Chapter XXVI: Preface (9)

Footnotes:
1. L. 2, adv. Julian, c. 8.
2. L. 2, adv. Rufin. p. 415.
3. In Isa. c. 60.
4. S. Hieron. in Catal.
5. L. 1, de Trin. p. 1-10.
6. Exod. iii. 14.
7. The contrary is certainly a mistake in Dr. Cave; for St. Jerom,
writing against Jovinian, says, in {} p. 175, that though the church
was sometimes obliged to make choice of married men for the
priesthood, because virgins, or unmarried, could not always be
found, they notwithstanding lived ever after continent. _Certe
confiteris, non posse esse episcopum qui in episcopatu filios
faciat: alioqui si deprehensus fuerit non quasi vir tenebitur, sed
quasi adulter condemnabitur, ib_. And in his book against
Vigilantius, p. 28, he observes, that in the churches of the East,
in Egypt, and in the apostolic see of Rome, those only were made
clergymen, who were virgins, or single; or if they were married,
they ceased to live as husbands. _Aut virgines clericos accipiunt,
aut contintes; aut si uxores habuerint, mariti esse desinunt_, p.
281.
8. S. Hilar. in Ps. 53, n. 8, in Ps. 67, p. 15, and Contant, Armon. in
S. Hilar. in Psalmos, p. 165.
9. Ep. ad Laetam.
10. On the interpretation of certain obscure passages of the works of
St. Hilary, see Dom Coutant, in an excellent preface to his edition
of this father's works; also Witasse de Incarn. t. 2, &c.
11. Ep. 49, ad Paulinum, t. 4, p. 567.
12. Lib. 1, de Trinit.
13. Doubtless his love of prayer, and the assiduous application of his
mind to that holy exercise, moved him to make the Psalms a main
object of his sacred studies and meditation. His comments are
elegant; though in them he dwells much on the literal sense, he
neglects not the mystical and allegorical, every thing in these
divine oracles being prophetic, as he takes notice, (in Ps. 142, n.
1.) Often he finds the immediate literal sense clear; in other
passages, he shows Christ and his Church to be pointed out. The true
sense of the holy scriptures he teaches, only to be opened to us by
the spirit of assiduous prayer, (in Ps. 125, n. 2, &c.) The fatal
and opposite errors, which the overweening spirit and study of a
false criticism have produced in every age, justify this general
remark of the fathers, that though the succor of reasonable
criticism ought by no means to be neglected, a spirit of prayer is
the only key which can open to us the sacred treasures of the divine
truths, by the light which it obtains of the Holy Ghost, and the
spirit of simplicity, piety, and humility, which it infuses. In this
disposition, the holy doctors of the Church discovered in the divine
oracles that spirit of perfect virtue, which they imbibed and
improved from their assiduous meditation. St. Hilary remarks, that
the first lesson we are to study in them is, that of humility, in
which "Christ has taught, that all the titles and prizes of our
faith are comprised:" In humilitate docuit omnia fidei nomina et
praemia contineri, (in Ps. 118, l. 20, n. 1, p. 358.) Whence the
royal prophet entreats God, to consider nothing in him but his
lowliness of heart, (v. 153, ibid.) This holy father sticks not to
say, humility is the greatest work of our faith, our best sacrifice
to God, (in Ps. 1311, n. 1. p. 442;) but true humility is
accompanied with an invincible courage, and a firmness and constancy
in virtue, which no fear of worldly powers is ever able to shake,
(in Ps. xiv. p. 66.) St. Hilary laments, that even several pastors
of the church thought it a part of piety to flatter princes. But
true religion teaches us (Matt. x. 28) only to fear things which are
justly to be feared, that is, to fear God, to fear sin, or what can
hurt our souls: for what threatens only our bodies, this is to be
despised, when the interest of God and our souls is concerned. We
indeed study out of charity to give offence to no one, (1 Cor. x.
32, 33;) but desire only to please men for God, not by contemning
him, (in Ps. 52, p. 89, 90.) Prayer is the great Christian duty,
which this holy doctor was particularly solicitous to inculcate,
teaching that it consists in the cry of the heart; not in the lips,
as David cried to God in his whole heart, Ps. cxviii. v. 145, (in
Ps. cxviii. l. 19, p. 352.) We are to pour forth our souls before
God, with earnestness, and with abundance of tears, (in Ps. 41, apud
Marten. t. 9, p. 71.) Amidst the dangers and evils of this life, our
only comfort ought to be in God, in the assured hope of his
promises, and in prayer. (Ib.) That prayer is despised by God, which
is slothful and lukewarm, accompanied with distrust, distracted with
unprofitable thoughts, weakened by worldly anxiety and desires of
earthly goods, or fruitless, for want of the support of good works,
(in Ps. liv. p. 104.) All our actions and discourses ought to be
begin by prayer, and the divine praise, (in Ps. lxiv. p. 162.) The
day among Christians is always begun by prayer, and ended by hymns
to God, (ib. n. 12, p. 169.) By this public homage of the church,
and of every faithful soul in it, God is particularly honored, and
he delights in it. (St. Jerom. in eund. Ps.) St. Hilary takes
notice, that the night is of all others the most proper time for
prayer; as the example of Christ, David, and other saints,
demonstrates, (in Ps. cxviii. l. 8, p. 292.) He observes, that it
cannot be doubted, but among all the acts of prayer, that of the
divine praise is in general the most noble and most excellent: and
that it is for his infinite goodness and mercy, in the first place,
that we are bound to praise him, (in Ps. cxxxiv p. 469.) Next to
this, he places the duty of thanksgiving. (Ib.) To be silent in the
divine praises, he calls the greatest of all punishments; and takes
notice, that every one makes what he loves the chiefest object of
his joy: as we see in the drunkard, the covetous, or the ambitious
man: thus the prophet makes the heavenly Jerusalem the beginning of
his joy; always bearing in mind, that this is his eternal country,
in which he will be associated with the troops of angels, be
received into the kingdom of God, and put in possession of its
glory; he therefore finds all other things insipid, and knows no
other comfort or joy but in this hope, bearing always in mind, that
the glorious inhabitants of that kingdom never cease singing the
divine praises, saying, Holy, holy, holy, &c. (in Ps. cxxxvi. n. 11,
p. 494.) In another place he tells us, that the prophet bears not
the delays of his body, (moras corporis sui non patitur,) sighing
with the apostle to be dissolved and clothed with immortality: but
earnestly praying, that he may find mercy, and be delivered from
falling into the lake of torments, (in Ps. cxlii. n. 8, 9, p. 549.)
During this exile to meditate on eternity, and on the divine law and
judgments, ought to be our assiduous occupation, (in Ps. cxlii. n.
6, p. 548,) especially in time of tribulations and temptations, (in
Ps. cxviii. l. 12, n. 10, p. 313.) The world is to be shunned, at
least in spirit; first, because it is filled on every side with
snares and dangers, secondly, that our souls may more freely soar
above it, always thinking on God; hence, he says, our souls must be,
as it were, spiritual birds of heaven, always raised high on the
wing; and he cries out, "Thou art instructed in heavenly science:
what hast thou to do with anxious worldly cares? Thou hast renounced
the world; what hast thou to do with its superfluous concerns? Why
dost thou complain if thou art taken in a snare, by wandering in a
strange land, who oughtest to restrain thy affections from straying
from home? Say rather, Who will give me wings as of a dove, and I
will fly, and will be at rest?" Ps. liv. 7, (in Ps. cxviii. l. 14,
p. 328.) To build a house for God, that is, to prepare a dwelling
for him in our souls, we must begin by banishing sin, and all
earthly affections, (in Ps. xxxi. p. 73;) for Christ, who is wisdom,
sanctity, and truth, cannot establish his reign in the breast of a
fool, hypocrite, or sinner, (in Ps. xli. p. 60, ap. Marten. t. 9.)
It is easy for God, by penance, to repair his work, howsoever it may
have been defaced by vice, as a potter can restore or improve the
form of a vessel, while the clay is yet moist, (in Ps. ii. p. 47:)
but he often inculcates that repentance, or the confession of sin,
is a solemn profession of sinning no more, (in Ps. cxxxvii. p. 498,
in Ps. li. and cxviii. p. 263, &c.) Every thing that is inordinate
in the affections must be cut off. "The prophet gave himself entire
to God, according to the tenor of his consecration of himself.
Whatever lives in him, lives to God. His whole heart, his whole soul
is fixed on God alone, and occupied in him, and he never loses sight
of him. In all his works and thoughts God is before his eyes." Totum
quod vivit, Deo vivit. (Ps. cxviii. l. 14, n. 16, p. 327.) Upon
these words, _I am thy servant_, Ps. cxviii. v. 125, he observes,
that every Christian frequently repeats this, but most deny by their
actions what they profess in words, "It is the privilege of the
prophet to call himself the servant of God in every affection of his
heart, in every circumstance and action of his life," &c. (in Ps.
cxviii. l. 17, p. 339.) He teaches that the angels, patriarchs, and
prophets are as it were mountains protecting the church, (in Ps.
cxxiv. n. 6, p. 404;) and that holy angels attend and succor the
faithful, (in Ps. cxxxvii. p. 499;) assist them in time of combat
against the devils, (in Ps. lxv. p. 178, and in Ps. cxxxiv. p. 475;)
carry up their prayers to their heavenly Father with an eager zeal;
and looking upon this ministry as an honor, (in Matt. c. 18, p.
699.) That the church of Christ is one, out of which, as out of the
ark of Noah, no one man be saved, (in Ps. cxlvi., xiv., lxiv.,
cxxviii., and cxvvii. in Matt. c. 4, and 7 De Trinit. l. 7, p. 917.)
He mentions fast days of precept, the violation of which renders a
Christian a slave of the devil, a vessel of death, and fuel of hell,
(in Ps. cxviii. l. 18, p. 349.) This crime he joins with pride and
fornication, as sins at the sight of which every good Christian
ought to pine away with grief and zeal, according to the words of
Ps. cxviii. v. 139. Saint Hilary seems to have explained the whole
Psalter, though only part is recovered by the editors of his works.
To the comments published by Dom Coutant at Paris, in 1693, the
marquis Scipio Maffei added some others on several other Psalms, in
his edition at Verona, in 1730. Dom Martenne, in 1733, published
others on certain other Psalms, which he had discovered in a
manuscript at Anchin, in his Amplissima Monumentorum Collectio, t.
9, p. 55. These comments on the Psalms, St. Hilary compiled after
his exile, as appears from certain allusions to his books on the
Trinity, and from his frequent reflections against the Arians.
Nothing of this is found in his commentary on St. Matthew, which Dom
Coutant shows to have been the first of his works in the order of
time, composed soon after he was raised to the episcopal dignity. He
here and there borrows short passages from Origen, but sticks closer
to the literal sense, though he sometimes has recourse to the
allegorical, for the sake of some moral instruction. St. Hilary is
one of the first who published any Latin comments in the holy
scriptures. Rheticius, bishop of Autun, and St. Victorinus of
Passaw, though the latter wrote in Greek, had opened the way in the
West in the beginning of the same century. St. Hilary, in this
commentary on St. Matthew, excellently inculcates in few words the
maxims of Christian virtue, especially fraternal charity and
meekness, by which our souls pass to divine charity and peace, (in
Matt. c. 4, v. 18, 19, p. 626:) and the conditions of fasting and
prayer, though for the exposition of our Lord's prayer, he refers to
that of St. Cyprian; adding that Tertullian has left us also a very
suitable work upon it; but that his subsequent error has weakened
the authority of his former writings which may deserve approbation,
(in c. 5, p. 630.) The road to heaven he shows to be exceeding
narrow, because even among Christians very few sincerely despise the
world, and labor strenuously to subdue their flesh and all their
passions, and to shun all the incentives of vice, (in c. 6, p. 368.)
St. Peter he calls the Prince of the College of the Apostles, and
the Porter of Heaven, and extols the authority of the keys conferred
upon him, (in Matt. c. 7, p. 642, in c. 16, p. 690. Also 1. 6. de
Trin. p. 891, 903, 9114.) He proves that Christ, in his bloody
sweat, grieved more for the danger of his disciples and other
causes, than for his own death; because he had in his last supper
already consecrated his blood to be poured forth for the remission
of sin. Numquid pati ipse nolebat. Atquin superius fundendum in
remissionem peccatorum corporis sui sanguinem consecraverat, (S.
Hilar. in Matt. c. 31, p. 743.) His twelve books on the Trinity he
compiled during his banishment in Phrygia, between the years 356 and
359, as is clear from his own express testimony, and that of St.
Jerom. In the first book of this immortal monument of his admirable
genius and piety, he beautifully shows that man's felicity is only
to be found in God; and that the light of reason suffices to
demonstrate this, which he illustrates by an account of his own
conversion to the faith. After this he takes notice, that we can
learn only by God's revelation, his nature, or what he is, he being
the competent witness of himself, who it known only by himself, (n.
18, p. 777.) In the second book he explains the Trinity, which we
profess in the form of baptism, and says, that faith alone in
believing, and sincerity and devotion in adoring, this mystery ought
to suffice without disputing or prying, and laments, that by the
blasphemies of the Sabellians and Arians, who perverted the true
sense of the scriptures, he was compelled to dispute of things
ineffable and incomprehensible which only necessity can excuse, (n.
25.) He then proves the eternal generation of the Son, the
procession of the Holy Ghost, and their consubstantiality in one
nature, (l. 2 and 3.) He checks their presumption in pretending to
fathom the Trinity, by showing that they cannot understand many
miracles of Christ or corporeal things, which yet they confess to be
most certain, (l. 3, n. 19, 20, 24.) He detects and confutes the
subtilties of the Arians, in their various confessions of faith, (l.
4, 5, 6,) also of the Sabellians and Photinians, (l. 7;) and
demonstrates the divinity of Christ, from the confession of St.
Peter, &c., (l. 6,) and of the very Jews, who were more sincere than
the Arians, acknowledging that Christ called himself the natural Son
of God. (John x. 31, &c. l. 7, n. 2, 3, p. 931.) The natural unity
of the Father and Son, he demonstrates from that text, "I and my
Father are one," and others, (l. 8,) and observes that both from the
testimony of Christ in the holy scriptures, and from the faith of
the church, we believe without doubting the Eucharist to be the true
body and blood of Christ, (l. 8, n. 14, p. 955, 956.) He answers
several objections from scripture, (l. 9,) and shows there was
something in Christ (viz. the divine person, &c.) which did not
suffer in his passion, (l. 10.) Other objections he confutes, (l.
11,) and in his last book defends the eternity of the Son of God.
Between August in 358, and May in 359, St. Hilary, after he had been
three years in banishment, and was still in Asia, published his book
On Synods, to inform the Catholics in Gaul, Britain, and Germany,
what judgment they ought to form of several synods, held lately in
the East, chiefly by the Arians and Semi-Arians: a work of great use
in the history of those times, and in which St. Hilary's prudence,
humility, modesty, greatness of soul, constancy, invincible
meekness, and love of peace, shine forth. In this work he mollifies
certain expressions of the Semi-Arians in their councils, because
writing before the council of Rimini, he endeavored to gain them by
this method, whereas he at other times severely condemned the same;
as did also St. Athanasius, in his book on the same subject, and
under the same title, which he composed after the council of Rimini;
and expressly to show the variations of those heretics. (See
Coutant, vit. S. Hilar. p. c. ci. et praef. in S. Hilar. de Synodis,
p. 1147.) Fifteen fragments of St. Hilary's history of the councils
of Rimini and Seleucia furnish important materials for the history
of Arianism, particularly of the council of Rimini. In his first
book to the emperor Constantius, which he wrote in 355 or 356, he
conjures that prince with tears to restore peace to the church, and
leave the decision of ecclesiastical causes to its pastors. The
excellent request which he presented to Constantius at
Constantinople, in 360, is called his second book to that prince.
The third book ought to be styled, with Coutant, Against
Constantius: for in it St. Hilary directs it to the Catholics, (n. 2
and 12) though he often uses an apostrophe to Constantius. The saint
wrote it five years after the council of Milan, in 355, as he
testifies; consequently in 360, after that prince had rejected his
second request; but it was only published after the death of that
emperor, in the following year, as is clear from St. Jerom: He says
Constantius, by artifices and flattery, was a more dangerous
persecutor than Nero and Decius: he tells him, "Thou receivest the
priests with a kiss, as Christ was betrayed by one: thou bowest thy
head to receive their blessing, that thou mayest trample on their
faith: thou entertainest them at thy table, as Judas went from table
to betray his master." Fleury (l. 14, n. 26) bids us observe, in
these words, with what respect emperors then treated bishops. St.
Hilary in his elegant book against Auxentius, gives the catholics an
account of his conferences with that heretic at Milan in 364.
14. In Ps. 64.
15. In Ps. 1, p. 19, 20.
16. Lib. 7, de Trinit. n. 4, p. 917.
17. Lib. 6, n. 37, 38, p. 904.
18. In Ps. 131, n. 4, p. 447, in cap. 16, Matt. n. 7, p. 690.
19. Lib. 11, de Trinit. n. 3.
20. Lib. 3, adv. Constant. n. 8, p. 1243, Ed. Ben.
21. This letter is commended by the most judicious critics, Baronius,
Tillemont, Fleury, and Coutant, a monk of the congregation of St.
Maur, in his edition of the works of St. Hilary, and others. The
style is not pompous, but adapted to the capacity of a girl of
thirteen years of age.
22. Facta est fides temporum, potius quam evangellorum, l. 2, ad Const.
p. 1227. Tot nunc fides existere, quot voluntates, ib. Annuas atque
menstruas de Deo fides decernimus, decretis poenitimusm poenitentes
defendimus, defensos anathematizamus. ib. p. 1228.
23. Cointe Annal. Fr. ad ann. 538, n. 41, 42, 43.
24. L. de Gl. Conf. c. 2.
25. Alcuin, Hom. de S. Willibrodo.
26. Baillet, Vie de S. Hilaire.
27. Ap. Mab. anal. t. 4, p. 644.
28. Aimion. l. 4, c. 17 & 33. Coutant, Vit. S. Hilar. p. cxxiv, cxxv,
cxxix.
29. S. Hilar. in Matt. c. 18, v. i. p. 698.
30. 1 Cor. i. 17, & iii. 18. S. Hilar. l. 3, de Trin. n. 24, 25, pp.
822, 823.
31. 1 Par. xxix. 17.
32. Prov. iii. 32.
33. Prov. xi. 20.
34. 2 Cor. i. 12.
35. Eccles. i. 39.
36. Rom. viii. 7.

ST. FELIX OF NOLA, P. AND C.

IT is observed by the judicious Tillemont, with regard to the life of this saint, that we might doubt of its wonderful circumstances, were they not supported by the authority of a Paulinus; but that great miracles ought to be received with the greater veneration, when authorized by incontestable vouchers.

St. Felix was a native of Nola, a Roman colony in Campania, fourteen miles from Naples, where his father Hermias, who was by birth a Syrian, and had served in the army, had purchased an estate and settled himself. He had two sons, Felix and Hermias, to whom at his death he left his patrimony. The younger sought preferment in the world among the lovers of vanity, by following the profession of arms, which at that time was the surest road to riches and honors. Felix, to become in effect what his name in Latin imported, that is, _happy_, resolved to follow no other standard than that of the king of kings, Jesus Christ. For this purpose, despising all earthly things, lest the love of them might entangle his soul, he distributed the better part of his substance among the poor, and was ordained Reader, Exorcist, and, lastly, Priest, by Maximus, the holy bishop of Nola; who, charmed with his sanctity and prudence, made him his principal support in these times of trouble, and designed him for his successor.[1]

In the year 250, the emperor Decius raised a bloody persecution against the church. Maximus, seeing himself principally aimed at, retired into the deserts, not through the fear of death, which he desired, but rather not to tempt God by seeking it, and to preserve himself for the service of his flock. The persecutors not finding him, seized on Felix, who, in his absence, was very vigilant in the discharge of all his pastoral duties. The governor caused him to be scourged; then loaded with bolts and chains about his neck, hands, and legs, and cast into a dungeon, in which, as St. Prudentius informs us,[2] the floor was spread all over with potsherds and pieces of broken glass, so that there was no place free from them, on which the saint could either stand or lie. One night an angel appearing in great glory, filled the prison with a bright light, and bade St. Felix go and assist his bishop, who was in great distress. The confessor, seeing his chains fall off, and the doors open, followed his guide, and was conducted by heaven to the place where Maximus lay, almost perished with hunger and cold, speechless, and without sense: for, through anxiety for his flock, and the hardships of his solitary retreat, he had suffered more than a martyrdom. Felix, not being able to bring him to himself, had recourse to prayer; and discovering thereupon a bunch of grapes within reach, he squeezed some of the juice into his mouth, which had the desired effect. The good bishop no sooner beheld his friend Felix, but he embraced him, and begged to be conveyed back to his church. The saint, taking him on his shoulders, carried him to his episcopal house in the city, before day appeared, where a pious ancient woman took care of him.[3]

Felix, with the blessing of his pastor, repaired secretly to his own lodgings, and there kept himself concealed, praying for the church without ceasing till peace was restored to it by the death of Decius, in the year 251. {148} He no sooner appeared again in public, but his zeal so exasperated the pagans that they came armed to apprehend him; but though they met him, they knew him not; they even asked him where Felix was, a question he did not think proper to give a direct answer to. The persecutors going a little further, perceived their mistake, and returned; but the saint in the mean time had stepped a little out of the way, and crept through a hole in a ruinous old wall, which was instantly closed up by spiders' webs. His enemies never imagining any thing could have lately passed where they saw so close a spider's web, after a fruitless search elsewhere, returned in the evening without their prey. Felix finding among the ruins, between two houses, an old well half dry, hid himself in it for six months; and received during that time wherewithal to subsist by means of a devout Christian woman. Peace being restored to the church by the death of the emperor, the saint quitted his retreat, and was received in the city as an angel sent from heaven.

Soon after, St. Maximus' dying, all were unanimous for electing Felix bishop; but he persuaded the people to make choice of Quintus, because the older priest of the two, having been ordained seven days before him. Quintus, when bishop, always respected St. Felix as his father, and followed his advice in every particular. The remainder of the saint's estate having been confiscated in the persecution, he was advised to lay claim to it, as others had done, who thereby recovered what had been taken from them. His answer was, that in poverty he should be the more secure of possessing Christ.[4] He could not even be prevailed upon to accept what the rich offered him. He rented a little spot of barren land, not exceeding three acres, which he tilled with his own hands, in such manner as to receive his subsistence from it, and to have something left for alms. Whatever was bestowed on him, he gave it immediately to the poor. If he had two coats, he was sure to give them the better; and often exchanged his only one for the rags of some beggar. He died in a good old age, on the fourteenth of January, on which day the Martyrology, under the name of St. Jerom, and all others of later date mention him. Five churches have been built at, or near the place where he was first interred, which was without the precinct of the city of Nola. His precious remains are at present kept in the cathedral; but certain portions are at Rome, Benevento, and some other places. Pope Damasus, in a pilgrimage which he made from Rome to Nola, to the shrine of this saint, professes, in a short poem which he composed in acknowledgment, that he was miraculously cured of a distemper through his intercession.

St. Paulinus, a Roman senator in the fifth age, forty-six years after the death of St. Damasus, came from Spain to Nola, desirous of being porter in the church of St. Felix. He testifies that crowds of pilgrims came from Rome, from all other parts of Italy, and more distant countries, to visit his sepulchre on his festival: he adds, that all brought some present or other to his church, as wax-candles to burn at his tomb, precious ointments, costly ornaments, and such like; but that for his part, he offered to him the homage of his tongue, and himself, though an unworthy victim. [5] He everywhere expresses his devotion to this saint in the warmest and strongest terms, and believes that all the graces he received from heaven were conferred on him through the intercession of St. Felix. To him he addressed himself in all his necessities; by his prayers he begged grace in this life, and glory after {149} death.[6] He describes at large the holy pictures of the whole history of the Old Testament, which were hung up in the church of St. Felix, and which inflamed all who beheld them, and were as so many books that instructed the ignorant. We may read with pleasure the pious sentiments the sight of each gave St. Paulinus.[7] He relates a great number of miracles that were wrought at his tomb, as of persons cured of various distempers and delivered from dangers by his intercession, to several of which he was an eye-witness. He testifies that he himself had frequently experienced the most sensible effects of his patronage, and, by having recourse to him, had been speedily succored.[8] St. Austin also has given an account of many miracles performed at his shrine.[9] It was not formerly allowed to bury any corpse within the walls of cities. The church of St. Felix, out of the walls of Nola, not being comprised under this prohibition, many devout Christians sought to be buried in it, that their faith and devotion might recommend them after death to the patronage of this holy confessor, upon which head St. Paulinus consulted St. Austin. The holy doctor answered him by his book, _On the care for the dead_: in which he shows that the faith and devotion of such persons would be available to them after death, as the suffrages and good works of the living in behalf of the faithful departed are profitable to the latter. See the poems of St. Paulinus on his life, confirmed by other authentic ancient records, quoted by Tillemont, t. 4, p. 226, and Ruinart, Acta Sincera, p. 256; Muratori, Anecd. Lat.

Footnotes: 1. S. Paulin. Carm. 19, 20. Seu Natali, 4. 2. De Cor. hymn 5. 3. Paulin. Carm. 19. 4. _Dives egebo Deo; nam Christum pauper habebo_. Paulin. Carm. 2. Natali S. Felicia 5. 5. ________________ _Ego munere linguae, Nudus opum, famulor, de me mea debita solvens Meque ipsum pro me, vilis licet hostia pendam._ Natal. 6 6. Nat. 1, 2, &c. 7. Nat. 9, 10. 8. St. Paulin. Ep. 28 & 36. Carm. 13, 18, 21, 22, 23, 29, &c. 9. St. August. Ep. 78, olim 137, lib. De cura pro moritus, c. 16.

SS. ISAIAS, SABBAS,

AND thirty-eight other holy solitaries on mount Sinai, martyred by a troop of Arabians in 273; likewise Paul, the abbot; Moses, who by his preaching and miracles had converted to the faith the Ishmaelites of Pharan; Psaes, a prodigy of austerity, and many other hermits in the desert of Raithe, two days' journey from Sinai, near the Red Sea, were massacred the same year by the Blemmyans, a savage infidel nation of Ethiopia. All these anchorets lived on dates, or other fruits, never tasted bread, worked at making baskets in cells at a considerable distance from each other, and met on Saturdays, in the evening, in one common church, where they watched and said the night office, and on the Sunday received together the holy eucharist. They were remarkable for their assiduity in praying and fasting. See their acts by Ammonius, an eye-witness, published by F. Combefis; also Bulteau, Hist. Mon. d'Orient, l. 2, c. 1, p. 209.

Also, many holy anchorets on mount Sinai, whose lives were faithful copies of Christian perfection, and who met on Sundays to receive the holy eucharist, were martyred by a band of Saracens in the fifth century. A boy of fourteen years of age led among them an ascetic life of great perfection. The Saracens threatened to kill him, if he did not discover where the ancient monks had concealed themselves. He answered, that death did not terrify him, and that he could not ransom his life by a sin in betraying his fathers. They bade him put off his clothes: "After you have killed me," said the modest youth, "take my clothes and welcome: but as I never saw my body naked, have so much compassion and regard for my shamefacedness, as to let me die covered." The barbarians, enraged at this answer, fell on him with all their weapons at once, and the pious youth died by as many martyrdoms as he had executioners. St. Nilus, who had been formerly governor {150} of Constantinople, has left us an account of this massacre in seven narratives: at that time he led an eremitical life in those deserts, and had placed his son Theodulus in this holy company. He was carried away captive, but redeemed after many dangers. See S. Nili, Septem Narrationes; also, Bulteau, Hist. Mon. d'Orient, l. 2, c. 2, p. 220.

S. BARBASCEMINUS,

AND SIXTEEN OF HIS CLERGY, MM.

HE succeeded his brother St. Sadoth in the metropolitical see of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, in 342, which he held six years. Being accused as an enemy to the Persian religion, and as one who spoke against the Persian divinities, _Fire_ and _Water_, he was apprehended, with sixteen of his clergy, by the orders of king Sapor II. The king seeing his threats lost upon him, confined him almost a year in a loathsome dungeon, in which he was often tormented by the Magians with scourges, clubs, and tortures, besides the continual annoyance of stench, filth, hunger, and thirst. After eleven months the prisoners were again brought before the king. Their bodies were disfigured by their torments, and their faces discolored by a blackish hue which they had contracted. Sapor held out to the bishop a golden cup as a present, in which were a thousand sineas of gold, a coin still in use among the Persians. Besides this he promised him a government, and other great offices, if he would suffer himself to be initiated in the rites of the sun. The saint replied that he could not answer the reproaches of Christ at the last day, if he should prefer gold, or a whole empire, to his holy law; and that he was ready to die. He received his crown by the sword, with his companions, on the 14th of January, in the year 346, and of the reign of king Sapor II. the thirty-seventh, at Ledan, in the province of the Huzites. St. Maruthas, the author of his acts, adds, that Sapor, resolving to extinguish utterly the Christian name in his empire, published a new terrible edict, whereby he commanded every one to be tortured and put to death who should refuse to adore the sun, to worship fire and water, and to feed on the blood of living creatures.[1] The see of Seleucia remained vacant twenty years, and innumerable martyrs watered all the provinces of Persia with their blood. St. Maruthas was not able to recover their names, but has left us a copious panegyric on then heroic deeds, accompanied with the warmest sentiments of devotion, and desires to be speedily united with them in glory. See Acta Mart. Orient. per Steph. Assemani, t. 1, p. 3.

Footnotes:
1. The Christians observed for several ages, especially in the East,
the apostolic temporary precept of abstaining from blood. Acts, xv.
20. See Nat. Alexander Hist. Saec. 1, dissert 9.

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JANUARY XV.

ST. PAUL, THE FIRST HERMIT.

From his life, compiled by St. Jerom, in 365. Pope Gelasius I., in his learned Roman council, in 494, commends this authentic history. St. Paul is also mentioned by Cassian, St. Fulgentius, Sulpitius Severus, Sidonius, Paulinus, in the life of St. Ambrose, &c. St. Jerom received this account from two disciples of St. Antony, Amathas and Macariux. St. Athanasius says, that he only wrote what he had heard from St. Antony's own mouth, or from his disciples; and desires others to add what they know concerning his actions. On the various readings and MS. copies of this life, see the disquisition of P. Jem{} de Prato, an oratorian of Verona, in his new edition of the works of Sulpitius Severus, t. l, app. 2, p. 403. The Greek history of St. Paul the hermit, which Bollandus imagines St. Jerom to have followed, is evidently posterior; and borrows from him, as Jos. Assemani shows. Comm. In Calend. Univ. t. 6, p. 92. See Gudij Epistolae, p. 278.

A.D. 342.

ELIAS and St. John the Baptist sanctified the deserts, and Jesus Christ himself was a model of the eremitical state during his forty days' fast in the wilderness; neither is it to be questioned but the Holy Ghost conducted the saint of this day, though young, into the desert, and was to him an instructor there; but it is no less certain, that an entire solitude and total sequestration of one's self from human society, is one of those extraordinary ways by which God leads souls to himself, and is more worthy of our admiration, than calculated for imitation and practice: it is a state which ought only to be embraced by such as are already well experienced in the practices of virtue and contemplation, and who can resist sloth and other temptations, lest, instead of being a help, it prove a snare and stumbling-block in their way to heaven.

This saint was a native of the Lower Thebais, in Egypt, and had lost both his parents when he was but fifteen years of age: nevertheless, he was a great proficient in the Greek and Egyptian learning, was mild and modest, and feared God from his earliest youth. The bloody persecution of Decius disturbed the peace of the church in 250; and what was most dreadful, Satan, by his ministers, sought not so much to kill the bodies, as by subtle artifices and tedious tortures to destroy the souls of men. Two instances are sufficient to show his malice in this respect: A soldier of Christ, who had already triumphed over the racks and tortures, had his whole body rubbed over with honey, and was then laid on his back in the sun, with his hands tied behind him, that the flies and wasps, which are quite intolerable in hot countries, might torment and gall him with their stings. Another was bound with silk cords on a bed of down, in a delightful garden, where a lascivious woman was employed to entice him to sin; the martyr, sensible of his danger, bit off part of his tongue and spit it in her face, that the horror of such an action might put her to flight, and the smart occasioned by it be a means to prevent, in his own heart, any manner of consent to carnal pleasure. During these times of danger, Paul kept himself concealed in the house of another; but finding that a brother-in-law was inclined to betray him, that he might enjoy his estate, he fled into the deserts. There he found many spacious caverns in a rock, which were said to have been the retreat of money-coiners in the days of Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. He chose for his dwelling a cat; in this place, near which were a palm-tree[1] and a clear spring: the former by its leaves furnished him with raiment, and by its fruit with food; and the latter supplied him with water for his drink.

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Paul was twenty-two years old when he entered the desert. His first intention was to enjoy the liberty of serving God till the persecution should cease; but relishing the sweets of heavenly contemplation and penance, and learning the spiritual advantages of holy solitude, he resolved to return no more among men, or concern himself in the least with human affairs, and what passed in the world: it was enough for him to know that there was a world, and to pray that it might be improved in goodness. The saint lived on the fruit of his tree till he was forty-three years of age, and from that time till his death, like Elias, he was miraculously fed with bread brought him every day by a raven. His method of life, and what he did in this place during ninety years, is unknown to us: but God was pleased to make his servant known a little before his death.

The great St. Antony, who was then ninety years of age, was tempted to vanity, as if no one had served God so long in the wilderness as he had done, imagining himself also to be the first example of a life so recluse from human conversation: but the contrary was discovered to him in a dream the night following, and the saint was at the same time commanded, by Almighty God, to set out forthwith in quest of a perfect servant of his, concealed in the more remote parts of those deserts. The holy old man set out the next morning in search of the unknown hermit. St. Jerom relates from his authors, that he met a centaur, or creature not with the nature and properties, but with something of the mixed shape of man and horse,[2] and that this monster, or phantom of the devil, (St. Jerom pretends not to determine which it was,) upon his making the sign of the cross, fled away, after having pointed out the way to the saint. Our author adds, that St. Antony soon after met a satyr,[3] who gave him to understand that he was an inhabitant of those deserts, and one of that sort whom the deluded Gentiles adored for gods. St. Antony, after two days and a night spent in the search, discovered the saint's abode by a light that was in it, which he made up to. Having long begged admittance at the door of his cell, St. Paul at last opened it with a smile: they embraced, called each other by their names, which they knew by divine revelation. St. Paul then inquired whether idolatry still reigned in the world. While they were discoursing together, a raven flew towards them, and dropped a loaf of bread before them. Upon which St. Paul said, "Our good God has sent us a dinner. In this manner have I received half a loaf every day these sixty years past; now you are come to see me, Christ has doubled his provision for his servants." Having given thanks to God they both sat down by the fountain; but a little contest arose between them who should break the bread; St. Antony alleged St. Paul's greater age, and St. Paul pleaded that Antony was the stranger: both agreed at last to take up their parts together. Having refreshed themselves at the spring, they spent the night in prayer. The next morning St. Paul told his guest that the time of his death approached, and that he was sent to bury him; adding, "Go and fetch the cloak given you by St. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, in which I desire you to wrap my body." This he might say with the intent of being left alone in prayer, while he expected to be called out of this world; as also that he might testify his veneration for St. Athanasius, and his high regard for the faith and communion of the Catholic church, on account of which that holy bishop was then a great sufferer. St. Antony was surprised to hear him mention the cloak, which he could not have known but by divine revelation. Whatever was his motive for desiring to be buried {153} in it, St. Antony acquiesced to what was asked of him: so, after mutual embraces, he hastened to his monastery to comply with St. Paul's request. He told his monks that he, a sinner, falsely bore the name of a servant of God, but that he had seen Elias and John the Baptist in the wilderness, even Paul in Paradise. Having taken the cloak, he returned with it in all haste, fearing lest the holy hermit might be dead, as it happened. While on his road, he saw his happy soul carried up to heaven, attended by choirs of angels, prophets, and apostles. St. Antony, though he rejoiced on St. Paul's account, could not help lamenting on his own, for having lost a treasure so lately discovered. As soon as his sorrow would permit, he arose, pursued his journey, and came to the cave. Going in, he found the body kneeling, and the hands stretched out. Full of joy, and supposing him yet alive, he knelt down to pray with him, but by his silence soon perceived he was dead. Having paid his last respects to the holy corpse, he carried it out of the cave. While he stood perplexed how to dig a grave, two lions came up quietly, and, as it were, mourning; and tearing up the ground, made a hole large enough for the reception of a human body. St. Antony then buried the corpse, singing hymns and psalms, according to what was usual and appointed by the church on that occasion. After this he returned home praising God, and related to his monks what he had seen and done. He always kept as a great treasure, and wore himself on great festivals, the garment of St. Paul, of palm-tree leaves patched together. St. Paul died in the year of our Lord 342, the hundred and thirteenth year of his age, and the ninetieth of his solitude, and is usually called the _first hermit_, to distinguish him from others of that name. The body of this saint is said to have been conveyed to Constantinople, by the emperor Michael Comnenus, in the twelfth century, and from thence to Venice in 1240.[4] Lewis I., king of Hungary, procured it from that republic, and deposited it at Buda, where a congregation of hermits under his name, which still subsists in Hungary, Poland, and Austria, was instituted by blessed Eusebius of Strigonium, a nobleman, who, having distributed his whole estate among the poor, retired into the forests; and being followed by others, built the monastery of Pisilia, under the rule of the regular canons of St. Austin. He died in that house, January the 20th, 1270.

St. Paul, the hermit, is commemorated in several ancient western Martyrologies on the 10th of January, but in the Roman on the 15th, on which he is honored in the anthologium of the Greeks.

* * * * *

An eminent contemplative draws the following portraiture of this great model of an eremitical life:[5] St. Paul, the hermit, not being called by God to the external duties of an active life, remained alone, conversing only with God, in a vast wilderness, for the space of near a hundred years, ignorant of all that passed in the world, both the progress of sciences, the establishment of religion, and the revolutions of states and empires; indifferent even as to those things without which he could not live, as the air which he breathed, the water he drank, and the miraculous bread with which he supported life. What did he do? say the inhabitants of this busy world, who think they could not live without being in a perpetual hurry of restless projects; what was his employment all this while? Alas! ought we not rather to put this question to them; what are you doing while you are not taken up in doing the will of God, which occupies the heavens and the earth in all their motions? Do you call that doing nothing which is the great end God {154} proposed to himself in giving us a being, that is, to be employed in contemplating, adoring, and praising him? Is it to be idle and useless in the world to be entirely taken up in that which is the eternal occupation of God himself, and of the blessed inhabitants of heaven? What employment is better, more just, more sublime, or more advantageous than this, when done in suitable circumstances? To be employed in any thing else, how great or noble soever it may appear in the eyes of men, unless it be referred to God, and be the accomplishment of his holy will, who in all our actions demands our heart more than our hand, what is it, but to turn ourselves away from our end, to lose our time, and voluntarily to return again to that state of nothing out of which we were formed, or rather into a far worse state?

Footnotes:
1. Pliny recounts thirty-nine different sorts of palm-trees, and says
that the best grow in Egypt, which are ever green, have leaves thick
enough to make ropes and a fruit which serves in some places to make
bread.
2. Pliny, l. 7, c. 3, and others, assure us that such monsters have
been seen. Consult the note of Rosweide.
3. The heathens might feign their gods of the woods, from certain
monsters sometimes seen. Plutarch, in his life of Sylla, says, that
a satyr was brought to that general at Athens; and St. Jerom tells
us, that one was shown alive at Alexandria, and after its death was
salted and embalmed, and sent to Antioch that Constantine the Great
might see it.
4. See the whole history of this translation, published from an
original MS. by F. Gamans, a Jesuit, inserted by Bollandus in his
collection.
5. F. Ambrose de Lombez, Capucin, Tr. de la Paix Interieure, (Paris,
1758,) p. 372.

ST. MAURUS, ABBOT

AMONG the several noblemen who placed their sons under the care of St. Benedict, to be brought up in piety and learning, Equitius, one of that rank, left with him his son Maurus, then but twelve years old, in 522. The youth surpassed all his fellow monks in the discharge of monastic duties, and when he was grown up, St. Benedict made him his coadjutor in the government of Sublaco. Maurus, by his singleness of heart and profound humility, was a model of perfection to all the brethren, and was favored by God with the gift of miracles. St. Placidus, a fellow monk, the son of the senator Tertullus, going one day to fetch water, fell into the lake, and was carried the distance of a bow-shot from the bank. St. Benedict saw this in spirit in his cell, and bid Maurus run and draw him out. Maurus obeyed, walked upon the waters without perceiving it, and dragged out Placidus by the hair, without sinking in the least himself. He attributed the miracle to the prayers of St. Benedict; but the holy abbot, to the obedience of the disciple. Soon after that holy patriarch had retired to Cassino, he called St. Maurus thither, in the year 528. Thus far St. Gregory, Dial. l. 2, c. 3, 4, 6.