Chapter LIX: Appendix: TO (13)

Footnotes:
1. The venerable John of Avila, or Avilla, who may be called the father
of the most eminent saints that flourished in Spain in the sixteenth
century, was a native of the diocese of Toledo. At fourteen years of
age he was sent to Salamanca, and trained up to the law. From his
infancy he applied himself with great earnestness to prayer, and all
the exercises of piety and religion; and he was yet very young when
he found his inclinations strongly bent towards an ecclesiastical
state in order to endeavor by his tears and labors to kindle the
fire of divine love in the hearts of men. From the university his
parents called him home, but were surprised and edified to see the
ardor with which he pursued the most heroic practices of Christian
perfection; which, as they both feared God, they were afraid in the
least to check, or damp his fervor. His diet was sparing, and as
coarse as he could choose, without an appearance of singularity or
affectation; he contrived to sleep on twigs, which he secretly laid
on his bed, wore a hair shirt, and used severe disciplines. What was
most admirable in his conduct, was the universal denial of his will,
by which he labored to die to himself, added to his perfect
humility, patience, obedience, and meekness, by which he subjected
his spirit to the holy law of Christ. All his spare time was devoted
to prayer, and he approached very frequently the holy sacraments. In
that of the blessed Eucharist he began to find a wonderful relish
and devotion, and he spent some hours in preparing himself to
receive it with the utmost purity of heart and fervor of love he was
able to bring to that divine banquet. In the commerce of the world
he appeared so much out of his element, that he was sent to the
university of Alcala, where he finished his studies in the same
manner he had began them, and bore the first prize in philosophy and
his other classes. F. Dominic Soto, the learned Dominican professor,
who was his master, conceived for him the warmest affection and the
highest esteem, and often declared how great a man he doubted not
this scholar would one day become. Peter Guerrera, who was
afterwards archbishop of Toledo, was also from that time his great
admirer, and constant friend. Both his parents dying about that
time, John entered into holy orders. On the same day on which he
said his first mass, instead of giving an entertainment according to
the custom, he provided a dinner for twelve poor persons, on whom he
waited at table, and whom he clothed at his own expense, and with
his own hands. When he returned into his own country, he sold his
whole estate, for he was the only child and heir of his parents: the
entire price he gave to the poor, reserving nothing for himself
besides an old suit of mean apparel, desiring to imitate the
apostles, whom Christ forbade to carry either purse or scrip. Taking
St. Paul for his patron and model, he entered upon the ministry of
preaching, in which sublime function his preparation consisted not
merely in the study and exercise of oratory, and in a consummate
knowledge of faith, and of the rules of Christian virtue, but much
more in a perfect victory over himself and his passions, the entire
disengagement of his heart and affections from the world and all
earthly things, an eminent spirit of humility, tender charity, and
inflamed zeal for the glory of God, and the sanctification of souls.
He once said to a young clergyman, who consulted him by what method
he could learn the art of preaching with fruit, that it was no other
than that of the most ardent love of God. Of this he was himself a
most illustrious example. Prayer, and an indefatigable application
to the duties of his ministry, divided his whole time; and such was
his thirst of the salvation of souls, that the greatest labors and
dangers were equally his greatest gain and pleasure; he seemed even
to gather strength from the former, and confidence and courage from
the latter. His inflamed sermons, supported by the admirable example
of his heroic virtue, and the most pure maxims of the gospel,
delivered with an eloquence and an unction altogether divine, from
the overflowings of a heart burning with the most ardent love of
God, and penetrated with the deepest sentiments of humility and
compunction, had a force which the most hardened hearts seemed not
able to withstand. Many sacred orators preach themselves rather than
the word of God, and speak with so much art and care, that their
hearers consider more how they speak than what they say. This true
minister of the gospel never preached or instructed others without
having first, for a considerable time, begged of God with great
earnestness to move both his tongue and the hearts of his hearers:
he mounted the pulpit full of the most sincere distrust in his own
abilities and endeavors, and contempt of himself; and with the most
ardent thirst of the salvation of the souls of all his hearers. He
cast his nets, or rather sowed the seed, of eternal life. The Holy
Ghost, who inspired and animated his soul, seemed to speak by the
organ of his voice; and gave so fruitful a blessing to his words,
that wonderful were the conversions he everywhere wrought. Whole
assemblies came from his sermons quite changed, and their change
appeared immediately in their countenances and behavior. He never
ceased to exhort those that were with him by his inflamed
discourses, and the absent by his letters. A collection of these,
extant in several languages, is a proof of his elo quence,
experimental science of virtue, and tender and affecting charity.
The ease with which he wrote them without study, shows how richly
his mind was stored with an inexhausted fund of excellent motives
and reflections on every subject matter of piety, with what
readiness he disposed those motives in an agreeable methodical
manner, and with what unction he expressed them, insomuch that his
style appears to be no other than the pure language of his heart,
always bleeding for his own sins and those of the world. So various
are the instructions contained in these letters, that any one may
find such as are excellently suited to his particular circumstances,
whatever virtue he desires to obtain, or vice to shun, and under
whatever affliction he seeks for holy advice and comfort. It was
from the school of an interior experienced virtue that he was
qualified to be so excellent a master. This spirit of all virtues he
cultivated in his soul by their continual exercise. Under the
greatest importunity of business, besides his office and mass, with
a long preparation and thanksgiving, he never failed to give to
private holy meditation two hours, when he first rose in the
morning, from three till five o'clock, and again two hours in the
evening before he took his rest, for which he never allowed himself
more than four hours of the night, from eleven till three o'clock.
During the time of his sickness, towards the latter end of his life,
almost his whole time was devoted to prayer, he being no longer able
to sustain the fatigue of his functions. His clothes were always
very mean, and usually old; his food was such as he bought in the
streets, which wanted no dressing, as herbs, fruit, or milk; for he
would never have a servant. At the tables of others he ate sparingly
of whatever was given him, or what was next at hand. He exceedingly
extolled, and was a true lover of holy poverty, not only as it is an
exercise of penance, and cuts off the root of many passions, but
also as a state dear to those who love our divine Redeemer, who was
born, lived, and died, in extreme poverty. Few persons ever appeared
to be more perfectly dead to the world than this holy man. A certain
nobleman, who was showing him his curious gardens, canals, and
buildings, expressed his surprise to see that no beauties and
wonders of art and nature could fix his attention or raise his
curiosity. The holy man replied, "I trust confess that nothing of
this kind gives me any satisfaction because my heart takes no
pleasure in them." This holy man was so entirely possessed with God,
and filled with the love of invisible things, as to loathe all
earthly things, which seemed not to have a direct and immediate
tendency to them. He preached at Seville, Cordova, Granada, Baeza,
and over the whole country of Andalusia. By his discourses and
instructions, St. John of God, St. Francis of Borgia, St. Teresa,
Lewis of Granada, and many others, were moved, and assisted to lay
the deep foundation of perfect virtue to which the divine grace
raised them. Many noblemen and ladies were directed by him in the
paths of Christian perfection, particularly the Countess of Feria
and the Marchioness of Pliego, whose conduct, first in a married
state, and afterwards in holy widowhood, affords most edifying
instances of heroic practices and sentiments of all virtues. This
great servant of God taught souls to renounce and cast away that
false liberty by which they are the worst of slaves under the
tyranny of their passions, and to take up the sweet chains of the
divine love which gives men a true sovereignty, not only over all
other created things, but also over themselves. He lays down in his
works the rules by which he conducted so many to perfect virtue,
teaching us that we must learn to know both God and ourselves, not
by the lying glass of self-love, but by the clear beam of truth:
ourselves, that we may see the depth of our miseries, and fly with
all our might from the cause thereof, which is our pride, and other
sins: God, that we may always tremble before his infinite majesty,
may believe his unerring truth, may hope for a share in his
inexhausted mercy, and may vehemently love that incomprehensible
abyss of goodness and charity. These lessons he lays down with
particular advice how to subside our passions. In his treatise on
the Audi filia, or on those words of the Holy Ghost, Psa. xliv,
_Hear me, daughter, bend thine ear, forget thy house,_ &c. The
occasion upon which he composed this book was as follows: Donna
Soncha Carilla, daughter of Don Lewis Fernandez of Cordoba, lord of
Guadalcazar, a young lady of great beauty and accomplishments, was
called to court to serve in quality of lady of honor to the queen.
Her father furnished her with an equipage, and every thing suitable;
but before her journey, she went to cast herself at the feet of
Avila, and make her confession. She afterwards said he reproved her
sharply for coming to the sacred tribunal of penance too richly
attired, and in a manner not becoming a penitent whose heart was
broken with compunction. What else passed in their conference is
unknown; but coming from the church, she begged to be excused from
going to court, laid aside all sumptuous attire, and gave herself up
entirely to recollection and penance. Thus she led a retired most
holy life in her father's house till she died, most happily, about
ten years after. Her pious director wrote this book for her
instruction in the practice of an interior life, teaching her how
she ought to subdue her passions, and vanquish temptations,
especially that of pride; also by what means she was to labor to
obtain the love of God, and all virtues. He dwells at length on
assiduous meditation, on the passion of Christ, especially on the
excess of love with which he suffered so much for us. His other
works, and all the writers who speak of this holy man, bear
testimony to his extraordinary devotion towards the passion of
Christ. From this divine book he learned the perfect spirit of all
virtues, especially a desire of suffering with him and for him. Upon
this motive he exhorts us to give God many thanks when he sends us
an opportunity of enduring some little, that by our good use of this
little trial, our Lord nay be moved to give us strength to suffer
more, and may send us more to undergo. Envy raising him enemies, he
was accused of shutting heaven to the rich, and upon that senseless
slander thrown into the prison of the inquisition at Seville. This
sensible disgrace and persecution he bore with incredible sweetness
and patience, and after he was acquitted, returned only kindnesses
to his calumniators. In the fiftieth year of his age he began to be
afflicted with the stone, frequent fevers, and a complication of
other painful disorders: under the sharpest pains he used often to
repeat this prayer, "Lord. increase my sufferings, but give me also
patience." Once, in a fit of exquisite pain, he begged our Redeemer
to assuage it: and that instant he found it totally removed, and he
fell into a gentle slumber. He afterwards reproached himself as
guilty of pusillanimity. It is not to be expressed how much he
suffered from sickness during the seventeen last years of his life.
He died with great tranquillity and devotion, on the 10th of May,
1569. The venerable John of Avila was a man powerful in words and
works, a prodigy of penance, the glory of the priesthood, the
edification of the church by his virtues, its support by his zeal,
its oracle by his doctrine. A profound and universal genius, a
prudent and upright director, a celebrated preacher, the apostle of
Andalusia, a man revered by all Spain, known to the whole Christian
world. A man of such sanctity and authority, that princes adopted
his decisions, the learned were improved by his enlightened
knowledge, and St. Teresa regarded him as her patron and protector,
consulted him as her master, and followed him as her guide and
model. See the edifying life of the venerable John of Avila, written
by F. Lewis of Granada; also by Lewis Munnoz: and the abstract
prefixed by Arnauld d' Andilly to the French edition of his works in
folio, at Paris, in 1673.

ST. FELIX, B.C.

HE was a holy Burgundian priest, who converted and baptized Sigebert, prince of the East-Angles, during his exile in France, whither he was forced to retire, to secure himself from the insidious practices of his relations. Sigebert being called home to the crown of his ancestors, invited out of France his spiritual father St. Felix, to assist him in bringing over his idolatrous subjects to the Christian faith: these were the inhabitants of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire. Our saint being ordained bishop by Honorius, archbishop of Canterbury, and deputed by him to preach to the East-Angles, was surprisingly successful in his undertaking, and made almost a thorough conversion of that country. The most learned and most Christian king, Sigebert, as he is styled by Bede, concurred with him in all things, and founded churches, monasteries, and schools. From those words of Bede, that "he set up a school for youth, in which Felix furnished him with masters," some have called him the founder of the university of Cambridge. St. Felix established schools at Felixstow; Cressy adds at Flixton or Felixton. King Sigebert, after two years, resigned his crown to Egric, his cousin, and became a monk at Cnobersburgh, now Burgh-castle, in Suffolk, which monastery he had founded for St. Fursey. Four years after this, the people dragged him out of his retirement by main force, and conveyed him into the army, to defend them against the cruel king Penda, who had made war upon the East-Angles. He refused to bear arms, as inconsistent with the monastic profession; and would have nothing but a wand in his hand. Being slain with Egric in 642, he was honored as a martyr in the English calendars, on the 27th of September, and in the Gallican on the 7th of August. Egric was succeeded by the good king Annas, the father of many saints; as, SS. Erconwald, bishop; Ethelrede, Sexburge, Ethelburge, and Edilburge, abbesses; and Withburge. He was slain fighting against the pagans, after a reign of nineteen years, and buried at Blitheburg: his remains were afterwards removed to St. Edmond's-bury. St. Felix established his see at Dumraoc, now Dunwich, in Suffolk, and governed it seventeen years, dying in {548} 646. He was buried at Dunwich; but his relics were translated to the abbey of Ramsey, under king Canutus. See Bede, l. 2, Malmesbury; Wharton, t. 1, p. 403.[1]

Footnotes:
1. Dunwich was formerly a large city, with fifty-two religious houses
in it, but was gradually swallowed up by the sea. The remains of the
steeples are still discoverable, under water, about five miles from
the shore. See Mr. Gardiner's History and Antiquities of Dunwich.
4to. in 1754.

SS. APOLLONIUS, PHILEMON, &c., MARTYRS.

APOLLONIUS was a zealous holy anchoret, and was apprehended by the persecutors at Antinous in Egypt. Many heathens came to insult and affront him while in chains; and among others one Philemon, a musician, very famous, and much admired by the people. He treated the martyr as an impious person and a seducer, and one that deserved the public hatred. To his injuries the saint only answered, "My son, may God have mercy on thee, and not lay these reproaches to thy charge." This his meekness wrought so powerfully on Philemon, that he forthwith confessed himself a Christian. Both were brought before the judge whom Metaphrastes and Usuard call Arian, and who had already put to death SS. Asclas, Timothy, Paphnutius, and several other martyrs: after making them suffer all manner of tortures, he condemned them to be burnt alive. When the fire was kindled about them, Apollonius prayed: "Lord, deliver not to beasts the souls who confess thee; but manifest thy power." At that instant a cloud of dew encompassed the martyrs, and put out the fire. The judge and people cried out at this miracle: "The God of the Christians is the great and only God." The prefect of Egypt being informed of it, caused the judge and the two confessors to be brought, loaded with irons, to Alexandria. During the journey, Apollonius, by his instructions, prevailed so far upon those who conducted him, that they presented themselves also to the judge with their prisoners, and confessed themselves likewise to be Christians. The prefect, finding their constancy invincible, caused them all to be thrown into the sea, about the year 311. Their bodies were afterwards found on the shore, and were all put into one sepulchre. "By whom," says Rufinus, "many miracles are wrought to the present time, and the vows and prayers of all are received, and are accomplished. Hither the Lord was pleased to bring me, and to fulfil my requests." See Rufinus, Vit. Patr l. 2, c. 19, p. 477. Palladius Lausiac. c. 65, 66.

ST. JULIAN, ARCHBISHOP OF TOLEDO, C.

HE presided in the fourteenth and fifteenth councils of Toledo. King Wemba, falling sick, received penance and the monastic habit from his hands, and recovering, lived afterwards a monk. St. Julian has left us a History of the Wars of king Wemba, a book against the Jews, and three books On Prognostics, or on death, and the state of souls after death. He teaches that love, and a desire of being united to God, ought to extinguish in us the natural fear of death: that the saints in heaven pray for us, earnestly desire our happiness, and know our actions, either in God whom they behold, and in whom they discover all truth which it concerns them to know; or by the angels, the messengers of God on earth: but that the damned do not ordinarily know what passes on earth, because they neither see God nor converse with our angels. He says that prayers for the dead are thanksgivings for the good, a propitiation for the souls in purgatory, but {549} no relief to the damned. He was raised to the see of Toledo in 680, and died in 690. See Ildefonse of Toledo, Append. Hom. Illustr.

ST. DUTHAK, BISHOP OF ROSS, IN SCOTLAND, C

HIS zeal and labors in preaching the word of God, his contempt of himself, his compassion for the poor and for sinners, his extreme love of poverty, never reserving any thing for himself, and the extraordinary austerity of his life, to which he had inured himself from his childhood, are much extolled by the author of his life. The same writer assures us, that he was famous for several miracles and predictions, and that he foretold an invasion of the Danes, which happened ten years after his death, in 1263, in the reign of Alexander III., when, with their king Achol, they were defeated by Alexander Stuart, great-grandfather to Robert, the first king of that family. This victory was ascribed to the intercession of St. Andrew and St. Duthak. Our saint, after longing desires of being united to God, passed joyfully to bliss, in 1253. His relics, kept in the collegiate church of Thane, in the county of Ross, were resorted to by pilgrims from all parts of Scotland. Lesley, the pious bishop of Ross, (who, after remaining four years in prison with queen Mary, passed into France, was chosen suffragan of Rouen, by cardinal Bourbon, and died at Brussels, in 1591,) had an extraordinary devotion to this saint, the chief patron of his diocese. See Lesley, Descript. Scot. p. 27, and the MS. life of St. Duthak, compiled by a Scottish Jesuit, nephew by the mother to bishop Lesley, and native of that diocese. See also King in Calend.

ST. ROSA, OF VITERBO, VIRGIN.

FROM her childhood she addicted herself entirely to the practice of mortification and assiduous prayer; she was favored with the gift of miracles, and an extraordinary talent of converting the most hardened sinners. She professed the third rule of St. Francis, living always in the house of her father in Viterbo, where she died in 1261. See Wading's Annals, and Barbaza, Vies des SS. du Tiers Ordre, t. 2, p. 77.

ST. SENAN, B.C.

HE was born in the country of Hy-Conalls, in Ireland, in the latter part of the fifth century, was a disciple of the abbots Cassidus and Natal, or Naal: then travelled for spiritual improvement to Rome, and thence into Britain. In this kingdom he contracted a close friendship with St. David. After his return he founded many churches in Ireland, and a great monastery in Inis-Cathaig, an island lying at the mouth of the river Shannon, which he governed, and in which he continued to reside after he was advanced to the episcopal dignity. The abbots, his successors for several centuries, were all bishops, till this great diocese was divided into three, namely, of Limerick, Killaloe, and Ardfert. St. Senan died on the same day and year with St. David; but was honored in the Irish church on the 8th of March. A town in Cornwall bears the name of St. Senan. See his acts in Colgan, p. 602.

{550}

ST. PSALMOD, OR SAUMAY, ANCRORET.

HE was born in Ireland, and, retiring into France, led an eremitical life at Limousin, where he acquired great reputation for his sanctity and miracles. He died about 589. See the Martyrology of Evreux.

MARCH IX.

ST. FRANCES, WIDOW, FOUNDRESS OF THE COLLATINES.

Abridged from her life by her confessor Canon. Mattiotti; and that by Magdalen Dell'A{}ara, superioress of the Oblates, or Coliatines. Helyot, Hist. des Ordr. Mon. t. 6, p. 208.

A.D. 1440.

ST. FRANCES was born at Rome in 1384. Her parents, Paul de Buxo and Jacobella Rofredeschi, were both of illustrious families. She imbibed early sentiments of piety, and such was her love of purity from her tender age, that she would not suffer her own father to touch even her hands, unless covered. She had always an aversion to the amusements of children, and loved solitude and prayer. At eleven years of age she desired to enter a monastery, but, in obedience to her parents, was married to a rich young Roman nobleman, named Laurence Ponzani, in 1396. A grievous sickness showed how disagreeable this kind of life was to her inclinations. She joined with it her former spirit; kept herself as retired as she could, shunning feastings and public meetings. All her delight was in prayer, meditation, and visiting churches. Above all, her obedience and condescension to her husband was inimitable, which engaged such a return of affection, that for forty years which they lived together, there never happened the least disagreement; and their whole life was a constant strife and emulation to prevent each other in mutual complaisance and respect. While she was at her prayers or other exercises, if called away by her husband, or the meanest person of her family, she laid all aside to obey without delay, saying: "A married woman must, when called upon, quit her devotions to God at the altar, to find him in her household affairs." God was pleased to show her the merit of this her obedience; for the authors of her life relate, that being called away four times in beginning the same verse of a psalm in our Lady's office, returning the fifth time, she found that verse written in golden letters. She treated her domestics not as servants, but as brothers and sisters, and future co-heirs in heaven; and studied by all means in her power to induce them seriously to labor for their salvation. Her mortifications were extraordinary, especially when, some years before her husband's death, she was permitted by him to inflict on her body what hardships she pleased. She from that time abstained from wine, fish, and dainty meats, with a total abstinence from flesh, unless in her greatest sicknesses. Her ordinary diet was hard and mouldy bread. She would procure secretly, out of the pouches of the beggars, their dry crusts in exchange for better bread. When she {551} fared the best, she only added to bread a few unsavory herbs without oil, and drank nothing but water, making use of a human skull for her cup. She ate but once a day, and by long abstinence had lost all relish of what she took. Her garments were of coarse serge, and she never wore linen, not even in sickness. Her discipline was armed with rowels and sharp points. She wore continually a hair shirt, and a girdle of horse-hair. An iron girdle had so galled her flesh, that her confessor obliged her to lay it aside. If she inadvertently chanced to offend God in the least, she severely that instant punished the part that had offended; as the tongue, by sharply biting it, &c. Her example was of such edification, that many Roman ladies having renounced a life of idleness, pomp, and softness, joined her in pious exercises, and put themselves under the direction of the Benedictin monks of the congregation of Monte-Oliveto, without leaving the world, making vows, or wearing any particular habit. St. Frances prayed only for children that they might be citizens of heaven, and when she was blessed with them, it was her whole care to make them saints.

It pleased God, for her sanctification, to make trial of her virtue by many afflictions. During the troubles which ensued upon the invasion of Rome by Ladislas, king of Naples, and the great schism under pope John XXIII. at the time of opening the council of Constance, in 1413, her husband, with his brother-in-law Paulucci, was banished Rome, his estate confiscated, his house pulled down, and his eldest son, John Baptist, detained a hostage. Her soul remained calm amidst all those storms: she said with Job: "_God hath given, and God hath taken away._ I rejoice in these losses, because they are God's will. Whatever he sends I shall continually bless and praise his name for." The schism being extinguished by the council of Constance, and tranquillity restored at Rome, her husband recovered his dignity and estate. Some time after, moved by the great favors St. Frances received from heaven, and by her eminent virtue, he gave her full leave to live as she pleased; and he himself chose to serve God in a state of continency. He permitted her in his own life-time to found a monastery of nuns, called Oblates, for the reception of such of her own sex as were disposed to embrace a religious life. The foundation of this house was in 1425. She gave them the rule of St. Benedict, adding some particular constitutions of her own, and put them under the direction of the congregation of the Olivetans. The house being too small for the numbers that fled to this sanctuary from the corruption of the world, she would gladly have removed her community to a larger house; but not finding one suitable, she enlarged it, in 1433, from which year the founding of the Order is dated. It was approved by pope Eugenius IV. in 1437. They are called Collatines, perhaps from the quarter of Rome in which they are situated; and Oblates, because they call their profession an oblation, and use in it the word offero, not profiteer. St. Frances could not yet join her new family; but as soon as she had settled her domestic affairs, after the death of her husband, she went barefoot, with a cord about her neck, to the monastery which she had founded, and there, prostrate on the ground, before the religious, her spiritual children, begged to be admitted. She accordingly took the habit on St. Benedict's day, in 1437. She always sought the meanest employments in the house, being fully persuaded she was of all the most contemptible before God; and she labored to appear as mean in the eyes of the world as she was in her own. She continued the same humiliations, and the same universal poverty, though soon after chosen superioress of her congregation. Almighty God bestowed on her humility, extraordinary graces, and supernatural favors, as frequent visions, raptures, and the gift of prophecy. She enjoyed the familiar conversation of her angel-guardian, as her life and the process of her canonization {552} attest. She was extremely affected by meditating on our Saviour's passion, which she had always present to her mind. At mass she was so absorbed in God as to seem immoveable, especially after holy communion: she often fell into ecstasies of love and devotion. She was particularly devout to St. John the Evangelist, and above all to our Lady, under whose singular protection she put her Order. Going out to see her son John Baptist, who was dangerously sick, she fell so ill herself that she could not return to her monastery at night. After having foretold her death, and received the sacraments, she expired on the 9th of March, in the year 1440, and of her age the fifty-sixth. God attested her sanctity by miracles: she was honored among the saints immediately after her death, and solemnly canonized by Paul V. in 1608. Her shrine in Rome is most magnificent and rich: and her festival is kept as a holyday in the city, with great solemnity. The Oblates make no solemn vows, only a promise of obedience to the mother-president, enjoy pensions, inherit estates, and go abroad with leave. Their abbey in Rome is filled with ladies of the first rank.

In a religious life, in which a regular distribution of holy employments and duties takes up the whole day, and leaves no interstices of time for idleness, sloth, or the world, hours pass in these exercises with the rapidity of moments, and moments by fervor of the desires bear the value of years. There is not an instant in which a soul is not employed for God, and studies not with her whole heart to please him. Every step, every thought and desire, is a sacrifice of fidelity, obedience, and love offered to him. Even meals, recreation, and rest, are sanctified by this intention; and from the religious vows and habitual purpose of the soul of consecrating herself entirely to God in time and eternity, every action, as St. Thomas teaches, renews and contains the fervor and merit of this entire consecration, of which it is a part. In a secular life, a person by regularity in the employment of his time, and fervor in devoting himself to God in all his actions and designs, may in some degree enjoy the same happiness and advantage. This St. Frances perfectly practised, even before she renounced the world. She lived forty years with her husband without ever giving him the least occasion of offence; and by the fervor with which she conversed of heaven, she seemed already to have quitted the earth, and to have made paradise her ordinary dwelling.

ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA, B.C.

HE was younger brother to St. Basil the Great; was educated in polite and sacred studies, and married to a virtuous lady. He afterwards renounced the world, and was ordained lector; but was overcome by his violent passion for eloquence to teach rhetoric. St. Gregory Nazianzen wrote to him in the strongest terms, exhorting him to renounce that paltry or ignoble glory, as he elegantly calls it.[1] This letter produced its desired effect. St. Gregory returned to the sacred ministry in the lower functions of the altar: after some time he was called by his brother Basil to assist him in his pastoral duties, and in 372 was chosen bishop of Nyssa, a city of Cappadocia, near the Lesser Armenia. The Arians, who trembled at his name, prevailed with Demosthenes, vicar or deputy-governor of the province, to banish him. Upon the death of the Arian emperor, Valens, in 378, St. Gregory was restored to his see by the emperor Gratian. Our holy prelate was chosen by his colleagues to redress the abuses and dissensions which heresy had introduced {553} in Arabia and Palestine. He assisted at the council of Constantinople in 381, and was always regarded as the centre of the Catholic communion in the East. Those prelates only who joined themselves to him, were looked upon as orthodox. He died about the year 400, probably on the 10th of January, on which the Greeks have always kept his festival: the Latins honor his memory on the 9th of March. The high reputation of his learning and virtue procured him the title of Father of the Fathers, as the seventh general council testifies. His sermons are the monuments of his piety; but his great penetration and learning appear more in his polemic works, especially in his twelve books against Eunomius. See his life collected from his works, St. Greg. Nazianzen, Socrates, and Theodoret, by Hermant, Tillemont, t. 9, p. 561; Ceillier, t. 8, p. 200. Dr. Cave imagines, that St. Gregory continued to cohabit with his wife after he was bishop. But St. Jerom testifies that the custom of the eastern churches did not suffer such a thing. She seems to have lived to see him bishop, and to have died about the year 384; but she professed a state of continency: hence St. Gregory Nazianzen, in his short eulogium of her, says, she rivalled her brothers-in-law who were in the priesthood, and calls her sacred, or one consecrated to God; probably she was a deaconess.

Footnotes: 1. [Greek: {apstzen eaostzian}], Naz. {}.