Laudate Dominum

Picture of Saints

LAUDATE DOMINUM.NET--Traditional Lives of the Saints--February

NAVIGATION:


FEBRUARY 1.-- ST. BRIDGID, ABBESS, AND PATRONESS OF IRELAND.
ST. IGNATIUS, BISHOP, MARTYR
FEBRUARY 2.-- THE PURIFICATION, COMMONLY CALLED CANDLEMAS-DAY
FEBRUARY 3.-- ST. BLASE, BISHOP AND MARTYR.
FEBRUARY 4.-- ST. JANE, OF VALOIS.
FEBRUARY 5.-- ST. AGATHA, VIRGIN, MARTYR
THE MARTYRS OF JAPAN
FEBRUARY 6. --ST. DOROTHY, VIRGIN, MARTYR.
FEBRUARY 7.-- ST. ROMUALD, ABBOT
FEBRUARY 8. --ST. JOHN OF MATHA.
FEBRUARY 9. --ST. APOLLONIA AND THE MARTYRS OF ALEXANDRIA.
FEBRUARY 10. --ST. SCHOLASTICA, ABBESS.
FEBRUARY 11. --ST. SEVERINUS, ABBOT OF AGAUNUM.
FEBRUARY 12.-- ST. BENEDICT OF ANIAN.
FEBRUARY 13.--ST. CATHERINE OF RICCI
FEBRUARY 14.--ST. VALENTINE, PRIEST AND MARTYR
FEBRUARY 15.--STS. FAUSTINUS AND JOVITA, MARTYRS.
FEBRUARY 16.-- BLESSED JOHN DE BRITTO, MARTYR.
ST. ONESIMUS, DISCIPLE OF ST. PAUL.
FEBRUARY 17.--ST. FLAVIAN, BISHOP, MARTYR
FEBRUARY 18.--ST. SIMEON, BISHOP, MARTYR.
FEBRUARY 19.--ST. BARBATUS, BISHOP.
FEBRUARY 20.--ST. EUCHERIUS, BISHOP.
FEBRUARY 21.--ST. SEVERIANUS, MARTYR, BISHOP
FEBRUARY 22.--ST. PETER'S CHAIR AT ANTIOCH.
FEBRUARY 23.--ST. PETER DAMIAN
ST. SERENUS, A GARDENER, MARTYR
FEBRUARY 24.--ST. MATTHIAS, APOSTLE
FEBRUARY 25.--ST. TARASIUS
FEBRUARY 26.--ST. PORPHYRY, BISHOP.
FEBRUARY 27.--ST. LEANDER, BISHOP.
FEBRUARY 28.-- SS. ROMANUS AND LUPICINUS, ABBOTS
FEBRUARY 29.--ST. OSWALD, BISHOP.

FEBRUARY 1.—ST. BRIDGID, ABBESS, AND PATRONESS
OF IRELAND.

Next to the glorious St. Patrick, St. Bridgid, whom we may consider his spiritual daughter in Christ, has ever been held in singular veneration in Ireland. She was born about the year 453, at Fochard in Ulster. During her infancy, her pious father saw in a vision men clothed in white garments pouring a sacred unguent on her head, thus prefiguring her future sanctity. While yet very young, Bridgid consecrated her life to God, bestowed every thing at her disposal on the poor, and was the edification of all who knew her. She was very beautiful, and fearing that efforts might be made to induce her to break the vow by which she bound herself to God, and to bestow her hand on one of her many suitors, she prayed that she might become ugly and deformed. Her prayer was heard, for her eye became swollen, and her whole countenance so changed that she was allowed to follow her vocation in peace, and marriage with her was no more thought of. When about twenty years old, our Saint made known to St. Mel, the nephew and disciple of St. Patrick, her intention to live only to Jesus Christ, and he consented to receive her sacred vows. On the appointed day the solemn ceremony of her profession was performed after the manner introduced by St. Patrick, the bishop offering up many prayers, and investing Bridgid with a snowwhite habit, and a cloak of the same color. While she bowed her head on this occasion to receive the veil, a miracle of a singularly striking and impressive nature occurred: that part of the wooden platform adjoining the altar on which she knelt recovered its original vitality, and put on all its former verdure, retaining it for a long time after. At the same moment Bridgid's eye was healed, and she became as beautiful and as lovely as ever.

Encouraged by her example, several other ladies made their vows with her, and in compliance with the wish of the parents of her new associates, the Saint agreed to found a religious residence for herself and them in the vicinity. A convenient site having been fixed upon by the bishop, a convent, the first in Ireland, was erected upon it ; and in obedience to the prelate Bridgid assumed the superiority. Her reputation for sanctity became greater every day ; and in proportion as it was diffused throughout the country the number of candidates for admission into the new monastery increased. The bishops of Ireland, soon perceiving the important advantages which their respective dioceses would derive from similar foundations, persuaded the young and saintly abbess to visit different parts of the kingdom, and, as an opportunity offered, introduce into each one the establishment of her institute.

While thus engaged in a portion of the province of Connaught, a deputation arrived from Leinster to solicit the Saint to take up her residence in that territory ; but the motives which they urged were human, and such could have no weight with Bridgid. It was only the prospect of the many spiritual advantages that would result from compliance with the request that induced her to accede, as she did, to the wishes of those who had petitioned her. Taking with her a number of her spiritual daughters, our Saint journeyed to Leinster, where they were received with many demonstrations of respect and joy. The site on which Kildare now stands appearing to be well adapted for a religious institute, there the Saint and her companions took up their abode. To the place appropriated for the new foundation some lands were annexed, the fruits of which were assigned to the little establishment. This donation indeed contributed to supply the wants of the community, but still the pious sisterhood principally depended for their maintenance on the liberality of their benefactors. Bridgid contrived, however, out of their small means to relieve the poor of the vicinity very considerably; and when the wants of these indigent persons surpassed her slender finances, she hesitated not to sacrifice for them the movables of the convent. On one occasion our Saint, imitating the burning charity of St. Ambrose and other great servants of God, sold some of the sacred vestments that she might procure the means of relieving their necessities. She was so humble that she sometimes attended the cattle on the land which belonged to her monastery. The renown of Bridgid's unbounded charity drew multitudes of the poor to Kildare; the fame of her piety attracted thither many persons anxious to solicit her prayers or to profit by her holy example. In course of time the number of these so much increased that it became necessary to provide accommodation for them in the neighborhood of the new monastery, and thus was laid the foundation and origin of the town of Kildare.

The spiritual exigencies of her community, and of those numerous strangers who resorted to the vicinity, having suggested to our Saint the expediency of having the locality erected into an episcopal see, she represented it to the prelates, to whom the consideration of it rightly belonged. Deeming the proposal just and useful, Conlath, a recluse of eminent sanctity, illustrious by the great things which God had granted to his prayers, was, at Bridgid's desire, chosen the first bishop of the newly erected diocese. In process of time it became the ecclesiastical metropolis of the province to which it belonged, probably in consequence of the general desire to honor the place in which St. Bridgid had so long dwelt.

After seventy years devoted to the practice of the most sublime virtues, corporal infirmities admonished our Saint that the time of her dissolution was nigh. It was now half a century since, by her holy vows, she had irrevocably consecrated herself to God, and during that period great results had been attained ; her holy institute having widely diffused itself throughout the Green Isle, and greatly advanced the cause of religion in the various districts in which it was established. Like a river of peace, its progress was steady and silent ; it fertilized every region fortunate enough to receive its waters, and caused them to put forth spiritual flowers and fruits with all the sweet perfume of evangelical fragrance. The remembrance of the glory she had procured to the Most High, as well as the services rendered to dear souls ransomed by the precious Blood of her divine Spouse, cheered and consoled Bridgid in the infirmities inseparable from old age. Her last illness was soothed by the presence of Nennidh, a priest of eminent sanctity, over whose youth she had watched with pious solicitude, and who was indebted to her prayers and instructions for his great proficiency in sublime perfection. The day on which our abbess was to terminate her course, February 1st, 523, having arrived, she received from the hands of this saintly priest the blessed Body and Blood of her Lord in the divine Eucharist, and, as it would seem, immediately after her spirit passed forth, and went to possess Him in that heavenly country where He is seen face to face and enjoyed without danger of ever losing Him. Her body was interred in the church adjoining her convent, but was some time after exhumed, and deposited in a splendid shrine near the high altar.

In the ninth century, the country being desolated by the Danes, the remains of St. Bridgid were removed in order to secure them from irreverence ; and, being transferred to Down-Patrick, were deposited in the same grave with those of the glorious St. Patrick. Their bodies, together with that of St. Columba, were translated afterwards to the cathedral of the same city, but their monument was destroyed in the reign of King Henry VIII. The head of St. Bridgid is now kept in the church of the Jesuits at Lisbon.

Reflection.—Outward resemblance to Our Lady was St. Bridgid's peculiar privilege; but all are bound to grow like her in interior purity of heart. This grace St. Bridgid has obtained in a wonderful degree for the daughters of her native land, and will never fail to procure for all her devout clients.

ST. IGNATIUS, BISHOP, MARTYR.

St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, was the disciple of St. John. When Domitian persecuted the Church, St. Ignatius obtained peace for his own flock by fasting and prayer. But for his part he desired to suffer with Christ, and to prove himself a perfect disciple. In the year 107, Trajan came to Antioch, and forced the Christians to choose between apostasy and death. " Who art thou, poor devil," the emperor said, when Ignatius was brought before him, " who settest our commands at naught? " " Call not him ' poor devil,' " Ignatius answered, " who bears God within him." And when the emperor questioned him about his meaning, Ignatius explained that he bore in his heart Christ crucified for his sake. Thereupon the emperor condemned him to be torn to pieces by wild beasts at Rome. St. Ignatius thanked God, who had so honored him, " binding him in the chains of Paul, His apostle." He journeyed to Rome, guarded by soldiers, and with no fear, except of losing the martyr's crown. He was devoured by lions in the Roman amphitheatre. The wild beasts left nothing of his body, except a few bones, which were reverently treasured at Antioch, until their removal to the Church of St. Clement, at Rome, in 637. After the martyr's death, several Christians saw him in vision standing before Christ, and interceding for them.

Reflection.—Ask St. Ignatius to obtain for you the grace of profiting by all you have to suffer, and rejoicing in it as a means of likeness to your crucified Redeemer.

FEBRUARY 2.—THE PURIFICATION, COMMONLY CALLED
CANDLEMAS-DAY.

The law of God, given by Moses to the Jews, ordained that a woman, after child-birth, should continue for a certain time in a state which that law calls unclean, during which she was not to appear in public, nor presume to touch any thing consecrated to God. This term was of forty days upon the birth of a son, and double that time for a daughter. On the expiration of the term, the mother was to bring to the door of the tabernacle, or temple, a lamb and a young pigeon, or turtle-dove, as an offering to God. These being sacrificed to Almighty God by the priest, the woman was cleansed of the legal impurity and reinstated in her former privileges. A young pigeon, or turtle-dove, by way of a sin-offering, was required of all, whether rich or poor; but as the expense of a lamb might be too great for persons in poor circumstances, they were allowed to substitute for it a second dove.

Our Saviour having been conceived by the Holy Ghost, and His blessed Mother remaining always a spotless virgin, it is evident that she did not come under the law; but as the world was, as yet, ignorant of her miraculous conception, she submitted with great punctuality and exactness to every humbling circumstance which the law required. Devotion and zeal to honor God by every observance prescribed by His law, prompted Mary to perform this act of religion though evidently exempt from the precept. Being poor herself, she made the offering appointed for the poor; but, however mean in itself, it was made with a perfect heart, which is what God chiefly regards in all that is offered to Him. Besides the law which obliged the mother to purify herself, there was another which ordered that the first-born son should be offered to God, and that, after its presentation, the child should be ransomed with a certain sum of money, and peculiar sacrifices offered on the occasion. Mary complies exactly with all these ordinances. She obeys not only in the essential points of the law, but has strict regard to all the circumstances. She remains forty days at home ; she denies herself, all this time, the liberty of entering the temple ; she partakes not of things sacred ; and on the day of her purification she walks several miles to Jerusalem, with the world's Redeemer in her arms. She waits for the priest at the gate of the temple, makes her offerings of thanksgiving and expiation, presents her Divine Son by the hands of the priest to his eternal Father, with the most profound humility, adoration, and thanksgiving. She then redeems Him with five shekels, as the law appoints, and receives Him back again as a sacred charge committed to her special care, till the Father shall again demand Him for the full accomplishment of man's redemption. The ceremony of this day was closed by a third mystery— the meeting in the temple of the holy persons, Simeon and Anne, with Jesus and his parents. Holy Simeon, on that occasion, received into his arms the object of all his desires and sighs, and praised God for being blessed with the happiness of beholding the so-much-longed-for Messias. He foretold to Mary her martyrdom of sorrow, and that Jesus brought redemption to those who would accept of it on the terms it was offered them ; but a heavy judgment on all infidels who should obstinately reject it, and on Christians, also, whose lives were a contradiction to his holy maxims and example. Mary, hearing this terrible prediction, did not answer one word, felt no agitation of mind from the present, no dread for the future ; but courageously and sweetly committed all to God's holy will. Anne, also, the prophetess, who in her widowhood served God with great fervor, had the happiness to acknowledge and adore in this great mystery the Redeemer of the world. Simeon, having beheld Our Saviour, exclaimed: " Now dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word, because my eyes have seen Thy salvation." This feast is called Candlemas, because the Church blesses the candles to be borne in the procession of the day.

Reflection.—Let us strive to imitate the humility of the ever-blessed Mother of God, remembering that humility is the path which leads to abiding peace, and brings us near to the consolations of God.

FEBRUARY 3.—ST. BLASE, BISHOP AND MARTYR.

St. Blase devoted the earlier years of his life to the study of philosophy, and afterwards became a physician. In the practice of his profession he saw so much of the miseries of life and the hollowness of worldly pleasures, that he resolved to spend the rest of his days in the service of God, and from being a healer of bodily ailments to become a physician of souls. The bishop of Sebaste, in Arminia, having died, our Saint, much to the gratification of the inhabitants of that city, was appointed to succeed him. St. Blase at once began to instruct his people as much by his example as by his words, and the great virtues and sanctity of this servant of God were attested by many miracles. From all parts the people came flocking to him for the cure of bodily and spiritual ills. Agricolaus, Governor of Cappadocia and the lesser Armenia, having begun a persecution by order of the Emperor Licinius, our Saint was seized and hurried off to prison. Whilst on his way there, a distracted mother, whose only child was dying of a throat disease, threw herself at the feet of St. Blase and implored his intercession. Touched at her grief, the Saint offered up his prayers, and the child was cured ; and since that time his aid has often been effectually solicited in cases of a similar disease. Refusing to worship the false gods of the heathens, St. Blase was first scourged ; his body was then torn with hooks, and finally he was beheaded in the year 316.

Reflection.—There is no sacrifice which, by the aid of grace, human nature is not capable of accomplishing. When St. Paul complained to God of the violence of the temptation, God answered, " My grace is sufficient for thee, for power is made perfect in infirmity."

FEBRUARY 4.-ST. JANE, OF VALOIS.

Born of the blood royal of France, herself a queen, Jane of Valois led a life remarkable for its humiliations even in the annals of the Saints. Her father, Louis XI., who had hoped for a son to succeed him, banished Jane from his palace, and, it is said, even attempted her life. At the age of five the neglected child offered her whole heart to God, and yearned to do some special service in honor of His Blessed Mother. At the king's wish, though against her own inclination, she was married to the Duke of Orleans. Towards an indifferent and unworthy husband her conduct was ever most patient and dutiful. Her prayers and tears saved him from a traitor's death, and shortened the captivity which his rebellion had merited. Still nothing could win a heart which was already given to another. When her husband ascended the throne as Louis XII., his first act was to repudiate by false representations one who through twenty-two years of cruel neglect had been his true and loyal wife. At the final sentence of separation, the saintly queen exclaimed, " God be praised who has allowed this, that I may serve Him better than I have heretofore done." Retiring to Bourges, she there realized her long-formed desire by founding the Order of the Annunciation, in honor of the Mother of God. Under the guidance of St. Francis of Paula, the director of her childhood, St. Jane was enabled to overcome the serious obstacles which even good people raised against the foundation of her new Order. In 1501 the rule of the Annunciation was finally approved by Alexander VI. The chief aim of the Institute was to imitate the ten virtues practised by Our Lady in the Mystery of the Incarnation, the superioress being called " Ancelle," handmaid, in honor of Mary's humility. St. Jane built and endowed the first convent of the Order in 1502. She died in heroic sanctity, a.d. 1505, and was buried in the royal crown and purple, beneath which lay the habit of her Order.

Reflection.—During the lifetime of St. Jane, the Angelus was established in France. The sound of the Ave thrice each day gave her hope in her sorrow, and fostered in her the desire still further to honor the Incarnation. How often might we derive grace from the same beautiful devotion, so enriched by the Church yet neglected by so many Christians!

FEBRUARY 5.—ST. AGATHA, VIRGIN, MARTYR.

St. Agatha was born in Sicily, of rich and noble parents —a child of benediction from the first, for she was promised to her parents before her birth, and consecrated from her earliest infancy to God. In the midst of dangers and temptations she served Christ in purity of body and soul, and she died for the love of chastity. Quintanus, who governed Sicily under the Emperor Decius, had heard the rumor of her beauty and wealth, and he made the laws against the Christians a pretext for summoning her from Palermo to Catania, where he was at the time. " O Jesus Christ! " she cried, as she set out on this dreaded journey, " all that I am is Thine; preserve me against the tyrant." And Our Lord did indeed preserve one who had given herself so utterly to Him. He kept her pure and undenled, while she was imprisoned for a whole month under charge of an evil woman. He gave her strength to reply to the offer of her life and safety, if she would but consent to sin, " Christ alone is my life and my salvation." When Quintanus turned from passion to cruelty, and cut off her breasts, Our Lord sent the Prince of His Apostles to heal her. And when, after she had been rolled naked upon potsherds, she asked that her torments might be ended, her Spouse heard her prayer, and took her to Himself. St. Agatha gave herself without reserve to Jesus Christ; she followed Him in virginal purity, and then looked to Him for protection. And down to this day Christ has shown His tender regard for the very body of St. Agatha. Again and again, during the eruption of Mount Etna, the people of Catania have exposed her veil for public veneration, and found safety by this means; and in modern times, on opening the tomb in which her body lies waiting for the resurrection, they beheld the skin still entire, and felt the sweet fragrance which issued from this temple of the Holy Ghost.

Reflection.—Purity is a gift of God: we can gain it and preserve it only by care and diligence in avoiding all chat may prove an incentive to sin.

THE MARTYRS OF JAPAN.

About forty years after St. Francis Xavier's death, a persecution broke out in Japan, and all Christian rites were forbidden under pain of death. A confraternity of martyrs was at once formed, the object of which was to die for Christ. Even the little children joined it. Peter, a Christian child six years old, was awakened early, and told that he was to be beheaded, together with his father. Strong in grace, he expressed his joy at the news, dressed himself in his gayest clothing, and took the hand of the soldier who was to lead him to death. The headless trunk of his father first met his view; calmly kneeling down, he prayed beside the corpse, and, loosening his collar, prepared his neck for the stroke. Moved by this touching scene, the executioner threw down his sabre and fled. None but a brutal slave could be found for the murderous task; with unskilled and trembling hand he hacked the child to pieces, who at last died without uttering a single cry. Christians were branded with the cross, or all but buried alive, while the head and arms were slowly sawn off with blunt weapons. The least shudder under their anguish was interpreted into apostasy. The obstinate were put to the most cruel deaths, but the survivors only envied them. Five noblemen were escorted to the stake by 40,000 Christians with flowers and lights, singing the Litanies of Our Lady as they went. In the great martyrdom, at which thousands also assisted, the martyrs sent up a flood of melody from the fire, which only died away as one after another went to sing the new song in heaven. Later on, a more awful doom was invented. The victims were lowered into a sulphurous chasm, called the " mouth of hell," near which no bird or beast could live. The chief of these, Paul Wiborg, whose family had been already massacred for the faith, was thrice let down; thrice he cried with a loud voice, " Eternal praise be to the ever-adorable Sacrament of the Altar." The third time he went to his reward.

Reflection.—If mere children face torture and death with joy for Christ, can we begrudge the slight penance He asks us to bear?

FEBRUARY 6.—ST. DOROTHY, VIRGIN, MARTYR.

St. Dorothy was a young virgin, celebrated at Caesarea, where she lived, for her angelic virtue. Her parents seem to have been martyred before her in the Diocletian persecution, and when the Governor Sapricius came to Cassarea, he called her before him, and sent this child of martyrs to the home where they were waiting for her. She was stretched upon the rack, and offered marriage if she would consent to sacrifice, or death if she refused. But she replied, that " Christ was her only Spouse, and death her desire." She was then placed in charge of two women who had fallen away from the Faith, in the hope that they might pervert her; but the fire of her own heart rekindled the flame in theirs, and led them back to Christ. When she was set once more on the rack, Sapricius himself was amazed at the heavenly look she wore, and asked her the cause of her joy. " Because," she said, " I have brought back two souls to Christ, and because I shall soon be in heaven rejoic ing with the angels." Her joy grew as she was buffeted in the face, and her sides burnt with plates of red-hot iron. " Blessed be Thou," she cried, when she was sentenced to be beheaded,—" blessed be Thou, O Thou Lover of souls! who dost call me to Paradise, and invitest me to Thy nuptial chamber."
St. Dorothy suffered in the dead of winter, and it is said that on the road to her passion a lawyer called Theophilus, who had been used to calumniate and persecute the Christians, asked her, in mockery, to send him " apples or roses from the garden of her Spouse." The Saint promised to grant his request, and, just before she died, a little child stood by her side bearing three apples and three roses. She bade him take them to Theophilus, and tell him this was the present which he sought from the garden of her Spouse. St. Dorothy had gone to heaven, and Theophilus was still making merry over his challenge to the Saint, when the child entered his room. He saw that the child was an angel in disguise, and the fruit and flowers of no earthly growth. He was converted to the faith, and then shared in the martyrdom of St. Dorothy.

Reflection.—Do you wish to be safe in the pleasures and happy in the troubles of the world? Pray for heavenly desires, and say with St. Philip, " Paradise, Paradise! "

FEBRUARY 7.—ST. ROMUALD, ABBOT.

In 976, Sergius, a nobleman of Ravenna, quarrelled with a relation about an estate, and slew him in a duel. His son Romuald, horrified at his father's crime, entered the Benedictine monastery at Classe, to do a forty days' penance for him. This penance ended in his own vocation to religion. After three years at Classe, Romuald went to live as a hermit near Venice, where he was joined by Peter Urseolus, Duke of Venice, and together they led a most austere life in the midst of assaults from the evil spirits. St. Romuald founded many monasteries, the chief of which was that at Camaldoli, a wild desert place, where he built a church, which he surrounded with a number of separate cells for the solitaries who lived under his rule. His disciples were hence called Camaldolese. He is said to have seen here a vision of a mystic ladder, and his white-clothed monks ascending by it to heaven. Among his first disciples were Sts. Adalbert and Boniface, apostles of Russia, and Sts. John and Benedict of Poland, martyrs for the Faith. He was an intimate friend of the Emperor St. Henry, and was reverenced and consulted by many great men of his time. He once passed seven years in solitude and complete silence. In his youth St. Romuald was much troubled by temptations of the flesh. To escape them he had recourse to hunting, and in the woods first conceived his love for solitude. His father's sin, as we have seen, first prompted him to undertake a forty days' penance in the monastery, which he forthwith made his home. Some bad example of his fellow-monks induced him to leave them, and adopt the solitary mode of life. The penance of Urseolus, who had obtained his power wrongfully, brought him his first disciple; the temptations of the devil compelled him to his severe life; and finally the persecutions of others were the occasion of his settlement at Camaldoli, and the foundation of his Order. He died, as he had foretold twenty years before, alone, in his monastery of Val Castro, on the 19th of June, 1027.

Reflection.—St. Romuald's life teaches us that, if we only follow the impulses of the Holy Spirit, we shall easily find good everywhere, even on the most unlikely occasions. Our own sins, the sins of others, their ill-will against us, or our own mistakes and misfortunes, are equally capable of leading us, with softened hearts, to the feet of God's mercy and love.

FEBRUARY 8 ST. JOHN OF MATHA.

The life of St. John of Matha was one long course of self-sacrifice for the glory of God and the good of his neighbor. As a child, his chief delight was serving the poor; and he often told them he had come into the world for no other end but to wash their feet. He studied at Paris with such distinction that his professors advised him to become a priest, in order that his talents might render greater service to others; and, for this end, John gladly sacrificed his high rank and other worldly advantages. At his first Mass an angel appeared, clad in white, with a red and blue cross on his breast, and his hands reposing on the heads of a Christian and a Moorish captive. To ascertain what this signified, John repaired to St. Felix of Valois, a holy hermit living near Meaux, under whose direction he led a life of extreme penance. The angel again appeared; and they then set out for Rome, to learn the will of God from the lips of the Sovereign Pontiff, who told them to devote themselves to the redemption of captives. For this purpose they founded the Order of the Holy Trinity. The Religious fasted every day, and gathering alms throughout Europe took them to Barbary, to redeem the Christian slaves. They devoted themselves also to the sick and prisoners in all countries. The charity of St. John in devoting his life to the redemption of captives was visibly blessed by God. On his second return from Tunis he brought back one hundred and twenty liberated slaves. But the Moors attacked him at sea, overpowered his vessel, and doomed it to destruction, with all on board, by taking away the rudder and sails, and leaving it to the mercy of the winds. St. John tied his cloak to the mast, and prayed, saying, " Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered. O Lord, Thou wilt save the humble, and wilt bring down the eyes of the proud." Suddenly the wind rilled the small sail, and, without guidance, carried the ship safely in a few days to Ostia, the port of Rome, three hundred leagues from Tunis. Worn out by his heroic labors, John died in 12 13, at the age of fifty-three.

Reflection.—Let us never forget that our Blessed Lord bade us love our neighbor not only as ourselves, but as He loved us, who afterward sacrificed Himself for us.

FEBRUARY 9.—ST. APOLLONIA AND THE MARTYRS OF
ALEXANDRIA.

At Alexandria, in 249, the mob rose in savage fury against the Christians. Metras, an old man, perished first. His eyes were pierced with reeds, and he was stoned to death. A woman named Quinta was the next victim. She was led to a heathen temple and bidden worship. She replied by cursing the false god again and again, and she too was stoned to death. After this the houses of the Christians were sacked and plundered. They took the spoiling of their goods with all joy.

St. Apollonia, an aged virgin, was the most famous among the martyrs. Her teeth were beaten out ; she was led outside the city; a huge fire was kindled, and she was told she must deny Christ, or else be burned alive. She was silent for a while, and then, moved by a special inspiration of the Holy Ghost, she leapt into the fire and died in its flames. The same courage showed itself the next year, when Decius became Emperor, and the persecution grew till it seemed as if the very elect must fall away. The story of Dioscorus illustrates the courage of the Alexandrian Christians, and the esteem they had for martyrdom. He was a boy of fifteen. To the arguments of the judge he returned wise answers; he was proof against torture. His older companions were executed, but Dioscorus was spared on account of his tender years; yet the Christians could not bear' to think that he had been deprived of the martyr's crown, except to receive it afterward more gloriously. " Dioscorus," writes Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria at this time, " remains with us, reserved for some longer and greater combat." There were indeed many Christians who came, pale and trembling, to offer the heathen sacrifices. But the judges themselves were struck with horror at the multitudes who rushed to martyrdom. Women triumphed over torture, till at last the judges were glad to execute them at once, and put an end to the ignominy of their own defeat.

Reflection.—Many Saints, who were not martyrs, have longed to shed their blood for Christ. We, too, may pray for some portion of their spirit; and the least suffering for the Faith, borne with humility and courage, is the proof that Christ has heard our prayer.

FEBRUARY 10.—ST, SCHOLASTICA, ABBESS.

Of this Saint but little is known on earth, save that she was the sister of the great patriarch St. Benedict, and that, under his direction, she founded and governed a numerous community near Monte Cassino. St. Gregory sums up her life by saying that she devoted herself to God from her child hood, and that her pure soul went to God in the likeness of a dove, as if to show that her life had been enriched with the fullest gifts of the Holy Spirit. Her brother was accustomed to visit her every year, for " she could not be sated or wearied with the words of grace which flowed from his lips." On his last visit, after a day passed in spiritual converse, the Saint, knowing that her end was near, said, " My brother, leave me not, I pray you, this night, but discourse with me till dawn on the bliss of those who see God in heaven." St. Benedict would not break his rule at the bidding of natural affection; and then the Saint bowed her head on her hands and prayed ; and there arose a storm so violent that St. Benedict could not return to his monastery, and they passed the night in heavenly conversation. Three days later St. Benedict saw in a vision the soul of his sister going up in the likeness of a dove into heaven. Then he gave thanks to God for the graces He had given her, and for the glory which had crowned them. When she died, St. Benedict, her spiritual daughters, and the monks sent by St. Benedict, mingled their tears and prayed, "Alas! alas! dearest mother, to whom dost thou leave us now? Pray for us to Jesus, to whom thou art gone." They then devoutly celebrated Holy Mass, " commending her soul to God;" and her body was borne to Monte Cassino, and laid by her brother in the tomb he had prepared for himself. "And they bewailed her many days; " and St. Benedict said, " Weep not, sisters and brothers ; for assuredly Jesus has taken her before us to be our aid and defence against all our enemies, that we may stand in the evil day, and be in all things perfect." She died about the year 543.

Reflection.—Our relations must be loved in and for God. Otherwise the purest arTection becomes inordinate, and is so much taken from Him.

FEBRUARY 11.—ST. SEVERINUS, ABBOT OF AGAUNUM.

St. Severinus, of a noble family in Burgundy, was educated in the Catholic faith, at a time when the Arian heresy reigned in that country. He forsook the world in his youth, and dedicated himself to God in the monastery of Agaunum, which then only consisted of scattered cells, till the Catholic Ling Sigismund built there the great abbey of St. Maurice. St. Severinus was the holy abbot of that place, and had governed his community many years in the exercise of penance and charity, when, in 504, Clovis, the first Christian king of France, lying ill of a fever, which his physicians had for two years ineffectually endeavored to remove, sent his chamberlain to conduct the Saint to court ; for it was said that the sick from all parts recovered their health by his prayers. St. Severinus took leave of his monks, telling them he should never see them more in this world. On his journey he healed Eulalius, bishop of Nevers, who had been for some time deaf and dumb, also a leper, at the gates of Paris ; and coming to the palace he immediately restored the king to perfect health, by putting on him his own cloak. The king, in gratitude, distributed large alms to the poor, and released all his prisoners. St. Severinus, returning toward Agaunum, stopped at Chateau-Landon, in Gatinois, where two priests served God in a solitary chapel, among whom he was admitted, at his request, as a stranger, and was soon greatly admired by them for his sanctity. He foresaw his death, which happened shortly after, in 507. The place is now an abbey of reformed canons regular of St. Austin. The Huguenots scattered the greatest part of his relics when they plundered this church.

Reflection.—God loads with His favor those who delight in exercising mercy. " According to thy ability be merciful; if thou hast much, give abundantly; if thou hast little, take care even so to bestow willingly a little."

FEBRUARY 12.-- ST. BENEDICT OF ANIAN.

Benedict was the son of Aigulf, Governor of Languedoc, and was born about 750. In his early youth he served as cupbearer to King Pepin and his son Charlemagne, enjoying under them great honors and possessions. Grace entered his soul at the age of twenty, and he resolved to seek the kingdom of God with his whole heart. Without relinquishing his place at court, he lived there a most mortified life for three years ; then a narrow escape from drowning made him vow to quit the world, and he entered the cloister of St. Seine. In reward for his heroic austerities in the monastic state, God bestowed upon him the gift of tears, and inspired him with a knowledge of spiritual things. As procurator, he was most careful of the wants of the brethren, and most hospitable to the poor and to guests. Declining to accept the abbacy, he built himself a little hermitage on the brook Anian, and lived some years in great solitude and poverty. But the fame of his sanctity drawing many souls around him, he was obliged to build a large abbey, and within a short time governed three hundred monks. He became the great restorer of monastic discipline throughout France and Germany. First, he drew up with immense labor a code of the rules of St. Benedict, his great namesake, which he collated with those of the chief monastic founders, showing the uniformity of the exercises in each, and enforced by his " Penitential " their exact observance ; secondly, he minutely regulated all matters regarding food, clothing, and every detail of life; and thirdly, by prescribing the same for all, he excluded jealousies and insured perfect charity. In a Provincial Council held in 813, under Charlemagne, at which he was present, it was declared that all monks of the West should adopt the rule of St. Benedict. He died February 11, 821.

Reflection.—The decay of monastic discipline, and its restoration by St. Benedict, prove that none are safe from loss of fervor, but that all can regain it by fidelity to grace.

FEBRUARY 13.—ST. CATHERINE OF RICCI.

Alexandrina of Ricci was the daughter of a noble Florentine. At the age of thirteen she entered the third Ordei of St. Dominic in the monastery of Prato, taking in religion the name of Catherine, after her patron and namesake of Siena. Her special attraction was to the Passion of Christ, in which she was permitted miraculously to participate. In the Lent of 1541, being then twenty-one years of age, she had a vision of the Crucifixion so heartrending, that she was confined to bed for three weeks, and was only restored, on Holy Saturday, by an apparition of St. Mary Magdalen and Jesus risen. During twelve years she passed every Friday in ecstasy. She received the sacred stigmata, the wound in the left side, and the crown of thorns. All these favors gave her continual and intense suffering, and inspired her with a loving sympathy for the yet more bitter tortures of the Holy Souls. In their behalf she offered all her prayers and penances; and her charity toward them became so famous throughout Tuscany, that after every death the friends of the deceased hastened to Catherine to secure her prayers. St. Catherine offered many prayers, fasts, and penances for a certain great man, and thus obtained his salvation. It was revealed to her that he was in Purgatory; and such was her love of Jesus crucified, that she offered to suffer all the pains about to be inflicted on that soul. Her prayer was granted. The soul entered heaven, and for forty days Catherine suffered indescribable agonies. Her body was covered with blisters, emitting heat so great that her cell seemed on fire. Her flesh appeared as if roasted, and her tongue like red-hot iron. Amid all she was calm and joyful, saying, " I long to suffer all imaginable pains, that souls may quickly see and praise their Redeemer." She knew by revelation the arrival of a soul in Purgatory, and the hour of its release. She held intercourse with the Saints in glory, and frequently conversed with St. Philip Neri at Rome without ever leaving her convent at Prato. She died, amid angels' songs, in 1589.

Reflection.—If we truly love Jesus crucified, we must long, like St. Catherine, to release the Holy Souls whom He has redeemed, but has left to our charity to set free.

FEBRUARY 14.—ST. VALENTINE, PRIEST AND MARTYR.

Valentine was a holy priest in Rome, who, with St. Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs in the execution under Claudius II. He was apprehended, and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome, who, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his faith ineffectual, commanded him to be beaten with clubs, and afterward to be beheaded, which was executed on the 14th of February, about the year 270. Pope Julius I. is said to have built a church near Ponte Mole to his memory, which for a long time gave name to the gate, now called Porta del Popolo, formerly Porta Valentini. The greatest part of his relics are now in the church of St. Praxedes. To abolish the heathen's lewd superstitious custom of boys drawing the names of girls, in honor of their goddess Februata Juno, on the 15th of this month, several zealous pastors substituted the names of Saints in billets given on this day.

Reflection.—In the cause of justice and truth, prudence should not be held in account; otherwise prudence is mere human respect. St. Paul says: "The wisdom of the flesh is death."

FEBRUARY 15.—STS. FAUSTINUS AND JOVITA, MARTYRS.

Faustinus and Jovita were brothers, nobly born, and zealous professors of the Christian religion, which they preached without fear in their city of Brescia, while the bishop of that place lay concealed during the persecution. Their remarkable zeal excited the fury of the heathens gainst them, and procured them a glorious death for their faith at Brescia, in Lo.nbardy, under the Emperor Adrian. Julian, a heathen lord, apprehended them ; and the emperor himself, passing through Brescia, when neither threats nor torments could shake thgir constancy, commanded them to be beheaded. They seem to have suffered about the year 121. The city of Brescia honors them as its chief patrons, possesses their relics, and a very ancient church in that city bears their names.

Reflection.—The spirit of Christ is a spirit of martyrdom— at least of mortification and penance. It is always the spirit of the cross. The more we share in the suffering life of Christ, the greater share we inherit in His spirit, and in the fruit of His death. To souls mortified to their senses, and disengaged from earthly things, God gives frequent foretastes of the sweetness of eternal life, and the most ardent desires of possessing Him in His glory. This is the spirit of martyrdom, which entitles a Christian to a happy resurrection and to the bliss of the life to come.

FEBRUARY 16.-- BLESSED JOHN DE BRITTO, MARTYR.

Don Pedro II. of Portugal, when a child, had among his little pages a modest boy of rich and princely parents. Much had John de Britto—for so was he called—to bear from his careless-living companions, to whom his holy life was a reproach. A terrible illness made him turn for aid to St. Francis Xavier, a Saint so well loved by the Portuguese; and when, in answer to his prayers, he recovered, his mother vested him for a year in the dress worn in those days by the Jesuit Fathers. From that time John's heart burned to follow the example of the Apostle of the Indies. He gained his double wish. On December 17, 1662, he entered the novitiate of the Society at Lisbon; and eleven years later, in spite of the most determined opposition of his family and of the court, he left all to go to convert the Hindoos of Madura. When Blessed John's mother knew that her son was going to the Indies, she used all her influence to prevent him leaving his own country, and persuaded the Papal Nuncio to interfere. " God, who called me from the world into religious life, now calls me from Portugal to India," was the reply of the future martyr. " Not to answer the vocation as I ought, would be to provoke the justice of God. As long as I live, I shall never cease striving to gain a passage to India." For fourteen years he toiled; preaching, converting, baptizing multitudes, at the cost of privations, hardships, and persecutions. At last, after being seized, tortured, and nearly massacred by the heathens, he was banished the country. Forced to return to Portugal, John once more broke through every obstacle, and went back again to his labor of love. Like St. John the Baptist, he died a victim to the anger of a guilty woman, whom a convert king had put aside, and like the Precursor, he was beheaded after a painful imprisonment.

Reflection.—" It is a great honor, a great glory to serve God, and to contemn all things for God. They will have a great grace who freely subject themselves to God's most holy will."—The Imitation of Christ.

ST. ONESIMUS, DISCIPLE OF ST. PAUL.

He was a Phrygian by birth, slave to Philemon, a person of note of the city of Colossi, converted to the faith by St. Paul. Having robbed his master, and being obliged to fly, he providentially met with St. Paid, then a prisoner for the faith at Rome, who there converted and baptized him, and sent him with his canonical letter of recommendation to Philemon, by whom he was pardoned, set at liberty, and sent back to his spiritual father, whom he afterward faithfully served. That apostle made him, with Tychicus, the bearer of his epistle to the Colossians, and afterward, as St. Jerome and other fathers witness, a preacher of the Gospel and a bishop. He was crowned with martyrdom under Domitian in the year 95.

Reflection.—With what excess of goodness does God communicate Himself to souls which open themselves to Him! With what caresses does He often visit them! With what a profusion of graces does He enrich and strengthen them! In our trials and temptations let us then offer our hearts to God, remembering as St. Paul says, " To them that love God all things work together unto good.,,

FEBRUARY 17.—ST. FLAVIAN, BISHOP, MARTYR.

Flavian was elected Patriarch of Constantinople in 447. His short episcopate of two years was a time of conflict and persecution from the first. Chrysaphius, the emperor's favorite, tried to extort a large sum of money from him on occasion of his consecration. His fidelity in refusing this simoniacal betrayal of his trust brought on him the enmity of the most powerful man in the empire. A graver trouble soon arose. In 448 Flavian had to condemn the rising heresy of the monk Eutyches, who obstinately denied that Our Lord was in two perfect natures after His Incarnation. Eutyches drew to his cause all the bad elements which so early gathered about the Byzantine court. His intrigues were long baffled by the vigilance of Flavian; but at last he obtained from the emperor the assembly of a counsel at Ephesus, in August, 449, presided over by his friend Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria. In this " robber council," as it is called, Eutyches entered, surrounded by soldiers. The Roman legates could not even read the Pope's letters; and at the first sign of resistance to the condemnation of Flavian, fresh troops entered with drawn swords, and, in spite of the protests of the legates, terrified most of the bishops into acquiescence.

The fury of Dioscorus reached its height when Flavian appealed to the Holy See. Then it was that he so forgot his apostolic office as to lay violent hands on his adversary. St. Flavian was set upon by Dioscorus and others, thrown down, beaten, kicked, and finally carried into banishment. Let us contrast their ends. Flavian clung to the teaching of the Roman Pontiff, and sealed his faith with his blood. Dioscorus excommunicated the Vicar of Christ, and died obstinate and impenitent in the heresy of Eutyches.

Reflection.—By his unswerving loyalty to the Vicar of Christ, Flavian held fast to_the truth and gained the martyr's crown. Let us learn from him to turn instinctively to that one True Guide in all matters concerning our salvation.

FEBRUARY 18.—ST. SIMEON, BISHOP, MARTYR.

St. Simeon was the son of Cleophas, otherwise called Alpheus, brother to St. Joseph, and of Mary, sister of the Blessed Virgin. He was therefore nephew both to St. Joseph and to the Blessed Virgin, and cousin to Our Saviour. We cannot doubt but he was an early follower of Christ, and that he received the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, with the Blessed Virgin and the apostles. When the Jews massacred St. James the Lesser, his brother Simeon rereproached them for their atrocious cruelty. St. James, Bishop of Jerusalem, being put to death in the year 62, twenty-nine years after Our Saviour's resurrection, the apostles and disciples met at Jerusalem to appoint him a successor. They unanimously chose St. Simeon, who had probably before assisted his brother in the government of that Church. In the year 66, in which SS. Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom at Rome, the civil war began in Judea, by the seditions of the Jews against the Romans. The Christians in Jerusalem were warned by God of the impending destruction of that city. They therefore departed out of it the same year, before Vespasian, Nero's general, and afterward emperor, entered Judea, and retired beyond Jordan to a small city called Pella, having St. Simeon at their head. After the taking and burning of Jerusalem, they returned thither again, and settled themselves amidst its ruins, till Adrian afterward entirely razed it. The Church here flourished, and multitudes of Jews were converted by the great number of prodigies and miracles wrought in it. Vespasian and Domitian had commanded all to be put to death who were of the race of David. St. Simeon had escaped their searches ; but Trajan having given the same order, certain heretics and Jews accused the Saint, as being both of the race of David and a Christian, to Atticus, the Roman governor in Palestine. The holy bishop was condemned to be crucified. After having undergone the usual tortures during several days, which, though one hundred and twenty years old, he suffered with so much patience that he drew on him a universal admiration, and that of Atticus in particular, he died in 107. He must have governed the Church of Jerusalem about forty-three years.

Reflection.—We bear the name of Christians, but are full of the spirit of worldlings, and our actions are infected with its poison. We secretly seek ourselves, even when we flatter ourselves that God is our only aim, and whilst we undertake to convert the world, we suffer it to pervert us. When shall we begin to study to crucify our passions and die to ourselves, that we may lay a solid foundation of true virtue and establish its reigrn in our hearts?

FEBRUARY 19.—ST. BARBATUS, BISHOP.

St. Barbatus was born in the territory of Benevento, in Italy, toward the end of the pontificate of St. Gregory the Great, in the beginning of the seventh century. His parents gave him a Christian education, and Barbatus in his youth laid the foundation of that eminent sanctity which recommends him to our veneration. The innocence, simplicity, and purity of his manners, and extraordinary progress in all virtues, qualified him for the service of the altar, to which he was assumed by taking holy orders as soon as the canons of the Church would allow it. He was immediately employed by his bishop in preaching, for which he had an extraordinary talent, and, after some time, made curate of St. Basil's, in Morcona, a town near Benevento. His parishioners were steeled in their irregularities, and they treated him as a disturber of their peace, and persecuted him with the utmost violence. Finding their malice conquered by his patience and humility, and his character shining still more bright, they had recourse to slanders, in which, such was their virulence and success, that he was obliged to withdraw his charitable endeavors among them. Barbatus returned to Benevento, where he was received with joy. When St. Barbatus entered upon his ministry in that city, the Christians themselves retained many idolatrous superstitions, which even their duke, or Prince Romuald, authorized by his example, though son of Grimoald, King of the Lombards, who had edified all Italy by his conversion. They expressed a religious veneration to a golden viper, and prostrated themselves before it; they paid also a superstitious honor to a tree, on which they hung the skin of a wild beast; and these ceremonies were closed by public games, in which the skin served for a mark at which bowmen shot arrows over their shoulders. St. Barbatus preached zealously against these abuses, and at length he roused their attention, by foretelling the distress of their city, and the calamities which it was to suffer from the army of the Emperor Constans, who, landing soon afW in Italy, laid siege to Benevento. Ildebrand, bishop of Benevento, dying during the siege, after the public tranquillity was restored, St. Barbatus was consecrated bishop on the 10th of March, 663. Barbatus, being invested with the episcopal character, pursued and completed the good work which he had so happily begun, and destroyed every trace of superstition in the whole state. In the year 680 he assisted in a council held by Pope Agatho, at Rome, and the year following in the sixth general council held at Constantinople against the Monothelites. He did not long survive this great assembly, for he died on the 29th of February, 682 being about seventy years old, almost nineteen of which he had spent in the episcopal chair.

Reflection.—St. Augustine says:" When the enemy has been cast out of your hearts, renounce him, not only in word, but in work ; not only by the sound of the lips, but every act of your life."

FEBRUARY 20.—ST. EUCHERIUS, BISHOP.

This Saint was born at Orleans of a very illustrious family. At his birth his parents dedicated him to God, and set him to study when he was but seven years old, resolving to omit nothing that could be done toward cultivating his mind or forming his heart. His improvement in virtue kept pace with his progress in learning : he meditated assiduously on the sacred writings, especially on St. Paul's manner of speaking on the world and its enjoyments, as mere empty shadows that deceive us and vanish away. These reflections at length sank so deep into his mind that he resolved to quit the world. To put this design in execution, about the year 714, he retired to the abbey of Jumiege, in Normandy, where he spent six or seven years in the practice of penitential austerities and obedience. Suavaric, his uncle, bishop of Orleans, having died, the senate and people, with the clergy of that city, begged permission to elect Eucherius to the vacant see. The Saint entreated his monks to screen him from the dangers that threatened him. But they preferred the public good to their private inclinations, and resigned him up for that important charge. He was consecrated with universal applause in 721. Charles Martel, to defray the expenses of the wars and other undertakings, often stripped the churches of their revenues. St. Eucherius reproved these encroachments with so much zeal, that, in the year 737, Charles banished him to Cologne. The extraordinary esteem which his virtue procured him in that city, moved Charles to order him to be conveyed thence to a strong place in the territory of Liege. Robert, the governor of that country, was so charmed with his virtue, that he made him the distributer of his large alms, and allowed him to retire to the monastery of Sarchinium, or St. Tron's. Here prayer and contemplation were his whole employment till the year 743, in which he died on the 20th February.

Reflection.—Nothing softens the soul and weakens piety so much as frivolous indulgence. God has revealed what high store He sets by " retirement " in these words: " I will lead her into solitude, and I will speak to her heart."

FEBRUARY 21.—ST. SEVERIANUS, MARTYR, BISHOP.

In the reign of Marcian and St. Pulcheria, the council of Chalcedon, which condemned the Eutychian heresy, was received by St. Euthymius, and by a great part of the monks of Palestine. But Theodositts, an ignorant Eutychian monk, and a man of a most tyrannical temper, under the protection of the empress Eudoxia, widow of Theodosius the Younger, who lived at Jerusalem, perverted many among the monks themselves, and having obliged Juvenal, bishop of Jerusalem, to withdraw, unjustly possessed himself of that important see, and in a cruel persecution which he raised, filled Jerusalem with blood; then, at the head of a band of soldiers, he carried desolation over the country. Many, however, had the courage to stand their ground. No one resisted him with greater zeal and resolution than Severianus, bishop of Scythopolis, and his recompense was the crown of martyrdom; for the furious soldiers seized his person, dragged him out of the city, and massacred him in the latter part of the year 452, or in the beginning of the year 453.

Reflection.—With what floods of tears can we sufficiently bewail so grievous a misfortune, and implore the divine mercy in behalf of so many souls! How ought we to be alarmed at the consideration of so many dreadful examples of God's inscrutable judgments, and tremble for ourselves! " Let him who stands beware lest he fall. Holdfast what thou hast," says the oracle of the Holy Ghost to every one of us, " lest another bear away thy crown."

FEBRUARY 22.—ST. PETER'S CHAIR AT ANTIOCH.

That Saint Peter, before he went to Rome, founded the see of Antioch is attested by many Saints. It was just that the Prince of the Apostles should take this city under his particular care and inspection, which was then the capital of the East, and in which the faith took so early and so deep root as to give birth in it to the name of Christians. St. Chrysostom says that St. Peter made there a long stay: St. Gregory the Great, that he was seven years bishop of Antioch; not that he resided there all the time, but only that he had a particular care over that Church. If he sat twentyfive years at Rome, the date of his establishing his chair at Antioch must be within three years after Our Saviour's Ascension; for in that supposition he must have gone to Rome in the second year of Claudius. In the first ages it was customary, especially in the East, for every Christian to keep the anniversary of his baptism, on which he renewed his baptismal vows, and gave thanks to God for his heavenly adoption: this they called their spiritual birthday. The bishops in like manner kept the anniversary of their own consecration, as appears from four sermons of St. Leo on the anniversary of his accession or assumption to the pontifical dignity; and this was frequently continued after their decease by the people, out of respect to their memory. St. Leo says, we ought to celebrate the Chair of St. Peter with no less joy than the day of his martyrdom; for as in this he was exalted to a throne of glory in heaven, so by the former he was installed Head of the Church on earth.

Reflection.—On this festival we are especially bound to adore and thank the Divine Goodness for the establishment and propagation of His Church, and earnestly to pray that in His mercy He preserve the same, and dilate its pale, that His name may be glorified by all nations, and by all hearts, to the boundaries of the earth, for His divine honor and the salvation of souls, framed to His divine image, and the price of His adorable blood.

FEBRUARY 23.—ST. PETER DAMIAN.

St. Peter Damian was born in 988, and lost both parents at an early age. His eldest brother, in whose hands he was left, treated him so cruelly that a younger brother, a priest, moved by his piteous state, sent him to the university of Parma, where he acquired great distinction. His studies were sanctified by vigils, fasts, and prayers, till at last, thinking that all this was only serving God by halves, he resolved to leave the world. He joined the monks of Font-Avellano, then in the greatest repute, and by his wisdom and sanctity rose to be Superior. He was employed on the most delicate and difficult missions, amongst others, the reform of ecclesiastical communities, which was effected by his zeal. Seven Popes in succession made him their constant adviser, and he was at last created Cardinal Bishop of Ostia. He withstood Henry IV. of Germany, and labored in defence of Alexander II. against the Antipope, whom he forced to yield and seek for pardon. He was charged, as Papal Legate, with the repression of simony; again was commissioned to settle discords amongst various bishops; and finally, in 1072, to adjust the affairs of the Church at Ravenna. He was laid low by a fever on his homeward journey, and died at Faenza, in a monastery of his order, on the eighth day of his sickness, whilst the monks chanted matins around him.

Reflection.—The Saints studied, not in order to be accounted learned, but to become perfect. This only is wisdom and true greatness, to account ourselves as ignorant, and to adhere in all things to the teachings and instincts of the Church.

ST. SERENUS, A GARDENER, MARTYR.

Serenus was by birth a Grecian. He quitted estate, friends, and country to serve God in celibacy, penance, and prayer. With this design he bought a garden in Sirmium, in Pannonia, which he cultivated with his own hands, and lived on the fruits and herbs it produced. One day there came thither a woman, with her two daughters. Serenus, seeing them come up, advised them to withdraw, and to conduct themselves in future as decency required in persons of their sex and condition. The woman, stung at our Saint's charitable remonstrance, retired in confusion, but resolved on revenging- the supposed affront. She accordingly wrote to her husband that Serenus had insulted her. He, on receiving her letter, went to the emperor to demand justice, whereupon the emperor gave him a letter to the governor of the province to enable him to obtain satisfaction. The governor ordered Serenus to be immediately brought before him. Serenus, on hearing the charge, answered, " I remember that, some time ago, a lady came into my garden at an unseasonable hour, and I own I took the liberty to tell her it was against decency for one of her sex and quality to be abroad at such an hour." This plea of Serenus having put the officer to the blush for his wife's conduct, he dropped his prosecution. But the governor, suspecting by this answer that Serenus might be a Christian, began to question him, saying, " Who are you, and what is your religion? " Serenus, without hesitating one moment, answered, " I am a Christian. It seemed a while ago as if God rejected me as a stone unfit to enter His building, but He has the goodness to take me now to be placed in it; I am ready to suffer all things for His name, that I may have a part in His kingdom with His Saints." The governor, hearing this, burst into rage, and said, " Since you sought to elude by flight the emperor's edicts, and have positively refused to sacrifice to the gods, I condemn you for these crimes to lose your head." The sentence was no sooner pronounced than the Saint was carried off and beheaded, on the 23d of February, in 307.

Reflection.—The garden affords a beautiful emblem of a Christian's continual progress in the path of virtue. Plants always mount upwards, and never stop in their growth till they have attained to that maturity which the Author of nature has prescribed. So in a Christian, every thing ought to carry him toward that perfection which the sanctity of his state requires; and every desire of his soul, every action of his life, should be a step advancing to this in a direct line.

FEBRUARY 24.—ST. MATTHIAS, APOSTLE.

After our Blessed Lord's ascension His disciples met together, with Mary His mother, and the eleven apostles, in an upper room at Jerusalem. The little company numbered no more than one hundred and twenty souls. They were waiting for the promised coming of the Holy Ghost, and they persevered in prayer. Meanwhile there was a solemn act to be performed on the part of the Church, which could not be postponed. The place of the fallen Judas must be filled up, that the elect number of the apostles might be complete. St. Peter, therefore, as Vicar of Christ, arose to announce the divine decree. That which the Holy Ghost had spoken by the mouth of David concerning Judas, he said, must be fulfilled. Of him it had been written, " His bishopric let another take." A choice, therefore, was to be made of one among those who had been their companions from the beginning, who could bear witness to the resurrection of Jesus. Two were named of equal merit, Joseph called Barsabas, and Matthias. Then, after praying to God, who knows the hearts of all men, to show which of these He had chosen, they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, who was forthwith numbered with the apostles. It is recorded of the Saint, thus wonderfully elected to so high a vocation, that he was above all remarkable for his mortification of the flesh. It was thus he made his election sure.

Reflection.—Our ignorance of many points in St. Matthias's life serves to fix the attention all the more firmly upon these two—the occasion of his call to the apostolate, and the fact of his perseverance. We then naturally turn in; thought to our own vocation and our own end.

FEBRUARY 25.—ST. TARASIUS.

Tarasius was born at Constantinople about the middle of the eighth century, of a noble family. His mother, Eucratia, brought him up in the practice of the most eminent virtues. By his talents and virtue he gained the esteem of all, and was raised to the greatest honors of the empire, being made consul, and afterward first secretary of state to the Emperor Constantine and the Empress Irene, his mother. In the midst of the court, and in its highest honors, he led a life like that of a religious man. Paul, Patriarch of Constantinople, the third of that name, though he had conformed in some respects to the then reigning heresy, had several good qualities; and was not only beloved by the people for his charity to the poor, but highly esteemed by the whole court for his great prudence. Touched with remorse, he quitted the patriarchal see, and put on a religious habit in the monastery of Florus, in Constantinople. Tarasius was chosen to succeed him b} the unanimous consent of the court, clergy, and people. Finding it in vain to oppose his election, he declared that he could not in conscience accept of the government of a see which had been cut off from the Catholic communion, except on condition that a general council should be called to compose the disputes which divided the Church at that time in relation to holy images. This being agreed to, he was solemnly declared patriarch, and consecrated soon after, on Christmas day. The council was opened on the 1st of August, in the church of the Apostles at Constantinople, in 786. But being disturbed by the violences of the Iconoclasts, it adjourned and met again the year following in the church of St. Sophia, at Nice. The council having declared the sense of the Church, in relation to the matter in debate, which was found to be the allowing to holy pictures and images a relative honor, was closed with the usual acclamations and prayers for the prosperity of the Emperor and Empress. After which, synodal letters were sent to all the churches, and in particular to the Pope, who approved the council. The life of this holy patriarch was a model of perfection to his clergy and people. His table contained barely the necessaries of life, he allowed himself very little time for sleep, being always up the first and last in his family. Reading and prayer filled all his leisure hours. The Emperor having become enamoured of Theodota, a maid of honor to his wife, the Empress Mary, was resolved to divorce the latter. He used all his efforts to gain the patriarch over to his desires, but St. Tarasius resolutely refused to countenance the iniquity. The holy man gave up his soul to God in peace, on the 25th of February, 806, after having sat twenty-one years and two months.

Reflection.—The highest praise which Scripture pronounces on the holy man Job is comprised in these words, " He was simple and upright."

FEBRUARY 26.—ST. PORPHYRY, BISHOP.

At the age of twenty-five, Porphyry, a rich citizen of Thessalonica, left the world for one of the great religious houses in the desert of Scete. Here he remained five years, and then finding himself drawn to a more solitary life passed into Palestine, where he spent a similar period in the severest penance, till ill health obliged him to moderate his austeri122 ties. He then made his home in Jerusalem, and in spite of his ailments visited the Holy Places every day; thinking, says his biographer, so little of his sickness, that he seemed to be afflicted in another body, and not his own. About this time God put it into his heart to sell all he had and give to the poor, and then in reward of the sacrifice restored him by a miracle to perfect health. In 393 he was ordained priest, and intrusted with the care of the relics of the True Cross ; three years later, in spite of all the resistance his humility could make, he was consecrated Bishop of Gaza. That city was a hot-bed of paganism, and Porphyry found in it an ample scope for his apostolic zeal. His labors and the miracles which attended them effected the conversion of many; and an imperial edict for the destruction of the temples, obtained through the influence of St. John Chrysostom, greatly strengthened his hands. When St. Porphyry first went to Gaza, he found there one temple more splendid than the rest, in honor of the chief god. When the edict went forth to destroy all traces of heathen worship, St. Porphyry determined to put Satan to special shame where he had received special honor. A Christian church was built upon the site, and its approach was paved with the marbles of the heathen temple. Thus every worshipper of Jesus Christ trod the relics of idolatry and superstition under foot each time he went to assist at the Holy Mass. He lived to see his diocese for the most part clear of idolatry, and died a.d. 420.

Reflection.—All superstitious searching into secret things is forbidden by the first commandment, equally with the worship of any false god. Let us ask St. Porphyry for a great zeal in keeping this commandment, lest we be led away, as so many are, by a curious and prying mind.

FEBRUARY 27.—ST. LEANDER, BISHOP.

St. Leander was born of an illustrious family at Carthagena, in Spain. He was the eldest of five brothers, several of whom are numbered among the Saints. He entered into a monastery very young, where he lived many years and attained to an eminent degree of virtue and sacred learning. These qualities occasioned his being promoted to the see of Seville ; but his change of condition made little or no alteration in his method of life, though it brought on him a great increase of care and solicitude. Spain at that time was in possession of the Visigoths. These Goths being infected with Arianism, established this heresy wherever they came; so that when St. Leander was made bishop, it had reigned in Spain a hundred years. This was his great affliction; however by his prayers to God, and by his most zealous and unwearied endeavors, he became the happy instrument of the conversion of that nation to the Catholic faith. Having converted, among others, Hermenegild, the king's eldest son and heir apparent, Leander was banished by King Leovigild. This pious prince was put to death by his unnatural father, the year following, for refusing to receive communion from the hands of an Arian bishop. But, touched with remorse not long after, the king recalled our Saint; and falling sick and rinding himself past hopes of recovery, he sent for St. Leander, and recommended to him his son Recared. This son, by listening to St. Leander, soon became a Catholic, and finally converted the whole nation of the Visigoths. He was no less successful with respect to the Suevi, a people of Spain, whom his father Leovigild had perverted. St. Leander was no less zealous in the reformation of manners than in restoring the purity of faith ; and he planted the seeds of that zeal and fervor which afterward produced so many Martyrs and Saints. This holy doctor of Spain died about the year 596, on the 27th of February, as Mabillon proves from his epitaph. The Church of Seville has been a metropolitan see ever since the third century. The cathedral is the most magnificent, both as to structure and ornament, of any in all Spain.

FEBRUARY 28.-- SS. ROMANUS AND LUPICINUS, ABBOTS.

Romanus at thirty-five years of age left his relations and spent some time in the monastery of Ainay, at Lyons, at the great church at the conflux of the Saone and Rhone which the faithful had built over the ashes of the famous martyrs of that city; for their bodies being burnt by the pagans, their ashes were thrown into the Rhone, but a great part of them was gathered by the Christians and deposited in this place. Romanus a short time after retired into the forests of Mount Jura, between France and Switzerland, and fixed his abode at a place called Condate, at the conflux of the rivers Bienne and Aliere, where he found a spot of ground fit for culture, and some trees which furnished him with a kind of wild fruit. Here he spent his time in praying, reading, and laboring for his subsistence. Lupicinus his brother came to him some time after in company with others, who were followed by several more, drawn by the fame of the virtue and miracles of these two Saints. Their numbers increasing they built several monasteries, and a nunnery called La Beaume, which no men were allowed ever to enter, and where St. Romanus chose his burial-place. The brothers governed the monks jointly and in great harmony, though Lupicinus was more inclined to severity of the two. Lupicinus used no other bed than a chair or a hard board ; never touched wine, and would scarce ever suffer a drop either of oil or milk to be poured on his pottage. In summer his subsistence for many years was only hard bread moistened in cold water, so that he could eat it with a spoon. His tunic was made of various skins of beasts sewn together, with a cowl : he used wooden shoes, and wore no stockings unless when he was obliged to go out of the monastery. St. Romanus died about the year 460, and St. Lupicinus survived him almost twenty years.

FEBRUARY 29.—ST. OSWALD, BISHOP.

Oswald was of a noble Saxon family, and was endowed with a very rare and beautiful form of body and with a singular piety of soul. He was brought up by his uncle, St. Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, and was chosen, while still young, dean of the secular canons of Winchester, then very relaxed. His attempt to reform them was a failure ; and he saw, with that infallible instinct which so often guides the Saints in critical times, that the true remedy for the corruptions of. the clergy was the restoration of the monastic life. He therefore went to France, and took the habit of St. Benedict ; but returned only to receive the news of Odo's death. He found, however, a new patron in St. Dunstan, now Metropolitan, through whose influence he was nominated to the see of Worcester. To these two Saints, together with Ethelwold of Winchester, the monastic revival of the tenth century is mainly due. Oswald's first care was to deprive of their benefices the disorderly clerics, whom he replaced as far as possible by regulars, and himself founded seven religious houses. Considering that in the hearts of the secular canons there were yet some sparks of virtue, he would not at once expel them, but rather entrapped them by a holy artifice. Adjoining the cathedral he built a church in honor of the Mother of God, causing it to be served by a body of strict religious. He himself assisted at the Divine Office in this church, and his example was followed by the people. The canons finding themselves isolated, and their cathedral deserted, chose rather to embrace the religious life than to continue not only to injure their own souls, but to be a mockery to their people by reason of the contrast offered by their worldliness to the regularity of their religious brethren. As Archbishop of York a like success attended St. Oswald's efforts ; and God manifested His approval of his zeal by discovering to him the relics of his great predecessor, St. Wilfrid, which he reverently translated to Worcester. He died February 29th, 992.

Reflection.—A soul without discipline is like a ship without a helm; she must inevitably strike unawares upon the rocks, founder on the shoals, or float unknowingly into the harbor of the enemy.