togeth- er upon the mysteries of the Lord, the Infant Jesus, having completed His first year, desired to break silence, and to speak, in a distinct voice, with His faithful foster-father. The two spouses LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 797 spoke of the Infinite Being of God, and His goodness in sending His only Son to be the Master and Redeemer of men — to converse with them, and suffer the pains which their depraved nature had deserved. St. Joseph, in this meditation, ad- mired the works of the Lord, and re- doubled his grateful thanksgivings for His love. The Infant God, who was in the arms of His Mother, used them as a pulpit, from which He thus addressed the saint : " My father, I am come from heaven to be the light of the world, and as a good shepherd, to seek and to know my sheep, and to give them the food of eternal life. I desire that you may both become children of the light, since you are so near to its source." These words of the Infant Jesus, full of life and force, poured into the heart of the holy patriarch a new love — a profound respect — an inexpressible joy. He cast himself at the feet of the Infant God and offered devout thanks that the first word which he had heard Him pro- nounce was father. With many tears, he prayed His divine Majesty to illu- minate him with celestial light, to enable him to do whatsoever should be most agreeable to Him, and to thank Him for the manifold blessings he had re- ceived from His liberal hand. Fathers, who naturally love their chil- dren, feel great consolation when they perceive that' they give promise of be- coming wise and distinguished in the f world ; and even when they are not so, their natural affection induces them to praise whatever their children may say or do. Now, although St. Joseph was not the real father of the Infant, but only His foster-father, the love which he bore Him surpassed, beyond com- parison, all that fathers have ever had for their children ; because grace, and even nature, were more powerful in him than in others, or in all fathers united. It is, therefore, by this love, and by the delight he felt in being the reputed father of the Infant Jesus, that we are to measure the joy of his pure soul, when he heard the Son of the Eternal Father call him father, in beginning to speak with him so graciously. This first year having been passed in swaddling-clothes, the prudent Mother judged the time had come when He should be put upon His feet. The In- fant Jesus said to her: ''My Mother, you will clothe me in a tunic, of a plain color. I will wear none but this. It shall grow with me, and it shall be for this that they will cast lots after my death. I ought to have only one coat in this world, in order to instruct men to esteem and to love poverty. I con- sent that you give me some common sandals, which I will wear until the time comes for my public preaching, when I must go barefooted." The Queen of heaven employed herself im- mediately to accomplish the will of her most holy Son. She provided wool of .I_ id8 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. the natural color, of whieli she spun * and made a little tunic, all of one piece. She wove it on a frame. There was a mystery in making this tunic without seam On the prayer of our blessed Lady, it changed its natural hue into another, which was between violet .and silver color, very perfect, so that the shade could not be distinguished. Be- sides this, she made a half tunic of linen, for an under garment, in which He was crucified. The holy Mother, having thus clothed the Infant Jesus, put sandals upon Him, and set Him on His feet. The tunic proved to be exactly fitted to Him, and He never quitted it until the executioners despoiled Him of His clothing, to flagellate and crucify Him, because it grew with His sacred body as much as was necessary. The same thing happened with the sandals, and the other garment, which served as drawers. The Infant Jesus found Him- self afoot. There appeared in Him a grace quite wondei-fiil, for He surpassed, in beauty, all the children of men. The angels were surprised that He had chosen so humble a vesture. Our blessed Lady and her holy spouse \vere filled with joy on seeing their Infaiit walk with so much giace, and possessing such rare beauty. When He had reached eighteen months. He was weaned: afterwards He ate meat, but always veiy sparingly. When He was grown up, He took His food at the same hour with our blessed spouses, and noth- ing more ; and when at the table with His parents, they waited always for Him to give the benediction at the beginning, and to return thanks at the end of the repast. The Infant Jesus grew in the admira- tion of all who knew Him. Having attained His sixth year. He began, some- times, to go out to visit the sick in the hospitals. From every quarter they came to felicitate and bless the parents for having such a Child. Many chil- dren of Heliopolis, as is usual, accom- panied our amiable Jesus. He instiiict- ed them in the knowledge of the Di- vinity and of the virtues, and taught them the way to eternal life. This sweet, beautiful Child, in pro- portion as He advanced in age, assumed a graver demeanor towards His parents; and some time after the swaddlinsr- clothes were laid aside, the most tender caresses, which had always been made with a certain reserve, ceased. The cir- cumspection of His parents in this re- gard, arose from their perception in Him of so much of the majesty of the hidden Divinity, which, if He had not tempered it, would often have produced a fear so full of respect, that they could not have dared even to speak to Him. But His presence never ceased to in- spire them with sentiments altogether divine afid inefiable. In this majestic grandeur, He was dutiful towards His most holy Mother, fyid treated St. Joseph as the one who LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 799 held the name and office of His father, obeying both as their humble Child. It is impossible to enumerate the souls who were converted and saved in Heli- opolis, and in all Egypt — the sick whom they cured, and the wonders they wrought, in the seven years of their abode there. During this time the In- fant Jesus attained the age of seven years, and this was the term of that mysterious exile which the Eternal Wis- dom had fixed. To fulfil the prophecies, it was necessary that He should return to Nazareth. The Eternal Father, one day, declared His will to the humanity of His divine Son, in the presence of His holy Mother. The Son and the Mother disclosed nothing of the new order from heaven to St. Joseph, but the angel of the Lord appeared to him the same night in a dream, as it is re- lated by St. Matthew, and instructed him " to take the Child and His Mother, and return into the land of Israel." The Most High so eminently esteems good order, that the Infant Jesus being God, and His Mother so superior in sanc- tity to St. Joseph, nevertheless, he would not that the undertaking of the return to Galilee should depend either upon the Son or the Mother, but that it should be conducted by St. Joseph, who filled the office of head to that divine family. This example teaches all mortals how agreeable it is to God, that they who are inferiors in the mystical body, al- though more worthy by other qualities. ^ should obey and submit themselves to those who, by their office, are their supe- riors. St. Joseph went instantly to commu- nicate the commandment of the Lord to the Infant Jesus and His Mother, who replied, that "the will of the heavenly Father should be fulfilled. Upon which they prepared with all possible dili- gence for their departure. They distrib- uted among the poor the little furniture they possessed, and this was done by the agency of the Infant God. They left Heliopolis for Palestine, with the same angels who had accompa- nied them to Egypt. Our Queen rode a little ass, with the Infant God in her lap, and St. Joseph walked near them. All their acquaintances sensibly felt their departure, and took leave of them with many tears. They passed several of the inhabited places of Egypt before arriv- ing at the desert, and left marks of their chai'ity everywhere. They cured many sick persons, and drove away a multi- tude of demons, who knew not by what power they were cast into the abyss. I will not pause to record the various circumstances that attended the Infant Jesus and His blessed Mother in their departure from Egypt. It may suffice to say, that they who approached them with any pious affection were enlighten- ed in the truth, assisted b)'' grace, and penetrated by divine love. At length, our holy travellers left behind them the inhabited country, and entered the 800 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. desert by which they had come. There they again suffei*ed hai'dships similar to those they had endured after leaving Palestine. In these extremities the Lord himself pmvided for them by the ministry of the angels. Sometimes the Infant Jesus ordered these spirits to bring food for His holy Mother and her sj>ouse. This consoled the holy Patriarch, see- ing that he was altogether unable of himself to find support for the King and Queen of heaven. On other occasions the Infant God exercised His divine power in multiplying some morsel of bread into as much as they had need o£ For the rest, this journey passed off as the preceding one. But when, on approaching Palestine, the cautious St. Joseph heard that Archelaus reigned in Judea, in the place of Herod, his father, he took another road, without entering Judea, and they came to Nazareth, their country, because the Infant was to be called a Nazarene. There they found their old abode, under the guardianship of that pious woman, the relative of St. Joseph, to whom he had written on their departure for Egypt, requesting her to take charge of it and whatever it contained ; and they found all in good condition. When our blessed Lady entered it with her divine Son and holy spouse, she prostrated herself to return thanks. The happy Mother then regulated her aflhirs according to the intentions of the Infant God, and St. Joseph did the same, in whatever regarded his employment for the support of the Infant, the Motlicr and himself. The happiness of the holy Patriarch was immense; for it was a favor and an unutterable joy to have been chosen to gain by the labor of his hands wherewithal to sustain the Inftmt God and His Mother, to whom belonged heaven, earth, and all that they contain. The Queen of heaven desired to re- quite the labors of the saint. She served him and prepared his simple food with the most affectionate gratitude, and obey- ing him in all things, she regarded her- self more as his servant than his spouse. She considered herself unworthy that even the earth should sustain her, and she established her rare humility on such solid foundations, that she was always plunged in an abyss of annihila- tion, and still lower in her own esteem. CHAPTER XV. SOJOURN AT NAZARETH THE BLESSED MARY AND ST. JOSEPH GO EVERY YEAR TO JERUSALEM-^AT THE AGE OF TWt:LVE, JESUS REMAINS AT THE TEMPLE, Wn'H- OUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS PARENTS. JESUS, Maiy, and Joseph had finally reached Nazareth, and their poor dwelling was changed into a new heaven. If it were necessary to relate all the wonders that happened there before the LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 801 Infant God liad reached His twelfth year, many volumes would be required. Soon after their return to Nazareth, the Lord tried His most blessed Mother, The Most High determined that our holy Lady should be the first disciple of her Son. The Incarnate Word and His blessed Mother occupied themselves in these profound mysteries during the twenty -three years of their abode at Nazareth. The Lord caused her to feel His absence internally. Besides this, the Infant God, without making known any cause for it, was more grave than usual. We omit here many admirable things, that we may not withdraw our- selves too much from the life of our holy Patriarch. The prudent Mother never neglected any thing that regarded the corporeal service of her Son, taking great care of His diet as well as that of St. Joseph. She also obtained that the Infant Jesus consoled His foster-father by His presence, as much* as if he had been His natural father. The Infant God obeyed His Mother, and was often with St. Joseph while at the work in which he was continually occupied, so that thus, by the sweat of his brow, he might maintain those so dear to him. In proportion as He grew in stature. He assisted the holy Patri- arch, as far as it was possible at His age, and sometimes He wrought mira- cles to produce results which surpassed His natural strength, thereby to relieve the saint of his labor ; but these marvels * occurred only in the presence of the three. Some time after the return of our saints to Nazareth, the period arrived when the precept of the law of Moses obliged the Israelites to appear before the Lord at Jerusalem. This command- ment was obligatory three times a-year, but it was binding only on the men — women might present themselves for devotion, if they pleased. Our blessed Lady conferred with her spouse as to what they should do on this occasion. The saint wished to conduct thither the Queen of heaven and her holy Child, to oifer them anew to the Eternal Father. The holy Mother was inclined to go from devotion, but she undertook noth- ing without the consent of her Master, the Incarnate Word. Having consulted Him, it was resolved that St. Joseph should present himself there alone, twice in the year, and the third time they should all go together; It was at the festival of the Passover that the sweet Jesus and His blessed Mother accompa- nied St. Joseph. When he went alone, the saint made the journey on behalf of all, and, as deputy for the Son and the Mother (who prayed for him at Naza- reth), he made mysterious prayers in the Temple at Jerusalem, offering the sacrifice of his lips. And as he offered Jesus and Mary there, this offering was more agreeable to the Eternal Father than any which all the rest of the people of Israel could offer. 802 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. When the Incarnate Word and the f Virgin Mary accompanied St. Joseph to the festival of the Passover, this pil- grimage was more admirable for him, because the ten thousand angels accom- panied our divine travellers. They made short journeys on these occasions, be- cause, after the return from Egypt, the Infant Jesus desired to go on foot, which obliged them to move slowly. The fii*st time they travelled in this manner, our blessed Lady a*id St. Jo- seph were careful to assist Him, by taking Him sometimes in their arms, but afterwards He went entirely on foot. The prudent Mother offered no opposi- tion, but led Him by the hand, and the glorious Patriarch sometimes enjoyed that consolation. Every time the Son and the Mother made this journey, they operated won- ders for the good of souls. When they stopped for the night, in some hostelry, the Infant God and His Mother were never separated. She often saw Him engaged in prayer for the whole human race, and united her prayers to His. Many times, as in a mirror, she beheld all the affronts, all the ignominy, and all the sufferings which her most sweet Cliild was to suffer in the city of Jerusa- lem, and she was transpierced by the sword of grief which Simeon had pre- dicted. But the Infant God, to allevi- ate her son-ow, prayed her to offer these pains, which regarded them mutually, for the salvation of men. Our holy family, as I have said, con- tinued to go every year to the Temple, to celebrate the Passover. The Infant God had attained His twelfth year, the epoch at which he was to make manifest the splendors of His inaccessible light. Our holy pilgrims I'emained an entire w^ek at Jerusalem. The happy Mother and St. Joseph received, each in propor- tion to their dispositions, such great favors from the liberal hand of the Lord, that the human understanding is not able to conceive them. The seventh day past, they took the road towards Nazareth. But as they is- sued forth from the city of Jerusalem, the Infant God left His parents unper- ceived, and remained behind, while they pursued their journey, not knowing what had happened. The Lord availed himself of the customs of the people ; for the troops of strangers divided them- selves, and for the better observance of propriety, the women went together. The children accompanied, indifferently, their father or their mother. St. Joseph had reason to believe that the Child Jesus went with His blessed Mother, nor could he imagine that she w^ould have set out without Him. Our blessed Lady had less strong reasons to persuade her- self that our adorable Saviour was with the Patriarch St. Joseph, but the Lord diverted her mind by other divine thoughts at the beginning, so that when she found herself alone without her best beloved, she believed that the glorious LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 803 St. Joseph had taken Him with him, and that the supreme Lord had willed to give him that consolation. Our holy spouses travelled on with this idea throughout the day, as St. Luke informs us, and, having left the city by different gates, rejoined each other after- wards. The holy Mary and her spouse met at the place where they were to pass the first night after their departure from Jerusalem. But our blessed Lady, seeing that the Infant God was not with St. Joseph, as she supposed, and the holy Patriarch not finding Him with His Mother, both were thrown into such con- sternation that they nearly lost the power of speech, and remained some time with- out uttering a word. Both, from humil- ity, attributed the fault to themselves, of allowing the divine Infant to be sep- arated from them. Recovering a little from their amazement, they conferred together, in extreme grief, respecting what was to be done. The tender Mother spoke first : " My spouse, my heart can find no repose, unless we go at once to seek my holy Child." They in- stantly commenced their researches, by inquiries among their relatives and ac- quaintances, but none could give them tidings of Him, nor mitigate their sor- row ; on the contrary, it was augmented, for no one had seen Him since they had come out of Jerusalem. The Mother of wisdom formed various conjectures in her mind, and the first thought was, that Archelaus, having had ^ some knowledge of* the Infant Jesus, might have caused Him to be appre- hended. She feared that He had been cast into prison and maltreated. Her deep humility induced her, also, to fear that, unhappily, her services might not have been pleasing to Him. This inno- cent dove passed the three days, during which she sought the Saviour, in tears and groanings, without repose — without food or sleep. The celestial spirits of her guard were not ignorant of where He was, but she was so reserved and so humble, that she did not inquire of them where she could find Him. The grief of our blessed Lady on this occasion surpassed all that all the mar- tyrs united have suffered ; and in it she exercised a patience and resignation un-* paralleled. For oh ! prodigy of holiness — of prudence — of perfection ! in such an unheard-of affliction, and in such absorb- ing sorrow, she was neither troubled, nor lost her interior nor exterior peace — she gave way to no movement of im- patience, nor of inordinate tenderness. She sought her Child with a divine wis- dom, inquiring of many persons if they had not seen Him, and giving marks by which He might be recognized. Among others, a woman replied to her inquiries: " A child having the same features that you describe, presented himself yester- day at my door, asking alms, which I gave him. His charming manners and exceeding beauty won my heart." These were the first tidings the afflicted Mother 804 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. had obtained of her Son in Jerusalem, and she forthwith proceeded to the hos- pital of the city, hoping to find the Master of poverty among the poor; there she was informed that the child she de- scribed had visited them during three days, bringing them alms, and had left them much consoled in their afflictions. Having failed to find Him among the poor, she doubted not that He would be in the Temple. The holy angels now said to her: "Queen of the universe, you will soon behold the light of your eyes. Hasten to the Temple." The glorious patriarch St. Joseph advanced towards her at this moment, for, to gain time, he had sought the Infant God in another direction, and he also had been directed, by an angel, to the Temple. He sufl\3red extremely from fatigue during these three days, going some- times in one direction, sometimes in an- other, occasionally with his blessed spouse, oftener alone, and always with inconceivable care and solicitude; for his life would have been endangered if the hand of the Lord had not sustained him, and if our precious Lady had not taken care to alleviate his extreme af- fliction, besides obliging him to take some little food and rest. The tender and -devoted love which he cherished for the Infant God imparted such an exceeding desire to find Him, that he forgot all besides. Following the coun- sel of the celestial princes, our holy spouses hastened to the Temple. In the next chapter we shall relate what happened there. CHAPTER XVL THE AUGUST MARY AND ST. JOSEPH DIS- COVER THE INFANT IN THE TEMPLE AMONG THE DOCTORS RETURN TO NAZ- ARETH, OUR blessed Lady, ever so assiduous in the service of her divine Son, had, nevertheless, lost sight of Him, and left Him to wander away from her at Jerusalem. Although it might sufiice to say that the same Lord so ordained it, we may also perceive how this sepa- ration was eflPected. It is certain that, besides taking advantage of the multi- tudes of people, the Infant God used, also, supernatural means, and while the men and women were separating from each other, the Omnipotent Lord gave to His blessed Mother an intellectual vision, which so possessed all her facul- ties, and so elevated her above all things of sense, that she was unable to do more than mechanically to follow tbe path she travelled. St. Joseph had the rea- sons we have already adverted to, but he, also, was elevated to a most sublime contemplation, which induced a more ready acquiescence in the idea that the Infant had accompanied His Mother, and by this means the adorable Child separated himself from His parents and remained at Jerusalem. He withdrew himself when near the gates of the city, and, returning, He trav(»rsed the streets, meditating, by His divine science, on the events of the future, and offering himself to His Father for the salvation of souls. In order to inaugurate the honor of humble mendicity, as the eldest son of holy poverty,. He employed three days in asking alms. He visited the hospi- tals, consoled all the poor whom He found there, and shared with them the alms He had received. He secretly re- stored to several sick persons health of body, and to many that of the soul. He wrought these miracles in favor of some who had showed Him kindness, wishing to ftccomplish, in advance, the promise that He would afterwards make to His Church. Having occupied himself with these and many other works, according to the will of God, He went to the Temple, where, on the day mentioned by St. Luke, the Rabbis, or doctors of the law, were assembled in an apartment, where they disputed whether the Messiah was not already born. They were installed in their seats with that authority which usually accompanies those who pass for learned men. The Infant Jesus ap- proached the assembly. The opinions of the doctors upon this subject were widely different, for some asserted the fact, while others denied it; and those ^ who supported the negative, alleged the testimony of the Scriptures and the prophecies, understood by them in the gross manner which the Apostle men- tions. Now, these sages, as they deemed themselves, advanced the opinion that the Messiah was to come with all the majesty and pomp of a monarch, but, as yet, they saw no indications of this pow- er and freedom. The Master of Truth, Jesus, perceived that the discussion was about to termi- nate in this error, for, although there were men who held the contrary opin- ion, their number was small. His im- mense charity could not endure this ignorance of His works, and their sub- lime ends, in these interpreters of the law. The Infant God drew nearer. He entered into the midst of the assem- bly with admirable beauty and majesty, and excited in these doctors the desire to hear Him with attention. He opened His discourse, saying : " I have heard all that has been said touch- ing the coming of the Messiah, and the conclusion respecting it. In offering an objection to this decision, I presuppose what the prophets have said, viz. : That His coming should be with great power, and with glorious majesty; for Isaiah declares that He shall be our lei^isla- tor, our king, who shall save His people. Daniel assures us that all tribes and all people shall serve Him. The Scriptures are filled with similar promises. But KOG LIFE OF 8T. JOSEPH. ray doul>t is founded on these passages and divers othera The same Isaiah says tiiat lie shall be satiated with op- probrium, and led like a sheep to the slaut^hter. Jei*eraiah tells us that His enemies should assemble to ei'ase His name from the land of the living; and David, that He would be the refuse of the people. How will it be possible to harmonize these prophecies? We can- not deny that the Messiah must come twice — ^^the first time, to redeem the world ; the second, to judge it. The prophecies should, then, be applied to these two events, giving to each what belongs to it. Following these obser. vations, if we conclude that the first advent will be with power and majesty, this must not be understood in a mate- rial sense, but of a new spiritual king- dom. And with this just interpretation, all the Scriptures, which cannot be har- monized in any other sense, will be found uniform." To these the Infant God joined many other reasons. The scribes and doctors, who had listened to Him, remained silent. At length, " What wonder is this?" said they. " Whence comes this marvellous child ? " The august Mary and St. Joseph arrived in time to hear the conclusion of the discourse. The doctors of the law arose, and our blessed Lady, overwhelmed with joy to have found her treasure, approached her di- vine Child, and said, as it is related by St Luke : " Son, why hast Thou done so to us? Behold, Thy father and I have sought Tliee, sorrowing." His Majesty replied to her : " How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father's busi- ness ? " Tlie Evangelist relates that the bless- ed Mary and St. Joseph did not under- stand the mystery of these words. It was because of their interior joy, which they had sowed in tears. The prudent Mother said to her divine Son: "Do not separate me from thy presence. Ke- ceive me for thy servant, and if through my own fault I have lost thee, I entreat thy pardon." The Infant God received her with affection, and they again set out for Nazareth. After they had gone a short distance from Jerusalem, our blessed Lady prostrating herself, adored her holy Son, and asked His benedic- tion. The divine Jesus raised her from the ground, and spoke to her with great sweetness. Afterwards He lifted the veil, and, with greater clearness than ever before, revealed to her His most holy soul and its operations. The blessed Mother conversed with her most sweet Child respecting the mysteries that He had opened to her. The celestial Master informed her that these doctors and scribes knew not that His majesty was the Messiah, because of their presumption and confidence in their own wisdom. Our Redeemer con- verted many souls during this journey, and, as His holy Mother was present, He made her tlae instrument of these miracles. He restored many sick per- sons to health, He comforted the afflict- ed, and wrought other wonders which I do not pause to recount. They arrived at Nazareth. The Evan- gelist St. Luke includes, in a few brief words, the mysteries of their history : "The Infant Jesus was subject to His parents," i. e,, to His holy Mother and St. Joseph. " His Mother kept all these words in her heart, and Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and grace with God and man." We shall speak of this fur- ther on, adding, only, at this time, that the humility and obedience of our Lord towards His parents offered new sub- jects of admiration to the angels, as did also the dignity of His pure Mother, to whom the God Incarnate was confided, in order that, by the help of St. Joseph, she misrht minister to His wants. Although the obedience of the Son was onl}^ a consequence of the natural maternity, still, to exercise the rights of a Mother over her Son, a different grace was necessary from that which she had received to conceive and bring Him forth. The august Mary possessed all these needful graces, proportioned to this ministry and office, and with such abundance, that they were reflected upon her happy spouse, so that he was also the worthy foster-father of Jesus Christ, and head of this most holy family. ^ CHAPTER XVH. ST. JOSEPH IS NO LONGER ABLE TO WORK CONDUCT OF THE AUGUST MARY AND THE DIVINE JESUS, DURING MORE THAN EIGHT TEARS THAT THE HOLY PATRI- ARCH LIVED IN SICKNESS AND INFIRMI- TIES. THE Queen of heaven completed her thirty -third year, and her chaste form retained all its natural perfections so beautifully and well proportioned, that it was the admiration of the angelic choirs. Her sacred body had reached its full development, so that this august Princess resembled the holy humanity of her Son. The pure Mary preserved this admirable complexion at thirty- three, without the least change, and at the age of seventy, she had lost nothing of her strength and beauty. Our bless- ed Lady understood this privilege. She knew that the resemblance of the hu- manity of her divine Son was to be always preserved in her. St. Joseph was not aged when this lovely Queen had attained her thirty-third year, never- theless his strength was much exhausted, because the cares, travels, and continued pains he had taken for the support of his spouse and the Lord of the universe, had worn away his health more than hia years. The Lord, who desired to ad- vance him in the exercise of patience and the other virtue, permitted him to suf- fer from certain maladies, that hindered him much from application to manual 808 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. labor. His piudeut spouse, who had always a})preciated, loved, and served him beyoud jUI that other women have done in regaixi to their husbands, per- ceiving his indisposition, said to him, " My s{K)use, I am under extreme obli- gations for your fidelity, and the increas- ing care and fatigue you have imposed upon yourself, in order, by the sweat of your brow, to maintain me, your servant, and my adorable Son. You will receive from the liberal hand of the Most High the reward of your pains, and the precious benedictions which you have merited. I beg you to cease from this incessant labor, and repose yourself. I will now labor for you, in testimony of my gratitude, as long as the Lord shall give us life." The saint listened to the reasonings of his sweet spouse with many tears ; and, although he assured her that he desired to continue his toil, he yielded to her solicitations, believing it his duty to obey her, and discontinued his labors. In order to have nothing supei-fluous in this holy family, they gave away his tools in alms. St, Joseph being thus relieved from labor, gave himself entirely for the rest of his days to the contemplation of the mysteries which he had nourished in his breast, and to the practice of virtue. He was happy in these occupations to find himself in the presence and enjoy- ment of the conversation of the Incar- nate Wisdom and of her who was His * Mother- With such helps, he arrived at so high a degree of sanctity, that next to his blessed spouse, who was always unique among mere creatures, lie sv/r- passed all meti, and will neve?' be incr- passed by any* Our august Queen and her divine Son assisted, served, and consoled him in his maladies with the most assiduous care. It is impossible to describe the humility, respect, and love which these charitable cares produced in the sincere and grate- ful heart of the servant of God. The Blessed Virgin charged herself with the support of her most holy Son and her spouse, by her own work. The Eternal Wisdom so disposed it, in order that her merits and virtues might reach the highest degree, and serve as an example to put the children of Adam to shame. The Lord offers this strong woman to us as an example. The heart of her hus- band trusted in her, and not only that of her spouse Joseph, but also that of her Son, at once true God and man, as Solomon declares in the thirty-first chap- ter of Proverbs. Means were not want- ing to the Lord to support the corporeal life of His blessed Mother and St. Jo- seph, since man lives not by bread alone. He could have miraculously provided for them every day, but the world would have been deprived of the privilege of witnessing the industry of the most pure Mother of God, and if our blessed Lady * "arez maintains this same doctrine ex- professo. -\ LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 809 had not acquired tliese merits, slie would have failed to obtain much of her reward. "With prudent diligence she provided for all. Neither our adorable Saviour nor His Mother, ate flesh-meat — their food consisted of fish, fruits, and herbs, and they partook of these with great moderation. Our august Lady, never- theless, prepared meat for St. Joseph, and served it in the manner most agree- able to him. It happened sometimes, that her labor was insufficient, because St. Joseph had need of more than hereto- fore. On these occasions, our Lord ex- ercised His power. He often so ordered that His blessed Mother accomplished much in a short time, so that her work multiplied itself in her hands. CHAPTER XVm. • OF THE CARE WHICH THE AUGUST MARY AND THE DrvnSTE JESUS BESTOWED UPON ST. JOSEPH IN THE INFIRMITIES OF HIS LATTER DAYS. IT is a common mistake to regard the Lord Jesus only as Redeemer, and not as a master, who by His example instructs us to suifer afflictions. And, although Catholics do not fall into the insensate errors of the heretics, for they all admit that without good works, and without afflictions, there is neither rec- ompense nor crown ; yet we find many children of the Holy Church who are scarcely to be distinguished from those who are in darkness, since they avoid works which are painful to them: Let us reject this manifest error, and be assured that sufferings were not for our Lord Jesus Christ alone, but for us also. The most beloved of our divine Master have received the greatest share of the cross. Let us not be so bold as to say, that if the Saviour suffered as man. He is, at the same time, God, and hence He is, to human weakness, rather a subject for admiration than of imita- tion. The Saviour of our souls over- turns this excuse by the example of His most innocent Mother and St. Joseph, and that of many men and feeble women also. The Lord conducted by this royal road of suffering the spouse of his blessed Mother, St. Joseph, whom His majesty loved above all the children of men. To increase his merits and his crown, before his power of gaining mer- its had ceased, the Lord bestowed on him, in the last years of his life, certain exceedingly acute maladies, which caus- ed excessive pain throughout his body, and great debility. Besides these, there was another mode of suffering, more gentle, yet very distinct, which resulted from the force of his burning love. This love was so vehement, and at times his transports were so impetuous, that his pure spirit must have broken the chains that bound it to the body, if the same Lord had not given him the power of 810 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. resisting it His majesty made him suf- + fer this sweet violence, because, from the natural feebleness of a body so attenu- ated this painful exei-cise was a great merit for the saint, not only from the effects of the pain that he suffered, but from the cause, which wjis love ; hence he acquired iucouiparuble merits. Our blessed Lady had knowledge of all these mysteries. She penetrated the interior of the saint, so that she might not be deprived of the joy she derived from the conviction of having a spouse so holy and so beloved of the Lord. She observed the candor and purity of his soul — his ardent affection, his lofty and divine thoughts, his patience and sweetness in his maladies, the great suf- ferings which he bore without a com- plaint or sigh, or asking any solace. Our great patriarch supported all his pains with an incomparable patience and magnanimity. All this his faithful spouse remarked, as well as the value and the merits of the many virtues which the saint practised, and she con- ceived so high a reverence for him that we will not attempt to express it. She applied herself, with the greatest joy, to sustain and console him. As she had little esteem for what she did herself to relieve the great sufferings of her spouse, and because of the love she bore him, she commanded the viands that she prepared for her holy patient to give him strength and re-establish his appe- tite, since this was to preserve the life of the saint — the just — the elect of the Most Hinjh. When St. Joseph partook of this food, he was sensible of the sweet benedic- tions and the genial effects of the viands, and inquired of his spouse : " What aliments of life are these which vivify me, restoring my appetite and my strength, and filling me w^ith new con- solation ? " The Queen of heaven served him on her knees, and, when his pjjins were violent, she removed his sandals, and supported and assisted him with the tenderest affection. Although the humble saint made every effort to hin- der his spouse from taking such un- wearied pains, it was alvvays in vain, for our sweet Lady understood the maladies of her patient, and when he most needed help, and she therefore hastened to assist him, in all his wants, with the greatest affection. She often said things 'v\iiich exceedingly consoled him. During the three last years of his life, which were those of his greatest suffering, she i^ever quitted him, day or nisrht. If for a moment she withdrew, it was only to serve her divine Son, who united with His Mother to assist the holy patriarch, except when He was necessarily occupied in other works ; so we may say that never was patient so well served. From hence we may learn how great were the happiness and the merits of St. Joseph, for he alone has merited to have her for his spouse, who was also the spouse of the Holy Spirit. LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 811 The charity of our blessed Lady towards St. Joseph was not satisfied by these services of which we have spoken. She strove to console him by still other means. Sometimes she prayed the Lord, with the most ardent charity, to deliver her spouse from his suiferings, and to inflict them upon herself In making this request, she believed herself to deserve the pains of all creatures, re- garding herself as the least of all. She alleged, also, the holiness of St. Joseph, and the delight which the Lord took in that heart, so conformed to that of His majesty. She witnessed the suflferings of her blessed spouse, and had compas- sion for them ; she knew his merits, and the pleasure which her adorable Son had in him. She rejoiced in the pa- tience of the saint, and magnified the Lord. Sometimes, the Queen of pity, touched by the excruciating pains of her spouse, and melted by tenderest sympathy, having obtained permission from her divine Son commanded his sufferings, and their natural causes, to suspend their activity, and cease so cruelly to afflict the just and the well- beloved of the Lord. At other times, she prayed the saints and angels to console her spouse, and to strengthen him in his troubles, when the weakness of the fragile flesh de- manded it. By this species of com- mandment, the blessed spirits appeared to the holy patient in the human form, all radiant with beauty and splendor. and conversing with each other of God and His infin te perfections. Occasion- ally they chanted celestial music, with a sweetness that suspended his bodily pains, and inflamed his pure soul with divine love. The man of God had, besides, for his greater consolation, a particular knowledge, not only of all these favors, but also of the holiness of his most holy spouse, of the love she bore to him, of the interior charity with which she served him, and others of the excellences of this great Queen of the Universe. All these united produced such effects upon St. Joseph, and enabled him to acquire so many merits, that, in this life, it is not possible to conceive them.* CHAPTER XIX. PRECIOUS DEATH OF THE GLORIOUS ST. JO- SEPH, CAUSED PRINCIPALLY BY DIVINE LOVE HE EXPIRES IN THE ARMS OF THE DIVINE JESUS, ASSISTED BY HIS BLESSED SPOUSE, THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN. T~\URING eight years St. Joseph had -*-^ been exercised by pains and suf- ferings, and his generous spirit was ever more and more purified in the cru- * M. Olier, who has written such sublime pages on St. Joseph, affirms that we cannot know, here below, the merits of the glorious St. Joseph, and that we are incapable of conceiving them. What a eulogy ! — Manuscripts of M. Olier. 819 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. cU)le of patience and divine love. With ^ c.'irs his tortures increased, his strength <liminished. The inevitable term of life, at which we pay the universal tri- bute of death, approached. His bless- ed spouse increased her devotion and lier cares to serve him with inviolable fidelity. This most holy Lady, knowing, through her infused science that the last hour of her chaste spouse in this place of exile was very near, went to find her adorable Son, and said to Him : " My Lord and my God, the time for the death of your servant Joseph, which you have deterin- ined by an eternal will, approaches. I beseech, you, Lord, by your infinite goodness, to assist him in this hour, so that his death may be as precious to you, as his life has been agreeable. Re- member, my Son, the love and humility of your servant — his m.erits — his virtues, and the pains he has taken to preserve your life and mine." Our Saviour replied to her : " My Mother, your requests are pleasing to me, and the merits of Joseph are in my thoughts. I will now assist him, and I will give him so eminent a place among the pnnces of my people, that it will be a subject of admiration for the angels, and a motive for praise to them and to men. I will not do for any nation that which I will do for your spouse." Our august Lady returned thanks to her most sweet Son for this promise. During the nine days that preceded ^ the death of St. Joseph, the Son and the Mother watched by him day and niglit. They so arranged it that one or the other was always with him. During these nine days, the angels chanted, three times each day, by the command- ment of the Lord, celestial music for the holy patient. It was composed of can- ticles of praise to the Most High, and of benedictions for the saint himself; and, besides, so delicious a fragrance pervaded all this poor habitation, tliat not only the man of God was fortified and cheered by it, but many persons on the outside. A day before his death, all inflamed with divine love for so many benefits, he was elevated into a sublime ecstasy which continued twenty-four hours, the Lord preserving his strength and life by a miraculous interposition. In this ecstatic state Le clearly beheld the divine Essence, and discovered in it, without a veil, that which he had believed by faith, either in the incomprehensible Divinity, or in the mysteries of the In- carnation and Redemption — the Church Militant and the sacraments with which she is enriched. The Holy Trinity des- tined him to be the precursor of our Saviour Jesus Christ to the saints who were in Limbo, and commanded him to announce to them anew their redemp- tion, and to prepare them for the visit which the same Lord was to make them ito conduct them to eternal felicity. St. Joseph returned froiu this ecstasy radiant LIFE OF ST. J08EP3. 813 in beauty, his soul divinized from tlie view of the being of God. He addressed himself to his spouse, and requested her ])enediction ; but she prayed her most holy Son to give it, which His divine Majesty was pleased to do. Our blessed Lady, having knelt, besought St. Joseph to bless her as her spouse .and head. The man of God, not without a divine impulse, gave his benediction to his be- loved spouse before their separation. She afterwai'ds kissed the hand with which he had blessed her, and requested him to salute for her the saints in Limbo. The most humble Joseph, wishing to close his life by the seal of humility, asked pardon of his holy spouse for the faults which he might have committed in her service as a feeble man of earthly mould. He entreated her to assist him in this last hour, and to intercede for him. He testified, above all, his grati- tude to our adorable Saviour, for the benefits which he had received from His most liberal hand during all his life, and particularly in this sickness. Then tak- ing leave of his blessed spouse, he said to her: "Thou art blessed among all women, and chosen above all creatures. Let angels and men praise thee. Let all nations know and exalt thy dignity. Let the name of the Most High through thee be known, adored, and glorified in all future ages, and eternally pi-aised by all the blessed spirits, for having created thee so pleasing in His eyes. I trust to meet thee in the heavenly land." * After this, the man of Grod addressed our Lord Jesus Christ, and, wishing to speak to His Majesty with profound respect, he made every eifort to kneel on the ground. But the sweet Jesus approaching, received him in His arms, and the saint, supporting his head upon His bosom, said : " My Lord and my God, Son of the Eternal Father, Creator and Redeemer of the world, give Thine eternal benediction to Thy servant, who is the work of Thy hands. Pardon the faults I have committed in Thy service and in Thy company. I confess Thee, I glorify Thee, I render to Thee, with a contrite and humble heart, eternal thanks for having chosen me, by Thine ineffable goodness, from among men to be the spouse of Thine own Mother. Grant, Lord, that Thine own glory may be the theme of my gratitude through all eternity." The Redeemer of the world gave him His benediction : " Rest in peace," He said : "the grace of my heavenly Father, and mine, be with thee. Proclaim the good tidings to my prophets and saints, who await thee in Paradise, and tell them that their redemption is nigh." As our beloved Redeemer pronounced these words, the most happy Joseph expired in His arms, and His divine Majesty closed his eyes. The angels chanted the sweetest hymns of praise, and, by order of the supreme King, they conducted this most holy soul into Para- dise, where the saints recognized him as 814 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. tlie reputed father of the Redeemer of the world, and His greatly beloved one, who merited singular veneration, lie impai'ted a new joy to this innumer- able assembly, by announcing to them, according to the coniinaudraent of the Lord, that their redemption should not long be delayed. We must not omit to mention, that although the precious death of St, Joseph was preceded by so long a sickness, and such severe sufter- iugs, these were not the chief causes of it He might have lived longer, not- withstanding these maladies, if the ef- fects of the ardent love that burned in his cha.ste bosom had not been super- added ; for this happy death was rather a triumph of love than the penalty of sin. The Lord suspended the supernat- ural aid by which He had preserved the strength of His servant, and hindered the violence of his love from destroying him; and this help failing, nature was vanquished. This victoiy severed the ties that detained his holy soul in the piison of the body, in which consists our death. Thus, love was the last of his maladies, and it was also the great- est and most glorious, since, by it, death is the sleep of the body, and the prin- ciple of life. Our blessed Lady, seeing that her spouse had ceased to live, prepared his body for sepultu e, according to the customary usages. No other hands than her^s, and those of the angels who assist- ed her, touched him. In order that all ♦ should be conformable to the incompar able modesty of the Virgin Mother, the Lord clothed the body of St. Joseph in a celestial splendor, which covered it in such a manner that the face only was visible, and thus the pure spouse saw not the rest of the body which she pre- pared for. interment. Several persons were attracted to the house by the sweet fi'agrance that exhaled from the holy corpse, and, seeing it so beautiful, and as flexible as if it had been living, they were greatly astonished. The body of St. Joseph was carried to the common cemetery, followed by rela- tives, friends, and others, and by the Redeemer of the world and His holy Mother, and a great multitude of angels. Our prudent Lady preserved an unal- terable dignity, nor did she permit her interior affliction to hinder her in order- ing all things necessary for the inter- ment of her spouse, or the service of her Son. She acquitted herself in all with a regal magnanimity, and, at the close, she gave thanks to her adorable Son for the favors He had bestow^ed on St. Joseph. Our august saint was one of those who enjoyed the privilege of ex- emption from the sight of the demons at his death, because these spirits of darkness, wishing to approach him, were sensible that a poweiful force restrain- ed them, and the angels hurled them into hell. _L LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 815 CHAPTER XX. PRIVILEGES GRANTED TO ST. JOSEPH — HIS BIRTH ACCOMPANIED BY MIRACLES HIS ADMIRABLE VIRTUES THE VIRTUES WHICH THE MOST HIGH HAS PROMISED TO THOSE DEVOTED TO HIM JESUS RE- SUSCITATES ST. JOSEPH AFTER HIS PAS- SION OUR BLESSED LADY CELEBRATES THE FESTIVAL OP HER ESPOUSALS. THE duration of the life of this hap- piest of men, St. Joseph, was sixty years and some days. He espoused the Blessed Mary in his thirty-third year, and he lived a little more than twenty- seven years in her society. At the death of her holy spouse, our Lady was nearly, forty-one years and six months old. She felt a natural grief at his death, because she had loved him as her spouse, as a very great saint, and her protector and benefactor; and, although the well- regulated mind of our admirable Lady controlled her sorrow, it was not the less profound. The more she knew of the high degree of sanctity which her spouse had attained among the great saints-, whose names are inscribed in the Book of Life, the greater was her affec- tion for him. And, since we cannot lose without sorrow that which we tenderly love, we cannot doubt that the grief of the Blessed Virgin was very great, when we measure it by the love she bore to the holy patriarch. This is not the place to treat, particu- larly, of the excellence of the holiness of ^ St. Joseph, for I have no order to impart, more than what will serve generally to make manifest the dignity of his spouse, to whose merits (after those of her divine Son) we must attribute the gifts and graces with which the Most High favor- ed the glorious patriarch. And, even if our blessed Lady had not been the meritorious cause, or the instrument of the sanctity of her spouse, she was, at least, the immediate end to which that sanctity referred. The virtues and graces which the Lord communicated to His servant Joseph, were conferred to render him more worthy of her whom he had chosen to be His Mother. It is by this rule, and by the esteem and love which this adorable Lord bore to His most pure Mother, that the sanctity of St. Jo- seph is to be measured. Doubtless, if there had been found in the world an- other man more perfect and more excel- lent. His Majesty would have made him the spouse of His own Mother ; and since He conferred this dignity upon St. Jo- seph, it must be granted, without contra- diction, that he was the greatest saint of God on earth. As he had been created for such an exalted purpose, it is certain that it was with the design to render him worthy of the august Mary, and to proportion him, by her powerful right, to these same ends. This proportion was to be found in the holiness, the vir- tues, the gifts and graces, natural or in- fused, which he so eminently possessed. I observe a difference between this 616 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. u^i. ;it Niint and the other saints, in the ' u^race which they received. There »...,^ ; con many Siiints who have been gifted with privileges, all of which were not connected with their own sanctifica- tion, but had regard to other objects for the service of the Most High. They were gratuitous gifts, or apai't from sanc- tity, l^ut for those of our holy Patri- arch, all the gifts that he received, aug- mented in him the virtues, and his interior sanctification. The ministry with which they were connected was a consequence of his holiness and his good works, for the more holy he was, the more worthy was he to be the spouse of the august Mary, and the depositary of the treasure and the mystery of heav- en. He ought to have been, as he was, in reality, a prodigy of holiness, and, by the special providence of God, he was sanctified at his birth. His nature was in just proportions — his qualities excel- lent — his complexion perfect, and to these were superadded purity of soul and right inclinations. In him the con- cupiscence of the flesh found itself en- chained, so that no ordinate inclinations could gain the mastery. Although he had not the use of reason at his first sanctification, in which he was justified only from original sin, his Mother was sensible of a new joy in the Holy Spirit, and, without fully penetrating the mys- tery, she performed great acts of virtue, and believed that her child would be- come great before God and man. * St. Joseph, as we have said, was born beautiful and most perfect by nature. He brought to his parents an extraor- dinary joy' like that at the birth of the little Baptist, although the cause of it was less manifest. The Lord advanced him in the use of reason, and gave it to him in all its perfection, in the third year of his age. He communicated to him, also, an infused science, and a new augmentation of grace and virtue. The holy child began, henceforth, to know God by faith; he knew Him also by natural reason, as the primal cause and author of all creatures, and he compre- hended, with a most sublime conception, all that was said of God and His works. He had, at the same time, the power of elevated contemplation, and he prac- tised the virtues admirably, in propor- tion to his tender years. The use of reason dates with children usually about or after their seventh year. St. Joseph, in his third year, was already in his reasoning faculty, a perfect man, and in holiness also. He was of a sweet dis- position, charitable, kind, and sincere. In all things he gave evidence of holy and angelic inclinations, and, growing in age and in perfection, he attained, by a most holy life, the age at which he espoused the most Blessed Mary. Then to augment for him the gift's of grace, and to confirm him in these gifts, our blessed Lady aided him by her prayers. She earnestly supplicated the Most High, that if He commanded her LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 817 to enter the marriage state, He would sanctify lier spouse Joseph, so that he should conform himself to her chaste desires. This august Lady knew that God would be gracious to her prayers, and that He would operate in the soul of the holy Patriarch effects divine and beyond expression. He imbued him with the perfect fulness of all the vir- tues and all the gifts. His divine Majesty perfected anew all his faculties. In the virtue of chas- tity he was more elevated than the highest seraphim, because, inhabiting a body, mortal and earthly, he possessed a purity equal to theirs — they being diseno;ao:ed from matter. There never even entered into his thoughts any image in the slightest degree impure, or of an animal or sensual nature. By this per- fection, and by his angelic integrity, he was prepared to be the spouse of the purest of creatures, and to live in her society. Without this privilege he could not have been capable of arriving at so great and excellent a dignity. Equally admirable in the other vir- tues, especially in divine love, he was like one who finds himself at the foun- tain, and replenishes himself with that living water which conducts to eternal life, or as an inflammable substance near the sphere of the sacred fire, that kin- dles without resistance. All that can be said in the most exalted praise of this loving spouse, has been already expressed, when it was recorded that * the love of God was the cause of his sickness, and the instrument of his death. The sweet pains of love surpassed those of nature, and these were less active than the first. As the objects of his love, our Lord Jesus Christ and His Mother, were present, and since the saint possessed them in a closer union than any other mortal could approach, it was inevitable that this most faithful and candid heart must exhale itself in the affections of a love so constituted. Blessed be the author of such great wonders, and blessed be the happiest of men, St. Joseph, in whom they were all most worthily wrought ! He merits that all nations should know and bless him, since the Lord has not honored any other among mortals, nor ever maijifest- ed so much love for any as for him. In the course of this history, I have said something of the visions and i-eve- lations with which our saint was favored. It is certain that he had many more than we can relate; but we may. imagine great things if we consider that he was made acquainted with the mysteries of cur Lord Jesus Christ and of His most holy Mother — that he lived so long in close association with them, that he was regarded as the Father of this divine Saviour, and was truly the spouse of our blessed Lady. Besides all this, I have discovered that the Most High accorded to him, because of his great sanctit}", certain privileges in favor of those who choose 818 LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. him for their intercessor, and who in- voke him with devotion. The fir8t is, to obtain the virtue of chastity, and to he withdrawn from the danger of losing it; the second, to receive powerful as- sistance to be freed from sin and to recover the grace of God ; the third, to acquire, by his means, devotion for our blessed Lady, and dispositions to receive her favors ; the fourth, to obtain a happy death and a special protection against the demons at that last hour ; the fifth, to intimidate the enemies of our salva- tion by pronouncing the name of St. Joseph ; the sixth, to obtain health of body and consolation in affliction ; the seventh privilege, to have, by his inter- cession, successors in families. God grants all these favors, and many more, to those who ask for them as they ought, in the name of St. Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin ; and I entreat all the faithful children of the Holy Church to have a great devotion for this great saint, and to be persuaded that they will become sensible of the favorable effects of his protection, if they will dis- pose themselves worthily to merit and to receive them. Our Lord arose from the sepulchre after His passion and death, invested with beauty and glory, as the prophets had announced. Finding himself with the saints and prophets whom He had relieved from prison. He promised to all the human race, the universal resuiTec- tion of the dead as a consequence of His own glorious resurrection, in the same flesh and in the same body, each in his own ; and, as a pledge of this promise, His divine Majesty commanded the souls of many saints to reunite with their bodies, and be raised to an immortal life. These bodies arose, as Saint Mat- thew records in his Gospel, and among them were those of St. Anne, St. Joseph, and jSt. Joachim : the others were an- cient Fathers and Patriarchs. Our blessed Lady was careful every year on the festival of her most holy and chaste spouse St. Joseph, to cele- brate the espousals, through which the Lord had given him to be her faithful companion, in order to conceal the mys- teries of the Incarnation of the Word, and to execute with the highest wisdom the secrets and the works of- the re- demption of the human race. And as all these works of the Most Hio^h were as a deposit in the most prudent heart of Mary, and as she kept this festival as a mark of her high esteem for hira, the joy and gratitude with which she cele- brated his memory were ineffable. Her most holy spouse Joseph de- scended at the festival all radiant with glory, accompanied by innumei'able an- gels, who solemnized it with great joy, chanting new hymns, which were com- posed by our most blessed Lady, in I gratitude for the benefits which her LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. 819 spouse and herself had received from the hand of the Most High. After having thus employed several liours, she discoursed a part of the day with her glorious spouse, on the divine attributes and perfections ; for, in the absence of the Lord, these were the oc- cupations that best pleased His gentle Mother. A little before taking leave of the holy spouse, she entreated him to pray for her, in the presence of God, and to praise Him in her name ; she also requested him to offer prayers for the Holy Church and the Apostles. She asked his benediction, and the glorious saint returned to heaven. GLORY TO THE DIVINE HEART OF JESUS, TO MARY IMMACULATE, AND TO ST. JOSEPH. L ■MtMMMMMHWaa LIVES OF ST. JOACHIM AND ST. ANNE. .1- UT little is known in this age of the world concern- ing the parents of Maiy, the , Mother of God. It has pleased Almighty God to leave the lives of those illustrious persons shrouded in an impenetrable veil of mystery. Nor is this to be won- dered at, when we remember that the same silence, or nearly so, is observed in the Sacred Scriptures with regard to their immaculate daughter, the Mother of the God-man. All of Mary's life that the inspired writers have left on record only serves to indicate rather than de- scribe the miraculous character which distinguished it from all other biogra- phies of the children of men. So it is with the lives of her holy parents, St. Joachim and St. Anne. Little more is found in Scripture concerning them than the mention of their names in the gene- alogy of our divine Saviour, and the simple record of the eminent dignity to which they were called. And yet how clearly they stand before us, en- shrouded as they are in the sublime mystery of their exalted state! How clearly do they stand out from all the other sons and daughters of the patri- archs, illumined with the reflected light of the divine maternity that was to form their daughter's crown in time and in eternity ! The posterity of Adam spread abroad in great numbers, and, going out, the just and the unjust multiplied exceed- ingly; and the saints redoubled their cries and supplications for the coming of the Redeemer, while the wicked, by their crimes, rendered themselves unfit for receiving such a favor. The people of God, and the triumph of the Word who was to become incarnate, had al- ready reached the term decreed by the divine will for the coming of the Messi- ah ; the reign of sin had so enslaved the children of wrath that their wickedness knew no bounds, and hence it was that the fitting time for the remedy had come. The just by increasing their merits had increased the glory of their crowns ; the prophets and patriarchs knew, by the extraordinary joy arising from the divine light, that the salvation of their Deliverer and His awful pres- ence were at hand ; and redoubling the fervor of their prayers, begged of God that the prophecies, and the promises He LIVES OF ST. JOACHIM AND ST. ANNE. 821 liad made to His people, might be ac- complished. And they represented be- fore the throne of divine mercy the long and heavy night of sin in which they had lived from the fall of our first parents, and the darkness of idolatry in which all the rest of mankind lay buried.* When the old serpent had infected all the universe by his poisonous breath, and seemed to enjoy undisputed posses- sion of mortals; when themselves, de- parting from the natural light of reason, and that which the old law had written on their hearts,f instead of seeking the true Divinity, set up many false ones, without reflecting that the confusion arising from so many gods was contrary to perfection, good order, and tranquil- lity of soul ; when by these errors, malice, ignorance, and forgetfulness of the true God had already prevailed, and that mortal languor or lethargy which Ijenumbed the world was so much neg- lected, that the blind and miserable vic- tims did not even oj^en their mouth to ask for a remedy ; when pride sat en- throned, and the number of fools was infinite,^ and the proud Lucifer would fain drink up the purest waters of the Jordan ; § when God was most oifended by all these insults and least honored by men, and when the attribute of His justice had most cause to reduce all cre- ated things to their original nothing : Such was the moment when the Most * Wisdom, xvii. 20. t Rom i. 20. I Eccles. i. 15. § Job, xi. 18. ^ High (according to our ideas) turned His eyes on the attribute of His mercy, and made the law of clemency weigh down the balance of His incomprehensi- ble justice, choosing to be more softened by His own goodness, and by the cries and the faithful service of the just and the prophets of His people, than exas- perated by the manifold offences and perverse ways of all sinners. He de- termined then to give, even in that dreary night of the old law, some assured pledges of the day of grace, sending into the world two radiant lights, to announce the coming dawn of the Sun of Justice, Christ our Saviour. These two lights were St. Joachim and St. Anne, whom the divine will had prepared and created that they might be according to His own heart. St. Joachim had his house, his family, and his parents, at Nazareth, a small town of Galilee. He was always just and holy, guided by a special grace and a heavenly light. He penetrated several mysteries of H0I3- Writ and pre- dictions of the ancient prophets, and by fervent and unceasing prayer begged of God the fulfilment of his promises; and his faith and his charity penetrated the heavens. He was very humble in him- self, pure, and of great candor and sim- plicity, and holy in all his ways; a grave and serious man, of incomparable meekness and modesty. St. Anne had her home in Bethlehem. She was a maiden fair, chaste, and hum- ble ; and from her childhood, holy , mod- 822 LIVES OF ST. JOACHIM AND ST. ANNE. est, and endowed with every virtue. She was also favored with frequent inspira- tions from on high; she was ever occu- pied in the contemplation of things divine, without neglecting her household affaii-s, in which she was most assiduous. By these holy occupations she attained the highest perfection of both the active and contemplative life. She had an in- fused knowledge of the Holy Scriptui'es, and a profound understanding of their hidden mysteries ; she was incomparable in the infused virtues of faith, hope, and charity. Filled with these gifts, she prayed continually for the speedy coming of the Messiah ; and her prayers were so agreeable to the Lord, that, like the spouse in the Canticle, she merited the response of having wounded His heart,* and hastened that happy time ; for with- out doubt, the merits of St. Anne con- tributed no little to anticipate the advent of the Word, holding, as she did, the highest place among the saints of the Old Testament. This strong woman also prayed fer- v'ently that the Most High would vouch- safe to give her in marriage a spouse who would assist her to keep the divine law and become more perfect in the observance of its precepts. While St. Anne was thus supplicating the Lord, His divine providence decreed that St. Joachim prayed in like manner, to the end that both petitions might be pre- * Canticle of Canticles, iv. 9. * sented together before the tribunal of the Holy Trinity, where they were heard and accepted. It was forthwith appoint- ed by a divine ordinance, that Joachim and Anne should be united in marriaire, and become the parents of her who was to be the Mother of the Incarnate God. For the execution of this decree the holy ai'changel Gabriel was sent to make it known to each. Pie appeared in corpo- ral form to St. Anne when she was in fervent prayer, petitioning for the coming of the world's Redeemer, the Salvation of mankin(J. She saw this celestial prince sp radiant in glory and in beauty that she was troubled with a holy fear, accompanied, however, by an interior joy which his presence caused her by reason of the lights which he communi- cated to her soul. The saint prostrated herself with profound humility to honor the ambassador of heaven ; but he pre- vented her from so humbling herself, and encouraged her as one who was to be the ark of the tnie manna, the thrice- blessed Mary, Mother of the Eternal Word ; for the Lord had revealed that hidden mystery to the holy archangel, when he sent Him on this embassy ; al thougb the other angels of heaven did not yet penetrate it, because this revela- tion or illumination was made immedi- ately by the Lord himself to the arch- angel Gabriel only, and neither did the archan<]:el reveal it then to St. Anne: but having demanded her attention, he said to her: "Handmaid of the Lord, LIVES OF ST. JOACHIM AND ST. ANNE. 823 may the Most High bless you and be your salvation. His divine Majesty hath heard your prayers, it is His will that you should persevere in asking the com- ing of the Redeemer, and He decrees that you should receive Joachim for your spouse ; he is a just man, and hath found favor before God, and you may go on with him in the observance of His divi'ne law and His holy service. Con- tinue your prayers and supplications, and have no other care, for the same Lord will decree the accomplishment of your desire. Walk in the narrow way of justice, raise your heart and mind to the things of heaven, pray always for the coming of the Messiah, and rejoice in the Lord, who is thy salvation." Thereupon, the angel disappeared, hav- ing left St. Anne much inward light for the penetration of various mysteries of the Sacred Scriptures, filled her soul with consolation, and renewed the fervor of her spirit. The archangel neither appeared nor spoke to St. Joachim in corporal form as he did to St. Anne ; but the man of God heard himself thus addressed in a dream : " Joachim, blessed be thou among men ; persevere in thy desires, and practise justice and perfection. It is the will of God that thou receive Anne for thy spouse, for the Almighty hath filled her soul with benedictions. Have care of her, and regard her as a precious gift from His bountiful hand, and thank His divine Majesty for hav- ^ ing confided her to thee." In virtue of this divine embassy, Joachim demanded the most chaste Anne for a wife, and the marriage was celebrated, in accord- ance with the will of God, but yet with- out either party disclosing their secret to the other, until some years had pass- ed, as will be seen in its own place. The holy spouses dwelt at Nazareth, and there walked in the wa}s of God. They rendereti themselves pleasing to the Most High, and were irreproachable in His sight, because of the plenitude of grace that made all their works per- tect. They, every year, dl\ided their revenue into three parts. Tlie first they offered in the Temple of Jerusalem, for the worship of the Lord ; the second they distributed to the poor, reserving the third for the proper maintenance of their family. God increased their tem- poral goods, because they employed them with much charity and liberality. Peace was inviolable between them ; they lived in perfect conformity one with the other, without noise or disturb- ance of any kind. The most humble Anne was submissive in all things to the will of Joachim; and the man of God was ever eager to anticipate the wishes of St. Anne, nor was it in vain that he trusted himself entirely to her guidance.* In such perfect charity did they live, that all their life long they had but one and the same will. Being united in the name of the Lord,f Hia * frov. xxi. 11. t Matt, xviii. 20, 824 LIVES OF ST. JOACHIM AND ST. ANNE. holy Vii never abandoned them: St. f Joachim never failing to obey the com- mand of the anp'l \o lioiidr and cherish his wife. The Lord prevented the venerable St. Anne with blessings of sweetness,* communicatins: to her the most sublime gifts of grace and of infused science, to prepare her for the great hapj)iness she was to enjoy, in being the mother of her who was to bring foijth that same Lord. And as the works of the Most High are perfect and complete, He, con- sequently, made her the worthy mother of the most perfect of creatures, who was to be inferior to God alone in sanc- tity, and superior to all pure creat- ures. These holy spouses passed twenty yeai*8 without having a child, which at that time, and among that people, was considered a great shame ; thence it happened that they were often assailed by the taunts and reproaches of their neighbors; for it was thought that those who had no children had no part in the coming of the expected Messiah. But the Most High chose to afflict them in this way in order to dispose them by so great a humiliation for the extraordi- naiy grace he meant to bestow upon them, and gave them the patience neces- sary to confomi implicitly to His divine will to the end, that they might sow in tears and in prayers the blessed fruit they were one day to reap.f They * Psalm XX. 4 t Psalm cxxv. 5. begged it from the depths of their hearts, agreeably to the express com- mand of Heaven ; and they made a par- ticular vow to the Lord, that, if He gave them a child, they would offer it in the Temple, and consecrate it to His service as the fruit of His benediction. This vow was made by the particular inspiration of the Holy Ghost, who or- dained it so that she who was to serve as a dwelling for the only Son of the Father, should be offered, and as it were, made over by her own parents, to the same Lord before she received being. For if they had not bound themselves by a special vow to offer her in the Temple before they had yet known her, they would afterwards have suffered inexpressible pain in separating from a child so sweet and so lovely, and would have offered her perhaps with reluc- tance, because of the great love they bore to her. By this offering, the Lord not only satisfied, according to our ideas, that species of jealousy which He al- ready had, that none other but He should have any claim on His blessed Mother; but His love was also in some sort compensated for the delay in His coming. Having persevered for a whole year in these earnest supplications, according to the order they had received from the Lord, it came to pass that St. Joachim went to the Temple of Jerusalem by a divine inspiration and an express com- mand, there to offer prayers and sacri LIVES OF ST. JOACHIM AND ST. ANNE. 825 fices for the coming of the Messiah, and to obtain the desired fruit. Being come with others from his own neiirhborhood, to offer, in presence of the high-priest, the customary gifts, a priest called Issa- char sharply rebuked the venerable old man for offering his gifts with the others, being barren. Among other things, he told him: "Joachim, why dost thou present thyself to offer sacri- fice, being a useless man ? Separate thyself from the others, and go thy way hence ; anger not the Lord by thy offer- ings and thy sacrifices, for they are not pleasing in his eyes." The holy old man, confused and ashamed, humbly and lovingly besought the Lord, saying: " My sovereign Lord and my eternal God, Thy command and Thy will brought me to the Temple ; he who holds Thy place therein hath despised me ; my sins have merited this affront ; I receive it then for Thy sake ; despise not, O Lord, the work of Thy hands."* Thereupon the afflicted Joachim going forth from the Temple (to outward ap- pearance calm and tranquil), went to a country house which he had; and for some days, which he passed in solitude, addressed his sighs to the Lord, and prayed to Him as follows : " God of eternal majesty, from whom is all being, and the entire reparation of the human race, prostrate in Thy divine presence, I beseech Thine infinite goodness to look with pity on the afflic- * Psalm, cxxxvii. 8. # tion of my soul, and hear my prayers dnd those of Thy servant Anne. Thine eyes penetrate all oui- wishes; but if I deserve not to be heard, I'eject not my humble spouse. Lord God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; turn not away Thy clemency from us, and per- mit not, since Thou art Father, that I be numbered with the reprobate and the outcast in my offerings, as being useless, because Thou givest me no progeny. Remember, O Lord, the sac- rifices and oblations of Thy servants and Thy prophets the fathers of my race;f and be mindful of those works of theirs which found favor in Thy sight. And since Thou command est me. Lord, to supplicate Thee with confidence, as the almighty and all-bountiful God, grant me what according to Thy good pleasure I desire ; for in beseeching Thee I obey Thy holy will, in that Thou hast promised to hear my prayer. But if my sins impede Thy mercy, remove from me whatever is displeasing to Thee. Mighty art thou, O Lord God of Israel, and canst do whatsoever Thou wilt.;}; Hear my prayers, poor and mis- erable as I am, for Thou art infinite and wont to have compassion on the hum- ble. Where shall I find a refuge, if not in Thee, who art the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and the great Omnipo- tent! Thou hast loaded Thy children and Thy servants with blessings in their generations, and Thou leadest me to t Deut. ix. 27. X Esth. xiii. 9. 826 l]\ iJF ST. JOACHIM AND ST. ANNE. desiro and to hope from Thy bounty ^ that which Thon hast done for my brethren. If it be Thy gracious will to grant my petition, I will otter in Thy holy Temple, and consecrate to Thy ser- vice, the fruit of succession that I may receive fvom Thy bountiful hand. I give up my heai-t and soul to Thy divine will, and I have always desired to turn mine eyes away from vanity. Do with roe whatsoever Thou wilt, and comfort our souls, O LdVd, by the fulfilment of our hope. From the throne of Thy Majesty regard this miserable dust, and deign to raise it up, that it may adore and glorify Thee, and may Thy holy will, not mine, be done in all things." Thus did Joachim pray in his soli- tude. Meanwhile the holy ambassador declared to St. Anne that it would be pleasing to the divine Majesty for her to ask a succession of children with that pious intention and that fervent desire to obtain it. And the holy lady, find- ing that it was the will of God, and of Joachim her husband, prostrated herself before God in humble submission and confidence, and prayed in this manner: "Most high Majesty, Lord, creator and preserver of all things, whom my soul honors and adores as the true God, infi- nite, holy, and bountiful, I will speak and make manifest in Thy royal pres- ence my necessity and my afliiction, al- though I am but dust and ashes.* Lord God eternal, make us worthy of Thy * Genesis, xviii. 27. benediction, giving us a pure and holy offspring whon\ we may present in Thy Temple. Remember, Lord, that Thy servant Anna, mother of Samuel, was barren, yet, through Thine infinite bounty she received the fruition of her de.sires.f I feel an inward motion which incites me to ask a like favor at Thy hands. Hear then, most sweet Lord, mine humble prayer, being mindful of the service, the oblations, and the sac- rifices of my fathers, and the favors wrought in and for them by the might of Thy omnipotent arm. I would pre- sent Thee, O Lord, with an oblation that would be pleasing in Thy sight; but the best I can offer Thee is ray soul, my powers, my senses, and the being Thou hast given me. And if, vouch- safing to regard me from Thy eternal throne. Thou givest me a child, I con- secrate it to Thy service from the first moment of its existence. Cast Thine eyes, O Lord God of Israel, on this vile and poor creature, comfort Thy servant, Joachim, hear our humble supplication, and be Thy holy will in all things accomplished." These vt^ere the prayers offered up by St. Joachim and St. Anne, but it is not possible for me to describe the exalted idea which I have of the sanctity of these blessed parents ; neither is it necessary, for what I have said will give some con- ception of it. If we would rightly esti- mate the perfect holiness of those great f 1 Kings, L LIVES OF ST. JOACHIM, AND ST. ANNE. 827 saints, we must consider the high destiny and the sublime ministry for which God designed them, who were to be the im- mediate progenitors of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the parents of His most holy Mother. The prayers of St. Joachim and St. Anne reached the throne of the Most Blessed Trinity, where, being heard and accepted, the divine will was manifested to the holy angels, and these celestial spii'its having learned the decree of the Most Higli, the archangel Gabriel, ador- ing and honoring the divine Majesty after the manner of those pure and spir- itual substances, bowed down before the throne of the Most Holy Trinity, whence came forth a voice intelligible to him, and it said: "Gabriel, illuminate, vivify, and console Joachim and Anne, our servants, and tell them that their pray- ers have reached our presence, and our clemency hath heard them. Promise them that they shall receive a fruit of benediction by favor of our right hand, and that Anne shall conceive and bring forth a daughter, to whom we give the name of Mary." Several mysteries and secrets which belonged to this embassy were revealed to the archangel St. Gabriel, receiving the commands of the Most High, pursu- ant to which he descended from the em- pyi-ean sky to perform his mission. He appeared to St. Joachim while the latter was at prayer, and told him, that his prayers and his alms and sacrifices hav- * ing found favor with God, his wife should conceive and bring forth a child of ben- ediction, whose name was to be M .?y-; that she was to be from her infancy con- secrated to God in His holy Temple. "Thou wilt go up to Jerusalem," said the heavenly messenger, " and in testi- mony of the truth of these good tidings that I now bring to thee, thou wilt meet thy sister Anne at the Golden Gate, as she will go to the Temple for a purpose similar to thine." St. Anne was in like manner apprised by the archangel of the great favor that was to be bestowed upon her. Filled with a holy joy, she went by divine In- spiration to the Temple to return thanks, and at the Golden Gate she met her holy spouse, St. Joachim, as the angel had foretold. They both returned thanks to the Author of all grace, e^nd offered gifts and particular sacrifices with that intention. They then returned to their home full of heavenly consolation, discoursing, on the way, of the miracu- lous favors they had received, and ^he great things foretold by the angel of the daughter that was to be born to them. It was on that occasion that they reveal- ed one to the other the order they liad separately received from the same angel to espouse each other for the greater glory of God. For twenty years they had kept this secret one from the otner, and only revealed it when the angel promised them the succession of such a daughter. They afterwards renewed LIVES OF ST. JUAUHIM AND ST. ANNE. their offerings in the Temple, whither they went up every yeai* on a certain day, with spet'ial ofl'erings, further sanc- tifying tlie day l)y prayer, by alms-deeds, and l»y thanksgivings. St Anne's pi-udence made her keep the secret, even fi"om St. Joachim, that her daughter was to be the Mother of the Messiah. And the holy father knew nothius; more about her all his life, except that she was to be a great and mysterious woman ; but the Most High failed not to make the great mystery known to him a few moments before his death. The divine Wisdom had prepared all things to separate from the corrupt mass of human nature the Mother of all grace. The allotted number of the patriarchs and prophets was already complete, and the mountains raised whereon that mys- tical City of God was to be placed.* Mis right hand had prepared the incom- parable treasures of His divinity, to portion and endow her. A thousand angels were ready to guard and protect her, and to serve her as their lady and royal jnistress. He prepared for her a royal line of ancestors; He gave her parents holy and perfect beyond all the men and women of that age, for had there been any greater saints or more fit to be the parents of her whom He chose for his own Mother, there is no doubt but the divine Majesty would have chosen them. * Psalm, Ixxxvi, 2. He disposed them for their office by numberless graces and blessings, enrich- ed them with all virtues, and illumined their minds by divine wisdom and the various gifts of the Holy Ghost. They having been apprised of the admirable daughter who was to be given them, the work of the first conception, which was that of the pure body of Mary, was exe- cuted. The age/ of her parents, when they were married, was, that of St. Joa- chim forty-six, and that of St. Anne twenty-four. Twenty )'ears had passed since their marriage without their hav- ing any children, so that the mother was forty-four at the time of her daughter's conception, and the father sixty-six. The conception was according to the common order, but owing to St. Anne's sterility, might be considered miraculous, l)eing also free from every species of imperfec- tion. At the moment when the soul was in- fused into the body of our divine Lady, it was so appointed that St. Anne, made suddenly sensible of the presence of the Holy Ghost, was moved with such an interior joy, that she fell into a sublime ecstasy, during which she received a knowledge of the highest mysteries, and praised the Lord by new canticles of joy. These blessed effects remained all her lifetime, but they were greater during the nine months of her holy pregnancy, when she bore in her womb the treasure of heaven. The auspicious day at length arrived LIVES OF ST. JOACHIM AND ST. ANNE. 829 when St. Anne was to rejoice the world with the birth of her who was sanctified and consecrated to be the Mother of God. Ihis delivery took place on the eighth day of September, the nine months after the conception of the most holy soul of our queen and mistress having been accomplished. She was born pure, fair, and full of grace, clearly indicating her entire exemption from the law of sin. St. Anne received her divinely-endowed daughter into her arms, and offered her to the Lord with tears of joy and fervent thanksgivings. And the angels of our Lady's guard, with myriads of others, adored their queen, and paid their hom- age to her as she lay in her mother's arms, and chanted a celestial hymn, which St. Anne heard in part. At the same moment the archangel Gabriel was sent by the Most High to announce the glad tidings to the holy fathers in Limbo. It was a precept of the Law in the twelfth chapter of Leviticus, that if a w^oman brought forth a daughter, she was considered unclean for two weeks, and remained sixty-six days in a state of purification (but only thirty-three if she had given birth to a male child); which having accomplished, she was to offer as a holocaust, at the door of the taberna- cle, a yearling lamb for males or females, and a pigeon or a dove for sin, consign- ing the same to the priest, that he might offer it to the Lord and pray for her; by which offering she was purified. The delivery of the blessed Anne was as * privileged as became tlie dignity of her divine daughter, whose purity was re- flected on her mother. Hence she had no need of conforming to the law of puri- fication, yet she obeyed it to the letter. . The sixty-six days of the purification being passed, St. Anne went to the Temple inflamed with divine ardor, and bearing her beloved daughter in her arms ; she presented her at the door of the tabernacle with the offerinnr which o the Law required, being accompanied by an innumerable multitude of angels, and had some discourse with the hisrh- priest, the venerable Simeon, who, being always most assiduous in the Temple, enjoyed the singular privilege of re- ceiving the Blessed Mary as often as she was presented there ; although the holy pontiff did not always perceive the dignity of that divine queen, still he felt inwardly convinced that the child was to be great before God. St. Anne offered the lamb and the dove, with some other gifts, with great humility, beseeching the high-priest to pray for her and for her daughter. His divine Majesty had nothing to forgive either mother or daughter, in whom grace was so abundant ; but He rather saw new merits in their profound hu- mility, since, being both holy, they believed themselves sinners, and as such presented themselves before Him. And thus the holy St. Anne entered the Temple with her daughter in her arms, and offered her to the Most Hisrh 630 LIVES OF ST. JOACHIM AND ST. ANNE. with tears of joy and tenderness, being the only one in all the world that knew the valuta of tlio treasure deposited in her cart , The three yeai*s that the Blessed Mary was to remain with her holy parents having elapsed, St. Anne was admonish- vd in a vision that the time appointed for her being taken to the Temple was now at hand, and that Joachim and she were to conduct her thither. Tender mother as she was, this news filled her pure soul with joyful emotion, and she thanked God with all the fervor of her heart On the day appointed, the holy pa- rents, Joachim and Anne, accompanied by some of their relatives, departed from Nazareth, bearing with them the true ark of the covenant, the most pure Mary, to consecrate her in the holy Temple of Jerusalem. They arrived at the Temple, and going in, St. Anne and St. Joachim took their daughter and mistress by the hand, and aft^r praying, all three, with great fervor and devo- tion, the pious parents presented their beloved daughter, who also made an offering of herself at the same time. Before ascending the steps which con- ducted to the apartment where the royal daughters of Juda dwelt in the shadow of the altar, Mary asked permission to take leave of her parents ; which having obtained, she turned to St. Joachim and St. Anne, and kneeling down asked their blessing, kissing their hands and + requesting the favor of their prayers. The two saints blessed her with many tears, and she walked all alone up the steps without turning her head or giv- ing any further indication of sorrow on pju'tiug from her j)arents. St. Joachim and St. Anne returned to Nazareth much poorer than they came, and penetrated with sorrow for being deprived of their treasure ; but the Lord indemnified them for her absence by many signal consolations. Little more is known w'ith certainty concerning the illustrious parents of our blessed Lady. Some writers affirm that they were still in the flesh at the time of her betrothal to St. Joseph, but others of as great celebrity and as great authority in the Church hold the con- trary opinion. Those who maintain that the blessed Joachim and Anne lived till after the birth of the Messiah, base their opinion on the fact that the Church, according to St. Bernard, cele- brated the feast of no saint (with the single exception of the Machabees) who had departed this life before the com mencement of the Christian Era. St Joachim died on the 9th of March, it is generally supposed, and St. Anne on the 26th of July. But even these dates are by no means certain. It so happened, that, l)y the mys- terious decrees of God, the feast of the blessed St. Anne Avas celebrated in the Church many years before that of St. Joachim her holy spouse. In fact, the LIVES OF ST. JOACHIM AND ST. ANNE. 831 primitive Christians cherished a special devotion to the mother of Mary, which devotion has ever since been perpet- uated and greatly encouraged among the children of the Church who love and honor her august daughter. Vari- ous cities and countries glory in possess- ing portions of her sacred body. The ring with which St. Joachim espoused her is preserved in a church in the Eternal City dedicated to the blessed mother of Mary. Innumerable miracles have been wrought by the intercession of St, Anne in every part of Christen- dom, and shrines and pilgrimages estab- lished in her honor both in Eastern and Western countries. In all the Chris- tianized countries of America, the name of St. Anne is held in honor, not by Catholics alone, but even by some sects of Protestants. The Episcopalians have churches beaiing her name in many of * the principal cities of British America and the United States. In Lower Can- ada there are several shrines and pil- grimages consecrated to St. Anne,* and societies established in her honor. The feast of St. Joachim is now cele- brated on the Sunday within the Octave of the Assumption. His relics are still preserved in the Church, most of them in various cities of Italy. His head is said to be in the church of the Macha-- bees at Cologne. Much might be here said in praise of these glorious saints, so highly favored in the mysterious decrees of Providence, but what we have related of them suf- ficiently establishes the fact of their pre-eminent holiness. * One of these, on the Ottawa river, is the " Anne's " of Moore's Canadian Boat Song : " As soon as the woods on shore grow dim, We'll sing at St. Anne's our parting hymn." THI END. 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