^ypr^ ■rrr'!fm;yf,f!)iff.Kii^ifi r^'te?i?.-; .#' "-^ r.^/^ k €-•:% 'iy-y^f§^ ■>.. -m m.^^^_ ^;-^^' I * •'W # . ♦ . * .% ^ .^ . # , * . -♦•*•♦•#•#•«•#•#•#•#•#.#•#•#•# tF ^W ^ff^ ^^ ^^ ^ff ^ff^ ^w ^F ^ff ^P "^T tW ^t^ ^ff^ |..» ♦•*•»-#•*•#•#•#•*•#•#•#.#.#• ^^ ^ff ^ff ^^ ^^ t|f ^^ ^F ^^ ^ff ^ff "fff ^F Tpr ^W^ " ^^ ^^ ^^ ■ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^F ^F ^^ "^^ l^F ^ff T^ "W •♦•«•#•»•»•#•%•#.#•#•#.#.#.#.# W ^^ ^ff ^P^ ^P' ^ff ^ff' ^^ "^r ^P ^ff ^^ ^W' "W * ^^ * ^^ ^^ ^* ^^ *'*^ ^w^ ^F ' ^ff^ ^ff^ ^ff "^F "HP" ^? -tfr 'W' ► •••»•#•#•#•#•#•#•#.#.#.#•#.#. !•♦•*•#• #•#•#•#.#.#.#. #.#.#.#. •#-»-4|'»-#. *-#.#.#.#.#. #.#.#..# # # • # # • # # • # # • m # • # # ^^ ^F ^W ^PR * ^^ * ^F * ^F * ^F m • * # # # • # # • # # • # * • # • # • # # * # T|r "Tfr Tfr -nr 'TW # 'W^ TV fK' ^IT TIT #•#•*•#•#•#•# #•#•#•#•#•#•# ^JF -TFT ^f^ ^fP ^t^ ^fv^ ^(f . ^ff /7?r -w ^fF ^Pr ^r vT^ 'Jjr "IfF # # # #.#.#.#.# # # ■# # # # •JfP' ^fr ^fr "W^^ ^^ # #4 #. # # # # # # # # # #.#.#.#.# # # # # # # # # # # # #.#.#.# # # * # # # # # # ^^w ^w^ v^" ^rP^ # # # # # • # • # • # # # # • # • # • # • # # • # # • # # • # # • # # • # # • # # • # # • # # #'irjii»«^;'aii^>e;t]i|t /^ tWJ^fW, m m'DiM WMMimT, I™ D &• J, *l]DIi3E]E & € ID, fEW YORK. LIFE BLESSED YIRGIN MAEY, illotl)ct of Boh; WITH THE HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO HER. COMPLETED BY THE TRADITIONS OF THE EAST, ritings of t|e iM\txs, anb i\t |rihte fistors d l|e |cte. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF THE ABBE ORSINI, BY MRS. J. SADLIER. PUBLISHED WITA THE APPROBATION OF THE LATE MOST REV. JOHN HUGHES, D. 2>., AND THE MOST REV. J. MeCLOSKET, D. D., ARCHBISHOP OF NEW YORK. A NE-W, ENLARGED AND REVISED EDITION. few ftfflt: PUBLISHED BY D. & J. SADLIER & CO., 31 BAKCLAT STREET. MONTREAL :-CORNER OF NOTRE DAME AND ST. FRANCIS XAVIER STS. 1872. Entered according to Act of CongresB, in the year 1868, Br D. & J. SADLIEB & CO., In the Clerk' I Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New ToiK. lOAN STACK ■Unotrpad b7 Vncrsrr Dnx, 36 A 27 Kew ChAmb«n St.. ■. f. Printad Iqr Edwaxs O. Juxixs. U North WlUiun Bk, K. T P i JTiS it^^ HIS translation, made many years ago at the suggestion of an illustrious prelate, since dead, has been so well re- ceived by American Catholics, that it has passed through many editions. The magnificent work of the Abb^ Or- sini, is confessedly the fullest and most complete life of the Blessed Virgin Mary that has yet been given to the Catholic world. It does not end, as others do, at the close of her mor- tal life, but follows the course of the universal devotion wherewith the Church has honored, and does still, and shall ever honor, the Virgin of the Prophecies, the glorious Mother of God. It shows how literal has been the fulfillment of her own inspired prediction that all generations should call her Blessed. It shows how devotion to her has grown and prospered with the growth of Catholicity, and records the shrines and churches erected in every land under her invocation and to her honor and glory. Those of America I have myself added to the work, as there was little or nothing in the edition which I translated relating to the devotion in America. The work also embodies the Eastern traditions concerning her, with the conclu- sive testimony of the Fathers; the little which is related of her in Scrip ture being but a very faint sketch of her life. 4:3' TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. It is trulj a labor of love for a Catholic to celebrate the praises and re- eord the glories of Our Most Dear Mother, and it was with the filial devo- tion of a child of Ifary that I translated this great work some fifteen years ago. In common with all who are truly devout to Mary, I have much, very much to thank her for — many a priceless favor, many a sweet consolation, many a ray of light when all was dark around, and when earthly hopes had failed. In thanksgiving, then, and with all reverence and affection, I have now, prob- ably for the last time, revised this noble work, hoping that it may ever tend to make others love and honor Our Lady the Help of Christians as I love and honor her. M. A. S. Hew You, Mat 8, 187a HIS book, wMcli the public has vouchsafed to receive favor- ably, is not an ambitious attempt to obtain celebrity ; it is a work of patience and of faith, a flower laid on the altai of Mary, with the simple sincerity of a pilgrim of the good old times. The Blessed Virgin was, doubtless, deserving of a better historian, but she could find none more desirous of glorifying her name and propagating the devotion which is her due. The life of the Queen of Angels, of the Mystical Eose of the new law, is, of itself, a theme so poetical that it naturally called forth all graceful and touching ideas, as well as the noblest expressions of our language. It is an Eastern Tale, reflecting the customs, the pageants, and the scenery of Asia; is it, therefore, surprising that the style should be tinted with an Oriental coloring ? We have studied the Fathers enough to know that they did not disdain the graces of diction, and that, in this respect, they fought paganism with equal arms. This is what the great St. Jerome called, in his figurative language, cutting off tlie head of Goliath with his own sword. What can be more elevated, more poetical, than certain descriptions of St. John Chrysostom ? That sacred orator often chimes in with the Oriental poets, and it is in one of his homilies that we find the simili- tude of the earth emhalmed with the perfume of roses, which has since been repro- duced by Saadi in his Gulistan. The letters and the homilies of St. Basil the Great, replete with agreeable pic- tures, imitated but not surpassed by Fenelon, have all a poetical cast very fit to frighten those timorous minds who, now-a-days, take poetry for a spectre, and would fain exclude it from all manner of works. It is the same with St. Gregory of Nazianzen, that sublime Christian dreamer, who questioned himself on the nature Ti PREFACE. of his soul, under the ehade of thick fdiage^ whilst the zq>hyrs^ mingled with Hie songs of the InrdSf shed from the topmost branches of the tree a s^joeet and dreamy tranquility; whilst the grasshoppers^ hidden beneath the herbage, made all tJie woods resound, and a limpid stream flowed past his feet, winding on in its refreshing course through the wood. If that be not poetry, I know not what it is. In order to convert the nations it is necessary, first of all, to obtain a hearing ; to confirm in the Roman faith masses long agitated by the successive shocks of revo- lutions, beaten by the wind of systems, indifferent from weariness, and open to the attacks of an audacious sect which raises its head higher than ever, for D^ja de sa faveur on adore le bruit ; the first thing to be done is to induce them to read our works. The preacher who would divest the sacred Word of all the ornaments of elocution would soon have our churches deserted, and might say, like the Greek musician left alone in a public place, " Ye temples, hear me ! " The religious writer who would affect a dull and arid style, in the midst of a nation which prides itself on its taste and literary skill, would assuredly fare no better ; he would fall, with all his weight, into that oblivion where nothing floats, and his book, had it the intrinsic value of gold and pearls, would be, nevertheless, the most useless thing in the world, for none would touch it. St. Basil was so persuaded of this truth that he strenuously urged the young orators of his time to a profound study of human letters, so as to transfer their beauties to Catholic works. " Human letters," says that great doctor, " are like leaves which serve to cover and to ornament the words of truth and wisdom. If Moses and Daniel were the two most brilliant lights of the Synagogue, it was because they had acquired all the arts of the Egyptians." St. Jerome subjected to the anti-literary attacks of the priest Rufinus, who accused him of mingling the filth of paganism with the word of tlie Lord, coolly sent him word that being himself Uind as a mde he ought not to mock those who had tlie eyes of a goat. And, in fact, when the sumptuous decoration of altars and of tabernacles was regarded, even in the most austere ages of the Church, as a good and commendable practice, proper to heighten the majesty of Christian worship, wherefore should we make of religious literature a barren and dreary waste, whereon none would wish to enter for fear of sinking on the way under a load of weariness ? Is it thus, then, that the Holy Scriptures, which St. John Chrysostom declared full of pearls amd diamonds, were conceived ? Are not all kinds of composition found in the Bible, from the eclogue to the epic. The saints of those remote times, which we, in om* courtesy, are wont PREFACE. vii to call harbaroiLSj were far from wishing to deprive religious works of all literary merit. " Wliat ! " says an illustrious writer of tlie ninth century, " we enshrine the ashes of the saints in gold and precious stones, yet their actions are clothed but in rude and homely language ! We adorn our love-stories with all the graces of fiction, and we describe in the driest, the dullest, and the most uninteresting manner, the immortal deeds of the heroes of Christianity ! Is it, therefore, that elegance of style is only to be used for glossing over the turpitude of iniquity?" " Would," says a pious and learned author who, in 1722, dedicated the life of a holy personage to the Bishop of Blois ; " would that Catholics would give to the admirable achievements of the saints those ornaments wherewith sinners embellish their guilty passions, and thereby show that they know better how to adorn virtue than those worldlings to adorn vice." If it be ever permitted to throw poetical flowers on a religious theme, it is, assuredly, when treating of the Mystical Rose of the new law. This is so true, that the gravest doctors of other ages became poets without their knowing or wishing it, when they spoke of that glorious creature. St. Gregory of Neocesarea, that cold, austere thaumaturgus, finds the most charming appellations for the Mother of God, whom he styles source of light and immaculate flower of life. St. Ephraim, that melancholy and enthusiastic solitary, compares the Blessed Virgin to the golden censer exhaling the sweetest perfumes. St. Epiphanius calls the Virgin a spiritual ocean containing the celestial pearl. St. Cyril of Alexandria, the inex- tinguishable lamp which has brought forth the Sun of Justice. "With what marvel- ous flowers of eloquence shall we weave thee a crown, O Mary ! " says St. Basil of Selemia ; '■'-from thee has budded the floiver of Jesse, which embellishes us with glory and honor." St. Gregory the Great compares Mary, that virgin fair and adorned with the glory of her fruitfulness, to a very high mountain, towering above the angelic choirs, and reaching even to the throne of the Divinity. Alcuin, that light of the court of Charlemagne, accustomed as he was to dry and arid labors, became a poet for Mary : " Thou art my beloved," said he, " thou art my joy and glory, Virgin I tliou art the life of heaven, the flower of theflelds, the lily of the world." Pope Innocent III. com- pares Mary to the dawn. St. Thomas of Aquinas to the star of the ocean which guides and directs those %oho navigate the waters. " Hail ! noble daughter of Kings," cries the learned and mystical Erasmus, " tliou art more brilliant tlmn the dawn, milder than the silvery moon, purer than the fresh-blown lily, whiter than the mountain snow,mjOrt graceful than the rose, more precious than the ruby, more chaste than the angels. .... TUl P REFA CE. Impressed with these counsels, encouraged by these examples, we have lightly touched with the honey of Engaddi the edge of the cup which we present to the people of the world— those spoiled children who reject with scorn every beverage which has not, like the sherbets of the East, the perfume of the violet and the rose. Some have made this a crime, and bitterly reproached us with having sacrificed to false gods ; but when they set about giving quotations, the result was rather unfor- tunate for them, for they have, without knowing it, found fault with Scriptural idioms and phraseology ; that is to say, even the Word of God itself. " I do not always quote my authority," says Montaigne, "because nothing is more amusing than to see a thrust made through me at Virgil, Tacitus, Horace — in a word, at the greatest writers of antiquity — by some who are scarcely able to read them." Pre- cisely the same thing has happened to us, although we did not intend to lay such a snare for the simplicity of certain censors, who are, alas ! in the highest degree, ignorant of their own ignorance, which is the worst ignorance of all, if the Orientals are to be believed. We have heard the Prophets gravely descanted on by small critics, who are reputed to know the whole Bible by heart. What could we do in such a case as that ? All evil passions are up in arms against this book, and men who ought to have sustained it, were it only for the sacred cause which it espouses, have stealthily pursued it with a malignity truly Pharisaical. May God, who lifts the seven-fold veil of malice from false hearts to penetrate to the actuating motives of their works — may He forgive them, even as we do ! We have had such fair and honorable suffrages to console us, that we may well afford to overlook these puny attempts. The foreign press, namely, the Italian, the German, and the Spanish, have taken much notice of this Life of the blessed Virgin. Being unable to quote all, we shall confine ourselves to this extract from a learned article in Za Cruz (The 0?'OSSj) a Spanish journal, religious, political, and literary, which is honored with the patronage of the eminently Catholic clergy of Spain: — " The Abbd Orsini, in tracing the annals of the worship of the Blessed Virgin, which commenced with Christianity, and in raking up authorities, which, but for him, might perchance have remained in oblivion, presents to the reader the titles whereon hyperdulia and the worship of the Virgin are founded — ^a worship which certainly occupies a golden page in the calendar of the world, and is con- nected with the most glorious associations. Nor is this all that the Abbd Orsini has done. His book comprises the biography of Jesus, and, in some measure, the history of the terrestrial globe, which dates from the fall of man and the promise of a Redeemer. In this work we find profound theology, ■vast erudition, good literary taste, and enchanting touches of poetry P REF A C E. *' The translator, Dr. F. Y. P., has added another jewel, in the name of the Spaniards, to the crown wherewith the literati of Europe have adorned the brow of the author of The Complete Life of the Mother of God. This book is one of the great works of the nineteenth century, and merits a place in the first rank." We refer not to these eulogiums (wMcli are certainly somewhiit exaggerated) througli a ridiculous vanity or self-laudation, but to demonstrate that the lAfe of the Motlier of God has been well received by Catholics abroad, whose sympathy is exceedingly precious to us. It is no less consoling to see that it is also becoming popular in Germany, in England, in Russia, and in America, where it has probably assisted in dispelling some unjust prejudices amongst dissenting Christians. As for the French press, it has treated this book just as it pleased, for we have never attempted to influence it either by intrigue or solicitation of any sort ; not- withstanding which it has, in general, expressed itself in such a way that we have only to return our best thanks. By a providential chance it has happened, that most of those literary men who have taken cognizance of our work are men of feeling, knowledge, and intellect, and have acted generously by us. But great minds are usually indulgent and lenient towards others ; lions, conscious of their own strength, often magnanimously spare the weaker prey ; it is not so with the vipers who hiss and bite in the mire of their native marsh, by way of satisfying their conscience. Happy the author who falls into the hands of men able to appreciate a book, to examine it without prejudice, and with the probity which becomes the magis- tracy of thought. Criticism is a trade in which many meddle, but which very few understand ; to do it as it should be done, there is need of learning, taste, and conscience ; things which every one has not. A learned prelate, whose name was still unknown to us when we wrote the jpreface to our first edition, the late Bishop Cotteret of Beauvais, a profound theo- logian and a very distinguished writer, after having justified our use of Oriental traditions — " Traditions^'' says the learned Bishop, " wliich the author has not given as articles of faith " — goes on to say : " The Abb6 Orsini is one of the writers of our time who has the most perfectly mastered the language ; he speaks like a true disciple of Chateaubriand." This was conferring a high honor upon us, although it was far from being deserved; we have never had the presumption to follow, even afar ofi^, in the gigantic steps of that great master ; and if our style have any, even a slight resemblance to his, we can only say, as did an humble poet of Kurdis- X PREFACE. tan, on a similar occasion, " I have come forth, like Antar, that famous poet, from the garden of Nischabur ; but Antar was the rose of the garden, and I am only a brier." An observation has been made to us, to which we are now about to reply ; it relates to the use which we have made of the Hebrew customs in completing our Life of the Blessed Virgin. Any traveller who has visited the East, or any scholar who is at all acquainted with the history and condition of Asia, will per- ceive that our work is based on long and laborious researches, and not hy any fMOM erga Sanctissimam (Dei Genetricem. Mariam in fidelium animis m^agis m>agisque augeatur, atque excitatur, Agim,us aulern pro dono gratias, ac paterncz nostrce in te caritatis testein, et ccelestium, omnium m^unerum, auspicem Apostolicam (Benedict tionem Tibi ipsi, (Dilecti Fili, intimo cordis affectu impertimur. (Datum (komcB apud S. Mariam Major em die 23 Augusti, Anno 1843, (Pontificatus nostri anno decimo quinto. GREGORIUS PP. XVL DiLECTO FiLlO, Presbytero Orsini, Luteti^ Parisiorum 'I'T-^L^r-sE^r^s'mis^sx:. OF OUR MOST HOLT LORD PIUS IX., BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE POPE, CONCEKNING THE DOGMATIC DEFINITION OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE VIEGIN MOTHER OF GOD. [TRANSLATION.] Pius, Bisliop, Servant of the Servants of God: for the perpetual remera- brance (f the thing, HE Ineffable God, whose ways are mercy and trath, whose will is omnipotence, and whose wisdom reaches powerfully from end to end, and disposes all things sweetly, when he foresaw from all eternity the most sorrowful ruin of the entire human race to follow from the transgression of Adam, and in a mystery hidden from ages determined to complete, through the incarnation of the Word, in a more hidden sac- rament, the first work of His goodness, so that man, led into sin by the craft of diabolical iniquity, should not perish contrary to his merciful design, and that what was about to befall in the first Adam, should be restored more happily in the second ; from the beginning and before ages, chose and ordained a mother for His only-begotten Son, of whom, made flesh. He should be born in the blessed plenitude of time, and followed her with so great love before all creatures that in her alone He pleased Him- xH LETTERS APOSTOLIC OF OUR self with a most benign complacency. Wherefore, far before all the an- gelic spirits, and all the Saints, He so wonderfully endowed her with the abundance of all heavenly gifts, drawn from the treasure of divinity, that she might be ever free froin every stain of sin, and, all fair and perfect, would bear before her that plenitude of innocence and holiness than which, under God, none greater is understood, and which, except God, no one can reach, even in thought. And, indeed, it was most becoming that she should shine, always adorned with the splendor of the most perfect holiness, and, free even from the stain of original sin, she should have the most complete triumph over the ancient serpent — that Mother so venerable, to whom God the Father willed to give His only Son, begotten of His heart, equal to Himself, and whom He loves as Himself; and to give Him in such a manner that He is by nature, one and the same common Son of God the Father and of the Virgin, and whom the Son chose substantially to be His Mother,, and of whom the Holy Ghost willed that, by His operation, He, from whom He Him- self proceeds, should be conceived and born. Which original innocence of the august Virgin agreeing completely with her admirable holiness, and with the most excellent dignity of the Mother of God, the Catholic Church, which, ever taught by the Holy Spirit, is the pillar and ground of truth, as possessing a doctrine di- vinely received, and comprehended in the deposit of heavenly revela- tion, has never ceased to lay down, to cherish, and to illustrate contin- ually by numerous proofs, and daily more and more by conspicuous facts. For this doctrine, flourishing from the most ancient times, and implanted in the minds of the faithful, and by the care and zeal of the Holy Pontiffs wonderfully propagated, the Church herself has most clearly pointed out when she did not hesitate to propose the conception of the same Vir- gin for the public devotion and veneration of the faithful. By which illustrious act she pointed out the conception of the Virgin as singular, wonderful, and very different from the origin of the rest of mankind, and to be venerated as entirely holy, since the Church celebrates by festi- vals only that which is holy. And, therefore, the very words in which the Sacred Scriptm-es speak of the uncreated Wisdom and represent His eternal origin, she has been accustomed to use not only in the offices of ihQ Church, but als) in the holy liturgy, and to transfer to the origin of MOST HOLY LORD PIUS IX. XVII that Virgin, which was pre-ordained by one and the same decree with the incarnation of Divine Wisdom. But though all those things everywhere justly received amongst the faitliful, show with what zeal the Roman Church, the mother and mis- tress of all churches, has supported the doctrine of the Immaculate Con- ception of the Virgin, yet the illustrious acts of this Church are evidently worthy that they should be reviewed in detail; since so great is the dignity and authority of the same Church, so much is due to her who is the centre of Catholic truth and unity, in whom alone religion has been inviolably guarded, and from whom it is right that all the Churches should receive the tradition of faith. Thus the same Roman Church had nothing more at heart than to as- sert, to protect, to promote, and to vindicate in the most eloquent manner the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, its devotion and doctrine, which fact is attested and proclaimed by so many illustrious acts of the Ro- man Pontiffs, Our predecessors, to whom, in the person of the Prince of the Apostles, was divinely committed by Christ Our Lord the supreme care and power of feeding lambs and sheep, of confirming the brethren, and of ruling and governing the Universal Church. Indeed, Our predecessors have ever gloried in instituting in the Roman Church by their own Apostolic authority the Feast of the Conception, and to augment, ennoble, and promote with all their power the devotion thus instituted, by a proper Office and a proper Mass; by which the pre- rogative of immunity from hereditary stain was most manifestly asserted; to increase it either by indulgences granted, or by leave given to states, provinces, and kingdoms, that they might choose as their patron the Mother of God, under the title of the Immaculate Conception ; or by approved sodalities, congregations, and religious families instituted to the honor of the Immaculate Conception ; or by praises given to the piety of those who have erected monasteries, hospitals, or churches, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, or who have bound themselves by a relig- ious vow to defend strenuously the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God. Above all, they were happy to ordain that the Feast of the Conception should be celebrated through the whole Church as that of the Nativity; and, in fine, that it should be celebrated with an Octave in the Universal Church as it was placed in the rank of the festivals x^ux LETTERS APOSTOLIC OF OUR which are commanded to be kept holy; also, tliat a Pontifical service in Hill Patriarchal LilxMinn Basilica should be peiformed yearly on the day sacred to the Conception of the Virgin; and desiring to cherish daily more and more in the minds of the Faithful this doctrine of the Immac- ulate Conception of the Mother of God, and to excite their piety in wor- shipping and venerating the Virgin conceived without original sin, they have rejoiced most fi'eely to give leave that in the Litany of Loretto, and in the Preface of the Mass itself, the Immaculate Conception of the same Virgin should be proclaimed, and that thus the law of faith should be established by the very law of supplication. We ourselves, treading in the footsteps of so many predecessors, have not only received and approved what had been most wisely and piously established and ap- pointed by them, but also mindful of the institution of Sixtus IV., We have appointed by Our authority a proper Office for the Immaculate Conception, and with a most joyful mind have granted the use of it to the Universal Chm'ch. But since those things which pertain to worship are evidently bound by an intimate chord to its object, and cannot remain fixed and deter- mined, if it be doubtful, and placed in uncertainty, therefore our prede- cessors, the Roman Pontiffs, increasing with all their care the devotion of the Conception, studied most especially to declare and inculcate its object and doctrine; for they taught clearly and openly that the festival was celebrated for the Conception of the Virgin, and they proscribed as false and most foreign to the intention of the Church the opinion of those who considered and affii-med that it was not the Conception itself, but the sanctification, to which devotion was paid by the Church. Nor did they think of treating more indulgently those who, in order to weaken the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, drawing a distinc- tion between the first and second instant and moment of the Conception, asserted that the Conception was indeed celebrated, but not for the first instant and moment; for Our predecessors themselves thought it their duty to protect and defend with all zeal both the feast of the Concep- tion of the Most Blessed Virgin, and the Conception from the first instant, as the true object of devotion. Hence the words, evidently decretive, in which Alexander VII. declared the true intention of the Church, saying : '* Certainly, it is the ancient piety of the faithful of Christ towards His MOST HOLY LORD Pi US IX. xix Most Blessed Mother the Virgin Mary, believing that her soul, in the first instant of creation, and of infusion into the body, was by a special grace and privilege of God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ her Son the Redeemer of mankind, preserved free from the stain of origi- nal sin, and in this sense they keep and celebrate with solemn rites the Festival of her Conception." And to the same. Our predecessors, this also was most especially a duty to preserve from contention the doctrine of the Immaculate Con- ception of the Mother of God, guarded and protected with all care and zeal. For not only have they never suffered that this doctrine should ever be censured or ti'aduced in any way, or by any one, but they have gone much farther, and in clear declarations on repeated occasions they have proclaimed that the doctrine in which we confess the Im- maculate Conception of the Virgin is, and by its own merit, held evidently consistent with Ecclesiastical worship, that it is ancient and nearly universal, and of the same sort as that which the Roman Church has undertaken to cherish and protect, and, above all, worthy to be placed in its sacred liturgy and its solemn prayers. Nor content with this, in order that the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin should remain inviolate, they have most severely prohibited the opinion adverse to this doctrine to be defended either in public or in private, and they have wished to crush it, as it were, by repeated blows. To which reiterated and most clear declarations, lest they might appear empty, they added a sanction; all which things Our illustrious predecessor, Alexander VII., embraced in these words: — " Considering that the Holy Roman Church solemnly celebrates the festival of the Conception of the Immaculate and Ever-Blessed Virgin, and has appointed for this a special and proper office according to the pious, devout, and laudable institution which emanated from Our predecessor, Sixtus IV., and wishing, after the example of the Roman Pontiffs, Om^ predecessors, to favor this laudable piety, devotion, and festival, and the reverence shown towards it, never changed in the Roman Church since the institution of the worship itself; also in order to protect the piety and devotion of venerating and celebrating the Most Blessed Virgin, preserved from original sin by the preventing grace of the Holy Ghost, and desiring to preserve in the flock of Chrst unity of spirit in IX LETTERS APOSTOLIC OF OUR the bond of peace, removing offences, and brawls, and scandals; at the instance and prayers of the said Bishops, with the Chapters of their churches, and of King Philip and liis kingdoms — we renew the consti- tutions and decrees issued by the Roman Pontifts, Our predecessors, and especially by Sixtus IV., Paul V., and Gregory XV., in favor of asserting the opinion that the soul of the Blessed Virgin, in its creation and infusion into the body, was endowed with the grace of the Holy Ghost, and preserved from original sin ; likewise, also, in favor of the festival of the same Virgin Mother of God, celebrated according to that pious belief which is recited above, and We command that it shall be ob- served under the censures and punishments contained in the same constitutions. "And against all and each of those who try to interpret the aforesaid constitutions or decrees so that they may frustrate the favor shown through these to the said belief and to the festival or worship cele- brated according to it, or who try to recall into dispute the same belief, festival, or worship, or against these in any manner, either directly or indirectly, and on any pretext, even that of examining the grounds of defining it, or of explaining or interpreting the Sacred Scriptui-es or the Holy Fathers or Doctors ; in fine, who should dare under any pre- text or on any occasion whatsoever, to say either in writing or in speech, to preach, to treat, to dispute, by determining or asserting anything against these, or by bringing arguments against them and leaving these arguments unanswered, or by expressing dissent in any other possible manner; besides the punishments and censures contained in the con- stitutions of Sixtus IV., to which we desire to add, and by these presents do add, those: We will that they should be deprived ipso fado^ and without other declaration, of the faculty of preaching, of reading in public, or of teaching and interpreting, and also of their voice, whether active or passive, in elections ; from which censures they cannot be absolved, nor obtain dispensation, unless from Us, or Our successors, the Roman Pontiffs ; likewise We wish to subject, and We hereby do subject, the same persons to other penalties to be inflicted at Our will, and at that of the same Roman Pontiffs, Our successors, renewing the constitutions or decrees of Paul IV., and Gregory XV., above re- ferred to. MOST HOLY LORD PIUS IX. xxi "And We prohibit, under the penalties and censures contained in the Index of Prohibited Books, and We will and declare that they should be esteemed prohibited ipso facto^ and without other declaration, books in which the aforesaid belief and the festival or devotion celebrated accord- ing to it is recalled into dispute, or in which anything whatever is writ- ten or read against these, or lectures, sermons, treatises, and disputations against the same, published after the decree of Paul V. above mentioned, or to be published at any future time." All are aware with how much zeal this doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God has been handed down, asserted and propagated by the most distinguished religious Orders, the most celebrated theological academies, and the most eminent doctors of the science of Divinity. All know likewise how anxious have been the Bishops openly and publicly to profess, even in the Ecclesiastical assemblies themselves, that the Most Holy Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, by virtue of the merits of ^Christ Our Lord, the Saviour of mankind, never lay under ori- ginal sin, but was preserved free from the original stain, and thus was redeemed in a more sublime manner. To which, lastly, is added this fact, most grave, and, in an especial manner, most important of all, that the Council of Trent itself, when it promulgated the dogmatic decree concerning original sin, in which, according to the testimonies of the Sacred Scriptures, of the Holy Fathers, and of the most approved coun- cils, it determined and defined that all mankind are born under original sin ; solemnly declared, however, that it was not its intention to in- clude in the decree itself, and in the amplitude of its definition, the Blessed and Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God. Indeed, by this declaration, the Tridentine Fathers have asserted, according to the times and the circumstances of affairs, that the Blessed Virgin Mary was free fi'om the original stain, and thus clearly signified that nothing could be justly adduced from the sacred writings, nor from the authority of the Fathers, which would in any way gainsay so great a prerogative of the Virgin. And, in real truth, illustrious monuments of a venerated antiquity of the Eastern and of the Western Church most powerfully testify that this doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin, every day more and more so splendidly explained and confirmed by the high- xxii LETTERS APOSTOLIC OF OUR est auUiority, teaching, zeal, science, and wisdom of the Church, and so wonderfully propagated amongst all the nations and peoples of the Cath- olic world, always existed in the Church as received by Our ancestors, and stamped with the character of a divine revelation. For the Church of Christ, careful guardian and defender of the dogmas deposited with her, changes nothing in them, diminishes nothing, adds nothing, but, with all industry, by faithfully and wisely treating ancient things, if they are handed down from antiquity, so studies to eliminate, to clear them up, that these ancient dogmas of heavenly faith may receive evidence, light, distinction, but still may retain their fullness, integrity, propriety, and may increase only in their own kind — that is, in the same dogma, the same sense, and the same belief. The Fathei*s and writers of the Church, taught by the heavenly writ- mgs, had nothing more at heart, in the books written to explain the Scriptures, to vindicate the dogmas, and to instruct the faithful, than emulously to declare and exhibit in many and wonderful ways the Virgin's most high sanctity, dignity, and freedom from all stain of original sin, and her renowned victory over the most foul enemy of the human race. Wherefore, repeating the words in which, at the beginning of the world, the Almighty, announcing the remedies of his mercy, prepared for regen- erating mankind, crushed the audacity of the lying Serpent, and wonder- fully raised up the hope of our race, saying, " I will place enmity between thee and the woman, thy seed and hers," they taught that in this divine oracle was clearly and openly pointed out the merciful Kedeemer of the human race — the only-begotten Son of God, Christ Jesus, and that his Most Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary, was designated, and at the same time that the enmity of both against the Serpent was signally expressed. Wherefore, as Christ, the mediator of God and men, having assumed human nature, blotting out the handwriting of the decree which stood against us, fastened it triumphantly to the Cross, so the Most Holy Vir- gin, bound by a most close and indissoluble chain with Him, exercis- ing with Him and through Him eternal enmity against the malignant Serpent, and triumphing most amply over the same, has crushed his head with her Immaculate foot. This illustrious and singular triumph of the Virgin, and her most ex- alted innocence, purity, and holiness, her freedom from all stain of sin, MOST HOLY LORD PIUS IX. rsiii and ineffable abundance and greatness of all heavenly graces, ^drtues, and privileges, the same Fathers beheld in that ark of Noah, which, di- vinely appointed, escaped safe and sound from the common shipwreck of the whole w^orld; also in that ladder which Jacob beheld reaching from earth to heaven, by whose steps the Angels of God ascended and descended, on whose top leaned God himself; also in that bush which, in the holy place, Moses beheld blaze on every side, and amidst the crackling flames neither to be consumed nor to suffer the least injury, but to grow green and to blossom fairly; also in that impregnable tower in front of the enemy, on which are hung a thousand bucklers and all the armor of the brave ; also in that garden fenced round about, which cannot be violated nor corrupted by any schemes of fraud; also in that brilliant city of God, whose foundations are in the holy mounts ; also in that most august temple of God, which, shining with divine splendor, is filled with the glory of God ; likewise in many other things of this kind which the Fathers have handed down, that the exalted dignity of the Mother of God, and her spotless innocence, and her holiness, obnoxious to no blemish, have been signally pre- announced. To describe the same totality, as it were, of divine gifts, and the original integrity of the Virgin of whom Jesus was born, the same Fathers, using the eloquence of the Prophets, celebrate the august Vir- gin as the spotless dove, the holy Jerusalem, the exalted throne of God, the ark and house of sanctification, which Eternal Wisdom built for itself; and as that Queen who, abounding in delights and leaning on her beloved, came forth entirely perfect from the mouth of the Most High, fair and most dear to God, and never stained with the least spot. But when the same Fathers and the writers of the Church re- volved in their hearts and minds that the Most Blessed Virgin, in the name and by the order of God himself, was proclaimed full of grace by the Angel Gabriel, when announcing her most sublime dignity of the Mother of God, they taught that, by this singular and solemn salu- tation, never heard on any other occasion, is shown that the Mother of God is the seat of all divine graces, and adorned with all the gifts of the Holy Ghost — yea, the infinite storehouse and inexhaustible abyss of the same gifts; so that, never subjected to malediction, and alono XXIT LETTERS APOSTOLIC OF OUR with her Son partaker of perpetual benediction, she deserved to hear from Elizabeth, inspired by the Holy Ghost: "Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb." Hence it is the clear and unanimous opinion of the same that the Most Glorious Virgin, for whom He who is powerful has done gi-eat things, has shone with such a brilliancy of all heavenly gifts, such fullness of grace, and such innocence, that she has been an ineffable miracle of the Almighty, yea, the crown of all miracles, and worthy Mother of God ; that she approaches as nearly to God as created natm-e can do, and is far above the praise of men or angels. And, therefore, to vindicate the original innocence and justice of the Mother of God, they not only compared her to Eve, as yet virgin, as yet innocent, as yet incorrupted, and not yet deceived by the most deadly snares of the most treacherous serpent, but they have preferred her with a wonderful variety of thought and expression. For Eve, miserably obeying the serpent, fell from original innocence, and became his slave, but the Most Blessed Virgin, ever increasing her original gift, not only never leant an ear to the serpent, but by a vii'tue divinely received utterly broke his power. Wherefore they have never ceased to call the Mother of God the lily amongst the thorns, earth entirely untouched, virgin, undefiled, immacu- late, ever blessed, and free from all contagion of sin, from which was foimed the new Adam; a reproachless, most sweet paradise of innocence, immortality, and delights, planted by God himself, and fenced from all snares of the malignant serpent; incorruptible branch that the worm of sin has never injured; fountain ever clear, and marked by the virtue of the Holy Ghost; a most divine temple, or treasure of immortality, or the sole and only daughter not of death but of life, the seed not of enmity but of grace, which by the singular providence of God has always flour- ished, springing from a coiTupt and imperfect root, contrary to the settled and common laws. But if these encomiums, though most splendid, were not sufficient, they proclaimed in proper and defined opinions that when sin was to be treated of, no question should be entertained concerning the Holy Virgin Mary, to whom an abundance of grace was given to con- quer sin completely. They also declared that the Most Glorious Virgin was the reparatiix of her parents, the vivifier of posterity, chosen from the ages, prepared for Himself by the Most High, predicted by God when he said to the serpent, " I will place enmity between thee and the woman," who luidoubtedly has crushed the poisonous head of the same serpent; and therefore they affirm that the same Blessed Virgin was through grace perfectly free from every stain of sin, and from all conta- gion of body and soul and mind, and always conversant with God, and united with him in an eternal covenant, never was in darkness, but always in light, and therefore was plainly a fit habitation for Christ, not on account of her bodily state, but on account of her original grace. To these things are added the noble words in which, speaking of the Conception of the Yirgin, they have testified that nature yielded to grace and stood trembling, not being able to proceed further ; for it was to be that the Virgin Mother of God should not be conceived by Anna before grace should bear fruit. For she ought thus to be conceived as the first born, from whom should be conceived the first born of every creature. They have testified that the flesh of the Virgin, taken from Adam, did not admit the stains of Adam, and on this account that the Most Blessed Vir- gin was the tabernacle created by God himself, formed by the Holy Spirit, truly enriched with purple which that new Beseleel made, adorned and woven with gold ; and that this same Virgin is, and deservedly is, celebrated as she who was the first and the peculiar work of God, escaped from the fiery weapons of evil; and fair by nature, and entirely free from all stain, came into the world all shining like the morn in her Immaculate Conception ; nor, truly, was it right that this vessel of elec- tion should be assailed by common injuries, since, differing very much from others, she had community with them only in their nature, not in their fault. Moreover, it was right that, as the Only Begotten had a Father in heaven whom the seraphim proclaim thrice holy, so He should have a Mother on the earth, who should never want the splendor of holiness. And this doctrine, indeed, so filled the minds and souls of om- forefathers, that a marvelous and singular form of speech prevailed with, them, in which they very frequently called the Mother of God immacuiate and entirely immaculate, innocent and most innocent, spotless, holy, and most distant from every stain of sin, all pure, all perfect, the type and model of purity and innocence, more beautiful than beauty, more gracious than xxn LETTERS APOSTOLIC OF OUR grace, more holy than holiness, and alone holy, and most pure in soul and body, who has surpassed all perfectitude and all virginity, and has become the dwelling-place of all the graces of the Most Holy Spirit, and who, God alone excepted, is superior to all, and by nature fairer, more beautiful, and more holy than the cherubim and seraphim ; she whom all the tongues of heaven and earth do not suffice to extol. No one is ignorant that these forms of speech have passed, as it were spontaneously, into the monuments of the most holy Liturgy, and the Offices of the Church, and that they occm- often in them and abound amply ; and that the Mother of God is invoked and named in them as a spotless dove of beauty, as a rose ever blooming and perfectly pure, and ever spotless and ever blessed, and is celebrated as innocence which was never wounded, and a second Eve who brought forth Emmanuel. It is no wonder, then, if the Pastors of the Church and the faithful people have daily more and more gloried to profess with so much piety and fei*vor this doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mother of God, pointed out in the Sacred Scriptures, according to the judgment of the Fathers, handed down in so many mighty testimonies of the same, expressed and celebrated in so many illustrious monuments of a revered antiquity, and proposed, and with great piety confirmed, by the greatest and highest judgment of the Church ; so that nothing would be more dear, more pleasing to the same, than everywhere to worship, venerate, invoke, and proclaim the Virgin Mother of God conceived with- out original stain. Wherefore, from the ancient times, the Princes of the Church, Ecclesiastics, and even emperors and kings themselves, have #imestly entreated of this Apostolic See that the Immaculate Conception of the Most Holy Mother of God should be defined as a dogma of Catholic faith. Which entreaties were renewed also in these Our times, and espe- cially were a ddress^ to Gregory XVL, Our predecessor of happy memoiy, and^^^urselves, not only 1)\' Bishops, but by the secular clergy, religious Ora^Pby the greatest princes, and by the faithful people. Tlrerelnre, with singular joy of mind, well knowing all these things, and seriously consIdtM-ing tl|pii, scarcely had We, though unworthy, been raised 1^ a mysterious dispensation of Divine Providence to the exalted Chair of Peter, and undertaken the government of the whole Church, than, following the veneration, the piety, and love We had entertained for the MOST HOLY LORD PIUS IX. XXVll Blessed Yirgin from Our tender years, We had nothing at heart more than to accomplish all these things which as yet were amongst the ardent wishes of the Church, that the honor of the Most Blessed Virgin should be increased, and her prerogatives should shine with a fuller light. But wishing to bring to this full maturity We appointed a special congrega- tion of Our Venerable Brothers, the Cardinals of the Holy Eoman Church, illustrious by their piety, their wisdom, and their knowledge of the sacred sciences, and We also selected Ecclesiastics, both secular and regular, well trained in theological discipline, that they should most carefully weigh all those things which relate to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, and report to Us their opinion. And, although from the entreaties lately received by Us for at length defining the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, the opinions of most of the Bishops of the Church were understood ; however. We sent Encyclic letters, dated at Gaeta, the 2d day of February, in the year 1849, to all Our Venerable Brethren, the Bishops of all the Catholic world, in order that having offered prayers to God they might signify to Us, in witing, what was the piety and devotion of their flocks towards the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God, and especially what the Bishops themselves thought about promulgating the definition, or what they desired in order that We might pronounce Our supreme judgment as solemnly as possible. Certainly we were filled with no slight consolation when the replies of Our Venerable Brethren came to Us. For, with an incredible joyfulness, gladness, and zeal, they not only confirmed their own singular piety, and that of their clergy and faithful people, towards the Immaculate Concep- tion of the Most Blessed Virgin, but they even entreated of Us with% common voice that the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin should be defined by Our supreme judgment and authority. Nor, indeed, were We filled with less joy when- Our Venerable Brothers, ,dtiie Cardinals of the Special Congregation aforesaid, and the consulting theologians chosen by Us, after a diligent examination demanded fi-om Us with equal alacrity and zeal this definition of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God. '^ M Afterwards walking in the illustrious footsteps of Our predecessors, and desiring to proceed duly and properly. We proclaimed and held a Consistory, in which We addressed Our Brethren, the Cardinals of the xxvui LETTERS APOSTOLIC OF OUR Holy Roman Churcli, and with the greatest consolation of mind We heard them entreat of Us that We should promulgate the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mother of God. Therefore having full trust in the Lord that the opportune time had come for defining the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary Mother of God, which the Divine word, venerable tradition, the perpetual opinion of the Church, the singular agreement of Catholic Prelates and Faithful, and the signal acts and constitutions of Our predecessors wonderfully illustrate and proclaim; having most diligently weighed all things, and poured forth to God assiduous and fervent prayers. We resolved that We would no longer delay to sanction and define, by Our supreme authority, the Innnaculate Conception of the Virgin, and thus to satisfy the most pious desires of the Catholic world and Our own piety towards the Most Holy Virgin, and, at the same time, to honor more and more the cmly-begot- ten Son Jesus Christ Om- Lord, since whatever honor and praise is given to the Mother redounds to the Son. Wherefore, after We had unceasingly, in humility and fasting, offered Our own prayers and the public prayers of the Church to God the Father, through his Son, that He would deign to direct and confirm Our mind by the power of the Holy Ghost, and implored the aid of the entire heavenly host, and invoked the Paraclete with sighs, and He thus inspir- ing, to the honor of the Holy and undivided Trinity, to the glory and ornament of the Virgin Mother of God, to the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of the Catholic religion, by the authority of Jesus Christ Our Lord, of the Blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul, We declare, .Renounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace of the Omnipitent God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind, was preserved immaculate from all stain of origi- nal si^h^^j^n revealed ])y God, and therefore should firmly and con- staiMlpi^Wliieved by all the faithful. Wherefore, if any shall dare — whicn (jJod forbid — to thiiilc otherwise than as it has been defined by Us, they ipK » 111 (1 know and understand that they are condemned by their own judPnent, that they have suffered shipwreck of the faith, and have revolted from the unity of the Chm-ch ; and besides, by their own act they subject themselves to the penalties justly established, if what they think MOST HOLY LORD PIUS IX. xxix they should dare to signify by word, writing, or any other outward means. Our mouth is filled with joy, and Our tongue with exultation, and We return, and shall ever return, the most humble and the greatest thanks to Jesus Christ Our Lord, because through his singular beneficence He has granted to Us, though unworthy, to offer and decree this honor, glory, and praise, to His Most Holy Mother; but We rest in the most certain hope and confidence that this Most Blessed Virgin, who, all fair and immaculate, has bruised the poisonous head of the most malignant Ser- pent, and brought salvation to the world, who is the praise of the Prophets and the Apostles, the honor of the Martyrs, and the crown and joy of all the Saints-^who is the safest refuge and most faithful helper of all who are in danger, and the most powerful mediatrix and conciliatrix with the only-begotten Son for the whole world, and the most illustrious glory and ornament, and most firm guardian of the Holy Church, who has destroyed all heresies, and snatched from the greatest calamities of all kinds the faithful peoples and nations, and delivered Us from so many threatening dangers, will effect by her most powerful patronage that, all difficulties being removed, and all errors dissipated. Our Holy Mother the Catholic Church may flourish daily more and more throughout all nations and countries, and may reign from sea to sea to the ends of the earth, and may enjoy all peace, tranquillity, and liberty; that the sinner may obtain pardon, the sick healing, the weak strength of heart, the afflicted consola- tion, and that all who are in error, their spiritual blindness being dissi- pated, may return to the path of truth and justice, and may become one flock and one shepherd. Let all the children of the Catholic Church, most dear to Us, hear these Our words, and, with a more ardent zeal of piety, religion, and love, pro- ceed to worship, invoke, and pray to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, conceived without original sin, and let them fly with entire confidence to this most sweet Mother of Mercy and Grac^ in all dangers, difficulties, doubts, and fears. For nothing is to be feared, and nothing is to be despaired of under her guidance, under her auspices, under her favor, under her protection, who, bearing towards us a maternal affection, and taking up the business of our salvation, is solicitous for the whole human race, and, appointed by God the Queen of Heaven and LETTERS APOSTOLIC. Earth, and exalted above all the choirs of Angels, and orders of Saints, standing at the right hand of the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ Our Lord, intercedes most powerfully, and obtains what she asks, and cannot be frusti*ated. Finally, in order that this Our definition of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary may be brought to the knowledge of the Universal Church, We will these Letters Apostolic to stand for a perpetual remembrance of the thing, commanding that to transcripts or printed- copies, subscribed by the hand of some notary public, and authenticated by the seal of a person of Ecclesiastical rank, appointed for the purpose, the same faith shall be paid which would be paid to these presents if they were exhibited or shown. Let no man interfere with this Our declaration, pronunciation, and definition, or oppose and contradict it with presumptuous rashness. If any should presume to assail it, let him know that he will incur the in- dignation of the Omnipotent God and of His Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, in the year of the Incarnation of Our Lord 1854, the sixth of the Ides of December, in the ninth year of Our Pontificate. PIUS IX., Pope. Li I P^ E OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY; iH0tl)er of (^oir. CHAPTER I. UNIVERSAL EXPECTATION OF THE VIRGIN AND OF THE MESSIAH. those remote times when the world was still in its infancy, when our first parents, trem- bling and amazed, heard, under the majestic shades of Eden,* the awful voice of Jehovah condemning them to exile, to labor, and to death, in punishment of their mad dis- obedience, a mysterious prediction, wherein the pitying kindness of the Creator was manifested through the * The word Eden, among the Arabs as among the Hebrews, is the name of the terrestrial paradise, and also of the paradise of the elect. * wrath of the ofiended Deity, came to raise the drooping spirits of those two frail creatures who had, like Lucifer, sinned through pride. A daughter of Eve, a woman of mascu- line com^age, was to crush the head of the serpent beneath her feet, and to regenerate for ever a guilty race ; that woman was Mary. Thenceforward, it was a tradition amongst the antediluvian tribes that a woman should come to repair the evil which another had done; this consoling tradition, which kept up In Hebrew, it signifies a place of delight ; in Arabic, a place proper for the grazing of flocks. 82 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. the hopes of a fallen race, had not * yet been effaced from the minds of men, at the time of their grand dis- persion on the plains of Sennaar; they carried with them, over seas and mountains, that sweet, though distant hope, together with the re- ligion of Noah, and the wreck of art and science saved from the waters of the Deluge.* In after times, when the primitive religion faded away, and the ancient traditions were shrouded in obscurity, that of the Vii-gin and the Messiah resisted, almost alone, the action of time, and reared itself up on the ruin of ancient creeds, swallowed up in the fables of polytheism, like the evergreen which grows amid the * It is certain that the race of primitive men, which was wild, but not savage, early attained a knowledge of the arts analogous to their wants and pleasures. Scarcely do the children of Adam form into little communities of men, when we see them establish a public worship, fabricate tents, build towns, forge iron, cast bronze, invent instruments of music, and follow the coarse of the stars. The history of Astron- omy must be traced, according to Bailly, to an antediluvian people, of whom the memory is lost, but of whose astronomical knowledge some fragments escaped the general revolution. La- lande, fearing that this assertion might prove too much in favor of the Sacred Books, refers to the Egyptians the origin of this science ; but the Hebrews, who, as neighbors, contempo- ruins of what once was Babylon the great.f* Let us sui-vey the various regions of the globe; let us search, from north to south, from east to west, the religious chi-onicles of the nations, we shall find the Virgin promised, and her divine maternity at the basis of almost all theogonies. In Thibet, in Japan, and in a por- tion of the eastern peninsula of In- dia, it is the god Fo, who, to save mankind, became incarnate in the womb of the young betrothed of a king, the nymph Lhamoghiuprul, the fairest and holiest of women. In China, they reckon amongst the number of the sons of Heaven the Emperor Hoang-Ti, whose mollier raries, and ancient dwellers amongst the E<2fyp- tians, have a right to settle this diiference, decide for Bailly, against his adversary, by in- forming us that the Egyptians derived their first astronomical knowledge from the tradi- tions saved from the Deluge. (/S'ee Joseph. Ant. Jud.) f There is but one single tree found amid the ruins of Babylon ; the Persians give it the name of Athele ; according to them, that tree existed in the ancient city, and was miracu- lously preserved, to the end that their prophet Ali, the son-in-law of Mahomet, might fasten his horse to it after the battle of Hilla. It is an evergreen shrub, and so rare in those rej^ions that there is only one other of the same kind, found at Bassora. (Rich's Memoir.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 83 conceived by a flash of lightning ; ' another emperor, Yao, who lived at the time of the Deluge, had for his mother a virgin who conceived from the beam of a star ; Yu, the head of the first Chinese dynasty, owed his life to a pearl (the emblem of light throughout all the East) ,* which fell from heaven into the chaste bosom of a young maiden. Heou-Tsi, chief of the dynasty of Tcheou, changed not, by his birth, the virginity of his mother, who conceived him by di- vine operation, one day as she was in prayer, and brought him forth without effort and without pain in a deserted grotto, where lambs and oxen warmed him with their breath.f The most popular goddess of the Celestial Empire, Sching-Mou, con- ceived at the simple touch of a * " The pearl,'' says Chardin, " has every- where distinctive names : in the East, the Turks and Tartars call it mardjaun, globe of light ; the Persians, marvid, production of light." f We find in the Chi-kmg two fine odes on this marvellous birth of Heou-Tsi ; and the com- ments and paraphrases of the learned on these verses agree in explaining them in a way which renders the resemblance to the divine mater- Hity of Mary still more striking. " Every child who is born," says Ho-sou, " rends the womb of his mother, and costs her the most cruel an- guish. Kiang-Yuen brought forth hers without rupture, hurt, or pain. It is that Tien {Heaven) ^ water-flower; her son, brought up under the roof of a poor fisherman, became a great man, and wrought miracles. The lamas say that Buddha is born of the virgin Maha-Mahai. Sommonokhodom, the prince, the legislator, and the god of Siam, likewise owes his life to a virgin made fruitful by the rays of the sun. Lao-Tseu took flesh in the womb of a black virgin, wonderful and fair as the jasper. The zodiacal Isis of the Egyptians is a virgin mother. The Isis of the Druids was to bring forth the future Sa- viour.;!; The Brahmins teach that, when a god assumes human flesh, he is conceived in the womb of a virgin, by divine operation: so also Jagrenat,§ the mutilated re- would thus display its power, and show how the Holy One differs from men. Having been con- ceived by the operation of Tien," says another commentator, Tsou-Tsong-Ho, " who gave him life by a miracle, he must needs be born without wounding the virginity of his mother." J Hinc Druidse statuam in intimis penetrali- bus erexerunt, Isidi seu virgini hanc dedicantes, ex qua filius ille proditurus erat (nempe generis humani Eedemptor). (Elias Schedius, de Dlis Germanis, cap. 13.) § Jagrenat, the seventh incarnation of Brah- ma, is represented in the form of a pyramid, without hands and without feet. "He lost u LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. deeuier of the world; Chricbna, born in a grotto, where angels and shepheixls come to adore him in his nadle, — each of these has a virgin for his mother. The Babylonian Dogdo sees in a dream a brilliant messenger fi*om Oromazes, who deposits at her feet the most magnificent garments; a celestial light falls upon the face of the sleeper, who becomes fair as the ibem," say the Brahmins, " trying to carry the world, in order to save it." {See Kircher.) * Zer-Ateucht signifies washed with silver; this surname was given to Zoroaster, because that, as the Ghebers say, he proved his mission, to a Sabean prince who persecuted him, by plunging into a bath of molten silver. (See Tavernier, ToL iL, p. 92.) t This Nemroud, whom Tavernier names Nenbrout, is, according to some, Nimrod, the famous hunter ; according to others, the tyrant Zhohac, of the Persians, a king of the first dy- nasty of princes, who reigned immediately after ^e Deluge. According to the author of the MefaiiA Aloloum, Nemroud would be identical with Gaicaous, second king of the second dy- nasty of Persia, named the Calanides. The Persian historians give him a reign of nearly two centuries, which must needs be rather long. By some he is represented as an impious man, who conceived the strange fancy of ascending to heaven in a chest, drawn by four of those monstrous birds called kerkes, mentioned by old Eastern writers in their romances. After having wandered some time through the air, he fell so heavily on a mountain, say the ancient legends of Persia, that it was shaken to its very base. According to the Persians, this Nimrod caused * day-star; Zerdhucht, Zoroaster, or rather Ebraliim-Zer-Ateucht, * the famous prophet of the Magi, is the fruit of this nocturnal vision. The tyrant Nimrod, f informed by his astrologers that a child, still unborn, menaces his gods and his throne, causes all pregnant women to be put to death; Zerdhucht, however, is saved through the prudence and dexterity of his mother.J The Ma- Zerdhucht, whom they confound with Abraham, to be cast into a fiery furnace ; according to others, Nemroud was a Sabean in religion, and it was he who first established the worship of fire. (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, t. iii., p. 32.) The Jews claim for Abraham, the father and the founder of their people, this persecu- tion, of which the honor is given by the Per- sians to Zerdhucht, their legislator. St. Jerome relates an ancient tradition of the Jews, to the effect that Abraham had been cast into the fire by order of the Chaldeans, because he would not adore him. (Hieron., Qucest. in Genes.) This tradition is confirmed by Jewish writers much more modern ; R. Chain, ben Adda mentions that Abraham, meeting a young girl carrying an idol, broke the latter in pieces ; a complaint was immediately laid before Nemroud, who would have him, therefore, adore the fire. The patriarch gravely answered, that it would be much more natural to worship water, which extinguishes fire, the clouds whence the water proceeds, the wind which gathers the clouds, and man who is a being much more pei'fect than the "wind. Nemroud, irritated by this cutting rebuke, cast Abraham into the fire, which, how- ever, did not harm him. J See Tavernier, at the place quoted. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 35 ceniques, who inhabit the shores of Lake Zarayas, in Paraguay, relate that at a very remote period a woman of rare beauty became a mother, yet remained a virgin ; her son, after having wrought many ex- traordinary miracles, ascended one day into the open air, in presence of his disciples, and transformed himself into a sun. Let all these scattered fragments of corrupted seed be brought to- gether, and they will make up, in nearly all its details, the history of the Virgin and her divine Son. The Virgin, notwithstanding the royal blood which flows through her veins, is of obscure condition, like the mother of Zoroaster; like her, too, she receives the visit of an angel bearing a message from Heaven. The tyrant Nemroud, who was the progenitor of a line of very wicked princes, may pass for the type of Herod, and is as anxious to compass the death of the young fire-wor- shipper as the sanguinary spouse of Mariamne to accomplish that of the infant Jesus ; both miss their prey. Born of a virgin who conceives him during fervent prayer, and brings him forth without pain or effort in a * poor stable, like the first-born of the noble and pious Kiang-Yuen, our divine Saviour dwelt amongst the lower classes, like the son of the Chinese goddess ; angels and shep- herds come to render Him homage, as to Chrichna, on the very night of his birth ; then, after having stilled the tempest, walked on the water, expelled demons, raised the dead to life, he ascends triumphantly into heaven in the presence of five hun- dred disciples, whose dazzled eyes lose sight of him in the clouds, pre- cisely as is related by the savage tribes of Paraguay. It is assuredly very strange that these marvellous legends, which have not been copied from the evan- gelical facts, since they are incontes- tably more ancient, yet form, when taken together, the real life of the Son of God. Can truth, then, spring from error ? What are we to think of these fantastic associations? Shall we say, with the scoffing philoso- phers of the Voltairian school, and some German visionaries of a some- what more recent date, that the Apostles borrowed these fables from the various creeds of Asia? But without speaking of the jealous care LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. with which they hid the books re- puted divine in the impenetiable darkness of the sanctuary — not to mention the profound horror where- with the Jews regarded idolatrous legends, and their supreme contempt for foreign learning — how could poor, illiterate men, the extent of whose knowledge was to steer a bark over the waters of Genesareth, and whose nets were still dripping with its living waters, when they were pro- moted to the Apostleship — how could laborious artizans, forced to toil for their daily bread during the intervals of their preaching — how could such as they have ransacked the sacred books of the Indias, of the Chinese, the Bactrians, the Pheni- cians, and the Persians ? What appearance is there that Simon Peter, the sons of Zebedee, or the austere disciple of Gamaliel, who boldly said to Corinth, that rich and learned Grecian city. For myself^ I kivow hut one thing ^ Jesus ^ and Him crtmjied, that these should have snatched from idolatry, which their mission was to destroy, some of its old tatters to patch upon the life of Jesus Christ — a life so simple and 80 grand ! Still, if the question had * only been of loans made from the fabulous legends of nations border- ing on Palestine, such as the Egyp- tians and Phenicians, however unjust might have been the accusation, it w^ould have had, at least, a show of probability ; but no ! these brilliant pomts, which detach themselves from the dark shades of idolatry to form, like so many little stars, the am-eola of the Yirgin's Son, come from places the most distant and the least known. Not to speak of that Gaul, whose impenetrable forests hid, at the extremity of Western Eu- rope, its mysterious creed under the shadow of giant oaks ; of the great Indies, so imperfectly known in the time of Tiberias ; of that Serica of the porcelain towers, whose distant provinces did not tempt even the covetous Romans;* how could the Apostles have contrived to commu- nicate with far America, separated from the old continent by her green belt of waves, and lost like the pearl amid the waters. * It was under the reign of Augustus that the Roman people received the first ambassador from the Seres, whom we now call Chinese. The ambassadors pretended that it had taken ^ them three years to make the journey. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 37 But, granting that the Apostles had known, no matter how, these ancient myths, disseminated over all the globe — nay, I will go far- ther still, and, setting aside native simplicity, the sealed testimony of blood, the high sanctity of these divine men, carried away, as Rous- seau says, with zeal for their Mas- ter's glory, I will suppose that the idea had occurred to them to em- broider some fabulous circumstances on the evangelical tissue — why, the thing would have passed ih^h: power. With what face, for instance, could they have attributed to that Herod, whom all Jerusalem had known, whose reign, so glorious and yet so tragical, each one knew by heart, an atrocious and improbable fact, renewed from I know not what king of Persia, who, perhaps, never ex- isted save in the dreams of the Magi? K the massacre of the In- nocents had been a story fabricated or copied by the Apostles, is it to be believed that the Bethlehemites, * The flatterers of Herod the First, dazzled with the greatness and magnificence of that prince, maintained that he was the Messiah. Hence arose the sect of the Herodians, so often mentioned in the Gospel, and even known to * SO likely to know what was passing in the Holy City, whose lofty towers darkened their horizon, would not have openly protested against that audacious falsehood; or that those cunning Pharisees, who would fain have confounded Jesus himself, would have let such a story become current without attempting to re- fute it ; or that the Herodians would have tamely suffered a stain so foul to be falsely imprinted on the fame of a prince whom they regarded al- most as a god,* and who had loaded them with wealth and honors? K all were silent, it is because the fact was too well accredited, too public, too recent, to leave any plausible pretence for denial; it is because that, within two hours' walk of Jeru- salem, were the mothers of the mar- tyrs who had purchased with their young lives the honor of being born with Christ ; it is because that whole towns had seen the glitter of the mm^derous steel, and heard the wail of death ; it is because that, at the the Pagans, since Persus and his scholiast inform us that, from the days of Nero, the birth of King Herod was celebrated by his sectaries with the same solemnity as the Sab- bath. fl8 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. tii-st denial given to the Christians, a ^ whole nation would have risen and shouted, But toe were there /* So it is with tlie divine child- bearing of Mary — the visit of the shephei-ds sent by the angels — the glorious resurrection — and, in short, with all the prodigies wliich marked the coming of Cluist. The Apostles WTote dming the lifetime of those who had figured in the scenes they related ; and, even before they con- signed these prodigies to writing, they had openly preached them in the very temple of Jehovah, before that immense assemblage of Heb- rews from all the provinces, who re- paired thither either to offer sacri- fice or to bring first-fruits ; the most dangerous auditory in the world, if they had promulgated falsehood. Far fi'om fearing conti'adictions. * " Neither Josephus nor the Rabbins speak of the massacre of the Innocents," says Strauss ; " Macrobus, who lived in the fourth century, is the only writer who says a word of the massacre decreed by Herod." Strauss is in error ; the Toldos, from whom Celsus has taken some of the facts prejudicial to Christianity, which he has interspersed through his writings, do speak positively on the subject, and the fact is in the Talmud. This is the way in which Bossuet answers those who deny the evangelical fact, and never was answer more definitive. " Where which in case of imposture must needs have followed, St. Peter speaks to that vast multitude as one sure of the general assent ; he boldly ap- peals to the yet recent remembrance of those who hear him ; he asserts the miracles which stamped as di- vine the mission of the Son of Mary, and that even before the great coun- cil of the nation, which had exerted all its power to have Jesus crucified. And the senators of Israel, frighten- ed and fm-ious, cause St. Peter and St. John to be beaten with rods, in order to make them keep silence; but yet they deny not, as the Tal- mud shows, those prodigies which they stupidly attribute to magic. Thus it is that they say not to the Apostles brought before them by the guards of the Temple, " Ye are liars or visionaries !" they only tell are those," says he, " who, in order to confirm their faith, would wish that the profane histo- rians of that age had mentioned this cruelty of Herod, as well as all the others? Just as though our faith ought to depend on what the negligence or affected policy of worldly histo- rians has made them record or omit in their histories ! Far from us be such weak imagin- ings ; even in a human point of view, the Evan- geHst would have been very careful not to com- promise the character of his narrative by record- ing a fact which was not well authenticated." LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 39 them, with an agitation which plain- * ly indicates their secret fears, "Be silent! will ye that we be stoned by the people ?" Whereupon those two men, simple in heart, but great in soul, made answer : " We cannot be silent! God commands us to speak, and Him must we obey rather than men." Imposture is not so bold or confident. After having examined the acts, the character, and the position of the Apostles, every impartial mind v/ill be forced to admit that they were neither deceiving nor deceived, and that they have nothing to do with the analogies remarked be- tween the evangelical facts and the traditions, more or less fabulous, of the ancient nations. But, then, how to explain these analogies ? Is it a mere game of chance, a lucky coincidence ? No, it is not by chance that the mystery of the incarnation of a God in the womb of a virgin is one of the fundamental doctrines of Asia. It is not by chance that the privi- leged women who bear in their womb that emanation of the Divin- ity are always chaste, beautiful, and holy; that they have glorious and ^ mysterious names, which signify, in all these ancient tongues, expected beauty^ immaculate virgin, faithful virgin, delight of mankind, polar star; and that they are all so much alike that one would say they were mould- ed on a far-off type hidden from us by the darkness of time. Finally, it is not by chance that a luminous ray unites the divine and human nature. These traditions, wherein the stamp of a primitive time is so plainly visible, evidently ascend to the birth of the world. The ante- diluvian patriarchs, that chain of old men who lived the age of cedars, wishing to form for themselves an idea of the woman blessed amongst all others, whose miraculous mater- nity was to save mankind, repre- sented her to themselves under the likeness of Eve before her fall ; they gave her a majestic and saintly beauty, which cguld awake in the minds of men no other feeling save that of religious veneration ; they made her a mild and veiled star, whose dawn was to precede that of the Sun of Justice. The means whereby God gave fecundity to that virginal womb are 40 L1J:E UF IHE BLESSED VIRQIN MARY Ktiikingly tUike, amongst the differ- ent nations of the world. Cast a glance over all the old religions, and you will there find a sacred fire. But the fire was, for the Persians, the ten'cstrial emblem of the sim, and the sun himself was but the dwelling of the Most High, the glo- rious tent of the God of Heaven.'^ The Hebrews, wht) shared in this belief, recognized the divine pres- ence, or the schelmiUy in the radiant cloud which overhung the cherubim of the mercy-seat. They believed that God clothed himself with light as with a garment, when manifest- ing himself to men, on solemn oc- casions. It was the opinion of the Synagogue, supported by the ti-adi- tion of the Temple, that in the midst of the wild rose-bush, which burned without being consumed, when Moses, that great shepherd of men, was tending, on Mount Horeb, the flocks of his Arab father-in-law, there was seen a very lovely face, resembling nothing that is seen here below; and that this celestial im- * " The Persians suppose that the throne of God is in the sun," says Hanway, " and hence their veneration for that star." f PhUon, Vie de McUse {Life of Moses). f age, clearer than the flame and more brilliant than the lightning, was, without doubt, the image of the Eternal God.f "With this premise, it is not difficult to understand the drift of the opinion, so generally dif- fused, that a luminous ray was to impart fecundity to the womb of the favored virgin who was the expec- tation of all nations. With this graceful tradition of a pure virgin admitted to a divine union, surrounded by impenetrable mystery, was connected that of a Saviour God, born of her womb, who was to suffer and die for the salva- tion of the world. J This tradition was not perpetuated, like the other, by means of brilliant and poetical images, but by terror, which makes an impression far more indelible than poetry. The bloody sacrifice, which we find established, from the earliest times, amongst nearly all nations, was solely intended to pre- serve amongst men the remembrance of the promised immolation of Cal- vary. This is easily proved. J This tradition is found in the sacred books of China. {See Father Premare's work, entitled, Selecta qucedam vestigia prcecipuorum Christiance religionis dogmatum ex antiquis lihris eruta. ) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGLN MART. 41 Worship, that demonstration of love, that homage of gratitude which Adam and Eve were to render to God immediately after their crea- tion, was, in Eden, doubtless com- posed of only innocent prayers and oblations of fruits and flowers.* But when they — ^ungrateful that they were — had infringed upon the pre- cept, so easy in observance, which the Lord had imposed, like a sweet yoke, upon them, merely to make them feel that they had a master; * Porphyr. de Abst., lib. ii. •f God might annex to the plants certain nat- ural virtues for the sake of our bodies, and it is easy to believe that the fruit of the tree of life had the virtue of restoring the body, by an ali- ment so proportionate and so efficacious that none could ever die while using it. (Bossuet, Elev. sur les MysL, t. i. p. 231.) I Man was never immortal, in this world, as the pure spirits are, for a body formed of dust must needs return to dust ; he was so only by a favor, without precedent, and conditionally granted, whereby he was elevated to, and main- tained in, a position far above his proper sphere. Immortality here below never yet belonged to man as a birthright. Every earthly body is to perish through the dissolution of its parts, unless prevented by a special decree of the Creator ; this Divine will was manifested in favor of our first parents. God planted, in the delicious garden where he had placed mor- tal man, the tree of life, a plant of celestial origin, which had the property of repelling death, as the laurel, according to the ancients, f when they had lost, with the immor- talizing fruits of the tree of life,f their talisman against death,J and descended from the charming hills of Eden to a land bristling with briers and thorns, to a land whose virgin bosom they must open to nourish themselves; they added to the fruits and wild flowers produced by the land of exile^ the first fruits of their flocks. This merits atten- tion. Adam, who joined to the per- fection of the human form an intel- keeps off the thunder. To that mysterious tree was attached the immortality of the human species ; away from that protecting tree, death again seized his prey, and man was hurled from the height of heaven into his miserable tene- ment of clay. (Aug., Quoest. Vet. et Nov. Test., q. 19, p. 430.") No one will question, I fancy, that God had an undoubted right to expel Adam from the garden after his disobedience ; but the expulsion involved the sentence of death for man and his posterity; without the tree of life, he was nothing more than a frail and perishable creature, subject to the laws which govern created bodies : when the anti- dote is wanting, it is very evident that the poison kills. Having again become mortal, Adam begot sons mortal like himself. The condition into which the father had fallen must needs be that of the children. In that, God did no wrong to the human race ; we are, by nature, mortal ; He has left us as we were. To withdraw a gratuitous favor, when the object of that favor tears with his own hands the deed of gift, is assuredly not severity, but only justice. i 42 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. ligent and elevated mind, wherein j the Loi-d had planted the germ of all virtue and of all knowledge, could not be void of humanity. His fatal complaisance to Eve shows him loving even to weakness, and therefore susceptible, in the highest degree, of all kindly feelings and affections. How could it, then, oc- cur to him that the Creator would take pleasure in the violent death of His creature, or that an act of destruction was an act of piety ? The immolation of animals, which has not the slightest connection with the vows and prayers of man, and which the purely vegetable food of the first patriarchs left with- out other object than that of mur- der, must needs have excited a * The time that Adam and Eve remained in the terrestrial paradise is not exactly known ; it must, nevertheless, have been of some dura- tion, and so it "was understood by Milton, whom we do not here quote as a poet, but as a pro- found Oriental scholar. Moreover, if we re- member that it was in Eden that Adam learned to distinguish and to call by name all the birds of the air, the beasts of the earth, and the fishes of the water ; that he there learned the virtues of plants, and what God chose to teach him regarding the course of the stars ; we must then conclude that all this was not the work of a day. The Persians and the Chinese have it that the first man was in Paradise for many thousand feelings of disgust and repugnance in the mind of our common father. Long had those poor, dumb creatures, devoid of rea- son, but very capable of attachment, composed, in Eden, the court of that solitary king. He then seated him- self at the same table, slept on the same mossy hillock, quenched his thirst at the same spring, and his prayer ascended to heaven, at early dawn and evening's close, with the warbling of the birds, who seemed to sing, in their turn, the morning or evening hymn. Those compan- ions of his happier days, involved in his misfortune, now shared his exile :* some, giving way to the fe- rocious instinct which in Paradise had remained undeveloped, fled to ages. The Arabs and the Rabbins say that he was there only half a day ; but, according to them, that half day in Paradise was equivalent to five hundred years ; for a day there was equal to a thousand years. According to our views, that period of time is much too long. It is commonly believed that Cain, whose birth, in Genesis, follows closely upon the expulsion of his parents, was born in the year of the world 13, which would leave the stay in Paradise in or about twelve years. That term, although some- what short, would have, nevertheless, enabled the first man to establish his supremacy over the animals subject to him, and to attach him J J to his humble dependants by the tie& of habit. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 43 the depth of the wilderness or the f secret caverns of the mountains, whence they soon waged deadly warfare against their former master. Others, mild and inoffensive by na- ture, established themselves around the grotto of their lord, to whom fchey offered, to satisfy his wants and soothe his cares, their milk, their labor, their fleece, and their melodious concerts. Well, it was from the ranks — thin they were, too — of these humble friends, faithful in misfortune, that Adam selected, counted, and marked his victims ; it was into the throat of the heifer who had given him milk, of the dove who had flown to his bosom for shelter when the vulture hovered in the air, of the lamb that quitted its flowery pasture to lick his hand, that he had the heart to plunge his knife. Ah ! when, man, yet unprac- tised in killing, struck down at his feet a poor, timid creature, and saw ' it bleeding and struggling in the \ agony of death, he must have stood * It is in remembrance of the sin of Eve, at sight of which, according to the Jews, the sun hid his hght, that the Jewish women are spe- cially charged to light the lamps which burn in every house during the Sabbath night. " It is pale and horror-stricken, like the assassin who has just committed his first murder! That thought never occurred to him ; it was not an act of choice, but of painful obedience. Who imposed it upon him ? He to whom alone it belongs to dispose of life and death — God ! Adam committed a sin so enor- mous by its aggravating circum- stances and its disastrous conse- quences, that, in order to express its full extent, the Hebrew tradition relates that the sun hid his face in horror.* Satan attacked him in his strength, at a time when, as yet, he knew nought but good, in the fair- est of earth's scenes, under the re- cent impression of the immense benefit of creation, free, happy, tranquil, immortal, and capable of resisting, if he had chosen to do so. It was from this height that he fell into the fearful abyss of disobedi- ence and ingratitude. The justice of God demanded a punishment proportionate? to the offence; man just," say the Hebrew doctors, "that women should rekindle the flame which they have ex- tinguished, and that they be charged with that trouble, in expiation of their sin." (Basn., Ub. vii. ch. 13.) M LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. was condemned to die a double f death, and it was all over with the human species, had not a Divine Being, predestined before the birth of time to the work of oui* redemp- tion, taken it upon himself to make satisfaction for us all. Thencefor- wai-d he was called the Messiah, and revealed as a Saviour, at the very moment when the voice of God — that voice which rends the cedars — pronomiced the sentence of the three criminals. " Because thou hast done this thing," said God to the serpent, who showed himself proud of our ruin, " the seed of the woman" — that is to say, her off- spring — " shall crush thy head." And the Hebrew tradition adds that God, touched by the repentance of our tirst parents, revealed to them by an angel, that from their race should arise a just man who would annihilate the pernicious ef- fects of the ti-ee of knowledge,* by means of a voluntary oblation, and * It is generally considered, amongst Chris- tians, that the tree of knowledge was an apple- tree ; the Persians maintain, on the contrary, that this fatal tree was a fig-tree. In our days, the German Eichhorn makes it out to have been a species of manchJnecL "A deduction would be the salvation of those who put their trust in Him.f On the other side, we learn from the Arab traditions that God, who is merciful and indulgent, would vouchsafe to point out to man the way to im- plore his forgiveness. That wor- ship, revealed by God, was un- doubtedly sacrifice, a ceremony at once commemorative, expiatory, and symbolical, whereby man acknowl- edged that he had deserved death, and, substituting for himself inno- cent victims, kept perpetually be- fore his mind the great victim of Calvary. Thus, then, the institution of the bloody sacrifice, which was not of human invention, rested, at bottom, on a conception of Divine mercy, since it perpetuated, amongst all nations, that tradition of the Mes- siah, without which the work of the Kedemption would have been a fa- vor thi'own away. God ripens his councils by ages, made from the wonders attending on the fall of man," says that Rationalist writer, " the fact is evident that the constitution of the human body has been, from the beginning, vitiated by the use of a poisonous fruit" (Eichhorn's Argeschichte.) f Basnage, lib. vL ch. 25, p. 417. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 45 for a thousand years are to Him but as one day; but man is eager to obtain, for man lasts but a short time. It appears that Eve had con- cluded, from the words of the angel, that she was to be the mother of the promised Redeemer, and that this was the reason why she testified such transports of joy on the birth of Cain,* whom she took for her Saviour. Undeceived by the devel- opment of his perverse inclinations, she transferred her hopes to Abel, that son so fondly loved, whose name recalls the mourning and tears * Cain is called Gahel by all the Arab writers ; that name, which means the first, is perhaps his proper name. The surname of Cain, which signifies traitor, must have been subsequently given him. (Savary, note to Chapter V. of the Koran. ) f Abel, by the Arabs written Habel, is, accord- ing to them, only the surname of that young shepherd who was the first type of Jesus Christ. In fact, it recalls the sad event which threw the family of Adam into mourning, "and properly signifies," says Savary (place quoted). His death left a mother in tears. Josephus, too, says that the name of Abel signifies mourning. (Antiq. Jud., p. 4.) \ See Basnage, lib. vi. ch. 25. § The Arabian traditions place the terrestrial paradise in that fair valley of Damascus which the Eastern poets designate as the emerald of the desert. This idea is justified by its admirable situation, its beauty, and its fertility ; and a learned commentator on Genesis has not hesi- of his mother;! then to Seth;J but all in vain, for the gates of Paradise never opened again for her. The just of the race of Seth, those pure, solitary, and contemplative men called in Scripture the children of God, and in the Assyrian legends genii, long flattered themselves with a similar hope ; and the Jewish tra- dition represents them as wandering on the heights around the garden of Eden,§ whose gigantic cedars they wistfully admired, 1 1 and flattered themselves the while that from amongst themselves should arise a tated to set down this fair site as that of the garden of Eden, although the names of the Euphrates and the Tigris indicate a position somewhat different. In support of this Arab tradition there is shown, about half a day's journey from Damascus, a lofty mountain of white marble, shaded with beautiful trees, and therein is a cavern, pointed out as the abode of Adam, of Abel, and of Cain ; there is also seen the sepulchre of Abel, which is much respected by the Turks. The spot whereon the fratri- cide was committed is marked by four pillars. (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 772 and 780. — Pere Pacifique, in his Commentaries on the Bible. ) |] The lofty cedars of Eden have remained traditionally in the memory of the Hebrews, who have made the terrestrial paradise their heaven. In most of their epitaphs we read these words : "He is gone down to the garden of Eden to those who are amongst the cedars." (Basnage, i V. lib. vii.) 46 LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. just man who would obtain admis- sion for them. But it was not the name of a virgin of the primitive times that was written in the immu- table decrees of the Eternal; and the eai'th, still quivering under the Divine malediction, had need of being washed as by the ablution of a baptism, before the foot of Him who was to bring the glad tidings should leave its sacred impress on the mountains. When the earth had absorbed the watei-s of the Deluge, and the winds had dried it up, the new human family, springing into life under fa- I vorable auspices, hastened to re-es- ; tablish the worship of Enos. Noah I joined thereto the seven precepts I which bear his name, not forgetting the historical and religious traditions which his long existence prior to the * All the ancient law bears an aspect of blood and death in figure of the new law established and confirmed by the blood of Jesus Christ. (Bossuet, Elkv. sur les Myst., tip. 428. t The Indians, the Chinese, the Peruvians, and even the Hurons, acknowledge that the first man was formed of clay. The Brahmins, who make delightful representations of their chorcam (paradise), place therein a tree whose fruit would confer immortaUty if it could be eaten. The Persians relate that the genius of evil, Aiiriman, seduced our first parents under the * Deluge had enabled him to gather. He told how man was formed of clay, his rebellion, his fall, and his future reparation, which the world was to owe to the miraculous mater- nity of a new Eve. At sight of the bloody sacrifice ofiered for the unex- piated crime of their first parents, he taught his descendants to raise their eyes to a more august victim, seated at the right hand of Jehovah, in the starry depths of heaven — a victim whereof the oblation of lambs and heifers was but the figure.* These primitive notions were at first faithfully retained by the na- tions, and are found at the base of all creeds.f Altars were erected at the confluence of rivers, in the shade of forests, on the summits of moun- tains, by the green sea-wave, and on the sandy moor where the worm- form of a snake. The story of the woman seduced at the foot of a tree, the anger of God, and the first fratricide, was traditionally told amongst the Iroquois. The Tartars attribute our fall to a plant sweet as honey and of won- drous beauty ; the Thibetans, to the crime of having tasted of the dangerous plant schimoe, mild and sweet as sugar ; the knowledge of the state of nakedness was revealed by this fruit. The tradition of the woman and the serpent was likewise known in Mexico, &c. (See le Christ devarU le Siecle, by M. Roselly de Lorgues, ch. 9.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 47 wood-tree spreads its leaves to the f desert- wind. The soft moonlight illumined, from the first, those rural temples which had no other bounds than the horizon, no other roof than the firmament with all its stars. At that remote period, God was worshipped in a manner worthy of Him, and with ideas so clear, so sublime, so uniform, and so simple, that they had evidently emanated from Himself. Nevertheless, there glided, like a destroying principle, into the post- diluvian worship, an element of su- perstitious terror founded on the fresh and drear remembrance of the submersion of the globe — a re- membrance of which traces are found in most of the religious fes- tivals of antiquity.* Congregated together on the lofty table-lands of Caucasus, and the mountains of Armenia, the descendants of Noah had long refused, even at the com- mand of the patriarch himself, to go down again into the plains, so great was their fear of a second deluge! In vain did the rainbow span the clouds — as it were to encourage the * See Boulanger, Antiq. Devoilee. children of men — with its soft, mel- low hues, where the green of the emerald united with the blue of the sapphire. That auspicious omen, that radiant sign of an appeased God, lessened, but could not dispel, a rooted terror. The Tower of Babel is proof of this. That gigantic mon- ument of human pride concealed, beneath its insolent boast, an over- whelming fear. It was as a fortress of refuge against the contingency of a new deluge which that race of men, already corrupt, could not but feel that they deserved. And when the confusion of tongues, that terri- ble stroke of Divine wrath, forced the builders to disperse — when they saw their precaution, injurious as it was to the sworn clemency of the Lord, result in their disgrace — they were the more disposed to give way to new fears. It must, however, be admitted, in extenuation of their fault, that the spectacle then presented by the earth was far from cheering. The whole economy of the creation was upset. The rivers, diverted from their natural channels,! formed im- i f History has preserved us proofs of this dis- 48 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. mense ponds and putrid marshes in those vast plains, adorned, before the Deluge, with the graceful tents of the shepherds. The cedars lay prostrate on the sea -shore, whilst the spoils of the ocean were found amongst the eternal snows of the loftiest mountains. On every side were seen towers levelled to the ground,* and cities silent and in ruins. The ploughshare everywhere notched on bones and rubbish. The avenging hand of an angry God had fallen so crushingly, that man, whose heart still trembled with fear, remembering the risk he had run, was more disposed to fear his Sovereign Master with a mighty fear than to love him with confiding placing of rivers after the Deluge. We read in Strabo, book ii., that the Araxes, which waters Armenia, was still without a vent, and inun- dated the country, when Jason, chief of the Aeronauts, opened a subterraneous channel, whereby the Araxes flowed into the Caspian Sea. In the famous Chou-King of Confucius, the Emperor Yao says that the waters, which had once risen to heaven, still bathed the feet of the highest mountains, and rendered the plains impassable. — (Freret, Chron. des Chinois, 1st part.) * The Tower of Babel, so immediately after the great Deluge, may furnish an idea of the antediluvian architecture. Brick and pitch were the materials used. If this immense f love; he had learned to fear God I He doubted His promises and His goodness. Like the drowning mar- iner, he eagerly sought, around him, some helping object, which might interpose between them, and ward off, at need, that just but terrible wrath. Noah had spoken to them of an influential and Divine Being whose tenderness for men was in- finite, and who was to plead their cause before the Eternal, and take upon himself their crimes ; but who was that privileged mediator, that powerful advocate ? They knew not. The descendants of Shem be- lieved that they had found him in the stars which cheered their soli- tary watchjf and which they sup- tower, as there is every reason to believe, re- sembled the ancient and famous Tower of Bel in Babylon, it was surrounded by an exterior staircase, on a gentle slope, which wound up to the flat roof, and gave the building the appear- ance of seven successive towers. f It is a very ancient notion in the East that the stars are animated ; the Jewish doctors had fallen into this error, although it dated much earlier than their people. Philo said that the stars were intelligent creatures, who had never done, and were incapable of doing, barm. Ac- cording to the Maimonides, the stars know God, their Maker, and also themselves, and their actions are always good and holy. (Philo, de Mundi opificio, de Gigant., de Somniis. — LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 49 posed inhabited by celestial spirits ; they engaged those spirits to pro- tect them, and kindled fires in their honor on the mountain-tops.* This was the origin of Sabeism, which degenerated into idolatry when the accursed race of Cham, attaching themselves to the mate- rial object, adored the fire, the water, the earth, the rustling breeze ; and in scornful mockery of the primitive worship, which knew not the use of images, they consecrated to the moon statues of silver, and to the sun statues of gold.f In the lapse of time the shades thickened, religions became bur- dened with rites, the worship of the Maimonides, More nevochim, Part II., ch. 4, p. 194, et de Fundam, legis, ch. 3, § 11.) The modern Persians still sacrifice to the Angel of the Moon. * According to R. Bechai, the Sabeans did not adore the sun ; they merely kindled fires on the earth to thank God for the luminary which he lit for them in the heavens ; and, looking at the stars, they begged of the angels, whom God had placed therein to keep them in motion, that they might be favorable to them. (R. Bechai, Gomm. in Genes., ch. 1.) The fires which are lit in almost every country of Europe, commonly called St. John's fires, or Midsummer fires, are a relic of Sabeism. f The ancient Arabs, descendants of Cham, regarded Noah with contempt, because he did not make use of images ; they consecrated to * true God was gradually intermixed with that of the stars and the ele- ments ; the invention of hieroglyph- ics completed the confusion, and the few truths which escaped the over- throw of creeds were mysteriously buried in the depth of the idolatrous fanes, like those sepulchral lamps which burn but for the dead. They were carefully concealed fi'om the multitude, J which lavished its sense- less adoration on stones, trees, riv- ers, mountains, and on animals — a worship more degrading still — and which ended at last by deifying the very vices and passions. It was then that impostors, speculating on human credulity, either entangled the moon statues of silver, and others of gold to the sun ; they divided metals and climates amongst the stars ; and believed that they have great influence on the things consigned to them, and on the images consecrated to them. (Maimonides, More nevochim, Part III., ch. 2, p. 423.) I Plato, speaking of the God who formed the universe, says that it is forbidden to make him known to the people. The books of Numa, written on birch-bark, and found in his tomb many ages after his death, were secretly burned as dangerous to Polytheism. The Brahmins, who, if some travellers are to be credited, have a sublime idea of the Divinity, do, nevertheless, make the Hindoos adore the most hideous idols. It is only the true religion that treats men as ^ rational and immortal beings. 60 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. or delibcmtely broke the slight thread of the patriarchal ti'aditions, and, audaciously substituting mem- ory for hope, grouped around the ci*adles of their fabulous kings, their false prophets, or theii* powerless divinities, the wonders of the Incar- nation of the Word, and the primi- tive revelations of his high and tragical destiny. This, we think, is the explanation of those analogies which are, at fii'st sight, incomprehensible. Nevertheless, all the heathen na- tions did not take the mystery of the Messiah as a fact accomplished. The Druids, just before the Chris- tian era, were still raising altars, in the gloomy forests of Gaul, to the Virgin wJio is to bring forth. The Chinese — instructed by Confucius, who had himself found that oracle in old traditions — expected the * " According to the ancient sages of China," sajs the learned Schmitt, " the Holy One, the miractUotus man, will renew the universe, change its morals, expiate the sins of the world, die oyerwhelined with sorrow and opprobrium, and open the gates of heaven." (See Redemption of Mankind, by that author. ) f Abulfarages {Hintoria Dynastarium) says that Zerdhucht prophesied to the Magi the birth of the Messiah, sprung from a virgin. He added that at the time of his birth there should f Holy One, horn of a Virgin, and Son of God, wlm was to die for the sal- vation of the world j^ in the western regions of Asia, and sent to seek him, by solemn embassy, less than half a century after the death of the Man -God. The Magi, on the faith of Zerdhucht, studied the con- stellations in quest of the star of Jacob, which was to guide them to the cradle of Chiist.f The Brah- mins sighed for the glorious avatar\ of Him who was to purge the world of sin, and begged it of Wichnou, laying on his jewelled altar odorous stuffs of sweet basil, a plant beloved by the Indian god. The haughty children of Romulus, those idola- ters by excellence, who had created whole legions of gods, read in the books so jealously and so wisely kept by the sibyl of Cumes, a con- temporary of Achilles and Hector, arise an unknown star to guide them to his cradle, and he commanded them to bring pres- ents with them when they went. Sharistani, a Mussulman author, also relates a prediction of Zerdhucht respecting a great prophet who was to reform the world as well in religion as in justice, and to whom kings and princes were to be submissive. I Avaiar, the fabulous incarnation of a Hindoo deity. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 51 the virgin^ tlie divine infant^ the ado- ration of the shepherds^ the serpent crushed, and the golden age restored to the earth. Finally, about the time of the Messiah, all the nations of the East were in expectation of a future Saviour ; and Boulanger (who was better inspired on his death-bed), after having shown how generally that hope was diffused, illogically calls it a universal chimera.* But what were those glimmering rays, powerless to dispel the dark- ness of idolatry, when compared with the blaze of light which illumined the chosen people ? We are struck with amazement at sight of that prophetic chain of which the first link was fixed to the cradle of the world, and the last settles down at the sepulchre of Christ.f The threat of Jehovah to the serpent contains, as we have already said, the first prediction of the Messiah. We have further said, and the Jewish tradi- tions confirm it, that this prediction was more fully explained, in after * "A unanimous testimony is of the greatest weight," says Bernardine de St, Pierre, " for all the earth cannot be in one universal error.'' {Etudes de la Nature, etude 8, p. 398.) f It is a tradition taught in the Synagogue, and recognized by the Church, that all the ^ times, to the exiles of Eden, when they had conciliated Heaven by pen- ance.J Noah, who was adopted by God as inheritor of the faith, § trans- mitted to Shem His revelations, and Shem, whose life was nearly as long as that of his ancestors, might re- peat them to the father of the faith- ful. Then it was that a mysterious benediction, wherein the promise of the Messiah was contained, made it manifest that the blessed seed promised to Eve should be also the seed and the offspring of Abraham. The primitive traditions were very soon succeeded by the great predic- tion of Jacob. The expiring patri- arch, who has seen in spirit the state of the twelve tribes, when in Palestine, announces to his sons, assembled round his death-bed, that Juda has been chosen, from amongst his brethren, to be the root of the kings of Israel, and the father of that Schilo so long promised, who was to be the King of kings and the Lord of lords. The coming of prophets, without any exception, prophesied only for the time of the Messiah." (St. Cypr., de Vanit. Idol.) X Basnage, t. iv. lib. viL § Epist. S. P. ad ffebr., 2. 62 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Christ is pointed out in a precise * manner: he shall arise from amid the ruins of his countiy, when the Hchebet (the sceptre, the legislative power) shall rest in the hand of strangei*s.* The prophet saved from the waters, who was divinely called to gather and consign to writing the history of the first ages and the ancient traditions of mankind — traditions whose remembrance was still vivid amongst the nations — fails not to lend the weight of his imposing tes- timony to the prophecy of Jacob. "A prophet," says he, speaking to * Christians apply this revelation of Jacob to the Messiah, and thereby prove to the Jews that he must have come long ago, seeing that for upwards of eighteen hundred years their tribes have been mixed up together, their sacri- fice abolished, their government extinct ; that they have no longer either territory or princes, and that, wherever they are found, they have to submit to the laws of foreign nations. To evade the force of this argument, the Jews now pre- tend that the word sckebet, which we translate by sceptre, also signifies the rod which chastises the slave ; and they take occasion from that to maintain that, even if this oracle did regard the Messiah, all that they could infer from it is, that their chastisement was to last till his eoming, which was to be the signal of their de- hveiy. Finally, they deny that the word Schilo can be translated by Messiah. But their old books give them the lie; this prophecy is under- the people of God, " shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me : him you shall hear according to all things, whatsoever he shall speak to you. And it shall be, that even some which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people."! Then it is of the Messiah that the Synagogue has always understood this text so clear ; St. Philip, with- out any hesitation, applied it to our Redeemer, when he said to Nathan- iel, "We have found Him who was foretold by the prophets, and of stood of the Messiah in the Talmud ; and here is how the Paraphrase of Onkelos expounds this passage: " Judas shall not be without a supreme ruler, nor without scribes of the sons of her children, till the Messiah come." Jonathan, to whom the Jews assign the first place amongst the disciples of Hillel, and whom they venerate almost as they do Moses, also translates schebet by principality, and Schilo by Messiah. The Paraphrase of Jerusalem is hkewise on that side. Thus the most ancient Commentaries, the most authentic, and the most respected amongst the Jews, furnish weapons for their own defeat. f Hence, comes that hope of a new law which the Jews expect with the Messiah, a law which they place far above that of Moses. The law which man studies in this toorld is but vanity, say their doctors, in comparison to that of the ^ Messiah. (Medrash-Rabba, in EccL, xi. 8.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 53 whoi.1 Moses spoke in the law — Jesus of Nazareth." Towards the end of the mission of Moses, and while Israel was still encamped in the desert, Balaam, who had been bribed by a Moabit- ish prince to curse them in the Val- ley of Willows,* came to strengthen, in his turn, the expectation of the Messiah, and to point out, in a clear and precise manner, the period of his coming. Standing on the pre- cipitous height of Phogor, surround- ed by victims slain for an oblation of hate, in view of the accursed lake and the barren mountains of Arabia, the conjurer from the shores of the Euphrates, actuated by the spirit of God, perceives, as with a dream- ing eye, f an admirable vision ; his phrases, interrupted by solemn pauses, are flung, without order or art, to the mountain- wind, like frag- ments of a mysterious dialogue kept up in a whisper with invisible * The plain of Babylon, intersected by rivers and canals, and consequently very marshy, abounded in willows. Hence it is that it is called in Scripture the Valley of Willows. ■\ Even if the prophecy of Balaam were not known to be ancient, yet the manner of its de- livery would be sufficient to prove its antiquity. Balaam, the Chaldean astrologer, prophesies not ^ ^ powers. / shall see him hut not now. I shall contemplate him hut not near. A star shall come forth from Jacoh a shoot shall arise from Israel; he shall rule over many na- tions. To these incoherent words succeeds a magnificent, but gloomy picture of the conquests of the great King. It is not without a purpose that the prophetic vision shows Eome at the height of her colossal power; it is then that Christ is to visit the earth, and immolate himself for us on the infamous tree. The prophet gives a bold sketch of that bloody period ; one would say that cities and empires yet to be, arise before his view on the mirage of the desert. He sees the fleet of the Caesars leave the ports of Italy and direct their conquering prows to- wards the level coasts of the Syri- ans ; he beholds the ruin of that Judea which was not yet in exist- ence, and where the people of God like the seers of Juda ; for him is required a vast horizon, whence he discovers at once earth, sea, and sky : he speaks as a man who details to himself things which he sees at the moment, and which impress themselves deeply on his mind. This species of prophecy is somewhat like that which the Scotch Highlanders call second sight. 64 LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MABY. then possessed only a few graves; finally, his eye marks the fall of the Roman eagle, seven himdi-ed years before the birth of the sons of Hia, and whilst the wild goats of Latium were still browsing in peace on the woody slopes of the seven hills. Ages and ages then roll away without any fui-ther promise from Jehovah ; but the prophecies are either confided to tradition, which faithfully preserves them, or else consigned to the sacred books. Is- rael maintains an obscure, but cease- less and infuriate struggle against the idolatrous nations which sm*- round and press in upon its tribes ; at times it gives way to the sti-ange infatuation which attracts it to idol- atry, and then the fatal sword of the Amorrhean and the Moabite is unwittingly drawn on behalf of the Lord, and avenges, though unde- signedly, the insult offered to the God of Jacob. But thi-ough all these vicissitudes, the people forget not the coming of Christ ; they live in the faith of the Messiah; in de- fault of new revelations, their very * Some Rabbins pretend that the daughter of Jephta was not sacrificed, but only condemned to perpetual celebacy. That assertion is nulli- * life becomes prophetic. Political and religious institutions, local cus- toms and private habits, all tend to the same end, all flow from the same source ; all are linked to the genera- tion of the Saviour born of a virgin of Juda. It was the coming of the Messiah that was asked by the prophet Samuel, kneeling in the Holy of Holies, before the Schekina, its luminous and divine emblem, and by all the high priests who suc- ceeded him in the temple of Solo- mon. It was to the expectation of the Messiah that the law of Deuter- onomy referred, which decreed that the brother should raise up an heir to his brother who died childless, to the end that his name might be perpetuated in Israel. It was the blighting of the hope of belonging one day, sooner or later, to the celes- tial ambassador, that drew tears from the eyes of that fair young vir- gin of Galaad, who sank but with that one sorrow into the bloody tomb which was to close on the last of her father's race.* It is to this belief, so general amongst the He- fied by the text of Scripture which saj's : Let the daughters of Israel assemble once in the year to mourn four days /or the daughter of Jephta of LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 55 brews, that the woman of Thecua has reference, when, denouncing to King David the secret intrigues which were warping the mind of the only son who remained to her, she signalizes her fears as a mother and a Jewish matron by the poeti- cal complaint, ''My lord, they would extinguish my last spark !" There is nothing but the present incredulity of the Jews to equal in depth the faith of their fathers. The grand business with the men of those days was the coming of the Messiah ; they who died at a period remote from that which was to see the fulfillment of the Divine prom- ises, departed in the firm persuasion that they should one day be ful- filled ; standing on the threshold of eternity, they hailed from afar that consoling hope, even as the great prophet, Moses, saluted, with a sigh, that land of milk and honey which the Lord did not permit him to enter. From the time of David, and un- der the kings of his race, the thread of prophecy is renewed, and the mystery of the Virgin and the Mes- Galaad! {Judic., ch. xi. ver. 40.) People do * siah is made more manifest than ever by magnificent predictions clearer than the sun. The holy king whom the God of Israel had preferred before the house of Saul, saw the virginity of Mary and the extraordinary birth of the Son of God. "Thy birth," said he, "unsullied by sin, shall be pure as the morning dew." Then, raising his eyes higher, he beholds Him whom God has given him for a son, according to the flesh, seated at the right hand of Jehovah, on a throne more lasting than sky or stars. In the earlier prophecies, the blessed Yirgin, though always point- ed out, was yet left somewhat in the shade, and, so to speak, on the verge of the picture ; but, from the time of David, the radiant figure of Mary is no longer undefined, and she who was to transfuse into the veins of the Man-God the blood of Abraham, of Jacob, and of Jesse the Just, begins to be clearly de- fined. David had spoken of her virginal maternity; Solomon took delight in tracing her image in col- phus also refers to the immolation of the daughtei not mourn for one who is living — Flavins Jose- i^ of Jephta. (Ant. Jud., t. ii. lib. v. ch. 9.) 56 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. ors 80 enchanting as to far out- strip the graceful descriptions of tlie Eastern Peris, those smiling and etliereal divinities which visit the dreams of Arabian shepherds. He sees her rise amid the daughters of Juda like a lily among thorns; her eyes are soft and mild as tlwse of the dove; fi'om her lips, red as a fillet of scarlet, comes a voice clear and me- lodious as the sound of the harp which inspires Israel in the battle; her step is ethereal as the breath of perjmnes; and her beauty is radi- ant as that of the rising morn. Her tastes are simple and poetical ; she loves to wander in the jGi-esh valleys when the vines are in blossom and the figs hang like clusters of eme- ralds from the leafless branches ; her looks seek out the red roses of the pomegranate, the tree of para- dise,* and she hears with delight the plaintive song of the turtle. Silent and collected, she shrinks from every eye, and conceals her- * In the East the pomegranate is called the £ruit of paradise. t It is agreed by all the holy Fathers that the Canticle of Canticles is but one continued alle- gory of the Mother of God. X When rain falls in Palestine, there is a general rejoicing amongst the people ; they as- t self within her dwelling like the dove which makes her nest in tJte clefts of the rock. She is chosen for a mystical marriage, preferably to all the virgins and queens of the nations ; a crown is promised her by Him whom her soul loveth ; and the blissful tie whereby she is united to her royal spouse is stronger than death.-f Elias, praying on Mount Carmel for the cessation of that long drought which, for three years, parched the earth and dried up every spring, discovers the prom- ised virgin under the form of a transparent cloud arising from the bosom of the waters to announce the return of rain. The acclama- tions of the people salute this pro- pitious omen, J and the prophet, who penetrates divine things, builds a chapel to the future Queen of Heaven. § Isaiah declares to the house of David, whose chief, Acliab, trembles beneath the threats of the semble in the streets, sing, caper, and cry aloud, " O God !" " O Blessed !" (Volney, Voy- age en Syrie.) § The chapel built by Elias on Mount Carmel was dedicated by him to the Virgin who was to bring forth, Virgini pariturce. This chapel was + called Semnceum, which means a place conse- LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 57 stranger like a forest beaten by the tempest^ that God shall give it an encouraging sign with regard to the future of Judea — a future long and glorious still. "A virgin shall con- ceive ;* she shall bring forth a son whose name shall be E7nmanuel, or God with us That child, miracu- lously given to the earth, shall be a scion from the stock of Jesse, a flower springing from his root.f He shall be called God the mighty, the Father of the world to come, the crated to an imperiere (empress), which can only refer to Mar}', empress of heaven and earth. [Histoire du Mont Garmel, succession du Saint Prophete, ch. 31.) * This grand prophecy of Isaiah has been the object of a long and sharp controversy between the Jews and the Christians. The Eabbins, who have commented on the text since the time of Christ, wishing to pervert the proofs which condemn them, and to mystify the words of the prophet, have pretended that the word halma, which is found in the Hebrew text, signifies a simple young woman, although the Septuagint has rendered it by virgin. The Fathers have triumphantly refuted this objection. " The in- terpreters of the Septuagint," says St. John Chrysostom, " are the most deserving of credit ; they made their version more than a century before Jesus Christ ; they were many in num- ber ; the time in which they wrote, their num- ber and their union, render them much more worthy of belief than the Jews of our days, who have maliciously corrupted many passages of the Sacred Scriptures." (S. Joan. Chrys., Sei'm. 4, ch. 1.) St. Jerome, the most profound Prince of peace. He shall be raised as a standard before the world ; all nations shall pray unto him^ and his sepulchre shall be glorious." The mystery of the Messiah is clearly foreshown to the prophets. Some see Bethlehem made illustri- ous by his birth ; others predict his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and indicate the peaceful and un- pretending style thereof. They see him enter into his temple, that sa- cred pontiff according to the order Hebrew scholar of all the interpreters and com- mentators, asserts, without fear, he says, of being contradicted by the Jews, that halma, everywhere that the word occurs in the Sacred Scriptures, signifies simply a virgin in all her purity, and never a married woman. {Comm. S. Hieron. in Is. lib. iii.) Luther, who made such lamentable use of much real learning, ex- claims, with chara,cteristic petulance and im- patience, "If there be Jew or Hebrew scholar who can show me the place where halma means a looman, and not a virgin, he shall be entitled to 100 florins from me — that is, providing that I have them." (Luther's works, vol. viii., p. 129.) Mahomet himself has testified to the virginity of the Mother of God. "And Mary, daughter of Imram, who has preserved her virginity ; and we have sent into her our spirit and she has beHeved in the words of the Lord and in his Scriptures." (Koran, Surate 66.) f Jesse, called al&o Isaie, was son of Obed and father of David. His memory is in high vener- ation amongst the Hebrews, who regard him as a perfectly just man. 88 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VTBGIN MARY. of Melchisedek ; they know the number of the pieces of silver which the persecuting " rulers of the Syna- gogue shall dix)p into the hands of the wretch who is to sell his Master;* they see the ignominious execution, the draught of vinegar and gall offered in insolent mockery during the agony of a God, and the gaiment, woven by the hands of a mother, disposed of by lot amongst the rude soldiers ; they hear the sound of the nails which rend the bleeding hand, and sink with a dry, crackling sound into the accursed wood. And then the scene changes, like those paintings of Raphael, where the subject, begun on earth, extends itself beyond the clouds. The man of sorrows, the humble Messiah, whom even his own kin- dred despised, whom his people have not known, looks down in tri- umph from the highest heavens on his prostrate enemies; and the na- tions of the earth are all at length * This passage, wherein God himself declares the number of silver pieces given in that in- famous bargain, is impressed with a bitter and a dreadful irony. "And the Lord said to me, Cast it to the statuary, a handsome price, that I was priced at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver," &c. {Zach. xi 13.) mindful of their God, forgotten for so many ages I The nations rally round the standard of the cross, and the empire of Christ shall have no boimds but those of the universe. Nothing is wanting to complete the prophecies. Jacob pointed out the coming of Schilo at the precise moment when the Jews shall cease to be governed by their own laws, which involves, of course, the ruin of a state; Balaam adds that that destruction shall be effected by a people from Italy, and the satrap Daniel counts exactly the weeks which are to elapse before the ap- pointed time. "Every thing that happens in this world has its preceding sign," said a man of genius, who is now lonely and dreaded under his tent. " When the sun is about to rise, the horizon is colored with a thousand hues, and the East appears all on lire. When the tempest is coming, there is heard on the shore a rum- bling noise, and the waves are agi- tated, as it were, of themselves." The figures of the Old Testament, according to the Fathers of the Church, are the signs which an- |j nounce the rising of the Sun of LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 59 Justice and of the Star of the Sea. To Christ, the Son of God, belongs strength and power ; to Mary, grace and pitying kindness. She is the tree of life planted in the abodes of men by the hands of God himself, and the pledge of happiness far be- yond that which our first parents enjoyed in Eden ; the dove from the ark, bearing to earth the olive branch ; the sealed fountain whose waters have never been troubled with aught of impurity; the fleece which receives the dew of heaven ; finally, the delicate and odoriferous rose-bush through which Moses per- ceived the Divinity — a bush which, very far from being consumed by the fire, which destroys all things else, was in some sort preserved thereby, and lost, in its contact with the celestial flame, neither a leaf nor a flower.* * Philo, who has made this remark, and who discovers in this burning bush a mysterious allegory, falsely applies it to the Jewish nation by a forced conjunction. Josephus, who also tried to penetrate this mystery, has succeeded no bettei". Those wild roses, emblematical of modest maidens who shed their sweet perfume in solitude, and who are made resplendent by contact with the Deity, without having their spotless white and dehcate blush anywise taint- Like that enchanting figure which an ancient painter composed by borrowing a thousand detached beauties from the loveliest women of Greece, so the chaste spouse of the Holy Ghost united, in her own person, all that had been most ad- mirable in the celebrated women of the old law. Fair as Rachel and Sarah, she united to the prudence of Abigail the heroic courage of Esther ; Susannah, chaste as the flower whose name she bears ;f Judith, whose crown of lilies was sprinkled with the blood of Holo- fernes ; J Axa, whose hand was the ransom of a conquered city ; and that mother, so illustrious in her misfortunes, who beheld all her sons die for the law ; these were but faint images of Her who was to unite within herself all the perfec- tions of the woman and the angel. ed thereby, these are the most striking image of Mary, that mystical rose of the new law. f The name Susannah signifies lily. (Fabyn. ii. 2.) X The ancients attribute to the lily the power of nullifying enchantments and warding oflf danger. "Judith encircled her brows," say the Kabbins, "with a garland of HHes, so as to make her way without fear into the tent of Holofernes." (Comm. E. R. m Judith.) 60 LITE OF THE BLESSED VIRQIN MART. After an expectation of four thou- * law disappear, and Mary arises on sand years, the time marked out by the horizon of Judea like the star 80 many prophecies at length ar- | which heralds the approach of rives ; the shadows of the ancient * day. CHAPTER II. THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. WOMAN des- tined from all eternity to save the world by deifying our nature, and to bear in her chaste womb Him wliose tent is the sun, and whose footsteps are on the highest heavens ; a woman expected from the beginning of the world, revealed by God even in Paradise, ' and the acknowledged end of all the holy generations who succeeded * According to Si Angustine, the issue to which all the patriarchs aspired was Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ in Mary, through whom alone they could expect him. "And in fact," says he, " if nature, in all her efforts, tends to Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of Ages, it is * each other from the days of the patriarchs ;* she can be no ordinary creature, and must needs have su- perhuman prerogatives. The pious belief of the immaculate conception of Mary is the result of that senti- ment of respect. Heirs of an unfor- tunate parent, degraded by our re- bellious father, blighted by the . sen- tence which condemns him, so far from receiving from him the life of grace, we have received from him the death of sin, and, by a fearful doom, are condemned even before not that she flatters herself that she can reach the Son of God by herself ; the extent of her power stops at the humble Mary, who was to engender the blessed seed, not by virtue of her ancestors, but by that of the Most High." (St. Augustine, 5, Gontr. Jul. 9.) LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 61 our birth. This misfortune, inher- ent in the human race, accursed as one man in its very origin, is com- mon to all, and the Scripture makes no exception in favor of any son of Adam. But the piety of the faith- ful cannot bear the idea that the Mother of God should be submitted to the scathing condemnation where- by we are stamped with the seal of hell even in our mother's womb ; they have believed that the Sove- reign Judge must have suspended the general effect of his rigorous law in favor of her who was brought into the world only to contribute to the accomplishment of the most secret, the most incomprehensible of the decrees of God — the Incarna- tion of the Messiah. Notwithstand- ing the silence of the Gospel, it has, therefore, been generally supposed * We find in the Menkes {Secret Practices), so ancient in use among the Greeks, these words, which clearly prove their belief in the Immac- ulate Conception : " By a special dispensation, the Lord decreed that the Blessed Virgin should be as pure, from the first moment of her exist- ence, as was suitable and becoming for her who was to conceive and to bring forth Jesus Christ, the Word made jflesh." f St. Andrew, of Crete, makes mention of this feast of the Immaculate Conception, the office of which St. Sabas had composed, and to which ^ that the Virgin, in anticipation of her divine maternity, was withheld, so to speak, on the verge of the dread abyss hollowed under our feet by the fatal disobedience of our first parents, and that her conception is immaculate as her life. This belief, which the Greeks bor- rowed from Palestine, and adopted with enthusiasm,* gave rise to the institution of the feast of the Im- maculate Conception, which was celebrated with great pomp in Con- stantinople, from the sixth century.f In the West, on the contrary, this doctrine met opponents, and power- ful opponents ; for St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, and many other pious and learned doc- tors, all great theologians, J and, moreover, devoted to the service of St. Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople, had added an anthem. J The opponents of the Immaculate Concep- tion are wont to boast of having in their ranks St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas, Albertus Magnus, &c. However great these names may be, yet we must not be dazzled by them ; for, confronting these doctors with themselves, we find that they have positively maintained the yea and nay, which shows either that their opinions on this siibject were not fixed, or that they had singular distractions. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. l&Bijf maintained that she was con- t ceived in sin and subjected to the common law, although she was very soon entirely purified there- fi-om by a special and excellent grace which commenced her glori- ous state of Mother of God. But the belief in the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin prevailed, at length, over the opin- ion of the great doctors of the Mid- dle Ages ; what the eagles of the school had not seen was revealed to the simple. The writings of the doctors and of the Apostles were again searched ; a more careful ex- amination was made of what has been handed down to us regarding the greatness and glory of Mary, and that investigation served to throw a more vivid light on this doubtful point in the life of the Mother of Christ. And in fact, going back even to the Apostles, we already see the title of Blessed and hnmaculate ap- plied to Mary.* The apostle St. * St. James the Major, and St. Mark, in their Liturgies. t S. Hipp, in an oration on the ConsummcUion of the World, | Orig. horn, in S. Matth. § S. Den. in an epistle given in the Biblioth. den PP. I S. Cypr., de Nat. Virg. Andrew, quoted by the Babylonian Abdias, expresses himself in these terms : " Even as the first Adam was made of the earth before it was cursed, so was the second Adam formed of a pure virgin who was never under the ban." The saints and martyrs who lived in the third century, St. Hippolytus, martyr,f Origen, J St. Denis of Alex- andria, § all give to the Blessed Vir- gin the qualification of pure and iminaculate. St. Cyprian || is more precise, and says clearly that " there is a great difference between the rest of mortals and the Virgin, and that she has nothing in common with them but nature — not sin." In the fourth century, St. Am- brose, who compares the Virgin " to a bright and luminous stem, where- on has never been either the knot of original sin or the bark of actual sin ;"^ St. John Chrysostom,** who proclaims her most holy, immacu- late, blessed above all creatures ; St. Jerome,! f ^^^ poetically calls her ^ " Virgo in qua nee nodus originaHs, nee cortex actualis culpse fuit." S. Ambr. de Inst. Virg., ch. 5. ** S. Chrysostom, in his Liturgy. ff St. Jerome's Commentaries on Psalm Ixxvii. " Diduxit eos in nube diei : nubes est LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 63 the day -cloud which never knew f darkness ; St. Basil,* whom the de- fenders of the Immaculate Concep- tion are proud to regard as their leader ; these have never varied re- garding that stainless purity which so well becomes the Queen of Angels. In the fifth century, St. Augus- tinef cannot endure to 'have the name of Mary mentioned when there is question of sin, and St. Peter OhrysologusJ affirms that "in the Virgin all were saved." St. Fulgentius, who lived in the beginning of the sixth century, says, that " the Blessed Virgin was entire- ly excluded from the first decree." § " It is very wrong," says St. Ilde- fonso,|| archbishop of Toledo, who flourished in the same century, "It is very wrong to think of subjecting beata Virgo, quae pulchre dicitur nubes diei, quia non fuit iu tenebris, sed semper in luce." * St. Basil, in his Liturgy. f It must be observed that St. Augustine was then defending the doctrine of Original Sin against the Pelagians. J S. Peter Chrj'sol. de Annonciat., Sermon 140. § S. Fulg., Sermon on the Glories of Mary. — Sermon on the Two Natures in Jesus Christ. II St. Ildefonso, in the book on the Virginity of Mary. the Mother of God to the laws of nature ; it is certain that she was free and exempt fi'om all original sin, and that she has removed the curse of Eve." St. John Damas- cene,^! speaking expressly of her conception, says that she was " pure and immaculater In the ninth cen- tury, Theophanes, Abbot of Grand- champ ; in the tenth, St. Fulbert, bishop of Chartres ; towards the middle of the eleventh, Yves of Chartres,** one of the most brilliant lights of that period, and a little later, St. Bruno, ff founder of the Carthusians, are evidently in favor of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. Islamism itself declares for the Immaculate Conception, and the Arab commentators on the Koran have adopted, in their own way, \ St. John Damascene, de Nativ. Mar., or. 1. ** The two holy bishops of Chartres, Fulbert and Yves, declared for the doctrine of the Im- maculate Conception. Yves maintained it in the pulpit, and Fulbert says in his paraphrase on the angel's salutation to Mary : "Ave, Maria, electa et insignis inter fiUas, quse immaculata semper extitisti ab exordis tuse creationis, quia paritura eras Creatorem totius sanctitatis." ff St. Bruno, in his explanation of those words of Psalm ci. : Dominus de codo in terram aspexit, which he appHes to the Blessed "Virgin. ttll LIF£ OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. the opinion of the Catholic theo- logians who have pronounced in favor of that doctrine. " Every de- scendant of Adam," says Cottada, "fi'om the moment that he comes into the world, is touched on the side by Satan ; Jesus and Mary are alone excepted ; for God interposed between them and Satan a veil which preserved them fi-om his fatal touch." These testimonies in favor of the Immaculate Conception become weaker and less abundant in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ; few wu-iters of any note then took this view of the subject, and sever- al men of eminent piety and learn- ing maintained the contrary opinion. On the other hand, the feast of the Conception of the Virgin was es- tablished in many kingdoms. William the Conqueror establish- ed this festival in Normandy as eaiiy as the year 1074; and, from the reign of his son, Henry the First, King of England and Duke of Normandy, it was celebrated at Rouen with extraordinary solem- nity. "It was instituted," say the ancient chroniclers, "because of the holy apparition seen by an eccle- f siastic worthy of credit, who found himself exposed to the perils of the sea during a storm." An old history of the antiquities of Kouen, adds that " even at the time of the institution of the feast, there was founded an association of the most notable persons of the city, who still annually elect one of their number to be prince of the confra- ternity, who holding the puy (or stage) open to all orators, in every language, gives excellent and valu- able prizes to those w^ho shall best and most faithfully celebrate the praises of the Virgin Mary, in her holy conception, by liymjis, odes, sonnets, ballads, royal songs, &c."* Thus the Virgin full of grace pre- sided at the revival of poetry, and her Immaculate Conception furnish- ed pious themes to the land of minstrels. J'rom Normandy, the feast of the Conception passed over to the En- glish. The first council of Oxford, held by Stephen Langton, arch- bishop of Canterbury, in the year 1222, placed it in the number of holidays to be observed. In France, * AntiquUes et Singularitks de la Ville de Rouen. ^ By N. Taillepied, Doctor of Theology. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 65 in the year 1288, a bishop of Paris, Renoul de Hombiere, bequeathed a considerable sum to found the office of that feast of the Blessed Virgin, which was about the same time in- troduced into the Lyonnais. Final- ly, a manuscript niartyrology of the thirteenth century, found in the li- brary of the Dominicans of Dijon, fixes the festival of the Conception of Om* Lady on the 8th of Decem- ber: "which also shows," say the learned Benedictines who deciphered that ancient manuscript, "that in St. Dominick's time, this feast was already celebrated in nearly all the Church." The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception had been banished from pulpits and from schools for a very long period of time, when some the- ologians, perceiving that this belief could be traced to the highest and purest sources of Christianity, un- dertook to revive it. The Francis- * Montfaucon, who journeyed through Italy about the year 1698, having visited at Pavia the library of the Signor Beleridus, renowned for his piety, was much surprised to see that his im- mense collection of books was composed solely of treatises written by the Franciscans in defence of the Immaculate Conception. f This is the decree of the Sorbonne : " We * cans, who first began to make a public profession of it, in speaking,* and in writing, supported it by rea- sons so strong and so convincing, that not only the mass of the faith- ful, but the most learned body in Europe, clung to it with enthusiasm. The Sorbonne, which was then called " the firmament of science, the prop of truth and piety in the church of God," decreed that all those who should be promoted to the degree of doctor were to engage them- selves by oath to maintain this pious belief.f So, in succession, did the universities of Mayence, of Cologne, of Yalentia, of Alcala, of Coi'mbra, of Salamanca, and of Naples. Amongst those religious orders in whom France has gloried for so many ages, the Dominicans alone, or nearly alone, showed themselves hostile to the pious doctrine of the spotless Conception ; but the learn- ed Benedictines, venerated even by resolve and declare that no one shall be admit- ted for the future into our Faculty, until he swears to maintain all his hfe this doctrine of the Immaculate Conception." "Statuentes ut nemo deinceps huic nostro collegio adscri- batur, nisi se hujus doctrinsB assertorum sem- per pro viribus futurum, simili juramento, profiteatuj*." * 66 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRQIN MARY. Protestants for their immense sci- entific labors, the Carthusians, the Cai-melites, the order of St. Augus- tine, in Cluny, in Citeaux, in Pr^- montrtf, and a host of others whom it would be superfluous to enumerate here, all adhered with an enlightened piety, an ardent zeal, and a profound conviction, to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Councils, too, have been favorable to this belief. That of Bale, in its * " There has arisen in this Council (that of Bale) a difficult question on the Conception of the glorious Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and on the beginning of her sanctification ; some saying that her soul was, for some time, or at least for some moments, subjected to original sin ; others maintaining, on the contrary, that the love of God for her extended even to the first instant of her creation ; that the Most High, who created her, and the Son who formed her to be his mother on earth, endowed her with singular and extraordinary graces ; that Jesus Christ re- deemed her in a superior and particular manner, preserving her from the original stain, and sanc- tifying her in the very first moment of her con- ception. "Having, therefore, carefully examined the reasons and the authorities which, for several years, have been brought forward, on both sides, in the public acts of this holy Council ; having, moreover, given our attention to many other things on the same subject; all weighed and maturely considered, we decide and declare that the doctrine which teaches that the glorious Virgin Mary, Mother of God, by a special favor, and by a preventing and operating grace, has session of 27th September, 1429, declares that the doctrine which teaches that the glorious Virgin Mary was conceived without sin is a pious doctrine, conformable to ecclesiastical worship, to Catholic faith, to right reason, and to Holy Writ.* Tlie Council of Avignon confirmed, in 1457, the decree of the Council of Bale, and in their session of 1564,f the Fathers of the Council of Trent declared that, in their de- never been actually subjected to original sin, but that she has ever been holy, immaculate and ex- eYnpt from all sin, original and actual ; we de- clare that the doctrine which teaches all that, is a pious doctrine, conformable to ecclesiastical worship, to Catholic faith, to right reason, and to Holy Writ, and that, as such, it is to be ap- proved, held, and followed by all Catholics, so that no one shall be hereafter permitted to preach or teach the contrary. Rene\ving, be- sides the institution of the feast of the holy Con- ception; which, by an ancient and praiseworthy custom, is solemnized on the 8th day of Decem- ber, at Rome, as in all the other churches, we will and ordain that this festival be celebrated on the day before mentioned, under the name of the Conception of the Virgin, in all the churches, monasteries, and communities of the Catholic religion, and that it be observed with all manner of praise and gladness, and canticles of joy." The Council even attaches indulgences to this solemnity. t " Declerat haec sancta synodus non esse in- tentionis suse comprehendere in hoc decreto, ubi de peccato originali agitur, beatam et Immacula- TAM Dei Genitricem." (Cone. Trid. sex. 1564.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 67 cree of 1546, on original sin, they did ' not pretend to include the Blessed and Immaculate Mother of God. Notwithstanding the prudent re- serve maintained by the Holy See in an affair wherein figured, for and against, famous doctors and illustri- ous theologians, it yet could not help showing, at times, which party had its sympathy. In the year 1483, Pope Sixtus lY. had expressly for- bidden that the subject of the Con- ception of Our Lady * should be dis- cussed in pulpits or in schools. This might be taken for a mere act of neutrality, had not this pontiff ap- proved of the Office of the Con- ception composed by a monk of Yerona, and granted a hundred days' indulgence to those who should assist thereat, f The suc- cessors of that great pope walked uniformly in the way which he had marked out and followed. In 1506, Cardinal Ximenes establish- ed in Spain, with the consent of Pope Julius II., a confraternity of * See the constitution of Sixtus IV., whicli commences with Grave nimis. f See the constitution of Sixtus IV., which begins, Cum prce excelsa . . . Extravag. Commun. J In this order of the Immaculate Conception, the Conception. The same pope confirmed, by a brief, dated the 17th of September, 1511, an order of nuns founded under the same title by Innocent YIII.J In the hymns which Zachary, bishop of Gordia, composed by order of Leo X. and Clement YIL, it is said that Our Lady was created in the state of grace. In 1569, Pope Pius Y. gave the Franciscans permission to cele- brate the office of the Immaculate Conception, attaching thereto the same indulgences as to the feast of the Holy Sacrament. Paul Y., by a bull of the year 1616, forbade any one to maintain, in public instruc- tions, the opinion contrary to the Immaculate Conception ; and Greg- ory XY., in 1622, extended that prohibition even to discourses and private conversations. It only re- mained for the popes to celebrate this festival in Rome itself, and this was done by Alexander YIL in 1661. It is evident, from this uni- form conduct of the Holy See, that each Sister consecrated herself expressly to this mystery by these unequivocal words, "I, Sister N for the love and service of Jesus Christ our Lord, and the Immaculate Conception of his Blessed Mother, do promise," &c. 68 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. all its sympathies were with the ^ docti'ine of the spotless conception. Nevei-theless, it never chose to cen- mre the contraiy opinion, doubtless through respect for high and holy names. ' A voice whose weight is immense, the great voice of Bossuet, made itself heai-d in this cause ; the sliield of religion nobly took his stand before, the Blessed Virgin. "The opinion of the immaculate concep- tion," says he, "has, I know not what, force which persuades pious souls. After the articles of faith, I see but few things better assured. Hence I am not surprised that the Paris school of theology obliges all its members to defend this doctrine. For my own part, I am delighted now to follow its intentions. After having been nursed on its milk, I willingly submit to its ordinance, the more so as this seems to me to be also the will of the Church ; she has a very great veneration for the conception of Mary ; she does not, it is true, oblige us to believe it im- maculute ; but she makes us under- stand that that belief is very pleasing ♦ Bossuet, Sermon on the Gonception, to her. There are things which she commands, and by them we manifest our obedience ; there are others which she insinuates, and by them we may testify our aifection. It is for our piety, if we are true children of the Church, not only to obey the commandments, but to bow to the slightest indications of the will of a mother so good and so holy."* It is certain that the devotion to the Blessed Virgin has been common in Western Europe from the medi- aeval times ; a»d, since then, it has made immense progress ; but, with- out meaning to disparage France and Italy, those two nations so emi- nently devoted to the Virgin, it must be acknowledged that it is Spain which has labored the most zealously and ardently for the propagation of that doctrine. The Spanish Church, protesting against the pretensions of the Church of Normandy, which attrib- utes to itself the institution of the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady in the West, will have it that it has been observed in Spain ever since the seventh century.f It ■{• " La Iglesia espafiola fu^ la primera que eel- LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 69 is certain that, in 1394, Don Juan I. of Arragon, who instituted it, in the name of the king, in the several provinces of Spain which had shaken off the yoke of Islamism, affirms that a great number of his predecessors had celebrated this festival before ebro la Immaculada Concepcion de Santisima Virgen ; euya fiesta tuvo lugor eu ella desde el siglio sdptims." (El maestro Villados, en el cap. de los Festiv. Ecles. t. i., part ii. * This is the decree of Don Juan I. of Arra- gon : "We, Don Juan, by the grace of God, King of Arragon and Valencia, &c. Why is it that some persons are amazed to hear that the Ever-blessed Mary, Mother of God, was con- ceived without original sin, whilst they doubt not that St. John the Baptist was sanctified in his mother's womb by the same God,- who, coming down from the highest heavens and from the throne of the Most Holy Trinity, was made flesh in the blessed womb of a virgin ? What graces do we think could the Lord withhold from the woman who brought him forth by the splendid miracle of her fruitful virginity ? Lov- ing his mother as he loves her, he must have invested with the most glorious privileges her conception, her nativity, and the other phases of her holy life. " Why raise up a doubt as to the glorious conception of a Virgin so privileged, and of whom we are obliged, by Catholic faith, to be- lieve wonders and greatness beyond the reach of our imagination? Is it not, for all Chris- tians, a much greater subject of admiration to see that a creature has begotten her Creator, and become a mother without ceasing to be a viro-in ? How, then, can the human mind give adequate praise to that glorious Virgin, destined by the Almighty to possess, without the slightest corruption, the advantages of divine maternity, him.* We shall not decide between the two churches ; but if Spain have but a doubtful claim to the institu- tion of that festival of Mary, which is called in France and in England the feast of the Normans, she cannot be deprived of the honor of having conjointly with the glory of the purest virginity, and to be placed over all the prophets, over all the saints, and over all the choirs of angels, as their queen ? Could the stain of original sin have been imputed to her even for an instant, there would then have been some deficiency of grace and of purity in that excellent Virgin, to whom the angel of the Lord, the ambassador of heaven, addressed these words : Hail, Mary, full of grace ; the Lord is with thee ; blessed art thou amongst tvomen ! Let those persons who speak so unrea- sonably be now silent ; let those who have only vain and frivolous arguments to propose against the Immaculate Conception, so privileged and so pure, of the Blessed Virgin, be ashamed to publish them, because it was expedient that she should be endowed with so great purity, that after that of God there could be none such im- agined. It is likewise most fitting that she who became the Mother of the Creator and Father of all things should have been ever and always purest, fairest, and most perfect, having been chosen from the beginning and before all ages, by an eternal decree of God, to bear in her womb Him whom the whole world and all the immensity of the heavens cannot contain. "But we who, of all Catholic kings, have received, from this Mother of mercy, so many graces and benefits undeserved by us, we firmly believe that the conception of this Blessed Virgin, in whose womb the Son of God vouch- safed to become man, was indeed holy and immaculate. "Hence, we honor with a pure heart the 70 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. been the fii*st to erect cbarelies and altars under the title of the Mystery of the Immaculate Conception. In the yeai* 1525, the Spaniards of Mexico placed the splendid cathe- di'al of PvMx de los Angelas under the invocation of the immaculate Virgin, whose sacred image stood mystery of that Immaculate and Blessed Con- ception of the most Blessed Virgin, Mother of God ; and we, with all the royal house, do annu- ally solemnize the feast thereof, even as our most illustrious predecessors, of glorious mem- ory, did celebrate the same, having established a perpetual confraternity thereof. Wherefore, we do hereby ordain that this festival of the Im- maculate Conception be celebrated every year in perpetuity, with great solemnity and respect, throughout all the kingdoms subject unto us, by all faithful Catholics, whether religious or secular priests and laity, of whatsoever state or condition they may be ; and that, henceforward, it is not permitted, but expressly forbidden, to all preach- ers, and to all those who publicly expound the Gospel, to say, to advance, or to pubhsh any- thing that might, in any way whatsoever, be prejudicial or hurtful to the purity and holiness of that Blessed Conception ; but, on the con- trary, we ordain that preachers, and other per- sons who have had opposite sentiments, shall keep silent, since the Catholic faith does not in any way oblige us to maintain and profess the contrary opinion ; and that others, who cherish in their hearts our own holy and salutary opin- ion, may publish it in their discourses, and hasten to manifest their devotion by celebrat- ing, through the praises of the Most High, the glor}- and honor of his holy mother, who is the Queen of Heaven, the gate of paradise, the protectress of our souls, the sure port of salva- sparkling with jewels over an altar of massive silver, surrounded by a multitude of elegant pillars, with plinths and capitals of burnished gold. The faithful of Mexico raised in her honor, in their metropolitan church, an altar and a statue of massive silver, adorned with a mag- tion, and the anchor of hope for sinners who have confidence in her. We now hereby ex- pressly establish, in perpetuity, that if it happen that any preacher, or any other of our subjects, of any state or condition, fail to observe this ordinance, unless exempt by reason of some of our other edicts, that they be expelled from their convents and houses, and, whilst they retain that contrary opinion, they shall be driven, as our enemies, from all parts of our dominions. Commanding Hkewise, and decree- ing, in our knowledge and mature deliberation, that all and each of our officers, whether at home or abroad, present or future, shall observe, and cause to be observed, with great diligence and respect, our present edict, as soon as they are made cognizant thereof ; and that each, in his district, shall have it published exactly, solemnly, and by sound of trumpet in aU the accustomed places, to the end that no one may plead ignorance, and that the devotion of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, so long preserved in the hearts of Christians, may increase more and more, and that no one may ever again be heard to express a contrary opinion. In faith whereof we command that these present acts be dispatched everywhere, duly authorized by our sign and seal, hereto attached. — Given at Valencia, on the 2d of February, being the Feast of the Purification of that Ever-blessed Virgin, the year of our Lord 1384, and the eighth of our reign." LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 71 nificence truly Peruvian. A little later, the Mexican cathedrals of Merida, Maracai'bo, and Nahana were founded under the invocation of the immaculate Virgin ; nor did Peru remain behind. This splendid accession to the doctrine of the con- ception without" sin, did not sufi&ce for the zeal of the nations subject to the Spanish domination. In 1618, the vice-king of Naples, his court and his army, made a vow, in the Church of Our Lady the Great, to believe and to defend the immacu- late conception of the Virgin. A commemorative pillar, surrounded by a magnificent statue of Our Lady, with the symbolical emblems of her victory over original sin, was raised in testimony of that public engagement so chivalrously con- tracted. The Spanish people, who have at all times specially signalized them- selves in this devotion, have adopted * Alabado sea el santisimo Sacramento del altar, y la Immaculada Concepcion de la Yirgen Maria, concebida sin pecado original en el primer instante de su ser natural. I On entering a Spanish house, the first words spoken by the visitor, even before wishing good day, are these : " Ave, Maria purisima ;" the people of the house immediately answer : " Sin it so far that not a single preacher ascends a pulpit without prefac- ing his sermon by a profession of faith in the spotless conception,* and it has even been introduced into the familiar phrases used in greeting.-j- Finally, in 1771, whilst the de- stroying wind of philosophy was violently shaking religious belief in France and several other countries of Europe, the King of Spain, Charles III., instituted an order in honor of the Virgin conceived with- out sin, and solemnly declared her, with the assembled Cortes and a brief of the Holy See, Universal patrona de Espana ^ Indias.\ In France, notwithstanding the license and the unbelief which the flood of revolution left behind it, this doctrine is gaining ground, and penetrating even to the most distant hamlets. The Diocese of Paris is particularly distinguished pecado concebida, santisima," (holiest, conceived without sin.) J " Por la devocion que desde nuestra in- fancia hemos tenido a Maria santisima en su misterio de la Immaculada Concepcion, deseamos poner bajo los divinos auspicios de esta celestial protectora la Nueva Orden, y mandamos que sea reconocida en ella por 72 UFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. for its zeal in propagating this * pious belief^ which flourishes there under the protecting shadow of its archbishops,* confirmed by the supernatui'al things related of the miraculous medal struck in honor of the mystery of the spotless Conception. K the tradition of the Apostles, the inclination of the Church, the authority of Councils, the adhesion of universities and religious orders, the assent of kings and nations, the dedication of temples and altars, the })atrona. " {Leg. 12, t. iL, 1. vi. Noviss. Bee.) * " It is a fact we would wish to establish, and to make known in even the most remote parts of the Catholic world : in our Diocese, this de- votion has been rooted deeper and deeper with passing time, and misfortunes have come in plenty to confirm, increase, and extend it with marvellous rapidity." {See the mandamus of ¥ foundation of offices, the institution of confraternities and royal orders have any weight in a controversy which has astonished the Pagans themselves,! then the cause of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, so long pending before the tribunal of Catholic opinion, appears to us gained ; and we do not think it rash to suppose that God, preserving his divine Mother from the original stain, said to her, as Assuerus did to Esther, "This law is not made for thee, but for all others." His Grace the Archbishop of Paris on the occa- sion of the consecration of the Church of Our Lady of Loretto. ) f " How !" exclaimed JuUan the Apostate, ad- dressing a bishop who maintained the univer- sality of original sin ; " How ! dost thou, then, subject the birth of Mary to the empire of tho Devil!" (St. Augustine, L iv., Op. imperf.) CHAPTER III. THE BIRTH BOUT the time when the reli- gion and the prosperity of the Hebrews were on the decline at the period pointed out by the prophets, and when the royal sceptre was in stranger hands, according to the great prediction of Jacob, there was in Nazareth, a city of Lower Galilee, not far from Mount Carmel, a just man named Joachim,* of the * A biographer of Mary, Christopher de Castro, discovered, according to the Rabbins, St. Hilary and other Fathers of the Church, that the father of Mary had two names, Heli and Joachim. The Arabs and the Mussulmans know him under that of Amram, son of Matheus, and distinguish him from another Amram, father of Mary, the sister of Moses. (D'Herbe- lot, Bibtiotheque Orientale, t. ii.) f According to the proto-Gospel of St. James and the Gospel of the nativity of Mary, Joachim was of the race of David. Justin, who flourished only fifty years after the death of St. John the Apostle, who was born in Palestine, and was in a position to collect traditions still quite recent, likewise says that Mary was descended in a^irect line from David. I St. August., De consens. Evangel. § The Mahometans, inheritors of the Arabian OF MARY. tribe of Juda and the race of Davidf by Nathan ; his wife, who, according to the opinion of St. Augustine, was of the sacerdotal tribe,J was called Anne, a name which, in Hebrew, signifies graceful.^ They were both just before Jeho- vah, and walked in the way of His commandments with a perfect heart ;|| but the Lord seemed to have turned away his face from them, for a great blessing was wanting unto them; they were childless, and therefore sorrowful, traditions, know the blessed mother of the Virgin under her own name, which is Hannah ; she was, according to them, the daughter of Makhor, and wife of Amram. (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, t. ii.) II St. Anne and St. Joachim were publicly hon- ored in the Church in the first ages. St. John Damascene highly extols their virtue. The Emperor Justinian I. had a church built in Constantinople under the invocation of St. Anne, about the year 550. The body of the saint was removed, it is said, from Palestine to Constantinople in 710. {See Godescard, t. V. p. 319.) Luther had a great devotion for St. Anne previous to his heresy ; it was to that saint that he promised to embrace the monastic state, in presence of the corpse of a comrade killed by lightning before his eyes. 74 Lil THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART, because in Israel barrenness was a (lisgmce. Juucliim, who loved his wife for her exceeding mildness and her em- inent virtues, would not increase her misfortune by giving her those letters of divorce which the law then gmnted so easily;* he kept her with him, and that pious pair, humbly resigned to the divine be- hest, passed their days in labor, prayer, and alms-deeds. So many virtues could not go un- rewarded ; after twenty years of baiTcnness, Ann conceived, as it were by a miracle, and brought forth that favored creature who was more perfect, more holy, and more agreeable to the Lord than all the elect taken together. * It was the Pharisees who had introduced this abuse of divorce, so loudlV censured by our Lord [Matth. eh. xix. v. 8) ; they taught that a wife might be put away for the most trifling cause ; for instance, for having cooked her master's meat over much, or even for not being sufficiently handsome. This was the opinion of Hillel and of Akiba. (Basnage, 1. vii. ch. 22.) f The 8th of September, according to the teaching of the Church. Baronius has it that Mary was born in the year of Rome 733, twenty- one years before the vulgar era, on the 8th of September, being Saturday, at the dawn of day. Le Nain de Tillemont says that the Virgin was It was about the beginning of the month Tisri,f which is the lirst of the civil year of the Jews, whilst the smoke of holocausts was ascending to heaven for the expiation of the sins of the peo- ple, that the promised Virgin was born — she who was to repair the primitive transgression ; J her birth was humble, like that of her di- vine Son ; her parents were of the people, although descended from a long Ime of kings, and led, to all appearance, an obscure life ; that mystical rose, whom St. John after- wards beheld clothed with the sun as with a radiant garment, was to blos- som, in the scorching wind of adver- sity, on a withered and leafless stem.§ The cradle of the Queen of Angels born 'in the year 734 of the Roman era. This opinion is the most generally followed. I Here is what the Turks relate regarding the birth of the Blessed Virgin. The wife of Amram (Joachim) said to God, " Lord, I have conse- crated to thee the fruit of my womb ; vouchsafe to receive it, O Thou who kuowest and hearest all." When she had brought forth, she added, " Lord, I have brought a daughter into the world ; I have called her Miriam (Mary) ; I place her under thy protection, she and her pos- terity, to the end that thou mayst preserve them from the snares of Satan." (Koran, ch. iii.^ § Isaias had foretold it, saying : There shall ^ come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a \.^ LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 75 was neither adorned with gold nor covered with the richly-embroidered quilts ^of Egypt, neither perfumed with spikenard, myrrh, nor aloes, like those of the Hebrew princes ; it was formed of flexible branches, and bands of coarse linen confined the little arms which were one day to cradle the Saviour of the world. The children of kings, whilst yet wrapped up in their sumptuous swaddling-clothes, behold the great ones of the land humbling them- selves before them, and calling them by high-sounding titles. The woman who was to be the Spouse and the Mother of God bestowed her first smile on poor humble women, who perhaps said within themselves, as they remembered the obscurity and hardship of their lot, " Another slave is born!" It was the custom amongst the Israelites to assemble the family on the ninth day, in order to give the new-born child its name. The daughter of Joachim received from ■flower shall rise up out of his root ; for this word root signifies, in Hebrew, as St. Jerome observes {in Is. c. xi.) a stena without branches and with- out leaves, to denote, continues this holy doctor, that the august Mary was to be born of the race her father the name of Miriam (Mary), which means in the Syriac language, lady, sovereign, mistress, and in Hebrew, star of the sea. " And assuredly," says St. Ber- nard, " the Mother of God could not have a name more appropriate, nor more expressive of her high dignity. Mary is, in fact, that fair and lumin- ous star which shines over the vast and stormy sea of this world." There is hidden in that divine name a spell so potent, and of such marvellous sweetness, that merely to pronounce it softens the heart, mere- ly to write it beautifies the style. ''The name of Mary," says St. An- thony of Padua, '' is sweeter to the lips than honey,* more grateful to the ear than the sweetest music, more delicious to the heart than the purest joy." Eighty days after the birth of a daughter, the Jewish woman was solemnly purified in the temple where she ofi'ered her first-born child. Conformably to the law of of David, when that family should have lost its splendor and its royalty. * Noraen Virginis Marice, mel in ore, melos in aure, jubilum in corde, is the poetical expression of St. Anthony of Padua. T« LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. Moses, she theu olfered to the Lord. ^ a laiiib or two doves; the latter was the holy offering of the poor, and was that of Joachim's wife. But the gratitude of the pious mother went still farther than the customary sacrifice; worthy imitator of Anna, the wife of Elcana, she offered to the Lord a victim more pure, a dove more innocent, than those which fell bleeding and palpi- tating under the sacrificing knife. She had no votive crown of purest gold wherewith to adorn the walls of the temple ; * she laid at the feet of the Most High the crown of her old age, the child whom He had given her, and solemnly promised to bring back her daughter to the Tem- ple, and to consecrate her to the ser- vice of the holy place as soon as her mind was capable of knowing good from evil. Mary's father ratified * Mach. lib. i. cap. 4. f There were amongst the Jews two sorts of vows ; the first, neder, was a simple vow, after which men could purchase a dispensation of what they had vowed to the Lord (of this kind was the vow of Ann, mother of Mary) ; the second, cherem, was a vow indispensably bind- ing, whereby all right and title to the thing promised was irrevocably given up. Every Isra- elite could thus consecrate whatever belonged to him — houses, lands, cattle, children, slaves, ^ -, this vow, which then became bind- ing.f The ceremony being finished, the holy couple took their way back to their own country, to that country so barren in regard to great men that Israel was far from expecting a prophet to arise there, J and they returned to their humble dwelling, which was ever the asylum of the poor and the stranger. There it was that the child of benediction, the child of grace and of miracle, pass- ed her early years, the delight of her family, growing up like one of those lilies whose loveliness is prais- ed by Jesus Christ himself, and which have, as St. Bernard poeti- cally says, " the odor of hope," hahens odorem spei. Anne was herself to nurse the child, according to the custom of her people. § Mary's understanding, like the &c. ; and the things so consecrated could neither be sold nor redeemed at any price whatsoever. X " Can anything good come forth from Nazareth ? " asked Nathaniel of those who spoke to him of Christ. "Because the place was small and contemptible," says St. John Chrysostom, " and not only that particular place, but the whole of Galilee." (Serm. d, in S. Matth.) § In Judea, the women did not often dispense with nursing their children ; there are only three LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. T7 day in some favored regions, had scarcely a dawn, and shone clearly out from her earliest days. Her precocious fervor and the wisdom of her discourse, at a period of life when other children still enjoy but a purely physical existence, made the parents judge that the time of their separation was come ; and when Joachim had offered to the ¥ Lord, for the third time since the birth of his daughter, the first-fruits of the crops and fruits of his small inheritance, the husband and wife, grateful and resigned, set out for Jerusalem, in order to deposit within the sacred precincts of the temple the treasure which they had received from the Holy One of Israel. CHAPTEE, IV. THE PRESENTATION. HE Cison rolled majestically on, its reddish waves swelled by the e- quinoctial rains, * and the green mountains of Gal- ilee were beginning to put on their snowy covering, when Mary's pa- nurses mentioned in Scripture ; they are those of Kebecca, of Miphiboseth, and of Joas ; then it is to be observed that Rebecca was a foreigner, and the others royal personages. rents undertook the journey to Jeru- salem. There is no knowing the motive which induced them to leave their native province during the rainy season. It might be that they wished to assist at the grand solem- nities of the Feast of the Dedication ; or perhaps it was that they simply regulated their departure by the * The Cison is a small river which flows be- tween Nazareth and Mount Carmel ; shallow and insignificant in summer, like all the water- courses of Palestine, it becomes a considerable 78 Lli'L ui lUL JiLESSLD VIRGIN MARY. period of Zachary's service in the ^ toinplo which only took place at rc)j;ular intervals.* Uaving before them a journey of several days, in the midst of the lainy seixson, with an infant child, the pious and prudent travellers journeyed not towards the Holy City by the wild and pebbly road which winds amid the arid plains, the foamy torrents and deep ravines of the mountains of Samaria, where the frosts of winter had already set in. They descended by the woody slopes of Carmel, into the charming plains which extend between the mountains of Palestine and the stream during the rainy season. The troops of Sisara, general of the army of Jabin, were drowned in the swollen waters of this rivor while trying to force a passage. * According to the ordinance of David, the priests were divided into twenty-four classes or courses, each of which served its week. Each course was subdivided into seven parties, of which each officiated in its turn ; each indi- vidual of these parties had his share of the service assigned to him by lot (1 Par, ch. xxiv.) Zacharias belonged to the course or service of Abiu. (Prid., Hint, of the JewH.) f Volney mentions having seen, on the coasts of Syria, orange-trees loaded with fruit in the open air, in the month of January. " With us," says he, " nature has divided the seasons by months : there, it may be said, that they are only divided by hours. At TripoU, we suffer coasts of Syria, that fair and favored region, whose climate is so mild that the orange-trees blossom in the depth of winter, and the flowers of summer bloom in December.f Hav- ing left behind them the rich pastur- age-lands where rose of old the tents of Issachar, that race of pasto- ral astronomers J whom the burning breath of the wrath of God had scattered, like a handful of straw, over the wild and mountainous re- gions of Media ; having admired as they passed, the groves of palms, banana - trees and pomegranates clothing the hills which were once the fair inheritance of the children from the excessive warmth of July : six hours' journey brings us to the adjacent mountains, where the air has the temperature of March. On the other hand, we are chilled by the frost of December in the mountain districts : a day's journey brings us to the shore, where we find the summer-flowers in bloom." I St. Jerome says that the sons of Issachar were the sages who made the chronological cal- culations, and marked the festivals. (Hieron., QucBst. in 1 Paral. 112, p. 1390, et in Gen., 49.) This tradition agrees with that of the rabbins, who relate that the tribe of Issachar were much given to the study of astronomy. (Mai- mon., in Kiddosch, hachodesch, et Zachuth, in Juchasin.) Finally, the Scripture authorizes this tradition, since it mentions that the sons of Issachar knew all times to order what Israel should do. (1 Par. xii. 32.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 79 of Joseph, that noble and warlike race, renowned for their skill in archery, our (Jalilean travellers sped along by the small stream of Graas, overhung by its graceful willows, traversed the groves of Ramatha, that pretty town, which resembles a cameo laid in a basket of roses, and at length gained the confines of the ancient territory of the Jebusites. There, all was changed: no more flowers, no more verdure, no more balmy breezes, laden with the per- fumes of the citron-tree. All around were sterile rocks, profound ravines through which the wind swept in mournful murmurs; abrupt and craggy mountains, resounding with the hoarse cry of the eagle; in a word, a landscape the grandest, the most desolate, and the most cheer- less that can well be imagined. The little party had been follow- ing, for some time, a rugged path which crossed the table-land of a barren mountain, when Joaehim suddenly stopped at an abrupt turn of the road, and stretched his arm * The exterior front of the Temple was 80 thickly covered with plates of gold that, when the day began to appear, it was no less dazzUog than the rays of the rising snn. As for the other f towards the south with an emotion of religious exultation mingled with national pride. The object which he thus pointed out to his compan- ions was well worthy of being re- marked, for Asia had then nothing more magnificent or fantastic. It was a city about thirty-three stadas in circumference ; set in stone like a ruby of Beloochistan ; a city of marble, of cedar, and of gold, whose splendor had in it something gloomy, ferocious and suspicious, denoting an unsettled jx)wer and a permanent dread of the stranger; a state of things abounding in strange con- trasts. There were seen enormous towers, magnificent as palaces, and palaces fortified like citadels. Its temple, radiant with gold, stood glittering on a narrow table-land of the highest mountain, like the fiili- orbed moon when it rises over the snowv heiprhts of Lebanon.* It was an almost impregnable for- tress, held in awe by the people of (Jod, whilst the tower of Antonia, with its four elegant turrets of pol- sides, where there was no gold, their stones were BO white that, at a distance, that superb pile of building, looked Uke a mountain covered with mow. f Joseph. De Bello, b. t. ch. xiiL) 80 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. ished mtuble, kept jealous and un- * ceasing watch over the precincts of the temple. A triple inclosui-e of massive stone walls,* with ninety forts, encom- passed that singular city, and all around it lay gloomy valleys, dizzy heights and inaccessible rocks. That stately and warlike city, which seem- ed as though it were transported by magic from the fabulous regions of Ginnistan,f to be placed under the cloudless sky of Palestine, was that Jewish Paradise [Ghangh-dix- hoitcht), so poetically mourned on the banks of the Euphrates, — the city of David and the Maccabees ; that Je- rusalem which, even in its slavish abjection, is still hailed throughout the East by the ancient appellation then given it by the father of Mary : cl Cods (the Holy City) ! The parents of the Virgin entered the capital of Judea by the gate of ♦ " Extrema rupis abrupta : et turres, ubi mons juvisset, in sexaginta pedes, inter devexa, in centenos vicenosque attollebantur ; mira spe- cie, ac procul intuentibus pares." (Tacit. Hist. cap. v.> f Ginnistan, which is placed by the marvel- lous legends of the Arabs and Assyrians, at the foot of Mount Caucacus on the shores of the • Caspian Sea, was the abode of the Peris, a fair Rama, which was shaded by a tow- erj so lofty that its flat roof com- manded a view of Mount Carmel, the great sea, and the mountains of Arabia. From its summit still float- ed the green banner of Judas Mac- cabeus with its sacred device; no longer understood by the soldiers who kept guard aroimd, for they were Thracians, Galatians, Germans, and the fair-haired sons of Gaul, whom Herod, in his fear of the Jews, kept always in pay, and who were almost as odious to the people as himself The travellers then took their way through some dark and winding streets, bordered with heavy-looking square houses, without windows, their flat roofs forming long un- broken lines that looked like fortifi- cations, and stopped in the eastern part of the city, in front of a house of unpretending appearance, pointed and fabulous race bearing much resemblance to our fairies. These powerful beings, born before the Deluge, were supposed to command the elements, and to create whatever they wished. Their capital city, which they had carefully fortified in order to keep ofif the incursions of the Dives, a formidable race of evil spirits, was of marble, gold, rubies, and diamonds. I The tower Psephina. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 81 out by tradition as the dwelling of St. Ann.* Having purified himself for seven days, according to the custom of those who went to offer sacrifice in the temple,f Joachim provided him- self with the lamb which he was to present to the Lord, put on white garments, J gathered together such of his relations and friends as were in Jerusalem, and went up with them to the temple as resolutely as though he were about to make an assault. § That temple of the Lord of Hosts, where the Virgin then presented herself like the dove with the olive branch, had undergone numerous vicissitudes. One of the ancestors of Mary, the wise son of David, had made it the glory of the East. He lavished upon it the gold of Ophir, the perfumes of Saba, the cedar of * A monastery was erected on this house of St. Ann, but it has since been converted into a mosque. Under the Christian kings it was in- habited by nuns. (See Itineraire de Paris a Jerusalem, vol. 2, p, 211.) fit was not only that they had to present themselves in the temple with their victim ; the law required that they should remain outside for seven entire days, and that they should sol- emnly purify themselves on the third and seventh days with ashes and hyssop ; that done, they t Lebanon, brass which the fleets of Tyre brought fi'om far-off lands, and silver, which was then so plenty that it had become a base metal. That splendor had passed away like a vision of the night, thanks to the insatiable greed of the tribes of Egypt and Ohaldea, a score of times had it been despoiled, and as often restored to its former splendor, and finally it arose from its ruins under Zorobabel, who built it, sword in hand, notwithstanding the active opposition of many envious nations. Nevertheless, the second temple, with all its unheard-of magnificence, was as inferior to the fii'st in grand- eur as in sanctity. It was in vain that the Jews poured forth upon it with a liberal hand the strength of wheat and the blood of the vine ; that rivers of gold, flowing in from every point of the compass, unceasingly might offer their sacrifice. (Philo, Tract de Sacrif., c. 3.) J According to the Rabbins, the sacrifice was null when he who offered it was not clothed in white. (Basn. b. ix. ch. iv.) § This was of obHgation ; the Hebrews were to go up to the temple with as much ardor as a soldier goes up to battle ; they found this precept in the fifty-fifth Psalm, where David said that he went to the house of Grod as to a strong city. {See Basn., Histoire des Juifs, b. vii. ch. 17.) 82 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. replenished its sacred treasury ; that the pagan kings, recognizing the awful sanctity of the God of Israel, sent thither the most magnificent offerings.* Nothing of all that could supply the absence of the Ark, with which had disappeared the tables of the law, that is to say, the decrees of (rod wiitten by Himself amid the lightnings of Sinai ; the miraculous rod, which constituted the most an- cient title of the sons of Aaron to the supreme priesthood; and the manna of the desert, which confirm- ed by the miracle of its long pres- ervation, so many ancient prodigies wrought for the deliverance of Israel. Those precious objects were lost, to- gether with the sacred fire, which was only to be fanned by the breez- es of the holy mountain on the brazen altar of holocausts ; and the oil of unction, prepared by Moses, from which the priests and the kings * Josephus g^ves a minute description of the magnificent table of massive gold incrusted with precious stones, and the equally splendid vases given by Ptolemy Philadelphus to the Temple ; nearly all the princes of Asia had enriched it with thej'r gifts, and, about the time of the Pres- entation )f the Virgin, the Empress Livia sent there in her name and that of Augustus, some superb vases of gold. (Joseph, de BeUo, b. ii ch. 17.— Philo, ad Cajum.) ^ derived their lofty title : anointed of the Lord. But most mom-nful of all, the ScJiekina, that radiant cloud which attested the divine presence, had never been seen in the sacred temple, and even the jewels of the breast-plate, that last and most bril- liant oracle of the God of hosts, had lost their prophetic lustre.f This it was that filled the hearts of the sons of Aaron with bitterness when they compared the house of Zorobabel with the temple of the son of David ; and this it was that made the doc- tors of the law declare that the ful- fillment of the prophecy of Aggeus was not to be hoped for, unless the Messiah himself appeared in person in the new temple. Having passed that magnificent gate of Corinthian brass which twenty Levites could hardly close at night, and which, to the great dis- may of the Deicide people,^ opened f God made use of the precious stones which the high-priest wore on the breast-plate in order to presage victory ; for, before they encamped, these stones emitted so bright a lustre that the people thereby recognized the presence and assistance of his divine majesty ; but for two hundred years past, the breast-plate has ceased to emit that light. (FL Joseph. Ant. Jud., b. iii. ch. 8.) X Joseph, de Bella, 1. vL LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 83 of its own accord four years before the ruin of Jerusalem, Mary and her parents found themselves in a vast inclosure paved with black and white flags, and surrounded by lofty piazzas which, in time of war, served as ramparts.* A crowd of strangers and of natives, whose brilliant cos- tumes of glaring colors recalled the idea of an immense bed of tulips, walked to and fro in conversatix)n in that forum of Jerusalem, which was not considered sacred, and was called the Gentiles' Porch, because idolators could not, under pain of death, advance farther. j* At some distance from the crowd, under Solomon's porch, stood the proud aristocrats of Israel, clad in scarlet and purple, or in those long Babylonian robes embroidered with gold, which cost enormous sums, awaiting the hour of prayer, and de- taching themselves from the strang- ers with a haughty reserve that savored of contempt. Joachim, f whose birth, notwithstanding his poverty, was as noble as that of any of the princes of his people, bent his steps in that direction, sure of a cordial reception; for those Jews, so disdainful towards the Gentiles, J were amongst themselves like brethren, especially when they belonged to the same line. Scarcely had they perceived him when a number of illustrious ladies, warri- ors, and princes of the house of David, came to meet him, and, after the usual salutations, they joined the Galilean family, as though to form a suitable train for Mary.§ The Fathers, who note this circum- stance, have piously supposed that those great personages, the flower of the Jewish nobility, were not there by mere accident, but that God, who would have the future mother of the Messiah enter his temple in triumph, had divinely inspired them to be there at that particular time. * Tacit., Historiarum, 1. y. f Joseph, de Bella, 1. v. and vi. J Basnage remarks that at the time of Jesus Christ the Jews regarded the Gentiles as dogs, and mortally hated them. "If idolators are drowning," taught the doctors, " no one is to take them out of the water, or render them any assist- ^ ance ; the utmost that can be done for them is not to plunge them deeper into the water, or throw them farther down the precipice." (Basnage, L vii. ch. 25. ) § " Primarios quoque Hierosolymitas viros et mulieres interfuisse huic deductioni, succinenti- bus universis angeUs." (Isid. de Tfuss.) 84 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. From the middle of the Gentiles' Porch arose two other inclosm'es, both sacred, which composed the temple. Seen fiom below, that majestic and resplendent edifice pre- sented a quadrangular mass, w^hose walls, of alabaster whiteness, were pierced with ten superb gates, cov- ered with thick plates of gold and silver. As the temple, properly so called, crowned the summit of Mount Moria, a becoming site for the dwelling of the God of Moun- tahis, the ground had a gradual as- cent, and the walls were completely sm-rounded by marble steps, which somewhat concealed their height. Having ascended the steps of the temple, the purified group, in whose midst was the holy child about to be consecrated to God, paused a mo- * The chel was a space of ten cubits between the court of the Gentiles and that of the women. fThe tephilim were small pieces of parchment whereon they wrote four sentences of Scripture, with ink made expressly for the purpose ; the Jews wore them at the bend of the left arm and on the middle of the forehead. These tephilim, or phylacteries, were much in use at the time of Jesus Christ, since they were paraded as marks of distinction, and called forth his censure. (Basnage, Hisloire des Jui/s, b. vii. c. 17.) J The Pharisees always walked with their heads bowed down, in order to affect a more ^ ment on the narrow platform of the c/w?/.* There the Pharisees display- ed their tephilim^-\ and threw back over their subdued brows J a flap of their taled, which was composed of fine white wool,§ adorned with pur- ple pomegranates and small violet twists. The undaunted captains of Herod half concealed their dazzling breast-plates under their long cloaks, and the daughters of Sion wrapped themselves more closely in their veils of purple, of azure, or of Syr- ian gauze embroidered with gold, through respect for the holy angels of the sanctuary. 1 1 That done, they entered the temple by the east- ern gate, the most gorgeous of all ; that gate which poured forth streams of liquid gold when the Romans, unable to force an en- humble appearance, and sometimes even with their eyes closed, so as to avoid seeing anything that might be a cause of temptation ; hence it often happened that, in passing along the streets they knocked their head against the walls. (Basn., b. iii. ch. 3.) § Taled, a species of square cloak, which the Jews wore while praying in the temple ; some fastened it around their neck, others threw it over their head ; this last cnstom was the most generaL (Basnage, tom. v. book vii. chap. 17.) I Ideo debet mulier potestatem habere supra caput propter angelos. (1 Gor. xi. IC.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 85 trance through it, opened it by f means of fire.* In our cold northern regions vast edifices are required to shelter the people from the inclemency of the weather. Hence, we have immense cathedrals, made to contain whole multitudes ; but in ancient Asia the temples were for little else than the use of the priests ; the people prayed without. In Israel, the engdah or sacred assembly was usually held in the women's court. The second in- closure was so called because the Jewish women, whom the old law, in its severity, assimilated to slaves, could not advance farther. Sepa- rated from their sons and husbands, who remained, during the religious ceremonies, either in the open air of the square or under the arches of the peristyle, they prayed apart in the upper galleries, their heads humbly inclined towards the house of Jehovah, whose magnificent roof * Josephus mentions that, when Titus gave orders to set fire to the gates of the second inelosure of the temple, the molten gold and silver ran down in streams, as water streams from a fountain. {De Bello, c. xxiii.) f This precaution had been taken in order to prevent the doves and pigeons, who were very numerous in Jerusalem, from resting on the temple and soiling its roof. of cedar, bristling with needles of gold, they beheld at some dis- tance.f The ceremony of the presentation undoubtedly took place in the wo- men's court, and not in the very interior of the sanctuary, as some authors have said. It opened with a solemn sacrifice. The gate of Meaner, opening to admit the vic- tim, gave a perspective view of the inner inelosure, like a glimpse of that lost paradise, whose golden palaces, shaded by lofty cedars, were, as the Pharisees taught, the dwelling of the just. J Through the marble columns of a stately portico, overhung by the gigantic leaves and fruit of a golden vine, there was seen a structure which, at first sight, seemed of massive gold, so dazzling was the effect of its golden front of a hundred cubits as it reflected the rays of the Asiatic sun. An incred- ible number of votive garlands, X The Jews believed that the souls of the just went to the Garden of Eden, from which the hv- ing were debarred by the angel of death. They are sublime in their descriptions of this place, whose palaces, they say, are of precious stones, and its rivers of odorous perfumes. In hell, on the contrary, a river of fire flows over the damned, who suffer the extremes of hea* and cold. (Maimonides, Menasse, &c.) 86 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, whose ears of corn, lilies, pome- granates, and vine-leaves were com- posed of emeralds, topazes, carbun- cles, rubies, according to their color, were attached to the walls by cords of gold ; and when the wild moun- tain-breeze agitated theii' leaves, you would have taken them for real flowei'S, so exquisite was the work- manship and so perfect the imitation of nature. Here and there were seen tattered and blood-stained ban- ners, wrested by the brave Asmo^ nian princes from the Greeks of Syria in the glorious wars of the Independence, and consecrated to the God of Hosts by their priestly and warrior hands. Herod, that cruel prince but valiant leader, had recently added thereto the standards taken in his successful expeditions against the Arabs ; and the sight of those warlike trophies filled with patriot pride and martial ardor those Jewish hearts, who regarded death as a trifling thing when there was question of fighting for what was dearer to them than gold, family, and life — ^the temple ! The priests and the Levites assem- bled in the inner inclosure received from the hands of Joachim the victim ^ of prosperity.'^ Those ministers of the living God were not crowned with laurel, like the Pagan priests. A sort of round mitre, composed of very thick linen ; a linen tmiic, long, white, and without fullness, confined by a broad zone embroidered with sky-blue and purple ; these compos- ed the sacerdotal costume, which was worn only in the temple. One of the sacrificers took the lamb, and, after a short invocation to the God of Jacob, slew him, turning his head towards the north; the blood was caught in a vase of brass, and sprinkled around the temple. These preliminary rites being gone through, the priest arranged on a golden dish a portion of the flesh of the victim, together with part of the entrails, which had been carefully washed by the Levites in the hall of the spring. He wrapped up the oblation in a coat of fat, covered it with incense, and threw upon it the salt of the covenant; then, ascending barefoot to the platform in front of the brazen altar, he deposited the offering on the sound, firm logs, which, stripped ♦Whether they asked a, favor of God, or thanked him for having bestowed one, it waa ^ called the sacrifice of prosperity. LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 87 of their bark, fed the sacred lire. The remainder of the host, with the exception of the breast and the right shoulder, which belonged to the priests, was given back to Joachim, in order to furnish a banquet for his friends and neighbors, according to custom.* The last sounds of the priestly trumpets were dying away along the arched roof, and the sacrifice was still burning on the brazen altar, when a priest descended to the women's court in order to complete the ceremony. Ann, followed by Joachim, and bearing Mary in her * This festival, which was considered sacred, might be kept up for two days in succession, but the law expressly prohibited keeping anything of it for the third. While it lasted, the poor were to have their full share, and that for two reasons, says Philo. Firstly, because the victim belonged to God, who is bountiful by nature, and wished that the needy should be relieved ; secondly, for fear that avarice, which is a slavish vice, might creep in and dishonor a pious prac- tice. (Philo, Trad de Sacrif., c. ii.) f According to a Mahometan tradition, when St. Ann was delivered of the Blessed Virgin, she presented her to the priests, saying these words, which are also found in the Koran, " Dhouncon hadih alne-dhirat ; " that is to say, " Behold the offering which I make to thee." Hossain Vaer adds to these words, in his Persian paraphrase, " Kih ez an Khoddi," which signifies, "For this is a gift which God has f arms, advanced, veiled, towards the minister of the Most High, and (if we may believe an Arabian ti*adition which Mahomet himself inserted in the Koran) presented to him the young servant of the Lord, saying, in a tremulous voice, " I come to offer you the gift which God gave to me."f The priest accepted, in the name of God, who fructifies the womb of mothers, the precious deposit which the gratitude of blessed Joachim and his . pious companion confided to him ; J then extending his hands over the assembly who bowed to receive his pontifical blessing : § "0 given me ; " or rather, word for word, " For it is from this gift that God is to come." (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientate, torn. ii. p. 620.) I Eli blessed Elcana and his wife, and said to the former, " May the Lord give you yet other children by this woman, because of the deposit which you have placed in his hands." And they returned to their home. (Kings, b. 1 ch. ii. ver. 20.) See Pere Croiset on this ceremony. {Ex- ercises de Piete, t. xviii. p. 48.) § Whilst the high-priest gave his blessing, the people were obliged to place their hands on their eyes and to hide their face, because they were not permitted to look upon the hands of the priest. The Jews imagined that God was be- hind the pontiff, looking at them through hia outstretched hands ; they dared not raise their eyes, then, to look upon him, /or no man could see God and live. (Basn., 1. vii. ch. 15.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Israel," said he, " may the Lord shed bis light upon thee; may He prosper thee in all thy ways, and grant thee peaee ! " A canticle of thanksgiving, harmoniously accompanied by the priestly harps, terminated the pres- entation of the Virgin. Such was the ceremony which took place towards the end of November, in the holy temple of Sion. Men, who usually go no farther than the surface, saw there only a young child of marvellous beauty and precocious piety, consecrated by her mother to the God who had granted her to her tears and mortifications ; but the angels of heaven, hovering over the sanctuary, beheld in that fair and fragile creature the Virgin of Isaiah, the spouse whose mystic hymn was sung by Solomon, the celestial Eve who came to restore to a fallen race the hope of a glorious immortality. Penetrated with joy to see the dawn of the Messiah's day at last appear, "they thronged," say the ancient authors,* "to that earthly festival, and, covering with their snowy wings the youthful descendant of * St Andrew ol Crete and St. George of Nic- omedia. * the royal David, they strewed hei path with the odoriferous flowers of paradise, and celebrated her entry into th^ temple by melodious con- certs." Who can tell what was then pass- ing in Mary's soul — that soul pre- maturely matured by the breath of the sanctifying Spirit, wherein al. was peace, and light, and love ? By what secret bonds was she united tc Him who had preferred her before the virgins and queens of so many nations ? This is a secret between her and God ; but we may reasona- bly suppose that never was obla- tion more favorably received; and St. Evodius of Antioch, St. Epipha- nius of Salamina, St. Andrew of Crete, and a number of the Latin fathers, agree in regarding the con- secration of the Virgin as more pleasing to God than any act of religion that man had yet accom- plished. We know not the name of the priest who received the Blessed Vir- gin amongst the daughters of the Lord; St. Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople, and St. George of Nicomedia, incline to the opinion that it was the father of St. John the LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 89 Baptist. The relationship existing between Zachary and the family of Joachim, the high rank which he then held in the priesthood,* and the tender affection wherewith Mary ever regarded him, as well as Eliza- beth, make this supposition ex- tremely probable. Whoever it was, the blessed daughter of Joachim was solemnly admitted to the number of the almas or young virgins who were brought up in the sacred shade of the altar. That Mary spent her best years in the temple, is proved by apostolic tradition, the writings of the Fathers, and the opinion of the Church, which is not apt to sanction doubtful facts.f Nevertheless, heretics have chosen to treat this circumstance as fabu- lous, and even some Catholic authors have considered it as an obscure * The Jews believed that John the Baptist was much greater than Jesus Christ, because he was the son of a high-priest. (S. J. Chrysostom, Serm. 12 in Matt.) t In 1373, Philippe de Maziere, a French gentleman, chancellor of the King of Cyprus, came to the court of Charles V. and informed him that in the East, where he had long resided, they celebrated every year the feast of the pres- entation of the Blessed Virgin, in memory of her having been presented in the temple at the age * point, shi'ouded by the veil of time, and very difficult to determine. The denial of the former is not at all surprising, but the doubt of the latter is indeed wonderful; for if ever Christian tradition bore the stamp of authenticity, it is this. St. Evodius, a contemporary of the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles, was the first who recorded this glori- ous peculiarity of the childhood of Mary, in an epistle entitled Liimen^ which Mcephorus has preserved. He was bishop of Antioch, a city of Syria, much frequented by both Jews and Christians ; and the tem- ple, where the early faithful followed, with profound veneration, the traces of the Son of God and his divine Mother, was still standing in all its splendor. This tradition, which came from the Church of Jerusalem, — a Church which was composed of the of three years. Philippe added, " I began to re- flect that this great festival was not known in the Western Church, and, when I was ambassador from the King of Cyprus to the Pope, I spoke to him of that festival, and presented its office to him ; he had it carefully examined by cardinals, bishops, and doctors of theology, and then per- mitted the feast to be celebrated." The Greeks be- gan early to celebrate it under the title of The En- trance of the Blessed Virgin into the Temple. It is mentioned in their most ancient martyrologies. 90 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART, fii-bt disciples of Jesus Christ, many * of whom were relations of the Virgin and St Joseph, — was very eai-ly con- secrated by a religious monument, a demonstrative proof even in the eyes of Protestants.* Finally, the majority of the Fathers,f and espe- cially St. Jerome, who lived amidst the scenes of the Redemption, and while the ti-aditions were still very recent, have related it and held it as true. We may, therefore, place this traditionar belief amongst the best authenticated facts of history. CHAPTER V. MARY IN THE TEMPLE. Virgins ITHIN the forti- fied inclosure of the temple rose that part of the sacred edifice which was set apart for the consecrated to the Lord. * Gibbon himself could not help admitting the authenticity of the religious traditions in Palestine. " The Christians point out," says he, "by undoubted tradition, the scene of every memorable event" (voL iv. p. 101), an admission of considerable importance coming from a man of such research as the English historian, and at the same time so little favorable to religion. — ^According to M. Chateaubriand, if there be Thither did Zachary conduct his youthful relative.^ On this site the Christians of Jerusalem erected an oratory, which was afterwards re- placed by a church with a gilded .dome, by Godfrey de Bouillon's companions in arms. This church the valiant knights of the temple anything on earth clearly proved, it is the authenticity of the Christian traditions of Jeru- salem. fSt. Epiphanius, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople, St. George of Nicomedia, St. John Damascene, &c. X St. Germanus states that it was Zachary who took charge of the Virgin, and placed her in the LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 91 took pleasure in adorning with the rich spoils which they took from the Saracens.* Although virginity was, in Israel, but the virtue of a season, and was soon to give place to the conjugal duties, it was not without its honors and its special prerogatives. Jeho- vah delighted in the prayers of spotless children, of pure virgins; and it was a virgin rather than a queen whom he had chosen to co- operate in the redemption of man- kind. Hence, when the seers of Juda disclosed to that chosen but often chastised people the prophetic picture of its miseries or of its tri- umphs, they always painted a virgin temple. The Arabian traditions also have it that God gave the Virgin in charge to Zachary, ouacqfalha Zojcharia. The Koran, in the Sural which treats of the family of Amram, adds to this fact a marvellous legend handed down amongst the Christian tribes of the desert. It says that Zachary, going now and then to visit his young relative, always found near her a quantity of the finest fruits of the Holy Land, and that, at seasons when they were not to be had, which at last induced him to ask Mary where she got all those fine fruits. Mary answered, Hou men and Allah 'iarroc man 'iascha hegdir hissa: All that you see comes from God, who provides for whosoever he will, without number and without measure. (D'Her- belot, Bibl. Orient., t. ii. art, Miriam.) * The mosque of Omar {el AJcsa) represents for ^ either joyous or in tears, to personi- fy the cities and provinces. In the wars of extermination, when the broadsword of the Hebrews smote the women, the children, and the old men of Moab, the virgins were spared; and the high-priest, who was prohibited by a severe law from fulfilling the last duties to a friend whom he loved as Ms own sotd, and even to the prince of his people, could assist, without contracting legal impurity, at the funeral of his sister, who died a virgin.f The virgins, or almas, figured in the ceremonies of the Hebrew wor- ship before that worship had a tem- ple. "We see them, under the guid- Christians the ancient temple of Solomon ; el sakhra (the rock) is built on the place where Mary lived from the age of three years till her betrothal with Joseph. . . . This place was at that time a dependency of the temple of Solomon, aa el sakhra is now of the mosque of Omar. Before the crusades, el sakhra was but a chapel ; the Franks added thereto a church, surmounted by a gilded cupola. When the victors threw down the great cross which shone on the cupola of the sakhra, the acclamations of the Mussulmans and the lamentations of the Christians were so great, says an Arab writer, that it seemed as though the whole world were about to be swallowed up. (Correspondence d' Orient, t. v.) According to Schonah, it excited so great a tumult in the city, that Saladin himself had to interfere, f Levit. oh. xxi. v. 3. 9-2 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. ance of Mary, the sister of Moses, * celebniting by songs and dances the passage of the Red Sea.* Those diincing-ehoirs of young maidens, transplanted fi'om Egypt to the des- ei-t, were long kept up amongst the Hebrews. The virgins of Silo, who seem to have been, fi'om the time of the Judges, more especially conse- crated to the service of Adonai than the other daughters of Israel, were singing canticles and dancing to the sound of the harp, within a short distance of the holy place, during a certain festival, when they were carried off by the Benjamites. But that event did not abolish the cus- tom, which was kept up till that disastrous period when the ark was lost and the first temple desti'oyed.f It is probable that all the almas were admissible to those sacred choirs, when their reputation was * Mary and her young companions (the almas) sang canticles on the passage of the Red Sea, accompanying themselves with the timbrel. (R. sal Tarhhi.) Exod. xv. f These sacred dances, which commemorated the passage of the Red Sea, and were accompani- ed by hymns of praise, were regarded by the Jews as a practice so pious as to be adopted even amongst the austere therapeutae. " The sacred dance of the devout therapeutce," says Philo, " was untarnished ; but there was amongst them a select number who gathered around the altar with more fervor, and more perseverance. Whilst the ark of the Lord was yet encamped under the tents, the women who watch- ed and prayed at the door of the taber- nacle, offered to God the brazen mirrors which they had brought from Egypt. These were probably pious widows who had refused to contract new ties, in order to apply themselves more constantly to heav- enly tilings, and almas devoted by their parents to the service of the sanctuary, who had been placed under the care of those righteous matrons. St. Jerome thus under- stands this passage of Exodus : As the vow of the parents was usually redeemable, and the ransom, fixed at a moderate sum,J always took place after the expiration of a composed of two choirs, one of men, the other of women ; the effect of which was very musical and harmonious, because the words that were heard were very fine, and the grave and modest danc- ers had only in view the honor and the service of the God of Israel." (Philo, de Vita cont.) X Moses had, by a special law, fixed the re- demption of this vow at a sum of fifty shekels or more. The shekel of silver was, at least, four Attic drachms. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 93 few years,* these temporary vows were called a loan given to the Lord.f / have lent him to the Lord, said Anna, as she conducted her young Samuel to Silo.J After the return from captivity, the influence of the Persians oper- ated against the institution of the almas, as that people excluded wo- men from their religious celebra- tions. § They ceased to form, as it were, a body in the state, and to figure ostensibly in the public wor- ship. Under the pontiff-kings they lived shut up, and their days flowed on in such profound seclusion, that when they ran in terror to the high- priest Onias, at the moment when the sacrilegious crime of Heliodorus * Children in this sort of bondage retained their rights to the paternal inheritance, and might redeem themselves, in case they were not redeemed by their parents. {Ahh'e Ouenee.) Josephus {Ant., h. iv.) remarks that those men and women who, after having voluntarily conse- crated themselves to the ministry, wished to break their vows, paid the priests a certain sum, and that those who were insolvent placed them- selves at the disposal of the priest. f Pere Croiset, Exerc. de Piet'e. I Ideirco et ego commodavi eum Domino. § In Bombay, the descendants of the Persians have a temple consecrated to the fire. They come in crowds to the esplanade, with their snow-white garments and colored turbans, to ^j threw all Jerusalem into confusion, the fact was considered so unusual and so remarkable, that the Jewish historians give it a place in their annals. 1 1 It appears, then, that whatever may be said to the contrary, there were virgins attached to the service of the second temple at the time of Mary's presentation. The institu- tions of the first Christians certify that such was the case,^] and St. Am- brose, St. Jerome, and, before them, the proto-gospel of St. James afiirm- ed it. But what took place during the Virgin's sojourn in the temple ? What were, at that most interesting period of her life, her tastes, her habits, her practices of devotion? salute the rising sun or to offer their homage to his departing rays, humbly prostrating them- selves before him. Their women do not then appear, for it is at that time that they go to fetch water from the wells. (Buckingham, Tableau de I'Inde.) II II. Mac. iii. \ It is known that the first Christians, es- pecially those of Jerusalem, who were of He- brew origin, preserved some of the institutions of the old law ; of this number was that of the virgins and widows, whom we find attached to the primitive chui-ches for the exercise of various good works suitable to their sex. {See Fleury, Mosurs des Israelites et des Chretiens, p. 115.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. There remains to us, on this head, but few authentic documents. These details were most probably given in a traditional life of the Mother of God, which St. Epiphanius, in 390, regarded as very ancient, but that life is lost. The " Gospel of the Childhood of Mary " and St. Jerome, when they mention that Mary was a<)mitted amongst the daughters of the Lord, say very little more on the subject To fill up this vacuum in a life which God seems to have taken pleasure in surrounding with mystery, we have only some incon- clusive lines, some detached pages fi*om the Fathers, from which it is very difficult, even with the utmost care, to make a satisfactory sketch. No matter; like the Indian work- man who joins a broken tissue thread by thread, and patiently tries to tie the ends together, unweaving, knotting, sending his shuttle with infinite care along that worn-out and attenuated woof, we are going to apply ourselves assiduously to our work, and gather together the scat- tered fragments of the precious tissue of the Virgin's life, so as to connect, if possible, the broken thread. With the persevering patience of the han- ^ ian, we will endeavor not to make a suppositious narrative — which our profound respect for our subject for- bids — but to give, with the help of the best authorities, and a long study of the customs of the Hebrews, the most precise idea, and the nearest to the truth that can possibly be given, of the almost monastic life of the Blessed Virgin in the temple. Many of the old legendary writers took pleasm-e in surrounding the childhood of Mary with a multitude of prodigies. These we pass over in silence, because they are not suffi- ciently authenticated. But there is one thing which we cannot omit to mention, viz., an inaccurate, or rath- er an inadmissible assertion, which has been adopted credulously and without examination by some holy personages and religious writers.* From the fact that the Virgin was always sanctity itself, which no one disputes, they inferred that she must have been placed in the most sanctified part of the temple, which is materially false. The Holy of Holies, that impenetrable sanctuary * St. Andrew of Crete, St. George of Nicome- .j dia, &c 1- LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 95 of the God of Hosts, was closed to the whole Hebrew priesthood ex- cept the high-priest, who entered it but once a year, after much fasting, watching, and purification. He only presented himself there in the midst of a thick cloud of incense, which interposed between him and the Divinity, "whom no man can see and live," says the Scripture. Fi- nally, he remained there but a few minutes, while the people, prostrate on the ground, sobbed and wept, fearing lest he should meet his death. He himself afterwards gave a grand banquet to his friends, to rejoice with them for having escaped such imminent and fearful danger.* From this we may judge whether it be possible that Mary was brought up in the Holy of Holies. The local traditions of Jerusalem, no less loudly than common sense, protest against this rash opinion. The sakhra^ which was first a Chris- * Prideaux. — ^Basnage, Hidoire desSuisses, 1, v. ch. 15. ■j" The uncleanness of the woman, according to the Jewish doctors, dates from the seduction of Eve by the serpent, and is only to be extirpated at the coming of their Messiah. Her prayer is not so obhgatory as that of man, and she is not 8ven bound to the observance of most of the tian church, built on the site of the apartments of the Virgin, is distinct- ly detached from the mosque of Omar; yet the mosque of Omar is built on the very ground' of the temple. Father Croiset, in his Exercises de Piete, did not adopt this opinion; but, unwilling to reject it altogether, he attempted a sort of compromise. According to him, the Mother of God was not brought up in the Holy OF Holies, but the priests, touched by her admirable virtues, permitted her to pray there from time to time. The Jesuit Father, in adopting this mezzo termine, has forgotten several things: first, that amongst the He- brews, woman was considered an unclean creature, assimilated to the slave, and scarcely bound to pray ; f that she was banished to an inclos- ure whose boundaries she might not cross, and that the interior of the temple was to her a forbidden place. affirmative commandments. Finally, the Jews still say, in their morning prayer. Blessed be thou, Lord, King of the universe, for that thou hast not made me a woman. Woman, on the other hand, said, in her humility, Blessed be thou, Lord, who hast made me according to thine own will. (Basnage, Bistoire des Juifs, lib. vii ch. 10.) 96 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. even though she were a prophetess f or the daughter of a king ; the sec- ond is, that the priests could not grant to Mary a privilege which they did not themselves enjoy, and which would, moreover, have exposed her to certain death ; * finally, that even supposing the priests of Jehovah to have been without these fears and prejudices, they would by no means have suffered any one to penetrate to the Holy of Holies, seemg that it was important to conceal from the ])eople the disappearance of the ark, lost in some obscure grotto of the mountains since the days of Jere- minh.f This second version, then, is not more admissible than the first. The education which Mary receiv- ♦ "The sanctuary," says Philo, " is so holy a place, that npne amongst us, save the high-priest, is permitted to penetrate there, and even he only once a year, after a solemn fast, to burn per- fumes in honor of God, and humbly to beg of Him that the year may be favorable for all men. If any one, even a prince of our nation, dared to enter, or if the high -priest himself went in a second time in one year, or more than once on the day that he is permitted to do so, it would cost either of them his life, with- out any chance of escape, so strict was the ordinance of Moses, our legislator, concerning the veneration of the temple. (Fhilo, ad Cajum, C.16.) ed in the temple was the best that those times and the customs of the Hebrews permitted. It was chiefly confined to the domestic labors, from which even the wife and daughter of Cesar Augustus did not exempt themselves in their imperial palace and amid the delights of Rome.;); Brought up in the strict observance of the Mosaic law, and conforming herself to the customs of her people, Mary arose with the lark, at the hour when wielded spirits are silent^ and when prayers are most favorably heard.^ She dressed herself with the greatest modesty, through re- spect for the glory of God who is every where present, and beholds all the actions of men, even through the gloom of the darkest night. At the fThe Jews do not agree concerning the fate of the ark after the ruin of the first temple. Some will have it, that Jeremiah concealed it in a cavern of the mountains, the entrance to which was never found ; others say that the holy king Josias, warned by Holda, the prophetess, that the temple should be destroyed shortly after his death, caused that precious deposit to be placed in a subterraneous vault, which had been con- structed by Solomon. J Augustus wore no other garments than those- which were spun by his wife or daugh- ter, and Alexander the Great by his mother and sisters. § Basnage, L vii, ch. 17, p. 308. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 97 same time, she gave thanks to the Lord for having added another day to her life, and for having preserved her during her sleep from the snares of the evil one.* Her toilet was ex- tremely simple, and occupied but little time. She wore neither brace- lets of pearl, nor chains of gold inlaid with silver^ nor purple tunics, such as were worn by the daughters of the princes of her race. A robe of sky-blue, a white tunic, confined at the waist by a girdle with flowing ends, a long veil, simply but gracefully arranged, so as completely to cover the face when necessary; these, with a species of shoe corresponding to the robe, composed the oriental costume of Mary.f *Ba.sn age, joZace quoted. f The Annunciade of Genoa wore, in the six- teenth century, the costume of the Blessed Vir- gin, that is to say, white under and blue over, in order that such dress might continually remind them of her. The, slippers of the choristers are also com- posed of blue leather. {Ride of the Annunciade of Genoa, ch. 2.) M. de Lamartine found in that Eastern land, where nothing seems to change, that the costume of the women of Nazareth is still that which was worn by Mary. " They wear," says he, " a long tunic of sky-blue, con- fined by a white girdle, the ends of which reach the ground ; the soft folds of a white tunic fall gracefully over the blue." M. de Lamartine After the customary ablutions, the Virgin and her young companions, with certain pious women who were answerable to the priests and to God for that sacred deposit, took their way towards the gallery J where the almas sat in the place of honor. § The sun began to gild with his radiant beams the distant mountains of Arabia, the eagle cut circles in the clouds above, the sacrifice burn- ed on the brazen altar to the sound of the morning trumpets, when Mary, her head bowed down beneath her veil, after repeating the eighteen prayers of Esdras, demanded of God, with all Israel, that Christ, so long promised and so tardy in appear- ing— " Let thy name, O God ! be praised and glori- traces this costume to the time of Abraham and Isaac, and his supposition is not at aU improba- ble. "We see that there is but a very trifling difference between the costume adopted in the sixteenth century, from the traditions of Italy, and that which the French traveller found in the Holy Land. I During the feast of the drawing of water, the men were placed under the galleries which surround the women's peristyle. § Origen, St. Basil, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Cyril, have preserved to us a tradition which assigns to the virgins of the temple an hon- orable and distinct place in the women's peri- style. 96 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. fied in this world, which thoa hast created ac- oording to thy good pleasure ; rouchsafe to ertabliih thy reign ; let redemption flourish, and th« Mewiah quickly come." * And the people, in chorus, re- sponded, "Amen I Amen!" Then were sung the concluding verses of that beautiful psalm at- tributed to the prophets Aggeus and Zacharias. " The Lord unbinds those who are fettered ; the Lord enlightens those who are blind. "The Lord upraises those who are crushed down ; the Lord loves those who are just. " The Lord has care over strangers ; he will protect the widow and the orphan, and the ways of sinners he will destroy. •' The Lord shall reign for ever and ever ; thy God, O Sion 1 shall rule the nations." f The reading of the schema'l and the blessing of the priest termin- ated this public prayer, which took place every morning and evening. § ♦ This prayer, which is called the kaddisch, is the most ancient of all those which the Jews have preserved, and, as it is read in the Chal- dean tongue, it is thought to be one of the pray- ers composed after the return from Babylon. (Basn., 1. viL ch. 17, p. 314.) Prideaux affirms that it was in use long before the coming of Christ, and that the Apostles frequently offered it up with the people in the synagogues. It was often recited during the service, and the assem- bly was obliged to answer Amen several times. t Leo of Modena. — Maimonides. X Leo of Modena, c. xL p. 29. By the schema they meant three different sections of Deuter- Having fulfilled, with indescriba- ble fervor, this first religious duty, Mary and her young companions resumed their wonted avocations. Some rapidly twirled in their agile fingers spindles of cedar or of ithel ;|| others embroidered the veil of the temple, or the rich girdles of the priests, with purple, blue, and gold ; whilst groups, bent forward over a Sidonian loom, applied themselves to the execution of those magnificent carpets which won for " the strong woman" the admiration of all Israel, and were extolled by Homer him- self.^ The Virgin surpassed all the daughters of her people in those beautiful fabrications so highly priz- ed by the ancients. We learn from St. Epiphanius that she ex- celled in embroidery and the art onomy and Numbers. It was a sort of profes- sion of faith recited morning and evening, whereby they acknowledged that there is but one God, who drew his people out of Egypt. §It is certain that the Blessed Virgin must have assisted very often at the morning and evening service. Those prayers were considered more efficacious than any others, and some of the Hebrew doctors even maintain that God hears none but these. II The ithel is a species of acacia which grows in Arabia ; it is of a beautiful black, resembling eb- ony ; it is thought to be the setim wood of Moses. 1" See the Iliad, b. vi LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 99 of working wool, in byssus, and in gold.* The proto-gospel of St. James represents her seated before a distaff of purple wool, which mov- ed under her taper fingers like the trembling leaf of the poplar ;f and the Christians of the West have per- petuated the traditional opinion of her unrivalled skill in spinning the flax of Pelusia, J by giving the name of Virgin^s thread to that net-work of dazzling whiteness, and of almost etherial texture, which floats over deep valleys in the damp mornings of autumn. The chaste and mod- est brides of the early Christians, in memory of thes-e domestic avoca- tions of the Queen of Angels, never failed to consecrate to her a distaff *In the middle ages, in commemoration of the Virgin's works in flax, weavers were ranged under the banner of the Annunciation. The makers of gold brocade and silkeri stuffs had for their patroness Notre Dame la Riche ( Our Lady the Rich), and bore her image on their banner, heavy with superb embroidery. (Alex. Monteil, Hidoire des Frangais des divers etats.) f The Church of Jerusalem early consecrated this remembrance by ranking amongst its treas- ures the spindles of Mary. Those spindles were subsequently sent to the Empress Pulcneria, who placed them in the Church of the Guides in Constantinople. I The garments worn in the morning by the chief priests were, says the Misnah, of the fine ^ adorned with fillets of purple, and charged with spotless wool.§ But the talents and acquirements of the Virgin did not end here. St. Ambrose ascribes to her a perfect understanding of Holy Writ, and St. Anselm will have it that she was thoroughly acquainted with the old Hebrew, the language of the terres- trial paradise, || in which God himself traced, on tables composed of pre- cious stones,^ the ten precepts of the Decalogue. Whether Mary, studying the idiom of Anna and of Deborah, became conversant, during her solitary vigils, with the lofty conceptions of the seers of Israel, or that she received from the sanctifying Spirit, who had so richly flax of Pelusia, a city of Egypt famous for the excellent quality of its flax. § This custom is still kept up in some hamlets in the north and west of France. II According to the Rabbins and the Commen- tators on the Bible, the language of Paradise was the ancient Hebrew. ^ A Hebrew tradition. (Basnage, vi. ch. 16.) According to some Oriental writers, the tables of the law were either of rubies or carbuncles ; but the most common opinion, amongst the Arabs and Mussulmans, is, that they were of emeralds, within which the characters were cut, so that they could be read on every side. (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, tome ii-) 100 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. endowed her, a breath of poetic inspiration, like tlie harmonious breezes which swept the JEolian har]> of the Koyal Prophet,* it must be acknowledged that the youthful prophetess, who gave to the new law its finest canticle, could not have been a stranger to the sweetest or the most sublime inspir- ations of genius. Undoubtedly, the woman who composed the Magnifi- aU was not a mere common girl, as some Protestant authors have not hesitated to assert, and must have united to unequaled sanctity talents of the highest order. But then this brilliant aspect of her character was scarcely perceptible, so carefully did she cover it with her angelic modes- ty. Knowing the delicate duties and the real interests of her sex, she shrank from all display, and passed silently along the way of life, like some fair star gliding through the clouds. The rich treasures of her mind and heart were but partially revealed on earth ; they were as the ♦Accordiug to the ancient Jewish tradition, David had a harp which played by night when a certain wind came to blow. Basnage ridicules the idea of chords, which only echo to the night wind, and plainly sets it down as an absurdity. t roses of Yemen which the Arab maiden conceals beneath her veil, and whose gentle perfume is scarce- ly felt. An ancient poet said servilely to Augustus that he alone was the work of several centuries, and that, ever since the creation, all the in- dustry of natm-e had been employed in producing him. That which was an outrageous hyperbole in speaking of the sanguinary nephew of Cesar, becomes a demonstrated truth when applied to the Virgin. In reality, Mary is the masterpiece of Nature, the flower of the ancient days, and the wonder of ages. Never has the earth seen, and never will it again see, so many perfections re-united in a mere mortal. In that blessed creature all was grace, sanctity, and grandeur. Conceived in the friend- ship of Gpd, sanctified before her birth, she knew nothing of the pas- sions which agitate the soul, or the sin which corrupts the heart. Hav- ing a sweet and natural inclination The invention, or rather the re-invention of -Slolian harps, whose magic sounds enchant the English parks, gives probability to the statement of the Rabbins. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 101 to virtue, thanks to her immaculate * conception, her pure and innocent acts were like the wreath of snow which silently falls on the mountain- top, adding purity to purity and whiteness to whiteness, till it rears itself into a shining cone, which at- tracts the rays of the sun, and daz- zles the eye of man. It has not been given to any other creature to pre- sent such a life to the Sovereign Judge of men. Jesus Christ alone surpassed her ; but Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Mary entered the temple of Jeru- salem like one of those unspotted victims shown by the Spirit of the Lord to Malachi. Young, beautiful, nobly born, and qualified to aspire to the highest place amongst a people who often raised beauty to the throne,* she bound herself to the horns of the altar by a vow of vir- ginity which her infant lips could barely articulate, and which her heart subsequently ratified, with a perfect renunciation of the pomps and vanities of the world. By that * It is certain that David, Solomon, and the other kings of Juda, often took to their royal bed women of obscure condition ; the famous Sulam- ite of Solomon was, it is said, a young country VOW, till then unheard, Maiy crossed the boundary which divides the old law from the new, and plunged so deep into the sea of evangelical virtues, that one might think she had already sounded its depths when her divine Son came to reveal it to the children of men. God does not alter his course ab- ruptly. He announces, he prepares long beforehand the great events which are to change the aspect of the world. A precursor was requir- ed for the Messiah, and he found one in the person of St. John the Baptist. A preliminary was required for the new law, and the virtues of Mary were to the Gospel what the fresh and roseate dawn is to the risen day. St. Epiphanius, cited by Niceph- orus, has left us a charming descrip- tion of the Virgin. That portrait, traced in the fourth century from traditions now lost, and manuscripts which are no longer in existence, is yet the only one which remains to us. girl from the little village of Sulam, situated at a short distance from Jerusalem. In the time of Mary, Herod the Great espoused Mariamne, the daughter of a priest, because of her beautj. 102 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. The Virgin, according to this holy bisliop, was not of tall stature, though somewhat above the middle height; her face was of that fine oval which characterizes the Jewish women, and her eyes were of a soft hazel color. Her person was, in fine, a casket worthy of the priceless jewel it contained, and was like it all bemUi/uL All the Fathers agree as to the admirable beauty of the Virgin. St. Denis the Areopagite, who had seen the divine Mary, assures us that she was of dazzling beauty, and that he would have worshipped her as a goddess, had he not known that there is but one God. But it was not to this assemblage of physical perfections that Mary owed the power of her beauty; it emanated from a higher source. This was well understood by St. Ambrose when he said that her charming exterior was but a trans- parent veil which disclosed all her virtues ; and that her soul, the no- * It is neither climate, nor food, nor bod- ily exercise, which forms human beauty; it is the moral sentiment of virtue, which cannot subsist without religion. The beauty of the countenance is the true index of the ^ blest and the purest that ever was, after the soul of Jesus Christ, re- vealed itself fully in her look. The physical beauty of Mary was but the distant reflection of her intel- lectual and imperishable beauty ; she was the fairest, because she was the purest and holiest, of the daughters of Eve.* God has incased the Green Sea pearl in a mother-of-pearl shell,f but it is the pearl and not its bril- liant case that men set in gold and place in the diadem of kings. The Fathers were well aware of this, and, in their glowing descriptions of Mary's loveliness, they dwelt partic- ularly on the charms of her mind — those which belong not to the earth, and perish not with the frail body. We are about to collect the gems scattered here and there throughout their works, to form them into a mosaic, which may present a second portrait of her who was, as Sophro- nius says, " a garden of pleasure to the Lord."I soul. ( Bernardino de St. Pierre, Mudes de la Nature, dtude 10.) \ Bahr-al-Akhdhar, one of the names of the Persian Gulf. X Vere Virgo erai hortiis deliciarum in quo con^ LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 103 The greatest decorum reigned in f all the actions of the Virgin. She was kind, aifable, compassionate, and never tired of hearing the com- plaints of the wretched. She spoke little, always to the purpose, and never did falsehood defile her lips. Her voice was mild and penetrating, and her words had in them some- thing unctuous and soothing, which infused peace into the soul. She was the first in vigils, the most ex- act in fulfilling the divine law, the most profound in humility, the most perfect in every virtue. She was never seen in anger ; never offended, annoyed, or rebuked any one. She was averse to all pomp, simple in her apparel, simple in her manners, and never once thought of turning to account either her beauty, her noble birth, or the rich treasures of her mind and heart. Her presence seemed to sanctify all around, and the very sight of her was sufficient to detach the mind from earthly aita sunt universa Jlorum genera et odoramenta virtutum. (Sophro., Serm. de Ass.) * The ancients believed that the grasshoppers lived on air and dew. (Philo, de Vita cont., p. 831.) Homer, book third of the Iliad : "Like the grasshoppers which, perched on the top of the forest-trees, send forth their harmonious strains things. Her politeness was not an idle formula, consisting of empty words ; it was an expansion of uni- versal beneficence proceeding from her inmost soul. In fine, her look already denoted the Mother of Mercy, the Virgin of whom it has been since said, " She would even ask pardon of God for Lucifer, if Lucifer would ask it for himself." Although she had but little of this world's wealth, yet Mary w^as bountiful towards the poor, and her childish alms fell often unperceived into the poor-box attached to one of the pillars of the peristyle ; the same into which Jesus, in after- times, saw the widow drop her mite. St. Ambrose reveals the pure and sacred source whence Mary de- rived her alms. She deprived her- self of all, granted nothing to nature but barely what was necessary for preserving life, and seemed to live, like the grasshopper, on air and dew.* Her frequent and rigorous (after having drunk a Httle dew)." " The grass- hoppers feed only on dew." (Theocrit. idyl 4.) "Does he feed only on dew hke the grass- hopper ? " And Virgil : Dum thymo pascentur apes, dum tore cicadse. " Whilst the bees shall feed on thyme and the 104 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART fasts were also made profitable to f so profound, that her soul seemed to the poor. The fasts observed by the Virgin were not like our northern fasts, which last but for a single moniing, and are confined to the abstiiining from certain ' kinds of food ; it was a total abstinence from all things, which began at sunset and continued the whole of the next day till the stars were in the sky.* During that time, Mary deprived herself of every thing that might gratify her taste or her appetite. She imposed on herself the hardest labor, the most disgusting works of mercy, clothed herself in her mean- est garments, slept on the bare ground, and allowed herself nothing during this time of penace and mor- tification (often prolonged for whole weeks) but a light repast composed of bread baked under the ashes, some bitter vegetables, and a cup of water from the fountain of Siloe.f Her meditations were frequent, and her prayer so collected, so attentive, grasshoppers on dew." Hence it was that Cal- limachus called the dew " the grasshopper's food." * The Jews considered that no fast, on which the sun did not set. "f Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 18. Fleury, Moeurs des Israelites, p. 104. X Augustus, if we may believe Suetonius, was ^ melt in adoration before the Eternal God. The roar of the tempest and the crash of the thunder, which drove Cesar to the subterraneous vaults of his palace,J reached not the ear of the youthful Virgin; completely absorbed in her religious duties, her soul was at the feet of the great Author of the universe, far beyond the confines of the world and the region of storms. " Never was any one endowed," says St. Ambrose, " with a more sublime gift of contemplation. Her mind, ever in accordance with her heart, never lost sight of Him whom she loved more ardently than all the seraphim put together. Her whole life was but a continual exercise of the purest love of her God, and, when sleep weighed down her eye- lids, her heart still watched and prayed. § Such were the virtues, such the occupations of Mary in the temple. as much afraid of thunder and lightning as any female could be. At the slightest appear- ance of a storm, he went and hid himself in the deepest vaults, whither the noise of the thunder and the glare of the lightning could not pene- trate. § St. Ambrose, de Virg., L iu LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 105 Slie shone amongst her young com- panions like a rich diamond which, placed amidst other precious stones, effaces them all by its splendor. Hence it was that men who had * grown gray in the priesthood never passed her without a murmured blessing, and considered her as the fairest ornament of the holy house. CHAPTEE YI. MARY, AN ORPHAN, must be admit- ted — though it is a strange thing — that the history of the Virgin is bar- ren of facts and full of gaps. It may be likened to the majestic remains of some ancient city of the desert. Here, gigantic columns standing firm as the moun- tains ; there, porticoes which the Arab, in his love of the marvelous, proclaims as the work of genii; farther on, temples buried in the sand which the imagination delights to raise again; and then, here and * there, a bleak and sterile area, with- out a single blade of grass for the camel of the Bedouin. In default of the Apostles, who were too much occupied, it would seem, with the grand figure of Christ to think of his earthly relatives, the Fathers have made us acquainted with the virtues of St. Ann. "We follow them into her humble dwelling ; we behold her piety, we hear her vows and her fervent prayers ; we wit- ness the joys of her late maternity, and the outpouring of her gratitude ; but there the thread of tradition becomes so frail that it incessantly snaps asunder, and the remainder 106 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. of St Ann's life is almost entii'ely conjectural. That mother, who had obtained her blessed daughter after so many fasts and tears, who had so lovingly watched over her infancy, who had brought her in her arms to the Lord,* and had laid her weeping in his sanctuary, reappears but for a moment on the scene, and that only to die. It is, however, very unlikely that the wife of Joachim would have remained nine years without seeing her child again. The outer buildings of the temple, where the consecrated children were brought up, could not have been closed against their mothers. The rights of a mother are both sacred and religious: all nations declare them to be imprescriptible; and, moreover, the Scripture tells us that Anna, wife of Elcana, freely visited her son at Silo, on solemn days, and that she never failed to bring a tunic spun by her own hands, to the young prophet, whom she had lent ♦Liguori, Glories of Mary, discourse iii., p. 59. t It has been said that St. Ann had another daughter of the name of Mary, born twenty years before the Blessed Virgin ; this tradition has not been accepted by the Church. J The Jewish women spun together in the to the Lord. Anna had had, after the birth of Samuel, several children, whom she beheld growing up around her like olive-trees, and who shared with the yomig servant of the taber- nacle her maternal solicitude. St. Ann had none but Mary;| that dear child was, therefore, the sum of her happiness, the hope of her old days, and the source of her earthly joy. It is, then, almost certain that, in company with her husband, she came to see her as often as her piety drew her to the temple, and that she also sat up, by the light of her lamp or the silvery radiance of the moon, J to spin the virginal robes of her child. It is thought that St. Joachim and St. Ann retm-ned to their home after the presentation of Mary, and that they remained there for some years before their final settlement in Jerusalem. Joachim, who was not an artisan like Joseph, seems to have cultivated the small patrimony summer evenings by the light of the moon, since the Jewish doctors authorize a husband to put away his wife when slandered by the women who loere spinning by moonlight. (Sotah, cap. 6, p. 250.) This custom of spinning by moon- light is still kept up in many southern coun- tries. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 107 which he had inherited, and enjoyed that happy mediocrity for which sages and poets have ever sighed when weary of the great world.* Churches have been erected in Seph- oris, in Nazareth, and in Jerusalem, on sites which had formed part of his inheritance. But the vineyard, or farm of his fathers, must have been in the vicinity of Sephoris ; hence his return to Low^er Galilee. Joachim was a true Israelite, sti'ongly attached to the law of Moses. He went to the temple on every solemn festival with his wife and some of their kinsfolk, according to the cus- tom of the Hebrews, and it is likely that the desire of seeing his daugh- ter, made him still more eager to visit the temple. How joyfully did his good and pious spouse set out for the Holy City! How endless did the way appear, as she beheld it winding far and away over hill ^ and dale! Looking eagerly forward, she passed a score of times in imag- ination before she reached them in reality, the nopal bushes, the thickets of rose-bay, the clumps of oak or sycamore which marked the road; for, each of these points gained, she was so much nearer her daughter— her daughter, the gift of the Lord, the child of miracle — she whom an angel had announced as the glory of Israel ! With what emotion did she hail, from the depth of the valley, that tower of Antonia rising proud and menacing on its base of polished marble,f to protect the house of prayer ! and how her holy and ten- der heart must have throbbed at the sight of that temple which contained her child and her God ! When evening came, and the sacerdotal trumpets summoned the people to the ceremony, J Ann has- tened to adore God, and catch a * According to St. Gregory of Nyssa, the father of the Blessed Virgin was an honorable citizen. God-fearing, and of singular piety. Father de Valverde states, on the testimony of some of the Fathers of the Church, that Ann and Joachim, being in easy circumstances, gave one part of their savings to the temple and the other to the needy. ( Vie de Jesus Christ, t. 1., p. 46.) f The tower of Antonia might be considered ^ as the citadel of the temple ; it was of old the palace of the Asmonian princes. The rock on which it was seated was fifty cubits high, and in- accessible on all sides. Herod had this rock cov- ered with marble from base to summit, so that no one could either go up or down. (Joseph., A)it. Jud^ 1. XV., ch. 14, and de Bello, 1. ii., ch. 16.) I The rehgious festivals of the Jews began always in the svening. 108 UFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. glimpse of her daughter, whom she had not seen for months long. The comt-yai-d had no other covering than the sky, and the dazzling radiance of its candelabras* min- gled with the glimmering light of the stars. Thousands of lights were gleaming beneath the porticoes, garlands of fi'esh flowers were wreathed around the pillars,f and the chief priests walked through the crowd with their splendid orna- ments, brought from Indian lands by the caravans of Palmyra. J Now and then the chords of the harp seemed to accompany the mm-murs of prayer, which, like the voice of many waters, § went up from that multitude of Hebrews assembled from the banks of the Mle, the Euphrates, and the Tiber, to bend the knee before the only altar of their fathers' God.|| In the midst t of this immense concourse of native and foreign believers, Ann, ab- sorbed in prayer, raised her head but for a moment; it was wlien Mary and her young companions passed, veiled and robed in white, with lamps in their hands, like the wise virgins of the gospel. The festival over, Ann, after hav- ing blessed and embraced Mary, took, with Joachim, her homeward way through the mountains ; slowly did she depart from Jerusalem, not daring to cast a look behind, and bearing with her a fund of happi- ness and of joyous reminiscences for all the time that was to elapse before the next festival. When years and toil had exhaust- ed Joachim's strength, so that he was no longer able to cultivate his ground, he began to think of moving nearer to his daughter. Accordingly, * These candelabras were of gold, and fifty cubits high. The light which they shed, say the Babbins (who are noted for exaggeration), was seen at an incredible distance from Jerusalem, while within the city the houses were so well lit that cooks could pick the grain for their pottage without the assistance of their lamps. ( Talmud, tract. Lucca., foL 3.) f These green wreaths were used during the feast of Tabernacles. (Basn., 1. vii., ch. 16.) X The garments worn in the evening by the ^ priests on solemn festivals came from India, and cost very dear. (Basn., 1. vii., ch. 15.) § It is well known that the Jews and the Arabs pray aloud. II So long as the temple stood, the Jews made a special devotion of visiting it. More than eleven hundred thousand persons perished in the destruction of Jerusalem, under Titus, be- cause they were assembled for the feast of the Passover when the city was besieged. (Joseph., de Bella, 1. vii., ch. 17.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 109 he and his spouse bade a last fare- well to Lower Galilee, and took up their abode in Jerusalem, in the neighborhood of the temple. Ann was then at the summit of her wishes ; she could serve the Lord in his holy house, and see her daughter frequently. How often, during the fine evenings of summer, as she sat spinning before her door, would she twirl her spindle mechan- ically, whilst her maternal glance was pensively fixed on the glittering roof of the temple ! Where a mavUs treasure is, says the Holy Scripture, there is his heart. St. Ann might have shortened the duration of that painful separa- tion, as the law of Moses accepted compensations. This she would not do; her gratitude to God spoke still louder than her maternal tenderness, and when the voice of religion made itself heard, that of nature became silent. The Virgin had been nine years shut up in the temple* when the * Pere Croiset, Exercises de Piete, t. xviii., p. 59. f The Hebrew confession is from all antiquity; the Jews made it, at the article of death, not merely aloud, but before ten persons and a Rab- * first dark cloud obscured her young life. Her beloved father, Joachim the Just, fell dangerously ill, and the symptoms of approaching disso- lution very soon appeared. Appre- hensive for his life, his friends and kinsfolk crowded around, with every manifestation of kindness and sym- pathy ; for the families of Juda were closely united amongst themselves, and lived in the utmost harmony. The dying man smiled benignly on his friends and neighbors. Like Jacob, he had been long a wanderer on the earth, and it gave him little concern that the wind of death came to beat down his tent, for, beyond this earthly planet, he saw in spirit those blissful regions where he was going to repose for ever in Abra- ham's bosom. When his increasing wealniess gave him to understand that life was ebbing fast away, the holy old man confessed his sins aloud, in presence of all, according to the custom of the Hebrews,f and offered bin. Aaron ben Berachia, in his book entitled Maavar Jobbok, treating of the art of dying well, and the assistance to be rendered to the dying, records the method of confessing and the pray- ers for the agonizing. Abraham ben Isaao uo LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. up his death to the Supreme Judge in expiation of the faults inherent in our nature, from which even the just are not exempt. This duty ac- complished, Joachim asked for his daughter, in order to give her his blessing. Mary came ; * her ardent prayers for the preservation of her father's life had not been heard. ThQJealoris God would sever, one by one, the earthly bonds of his chosen Spouse, to the end that she might lean on Him alone. Some pious authors have thought that, at the moment when Joachim extended his hands to bless his child, a revelation from on high suddenly disclosed to him the glori- ous destiny awaiting her; the joy of the elect diffused itself over his venerable countenance, his arms fell by his side, he bowed down his head and died. Laniado also wrote a book, entitled !Z%e Shield of Abraham, a work much esteemed by the Jews, wherein he treats of the confession of sins. See also Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 24. * It was customary, from the very times of the patriarchs, for the dying father to bless his chil- dien. Mary had to conform to this custom. Her seclusion in the temple was not monastic, and St. Joachim then resided in Jerusalem. t St. Jerome remarks that, in his time, most of the Jews still slashed their skin on the The house then resounded with cries and lamentations. The women hacked their breasts and tore their hair;f the men covered their heads with ashes and rent their garments, whilst some of the matrons, moved by charity and devotion, spread a a thick veil over the pale calm face of the just man, which was never more to be seen in this world, and folded the thumb within the hand, which was left open to denote the total abandonment of all earthly things. After having washed the body in water, mingled with myrrh and dried rose-leaves, those pious women wrapped it up in a linen shroud, which they tied round with bands, after the manner of Egypt. Having then opened all the doors and windows of the house^J they lit near the corpse death of their friends, and made themselves bald by tearing out their hair, which they sacri- ficed to death. I Dead bodies, amongst the Jews, defiled those who touched them, and rendered them unclean. (Misnah, Ordo puritatum.) "When the doors are closed, the house of death is regarded as a sepulchre, and, consequently, it is defiled ; when the doors are open, on the contrary, the impurity goes away." {Mair monides.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Ill I a brazen lamp, with several sockets — the lamp of the dead — which cast its mournful reflection on the bed of death. On the following day, a numerous train, in which the flute-players fvere conspicuous,* stopped before the house of death. The nearest of kin ascended to the upper cham- ber, wherein Joachim had been laid out, and placed the corpse on a bed,f which they then took upon their shoulders. The funeral pro- cession traversed the streets of Je- rusalem chanting funeral hymns, accompanied by the soft wailing sound of the flutes, drowned at times in the noisy lamentations of the weepers. Ann and Mary were present at the funeral, and walked with downcast eyes amongst the * Jesus found the flute-players making a great noise at the door of a nobleman whose daughter he restored to life. Maimonides says that the poorest of the Jews is obliged to hire two flute- players and a weeper for the burial of his wife, and that the rich are to increase the number in proportion to their wealth. See also Fleury, Mceurs des Israelites, page 106. f These funeral beds were used long before sofiins : the latter are still unknown to the Arabs, who bury their dead only in a shroud, which enables the jackals, who prowl at night through the cemeteries, to disinter the bodies and devour them. * ^ matrons of their family, whose tears flowed profusely. J The procession passed through the Gate of Flocks, since known to Christians as the Virgin's gate. On reaching the place of sepulture, the sound of the flutes, the hymns, and the lamentations all ceased awhile, and the chief mourners thus apos- trophized the dead: "Blessed be God, who formed and nourished thee, and has now deprived thee of life. Oh, ye dead, he knows your number, and will one day raise ye up ! Blessed be He who taketh life and restoreth it again ! " § They then put a small bag of clay on the head of the corpse, and pro- ceeded to open the sepulchre — a gloomy grotto, which was called the hotcse of the living || — wherein the X Women and children assisted at the funer- als of their husbands and fathers. The widow of Naim followed the corpse of her son ; Joseph mourned for his father. This custom is still observed in Judea. The Hebrew children re- ceived the blessing of their parents, closed their eyes, and accompanied them to their last resting- place, amongst the bones of their fathers. (M. Salvador, Histoire des Institutions de Mdise et du peuple Hebreu, t. ii., p. 398.) § Ldon de Modena, Gout, des Juifs. Buxtorf, Syn. Hebr., p. 502. II The sepulchre, which should be called (ha house of the dead. They gave it, on the contrary, 112 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. patriarch was to sleep his hist sleep, * awaiting the other members of his family. Xiien the most heart-rend- ing cries arose on every side. Ann threw hei-self on the mortal remains of her husband to bid him a last farewell, and was soon taken away almost insensible. Having com- mitted to the earth the holy remains of the just man, they rolled to the mouth of the sepulchral cave an enormous stone, which no man was to remove under pain of excommu- nication. The cries of lamentation began once more, and the spectators, pulling three different times a tuft of grass, and casting it each time behind them, said, in a sorrowful tone. They shall flourish like, the grass of the fields! These rites terminated the obsequies of the descendant of the kings of Juda — the father of the title of the house of the living, to denote that the immortal soul survives its separation from the body. This title is attributed to the Phari- sees. (Basn., 1. vii., 24.) The Rabbins give an 3xact description of these sepulchres. The door is usuallj made very narrow, for they are gener- ally closed by a stone rolled to the entrance. A large space is left in the middle of the sepulchre, ■where the bearers go in and rest the coffin before it is put in its place. In the sides and at the end were hollowed out a certain number of niches, wherein the dead bodies of each family Mary — the grandsire of Jesus, ac- cording to the flesh.* The tender heart of the Blessed Virgin was crushed by this first affliction — the prelude to so many others. It was ber^ apprenticeship in sorrow. Misfortune greeted her on the threshold of adolescence, but the noble child shrank not from its approach. She wept; for her soul — like that of her divine Son — was never cold or insensi- ble; but she drained the bitter chalice, saying, " Jehovah, thy will be done!" The mother and daugh- ter put on mourning after the manner of the Hebrews ; they clothed themselves in tight robes, made of a coarse camlet, called hair-cloth; their head and feet bare, their face concealed in a fold of their robes, fasting and abstain- were placed. Tombs were held in great respect. No one was allowed to cross them in making a road or an aqueduct, nor to cut wood there, nor bring flocks to graze. They were placed on the side of the highway, in order to remind the passengers of death, and to keep the dead in their recollection. (Lightfoot, Cent, chorogr., c. 100.) We see in the Gospel that the tomb of Lazarus was a cave closed by a large stone. * Salom. ben Virgse., Hist. Jud., p. 193. L^on de Modena, CotU. relig. des Juifs. Bas- J5 nage, L vii., ch. 25. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 113 ing,* they remained for seven days seated on the ground, weeping and lamenting with their kindred, and praying for the departed soul.f When the seven days were ended, Ann had lamps lit in the synagogue, and prayers offered up for her hus- band, giving alms in proportion to her means. Mary, on her side, fasted every week on the day of her father's death, and prayed morning and evening for the repose of his soul. These fasts and prayers for the dead lasted for the space of eleven months. J " Thou art welcome, Misfortune I if thou comest alone," say the Greeks. Thus, this first affliction of Mary's was followed by one more poignant still, and she was soon called upon to renew her mourning. Scarcely had the death-lamp been extinguish- ed in the melancholy dwelling of St. Ann when it had to be lit again; * Fasting was very severe amongst the Jews; there was nothing allowed but some vegetables, beans, for instance, or lentils, which were consid- ered mourning food. Eggs were permitted, for the figure of the egg being round and globular, is the image of an afOlicted man. Wine was no less forbidden than meat. f During the days of mourning they recited the 49th Psalm. (L. de Modena, Gout, des Juifs, p. 182. Lightfoot, in John., p. 1072.) * the last tears which Mary had shed for one parent were scarcely dry on her cheek, when she had to bewail the loss of the other. § One evening Mary, accompanied by some of her kindred, went down from the temple to the narrow and obscure street in which her mother lived. The lurid glare of a lamp shone out through one of the latticed windows of the humble dwelling. Before the thresh- old were grouped, in silence, some of the women who, even now, throughout all the East, make a trade of weeping for the dead ; like those birds of ill omen which seem to foresee deaths, these sinister creatures were waiting for the mo- ment when an afflicted family should come to engage their hired lamentations. 1 1 St. Ann collected all her failing strength to bless her daughter, pa- thetically recommended her to her X Basnage, 1. vii., eh. 11, p. 182. § According to the best authorities, St. Ann survived St. Joachim but a very short time. II All over the Levant, people hire, as mourn- ers for their dead, women who have no other means of earning their living. They pay them so much an hour, and they endeavor to earn their wages by uttering the most heart-rending cries. (Burkhart, Voyage en Arable, t. ii., p. 139.) * 114 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. friends, but especially to Him who ^ is the Father of the oi'phan, and then calmly slept the sleep of the just* Mary bent in anguish over the lifeless body of her mother ; her fair tresses mingled with the snowy locks of the dead. It seemed as though she hoped that her tears would restore her to life ; but it is only the breath of God that can re- animate the dead. When the first paroxysm of her grief was over, Mary closed the eyes of the saint, and took leave of her by a long, last kiss, according to the custom of her people.f The sorrow of the young orphan was deep and silent, and endured with heroic patience. Having now no other support on earth but Prov- idence, she took refuge in the bosom of God. Thence, as from the depth * Grave historians state that the Blessed Virgin was present at the death of her mother, which is quite conformable to the customs of the Hebrews. t This custom is very ancient; for Philo, relat- ing the complaints of Jacob for the untimely death of his son, makes him say that he will not have the consolation of closing his eyes, and giving him the parting kiss. J Descoutures, Vie de la Sainte Vierge, page 27. § A young girl might make vows amongst the ^^ of a peaceful harbor, she overheard the distant roaring of the world's storms, and comprehended all the vanity of earthly things ; the vanity of rank, of greatness, of wealth, of beauty, things which glitter and pass away like the bubble on the wintry torrent, which itself disap- pears at the end of a season. It is at this period of sorrow, of isolation and lonely watching, that a historian has judiciously fixed Mary's vow of perpetual virginity ; J in fact, we do not anywhere find that either Ann or Joachim knew of that vow, and without their knowl- edge it was not valid in the eyes of the law, either civil or religious. § It was, therefore, after their death that Mary chose the Lord for her portion, and devoted herself to his service without any limitation of Jews, and she could even make a vow of vir- ginity ; but such vow was annulled by paternal authority, because that, being subject to her father, she could not violate the law of nature by disobeying him. All vows made by a young maiden or a married woman, unknown or con- trary to the will of a father or husband, were null. {Num., ch. xxx.) Some Kabbins main- tain, nevertheless, that the father or husband had to annul the vow within twenty-four hours after he had cognizance of it, otherwise it was vahd. ^Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 19.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 115 time, says Bernadine de Busto, and with the intention of remaining always in the temple. Like the august founder of her race, the Yii'gin found that a day spent in ik the tabernacles of the God of Israel was worth a thousand, and she also would rather be the last in the holy place than the first under the tents of cedar. CHAPTER YII. MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN. HETHER Jo- achim, on his death-bed had placed the Virgin under the special protection of the priesthood; or that the magis- trates who took care of orphans had themselves chosen guardians for her in the powerful family of Aaron, to which she was related by the *The Jews, as also Celsus, Porphyrus, and Faust have taken occasion from this relationship to maintain that the Blessed Virgin was of the tribe of Levi. Catholic doctors combat this opinion. They maintain that Mary was of the tribe of Juda, and the family of David. In fact, St. Matthew tells us that Jesus Christ is called * mother's side; or that the tutelage of children devoted to the service of the temple belonged of right to the Levites, it is certain that Mary, after the death of her parents, had guardians of the sacerdotal race. It is probable (and the Arab traditions say so) that the cares of this tutel- age devolved chiefly on Zachary, the holy spouse of St. EKzabeth, whose high reputation and near re- lationship* entitled him to that the son of David according to the flesh. Now, he can only be the son of David through Mary, since he had no father amongst men. When it is asked how it is that Mary, being of the tribe of Juda, was the cousin of St. Elizabeth, who was of the tribe of Levi, St. Augustine answers that there is nothing improbable in the supposi- 116 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIHUIN MARY. office.* The alacrity wherewith the Blessed Virgin traversed all Judea, two or thiee years later, to assist and congratulate the mother of St. John the Baptist, and her prolonged sojourn in the mountains of Hebron, seem, indeed, to indicate a closer connection than that of mere rela- tionship; the roof which sheltered Mary for so long a time must have been, according to the rigorous pro- priety of the Hebrews, as sacred to her as the paternal roof Whoever the priests might be that were honored with the tutelage of the blessed daughter of St. Ann, they scrupulously acquitted them- selves of the obligations of their charge; and, when the Virgin had attained her fifteenth year, they began to think of providing her with a suitable husband. This hy- meneal project gave Mary the ut- most uneasiness ; that soul, so lofty, tion that a man of the tribe of Juda had taken a wife of the tribe of Levi, and that the Blessed Virgin, the issue of that marriage, was related by her mother to St. Elizabeth. It is elsewhere proved that the prohibition of marrying into an- other tribe regarded only heiresses. * The Koran, which contains many Arabian traditions relating to Mary, says expressly that Zachary took her under his protection. {Koran, ch. iiL) f SO pure, so contemplative, had an- ticipated the Gospel, and regarded virginity as the most perfect, the most holy, and the most desirable of all states. An ancient author, quoted by St. Gregory of Nyssa relates that she long refused, with much modesty, to accede to the pro- posal made her, and that she hum- bly entreated her family to consent to her remaining in the temple, and leading a life of innocence, of seclu- sion, of freedom from all ties except those of the Lord. Her demand was wholly unaccountable to those who had care over her. They could not understand her imploring as a favor that barrenness which was consid- ered disgraceful, and was solemnly condemned by the law of Moses f — the celibacy of an only child,J in- volving the total extinction of her father's name — a thought which was almost impious amongst the Jews, f Origen remarks that the law affixed a stigma on steriUty ; for it is written, " Ac- cursed be he who leaves none of his race in Israel." \ Mary was an heiress, because it was proper that the line of David, whence the Messiah was to spring, should end in the person of an only daughter, who, bringing into the world the eternal Heir to the throne of David, crowned ^ and consummated his race. {Oldshausen.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 117 who considered it the greatest mis- fortune if their name were not per- petuated in Israel. As to the vow of virginity whereby she had bound herself, she could make no excuse of that, since it might be annulled by a decision of the family council. It is known that woman was, every- where and always, treated as a minor before the promulgation of that immortal code which has glori- ously removed fi'om her the curse of slavery. Hence it was that the Virgin's supplications found but little sym- pathy even amongst the priests of Jehovah. Such virtues were far beyond their comprehension, and with all their learning and penetra- tion, the angelic and all-holy soul of Mary was to them a seven-sealed book. Her thought, which was far in advance of her age, and contrary to all the ancient prejudices of her nation, remained incomprehensible, and all that she could bring for- ward, in order to excuse herself A'om entering on a state so wholly opposed to her dearest wishes, was of no avail. Besides, how could she * St. Aug., de Sancta Virg., c. 14. f have succeeded, since God himself was against her? It was the will of God that her marriage with a just man, who was to render testimony to the purity of her life, should screen her from the importunities of the young Hebrews, who might have sought her hand even in the temple, as St. Augustine observes,* and also to give to her and her divine Son a protector in the hour of peril. It was the only means of hiding the mystery of the Incarna- tion from the malevolent scrutiny of a perverse world, which would have laid hold of the miracle as a subject for the most abominable conjectures, and might even have been so infat- uated by false zeal as to stone the Mother of the Saviour, as they after- wards sought to stone the woman taken in adultery ; f for mercy was never one of the chosen virtues of the Hebrews, and God himself re- proaches them, by the mouth of his prophets, with having their heart as hard as adamant. In addition to these powerful reasons, which were hidden in the impenetrable obscurity of the coun- ts f St. John Chrys., serm. 3, in Math. U8 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 6el8 of God, there was another which had its source in the antediluvian traditions and in national pride, and that one reason, of itself, left little chance of success for the timid opposition of the Virgin. Perpet- ual chastity, which Christians have made the queen of virtues, was al- most unknown amongst the disci- ples of Moses, who lived for so many ages in anxious expectation of the Messiah-King [Melech-Hamaschiak) . A young flower of the root of Jesse, a daughter of David, was not at liberty to reject the bonds of Hymen. She owed a son to the ambitious piety of her family, who would not have renounced, for all the treasures of the great king, the hope of one day numbering amongst themselves the Liberator of Israel. This hope, which had sustained the Jews when the Chaldeans, " mounted on horses swifter than eagles," violently rent asunder the embattled wall of Sion, and transplanted its people to the * The standard of Juda was of a green color. {Dom Calmet.) f This banner of the Maccabees bore the ^ords : "Who is like unto thee, O Eternal? Mi camocha baelim, Jehovah ? " J Every maiden who inherited a prop- ^ banks of the Euphrates — this hope was mingled with a bitter desire of revenge ever since the Romans ruled in Asia. The Hebrews hoped soon to see the day when the eagles should fly before the emerald ban- ner,* and when the device of the Maccabees f should wave in tri- umph over that of the Roman senate. Never did the fulfillment of the Mes- sianic prophecies seem so near at hand, and hence the moment was unfavorable for obtaining the favor solicited by Mary. According to the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary and the Proto- gospel of St. James, the guardians of the Blessed Virgin, regardless of her remonstrances, convoked a meeting of her nearest relations, all of the race of David and tribe of Juda, like herself, J in order to proceed to the choice of the hus- band whom they imposed upon her. Amongst those who were entitled to aspire to her hand, there were erty — and not maidens in general, as the Vulgate says — was bound to marry a man of her own family and tribe, and not her nearest relation, as Montesquieu asserts. This was in order that patrimonies might not pass from one tribe to another. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIBGIN MABY. 119 a number of young Israelites, some handsome and brave, others the possessors of fertile lands, vine- yards, flocks and groves of olives. The captains of Juda would have added to Mary's portion a part of the spoils and slaves taken in battle ; the nabobs of her tribe would have covered her with the gold-embroi- dered stuffs of India, and with thrice- dyed Tyrian purple ; whilst the sons of commerce, who traded in the emeralds of Egypt, the turquoises of Iran, and the pearls of the Persian Gulf, would have laid at her feet chains of precious stones, costly bracelets and ear-rings, that were worth a prince's ransom — in short. * aU the brilliant insignia of female servitude. But these were all weigh- ed in the balance and found wanting-. Despising the advantages of youth, beauty, high rank, wealth, and mar- tial glory, the priestly guardians of the Blessed Virgin and the ancients of her house fixed their choice on a man of advanced age,* a decayed patrician, whose fortune had been swallowed up in the political revo- lutions and religious wars of Judea as the sea absorbs a drop of rain, leaving him only his arms and his trade. This poor, but high-bom old man, who, according to the Proto- gospel of St. James, was a widow- er,! but according to St. Jerome had *Tlie Proto-gospel of St. James, ch. 2, and the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary, ch. 8 (books whose contents have been, for the most part, approved of, even by the Fathers of the Church), merely say that he was already old. St. Epi- phanius gives eighty years to Joseph at the time of his marriage, Father Pezron fifty, and FHistoire divine de La Vierge, by Marie d'Agrada, thirty-three. The supposition of St. Epiphanius will not bear examination ; it is, moreover, sol- emnly refuted by the Hebrew law, which forbids the union of a young woman and an old man, and places it in the most disgraceful category. (Basn., 1. vii., ch. 21.) Hist, de Institutions de Mdise. Neither the priests nor Joseph would have done that which was condemned by the law. The age given by Marie d'Agrada to Joseph does not agree with the opinion of the jj Fathers ; there remains but that of Father Pez- ron, which is altogether the most probable. f Many of the Fathers have thought that St. Joseph was a widower when he espoused the Blessed Virgin. The Proto-gospel of St. James, and the Gospel of the Nativity of the Virgin both mention it as a fact. St. Epiphanius as- serts that he had had four sons and two daugh- ters. St. Hippolytus of Thebes, calls his first wife Salomd. Origen, Eusebius, St. Ambrose, and several other Fathers, have adopted the same opinion. Yet still it is by no means gen- erally received, and it is commonly thought that St, Joseph led a Hfe of virginity. Such is the opinion of St. Jerome, who expressly says, writ- ing against Helvidius, " We nowhere read that he had had any other wife than Mai-y ; aliam eum uxorem habuisse non scribitur." St. Augustine XM LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. never been married — and this last f is the prevailing opinion of the Church — this old man was Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth. When we think of the rare beauty of Mary, the education which she had received in the temple, the great connections of her family, and her quality of heiress, which was a desirable and even brilliant lot amongst the Jews, who endowed their wives and received scarcely anything with them,* we might be astonished at this decision of her family, were we not informed by the Fathers that Joseph was chosen by lot and by the express manifestation of the divine will.f An ancient tra- dition, inserted in the Proto-gospel of St. James and mentioned by St. Jerome, relates that the candidates, after having invoked Him who de- cides lots, left each his own almond- tree rod in the temple in the evening, leaves the question undecided ; but St. Peter Damian declares it to be the belief of the entire Church that St. Joseph, who passed for the father of the Saviour, was a virgin like unto Mary. *0n the occasion of the marriage-contract, the woman only received from her friends the apparel necessary for her. It was the husband who gave the dowry. (M. Salva- dor, Institutions de Mdise. t. ii., eh. 1.) and that next day the dry and with- ered branch of Joseph, son of Jacob, son of Nathan, was found green and blossomed like that which had of old secured the priesthood to the Aaronites. The history of Mount C arm el states that, at sight of this prodigy, which annihilated his hopes, a young and wealthy patrician, be- longing to one of the most powerful families of Judea, broke his rod in pieces, with every token of despair, and hastened to shut himself up in one of the caves of Carmel with the disciples of Elias.;|; When the guardians had made their choice, they announced it to Mary, and that admirable young Virgin, accustomed only to works of fancy — reared amid the perfumes, the melodious songs, and fairy pa- geants of the holy house — hesitated not a moment in devoting herself to an obscure life, menial occupations, f Gospel of the Nativity of Mary, ch. 7 ; Proto- gosp. St. James, ch. 8 ; St. Hier. in Dam., 1. iv., ch. 5 ; St. Greg. Naz., horn, de St. Nat.; Niceph., b. ii., ch. 7. J This young candidate for the Virgin's hand, who was named Agabus, afterwards became a Christian, it is said, and was famous for his sanctity. (See Histoire du Garmd, chaptei xii.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 121 and arduous cares, with the humble artisan chosen by her friends. A divine revelation had, they say, made known to her that this just man would be to her only a protector, a father, and the guardian of her chas- tity.* What would she more ? The Lord had heard her prayer. While leaving her faithful to the vow which she had made, he gave her, in addi- tion, the merit of obedience. The projected marriage of Joseph and Mary must have excited surprise both in Nazareth and in Jerusalem, for there was little similarity of age, fortune, or condition between the pair. It would, however, be a great mistake to think that this union, apparently so disproportionate, was regarded by Jewish society (whose habits were simple and primitive) as in any degree improper. Though not holding a distinguished rank in the state, the trade of a mechanic * Vie de la Sainte Vierge, by Descoutures, p. 49. Viede Jesus Christ, by Valverde, t. i., p, 71. f Mechanics are still highly respected in Judea. " In Syria and Palestine," says Burck- hardt, " the corporations of mechanics are almost as much respected as they were during the middle ages in France and Germany. A master-tradesman is there considered equal to a merchant of the second class. He can I was neither abject nor degrading in Israel.f We see in the genealogy of the tribe of Juda a family of workers in fine flax, and another of potters, whose memory is held in honor, and Scripture has handed down to posterity the names of Beleseel and Hiram. It is well known that St. Paul, brought up to the study of the law, the famous Pharisean doctor, Hillel, and since them many doctors who, according to the emphatic language of the Rabbins, shed light on the holy nor- tion, were not ashamed to apply themselves to the most common mechanical arts. But what is more: all the Israelites were artificers ; for every father of a family, whatever might be his social position, was bound to make his son learn a trade, unless, said the law, he would make him a thief. ^ Those Jews whose patrimony had marry into the respectable families of the city, and has usually more influence in his own locality than a merchant who has three times his wealth." (Burckhardt, Voyage en Arabie, t. ii., p. 139. ) X Any man who does not give his children a profession, said the Pharisean school, prepares them for a bad life "Be not burdensome to any one Never say, I am a man of 122 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. passed into the hands of sti'angers, had no other alternative than to quit the country or support themselves by the labor of their hands, awaiting the arrival of that grand epoch which restored all property to its original owners. They whose love of coun- try induced them to adopt the latter course, were in no way degraded thereby, or incapacitated for any office in the state. Unlike Egypt and India, Israel had no castes ; her pride was based on her religious belief, and her descent from the patriarchs. "To be the issue of Abraham according to the flesh," says the great Bossuet, " was a dis- tinction beyond all others." In fact, the lowest of the Hebrews was held as a prince in comparison with strangers.* There were, however, amongst the Jews, as amongst the Arabs, some tribes more illustrious and some houses more noble than others. The tribe of Juda, which carried the national standard at the head of the embattled thousands of Israel, and with whom the sceptre quality — that occupation does not suit me. Kabbi Johanan wrought as a skinner, Na- hum as a copier of books, another Johanan made sandals, and Rabbi Juda knew the baking * was to remain till the coming of the Messiah, had always the preem- inence; and the family of David was the first and most honored amongst the families of Juda. Now Joseph, although poor, was of the Davidical race. The blood of twen- ty kings flowed in his veins, and it was Zorobabel, one of his ancestors, who brought back the people of God from the land of exile. Since that time, the splendor of his house had gradually declined; his family had become identified with the peo- ple, like that of Moses and of Samuel, but its illustrious origin was not for- gotten. In our own days, the hum- ble Abassides, who vegetate in the depth of the Hedjaz, are still honor- ed as the descendants of Haroun- al-Raschid, and the highest family in Arabia would not disdain their alliance. The holy daughter of Joachim did not lower herself, therefore, as much as might be thought by espousing the CARPENTER. TMs is said in a worldly sense ; for, if we regard this trade." {Tcdmud., Tract. Kidotischim, Pessarh, Aboth, Soto.) * The Jews have not lost this opinion with their nationality ; they hold it stilL LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 123 union from a higher point of view, we find that it was in fact a noble alliance. God gave not to his chosen Virgin a man whose merit consisted in his lands, his vines, or his shekels of gold — things which often change masters, and are not more inherent in the rich than the clothes which they leave off at night. He gave her a just man, the most perfect of his works. The Lord takes no ac- count of the vain gewgaws which delight mankind ; before Him there is no distinction between the poor creatures who crawl a moment in the dust, soon to become the pasture of worms. Man judges by appear- ances, says the Scripture, but Jelio- vah beholds the heart. If G-od chose the humble Joseph to be the spouse of the Queen of Angels, the adoptive father of the Messiah, it was because he possessed treasures of grace and of sanctity which the angels them- selves might envy; it was because his virtues had made him first amongst his people, and that his * Hillel and Schammay warmly discuss the value of this marriage-coin, mentioned by the Talmud, but have come to no conclusion on the subject. (Basn., 1. vii., ch. 21.) f The following is the Uteral form of the mar- ^ name stood far higher in the book of life — the heraldic annals of eter- nity — than that of the imperial Cesar. The Virgin was not confided to the most powerful, but to the most worthy; thus the ark, which the princes and captains of Israel dared not touch for fear of being stricken with death, drew down the blessing of heaven on the house of a simple Levite wherein it was sheltered. Joseph, in presence of the guar- dians and some witnesses, presented her with a small piece of money, the value of which is not now known,* saying, " K thou consentest to become my wife, accept this pledge." Mary, by accepting the gift, was solemnly bound, and thence forward nothing but a formal divorce could restore her to freedom. The contract was drawn up by certain of the Scribes. It was concise, and not overbm'dened with technical terms.f The husband promised to honor his wife, to provide for her riage contract of the Hebrews. It was in use from the very earliest times, and must, therefore, have been employed at the marriage of Joseph and Mary. "In the year . . . ., the .... day of the month of ... . Benjamin, son of . . . ., said to 124 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. support, accoi-ding to the custom of ^ Hebrew husbands, and secured to her a dowry of two hundred zuses (fifty crowns), being just the same for the daughter of a prince as for the daughter of a mechanic, but it might be increased according to the wealth of the husband. After hav- ing insured this dowry by pledging all his possessions, and even his cloak, which, nevertheless, the law did not allow to be claimed until after his death,* Joseph signed the contract, to which Mary likewise affixed her signature. A short ben- ediction in honor of God terminated this ceremony, which took place several months before that of the marriage. The maiTiage of the Blessed Vir- gin was solemnized in Jerusalem, and the most dignified members of Rachel, daughter of . . . ., Become my wife under the law of Moses and Israel. I promise to re- spect thee, to provide for thy maintenance, in food and clothing, according to the custom of Hebrew husbands who honor their wives and maintain them in a proper manner. I give thee at this present (the sum fixed by the law), and I promise thee, over and above thy food, clothing, and all other necessaries, that conjugal love, which is common to peo- ple of all nations. Rachel consents to be- come the wife of Benjamin, who, of his own lier family made it their duty to appear on the occasion, with all that magnificence so characteristic of the East, and which excites the wonder of European travellers — even the common people exhibiting at such times the most unheard-of splendor.f Not to invite all their relatives, on an occasion so solemn, would have been tantamount to rejecting the ancient customs of their fathers — a thing which could never happen amongst that traditionary people, as unchanging in its customs as in its religious practices, as Philo, the Jew, truly said to the emperor Cai'us. It would, moreover, have outraged all the observances of He- brew society; and the presence of Mary at the wedding of Cana proves, on the contrary, that she conformed to them. free will, and in order to make a dowry pro- portioned to his means, adds to the dowry aforesaid the sum of " {Institutions de Mdise. ) * Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 21. f " We in Europe have no idea of the splendor displayed in the East on such occasions," says Baron Geramb in his Pilgrimage to Jerusalem; " the nuptial garment of almost every woman is of crimson velvet, embroidered with gold ; with this they wear numerous diamond and pearl ornaments." M. de Lamartine was likewise LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 125 It was a bright winter's day,* and the new moon was slowly rising be- hind the mountains,! when a long train of richly-dressed women was seen to approach the dwelling of Mary. The light of the torches, borne by a number of slaves, flashed on their cinctures of gold, their strings of pearl, the jeweled cres- cents which they wore on their fore- heads, and the diamonds of their Persian tiaras. J Those daughters of Sion still retained the use of paint, which was known even in the days of Jezabel ; their brows and eye- lashes were painted black, and the tips of their fingers were red as the berries of the eglantine. § Being ushered into the inner room, where the young and holy bride was seated in company with some pious matrons of her family, they blessed God for giving her a husband to protect her, dazzled with the superb costumes and profusion of jewels displayed by the women of Syria at the weddings of their friends. * In the middle of the sixteenth century the Church authorized the celebration of this festival. It is solemnized on the 22d of January, being, it is said, the day on which the marriage took place. The city of Arras holds this festival on the 23d of January, and some of the Flemish churches on the 24th of the same mouth. and complimented her on her ap- proaching marriage, the festivities of which they came to share. Belonging to Jewish society, with whom the bridal adornment was a Biblical reminiscence, and could not be dispensed with, Mary was obliged to submit for a while to the require- ments of Eastern luxury, although it had no charms for her. Gold, pearls, and rich stuffs are not, of them- selves, reprehensible ; it is only the thoughts of pride and vanity which they engender in weak minds that are positively evil. Queen Matilda was more humble under her embroi- dered garments, studded with jewels, than the coarsely-clad women with whom she shut herself up, after her glorious regency ; such is the simple testimony of the chroniclers of those times. Taking care, then, to avoid that f Amongst the Jews marriages were not cele- brated indiscriminately on every day of the week ; they were usually solemnized at the time of a new moon, and on Wednesday rather than any other day. (Basn., 1. vii., ch. 21.) \ Isai, cap. iii. § Throughout all the East, the women color the tips of their fingers with lausonia iner- rtm. (Linn.) This plant abounds in the islo of Cyprus. rj6 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. (lisrt'iraitl of dres8 which would have been sure to give offence, at a time when custom required even of the wedding-guests a certain richness of costume — failing in which they were expelled, as we see even by the Gospel — the young descendant of the kings of Juda was bound to wear, on that occasion, a rich and becom- ing costume, and we see by authen- tic relics that such was the case.* Her robe was carefully preserved in Palestine, and thence conveyed to Constantinople in 461 (as we learn from Nicephorus). It was exceed- ingly valuable both in ornament and design. The ground was of a buff, or nankin color, interspersed with flow- ers of blue, white, violet and gold. It is now the holy relic of Chartres.f ♦There are two of the Virgin's tunics still preserved, and they are made of very precious stofifl Chardin saw one of these in Mingrelia ; it was of a nankin color and richly embroidered. f This tunic was given by Charles the Bald to the Church of Chartres in 877. Numerous miracles have been attributed to it. ^The Christians of Damascus have retained thiB custom. Some days before the nuptial feast, the bridegroom sends to his betrothed a pair of bracelets either of gold or of jewels, ac- cording to his means, a piece of gold brocade, and 160 dollars for the expenses of the bath and the wedding banquet {Corres. d' Orient, lettre 147.) § The bride's crown was usually of gold, and In memory of ancient times and the patriarchal customs of her fa- thers, she wore, like Rebecca, ear- rings and bracelets of gold — a mod- est and indispensable present which Joseph had to send some days be- fore the ceremony, J and to which the richer Hebrews added necklaces of pearls, and magnificent sets of jewels. Instead of the pointed gold- en crown, § worn by the brides of the more opulent classes, there was placed on Mary's fair tresses || a simple wreath of myrtle, which in spring would have been intertwined with roses.^ Her bridal veil covered her from head to foot, and floated around her like a cloud.** A canopy of precious stuff, borne by four young Hebrews, awaited the made in the form of a tower like that of Cybella. This custom was abolished during the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, but the wreaths of myrtle and roses were retained. (Basn., 1. vii., ch. 21.) II Amongst the Jews, even the women's apparel was within the province of tradition. "Hair- dressers were called in to curl the young bride's hair, because, said the Rabbins, Jehovah himself arranged Eve's hair in curls, when he gave her to Adam in Paradise." (Basnage, L ,vii., ch. 21, p. 393.) ^ Garlands of myrtle and roses were worn by brides of the lower classes. (Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 21. Misnah, Tit. Sotah, c. 9, sect. 14.) ** These nuptial veils, embroidered in gold and silver, are still in use all over Syria. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 127 bride outside her dwelling.* Mary was placed under it, between two matrons, the one on the right repre- senting her mother; the other was probably that Mary of Cleophas, supposed by some authors to have been the elder daughter of St. Ann, but who was only the sister-in-law of the Virgin.f After them came all the nuptial train, waving palm and myrtle branches in token of re- joicing.;}; The procession moved along to the sound of cymbals, harps and flutes playing grave and simple airs in concert ; § these were prob- ably identical with the choirs of David. Then came the bridegroom, his brow adorned with a fantastic crown, clear as crystal, and peculiar ^ to his people. 1 1 He was surrounded by a number of friends singing an epithalamium, imitated from Solo- mon's Canticle of Canticles, that mystic and sublime marriage-song whose lofty metaphors have each a divine and hidden meaning. They sang the beauty of the young bride, whose locks were as branches of palm-trees, her form light and grace- ful as that of a young hart, her teeth (white) as a flock of sheep, which come up from the washing ; her eyes as doves upon brooks of waters ; they said that the odor of her re- nown was as sweet as the perfume that exhaled from her garments; that she was the lily of virgins and the object of women's praise. Pass- * The order of this bridal pomp, which goes back to the most remote ages, is still found in Egypt. Niebuhr thus describes an Egyptian marriage. " The bride, covered from head to foot, walks between two women under a canopy borne by four men. Several slaves go before, some of them playing the tabor ; others carry fly-flaps, ifhile others again sprinkle perfumes around as they pass along. They are followed by a number of women, and by musicians seated on asses. The ceremony takes place by night, and torches are borne by the slaves." (Niebuhr, Voyage en Arahie, t. 1. ) ■{■According to M. Peignot, a conscientious historian, who made many inquiries on the sub- sect, this holy woman was the wife of Cleophas, brother of St. Joseph, and consequently a sister- ^ in-law of the Blessed Virgin. (See Recherches historiques sur la personne de J^us Christ et ceUe de Marie, p. 249.) I See Fleury, Mceurs des Israelites. § The music of the East is altogether different from ours. It is grave and simple, without any labored modulation. All the instruments play together, unless one may take the notion of keep- ing up a continued bass, by repeating incessantly the same note. (Niebuhr, vol. 1, p. 136.) II This crown, which, according to the Jewish doctors, contained a mysterious lesson, was composed of salt and sulphur. The salt was clear as crystal, and upon it were traced various characters with the sulphur. {Codex, M. S. apud Wagenseil in Mismam. Tit. Sotah, adult, de uxore suspect, c. 9, sec. 14. ) r 198 LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. ing then to the eulogiuin of the bridegroom, they praised his mien, majestic and imposing as Lebanon, the mildness of his voice, the gra- cious urbanity of his manners, and tliey added, that he was distfnguished amongst men as the cedar amongst trees. Then, proceeding to matters of a higher and more general nature, they said that the husband ought to be to his wife as the bunch of myrrh which she wears on her bosom ; that she ought to pass through life rest- ing on him, and as heedless of all other men as though she were in a desert, because that jealousy is in- flexible as death, and its lamps are lamps of fire and flame. They added, that conjugal love was a thing so precious that the richest of men, were he to buy it at the expense of all he possessed, might still reckon that he had it for nothing. Now and then the young people, who brought up the rear, formed dances of the same kind as the relig- * Dancing, which, in its origin, was intended to imitate the motion of the stars, mingled in all the religious feasts of antiquity. It was, doubtless, of antediluvian origin, and must even have preceded the invention of musi- cal instruments. t See Niebuhr, hook quoted. f ious dance, which was associated, in its origin, with the religious festi- vals.* Again, they would burst out into those shrill and prolonged cries of joy still in use amongst the Arabs,f which are compared by a recent traveller in Syria to the loud shouts wherewith the vine-dressers of southern France accost their brethren on an opposite hill. The whole procession, as it passed along, scattered small pieces of silver;j; amongst the poor, who were loud in their blessings and gratulations. These silver coins bore either the device of a vine-leaf, or the three ears of corn which were the emblem of Judea.§ The women of Israel, grouped along the wayside, strewed palm-branches before the bride and bridegroom, and now and then they stopped the former to sprinkle her garments with essence of roses.|| Mary, too, was to have her day of triumph in Jerusalem. Arrived at the nuptial dwelling, X Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 21 § Some of these Jewish coins have been found of the time of Herod and the Maccabees. They bear the effigfy of no prince, but merely ears of corn and vine-leaves. \ This custom, like many others, was borrowed from Egypt. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 129 the friends of the bride and bride- groom cried in chorus, Blessed he he who Cometh I Joseph covered with his taled, and Mary with her veil, sat side by side under the canopy ; Mary taking the right side — because the Psalmist said, the queen (thy spouse) stood on thy right hand* — and turning towards the south. f The bridegroom placed a ring upon her finger,J saying, "Behold, thou art my spouse according to the law of Moses and of Israel." He took off his taled and threw it over the shoulders of the bride, in imitation of what passed at the marriage of Ruth, who said to Booz, Spread thy coverlet over thy servant.^ One of the nearest kinsmen then poured wine into a cup, tasted of it, and then presented it to the new-married pair, blessing Grod for having created man and woman, and instituted mar- riage. "Whilst they carried to their lips the sacred marriage-cup, the assistants sang to the God of Israel * Psalm xliv., 10. f Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 21. \ It is said that this ring is at Perouse, where it is carefully preserved. (Basnage, lib. vii., ch. 21.) S See Buxtort a hymn which contained six bless- ings. Joseph then poured out the remainder of the wine in token of liberality, and the assembly scatter- ed handfuls of wheat, as the symbol of abundance; then the cup was broken to pieces by a child. || All the assembly, surrounding the newly-married pair with torches, blessed the Lord, and then passed on to the banquet-hall, where they proceeded (according to an ancient bishop of Bresse,^ who traces back this Hebrew tradition to the days of Christ) to choose the king of the feast, who was to be " of the sacer- dotal race," and to preside over the meats and the wines, and to see that the guests did not infringe on the rules of religion and propriety. Joseph and Mary also arose; but, before they followed their guests, they exchanged a few secret words in face of the firmament with all its stars, which attest the glory of the Most High.** " Thou shalt be as a II Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 21. Instil, de M. prayer, Isaac that of the afternoon, and Jacob 188 LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. ger, bending bis riidiant head ; " the Loi*d is with thee ; blessed art thou amongst women." Maiy was alarmed at this marvel- ous apparition. Perhaps she feared, like Moses, to see God and die. Perhaps, as St. Ambrose thought, her virginal modesty was alarmed at sight of that son of heaven, who in- troduced himself, like a sunbeam, into that solitary cell, w^here no man ever entered. Perhaps it was the respectful attitude and splendid eu- logium of the angel that disturbed her humility. However it was, the Gospel mentions that she was troubled within herself, and tried in vain to understand the object of that sui-prising visit, and the hidden meaning of that mysterious saluta- tion. The angel, perceiving her alarm, mildly said, "Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy that of the evening. (Basnage, lib. viL, chap. 17.) * Calvin, that haughty heresiarch, who burned Servetus while preaching toleration, dared to calumniate the Virgin, taking occasion from this text to accuse her of incredulity. St. Augustine had met the objection long beforehand- " The Virgin does not doubt," said he, " non quasi in- f womb, and shalt bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be call- ed the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father : and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever." At these words, which would have overwhelmed another with joy, the chaste and prudent Mary thought only of her virginal wreath, which she was resolved never to tarnish, and inquired how this prediction was to be reconciled with her vow of perpetual chastity.* Virginal pmity is a thing so holy in the eyes of the angels that Ga- briel, in order to reassure Mary, feared not to reveal a part of the chaste mystery of the Incarnation. " The power of the Most High shall overshadow thee," said he, " and the Holy which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God."f Then, according to the custom of the credula de oraculo ; she only seeks to be informed as to how the miracle is to be wrought." St. John Chrysostom adds that this inquiry is the effect of respectful admiration, and not of vain curiosity. f This Gospel record has been received by the Mussulmans themselves. Here is how the Koran ^ relates the interview between the Blessed Virgin LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 139 heavenly ambassadors, he would give her a sign which should confirm the truth of his words. "And be- hold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age : and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren: because no word shall be impossible with God." Sarah had smiled an incredulous smile when the angel, seated under the oaks which shaded her tent, announced that she, old and barren, should bear a son. Mary, to whom a. new prodigy was announced, a thing unprecedented under the sun — in fine, a virginal maternity — immediately believed the di- vine promise, and humbling herself before Him who exalted her above all women, she answered submis- sively, " Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me accord- ing to thy will ! " At these words the angel disappeared, and the and the angel. " The angel said unto Mary : ' God announces his Word to thee : he shall be called Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of Mary, great in this world and in the other, and the confidant of the Most High ; men shall hear his Word from infancy to old age, and he shall be num- bered amongst the just.' 'Lord,* answered Mary, ' how could I have a son ? I know not f Word was made flesh to dwell amongst us.* Thus it was that the angel of light treated of our salva- tion with the second Eve, when the crime of the guilty Eve, who had conspired om^ ruin with the infernal angel, was gloriously repaired. Thus it was that a simple mortal was raised to the unequalled dignity of Mother of God, and that, virgin and mother both together, she united by a new miracle the two most oppo- site and sublime states of her sex. "Let us dive no farther into this mystery," says St. John Chrysostom, " or seek to know how the Holy Ghost could work this prodigy in the Virgin ; that divine generation is an unfathomable abyss which no curious glance may sound."f We have adopted the opinion of the doctors and theologians who maintain that Joseph was legally the spouse of Mary at the time of the Incarnation. Yet this opinion man.' 'Yet so shall it be,' replied the angel; ' God forms creatures as he pleases : if he wills that any thing should exist, he says. Be done, and it is done.' " (Ko., ch. iii.) * The mystery of the Incarnation took place on the 25th of March, on a Friday evening, ac- cording to Father Drexelius. f St. John Chrysostom, Ser. 4. 140 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. is controverted ; and amongst the authorities who pretend that Mary was not yet the spouse, but only the betrothed of Joseph, we find in the first rank the great St. John Chrysostom himself.* Still, Mary was living in the house of Joseph, according to the same Father, at the moment of the Annunciation. " For," says that illustrious doctor, " in former times it was customary for betrothed brides to reside in the house of the intended husband, which is still occasionally done. We see that the sons-in-law of Lot dwelt in the house of their future father-in-law,"f Notwithstanding her profound re- spect for St. John Chrysostom, the Church has not adopted his opinion. The example of the sons-in-law of Lot, which he brings forward to prove his case, is badly chosen. Scripture nowhere says that they lived with Lot; and all goes to prove the contrary, since the patri- arch was obliged to go out, at a t moment of terror and consteiiiation, whilst the wicked city was in an uproar, to warn " his sons-in-law that were to have his daughters." Even supposing that these young men had formed a part of Lot's family, since the flocks of that pa- triarch covered the hills and valleys of an entire province, they would have been, on the banks of the Jordan, precisely what Jacob was in Mesopotamia, active and vigilant servants, day and night parched with heat, and with frost.\ We nowhere see that they had their betrothed in their tents ; they lived under the protection of the patriarch, whose chief shepherds they were ; there is nothing in this contrary to the cus- toms of Asia. The Blessed Virgin, being an orphan and alone in the world, would have been in an awk- ward position, residing in the house of her betrothed husband. Such a supposition could only be author- ized by a general custom amongst the Hebrews, and we find in their * Descoutures has erred in placing St. John Chrysostom amongst those who maintain that Joseph was legally the husband of Mary at the time of the Incarnation; that writer, who is ^ in general very judicious, probably quoted him from supposition. t St. John Chrysostom, Serm. 4 X Gen. ch. xxxi., v. 40. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 141 code an express law against it.* * St. Chrysostom himself tells us, and in this he fully agrees with the ancient theologians, that God long covered with an impenetrable veil the miraculous maternity of Mary, in order to save her from a revolt- ing suspicion, which would have been as hurtful to the divinity of the Son as to the universal respect due to the Mother. Now, marriage alone could cover Avith its honored mantle the mystery of the Incarna- tion, for a mere betrothal would not have sufficed. And then, if Joseph and Mary had been only betrothed at the time of the Incarnation of the Word, they would have been nothing more four months after, since the Gospel mentions that Mary, after the Annunciation, set out with haste to visit St. Elizabeth, and that it was only on her return from Hebron, after an absence of three months, that she was found with child, a phrase which indicates a position visible to all. Are we to suppose that the marriage of the Virgin was only celebrated when her maternity was known and estab- * Misnah, t. iii., de Sponsalibus. Selden, Uxor Hehrdica. * lished ? What would the two fami- lies have thought ? What would the people of Nazareth have said as they thronged to witness the ceremony ? What insulting re- marks would have been applied to the most pure Virgin, amongst a people with whom female chastity was so sacred that its violation was inevitably punished with death! Would not the birth of the Messiah — that birth which was to be pure as the morning-dew — have been tainted and defiled by this foul slander ? Would not the Jews, and especially those of Nazareth, who were so much opposed to Christ, and who called him the car- penter's son — would they not have taunted him with the irregularity of his birth ? But this they did not do, and the evident conclusion is that they could not do it. Here, then, undoubtedly, are the reasons which induced many illus- trious theologians to hold that Mary was really married, notwith- standing the support which the opposite party seem to find in the words of St. Matthew — words which would seem to favor the other interpretation — but which are far 142 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. from being so precise as to resolve the difficulty.* Finally, the dispute has never turned on the principal point Whether wife or betrothed, no tine Christian has ever doubted * The verse which has divided the doctors is this : Christi autem generatio, sic erat : cum esset defiponsata mater ejus Maria Joseph, antequam convenirent, inveiUa est in utero habens de Spiritu Sanclo. Those who dwell on the meaning of these words say that the Virgin was only be- trothed, because the Gi'eek verb which renders the Hebrew expression of St. Matthew means desponden, to be promised, and because there is another term signifying to be married, just as there are amongst the Latins desponderi and nubere, so that St. Joseph had not yet taken the Virgin to his house. This they prove by that part of the 20th verse. Noli timere accipere Mariam cofijugem tuam : quod enim in ea natum est, de Spirilu Sancto est, which they thus ex- plain : " Fear not to take Mary for thy wife, for what is conceived in her is conceived by the operation of the Holy Gost." But in order to translate thus, there must be, in conjugem tuam. The opposite party, who are sustained by many of the Fathers, by respectable commen- tators, and nearly all the theologians, find wherewith to combat their opponents in the second chapter of St. Luke, where, notwith- standing that the Virgin was already married to Joseph, the Evangelist employs the Greek term vTTioxveiadaj,, which signifies being promised, and says, Ut prqfiteretur cum Maria desponsata sibi that the Mother of God was the purest and holiest of virgins. The Mussulmans themselves agree that she was "the source and mine of purity."f ujcre prcegnante : to the end that he might have an understanding with his betrothed wife, who was with child. And in the 19th verse of the first chapter of St. Matthew, St. Joseph is called vir ejus (her husband) and not her betrothed. Although St. Matthew calls the Blessed Virgin sponsa (betrothed) and she a wife, that does not prove that she had not yet contracted marriage; it is merely to show, as one of the Fathers remarks, that she had no closer connection with her spouse than if she was only his betrothed. f The purity of Mary is fully recognized by the Mussulmans ; hence we find that Abou- Ishac, ambassador from the Caliph to the court of the Greek Emperor, being present at a re- ligious conference with the patriarch and the Greek bishops, the latter reproached the Mus- sulmans with many slanderous stories which had been formerly circulated against Aischah, the widow of their prophet, which had occa- sioned grievous disputes amongst them. Where- upon Abou-Ishac replied that these disputes were not to be wondered at, seeing that, amongst Christians, there had been so much difference of opinion regarding the glorious Mary, mother of Jesus, " who may be called," said he, "the mine and source of all purity," genab ismet mealo kon offet. (D'Herbelot, BiJbli^ oth. Orientale, t. ii., p. 620.) CHAPTER IX. THE VISITATION. gEANWHILE, * Mary, informed by the angel of the miracu- lous pregnancy of Elizabeth, resolved on go- ing to offer her tender congratula- tions to her venerable relative. It was not, as heretics have dared to assert, that the Yirgin wished to have ocular demonstration of the reality of that extraordinary event. She knew that nothing is impossi- ble to God, and could not suppose that an envoy from heaven would bring her words of falsehood and deceit from the Most High. She set out, not to assure herself, but because she was sure. She set out with haste, because charity, says St. Ambrose, admits neither hesita- tion nor delay; and because, with her wonted kindness and benevo- lence, she longed to impart to the venerable guardians of her child- hood a portion of that sanctifi cation, ^ and of those celestial graces, which sprang from her soul, as from a source of living water, ever since she bore in her chaste womb the Creator of the world. With the consent of St. Joseph, whose simple but lofty soul was in perfect unison with her own, Mary set out from Nazareth in the season of roses, and took her way towards the mountains of Judea, where Zachary, the Aaronite, had his dwelling. The Scripture, omitting details, and barely mentioning facts, does not mention whether the Vu-- gin was accompanied by any one on this journey. Some authors have thought that she travelled alone, which is altogether improbable. In fact, the distance from Nazareth to the city of Ain * is five days' journey. There was part of Galilee to be traversed, with the hostile country of Samaria, and nearly aU * Zachary lived at Ain, or Aen, two leagues south of Jerusalem. St. Helen had a beautiful church erected on the site of his house. 144 LIFE OF TEE BLESSED TTROIN MART. Qie lands of Joda. Then, the coon- ^ ^ trr is bristling with mountains, in- tereected by foaming torrents, and intersp^-sed with deserts.* The roads, which the Romans subse- quently repaired, were at that time only beaten by the heavy foot-fall of the camels, and were covered with round stones, so that the trav- eller was at every step in danger of falling. Then, when night came, the wayfarer was obliged to put up in some caravanserea, where there was nothing to be found but a small room covered with a rush-mat,f and no provisions of any sort; for the primitive hospitality had re- trograded amongst the Hebrews in proportion to the advance of civili- zation. Such being the case, is it at all likely that a man of years and experience, like Joseph, would have wantonly exposed a young woman, feur, delicate, and totally * Attlko^lli Jadnvma then &r more popoloin tlisa It now is, there were atin some dtstziete so bamn ttoi fliej could not be ealthralied. Tbe Goipel ifwVii of deserts not far irom. flie eitiea^ wliitlier JesBS retired to praj. f "lliere is no inn in anj part of Sjiis or PalesiiDe," sajs IL deYolney; "but the cities sad most ci the Tillsgee hsTe each a large build- ing called £emss-eend, whidi srares as an Mjtem ior an farnvdOera. llieae hoetdries. unused to the ways of the world, to brave alone the thousand dan- gers of such a journey? Such a supposition is contrary to all the customs of Asia,^ and especially of the people of Grod. Xever was Jewish woman allowed to under- take such a journey without a fitting escort If St Joseph, as Pere Croiset thinks, could not accompany the Blessed Virgin, it is probable that she would join some of her pious relatives who were going to the Holy City, and that she thus trav- elled in safe company. In fact, we always find her travelling with some of her friends, whether in going to Jerusalem to celebrate the grand festivals, or with the holy women, following Jesus during his missions, at a much later period of her life. " Although she could have had no better guardian tlian her- ahrajB pJaeed oatside the walls of the dtj car town, are oonqpoeed envy of the holy king David — for having had the ark of the covenant three months in his house, what blessings must not Zachary and his household have received from the three months' so- journ of Her of whom the ark of old was but the figure, so holy and so venerable was she? "The purity in which St. John passed his whole life," says St. Ambrose, "was the effect of that unction and that grace infused into his soul by the presence of the Blessed Virgin." It is not precisely known whether the Mother of God assisted at the delivery of Elizabeth. Origen, St. Ambrose, and other grave authors, both ancient and modern, pronounce in the affirmative, and their opinion is highly probable. It would, in- deed, have been very strange if, after so long a visit to her cousin, Mary had suddenly left her at the critical time, and without any rea- sonable motive for such a hasty and untimely departure. Custom re- quired that all the matrons of the family should be with the new mother to share in her happiness. "We see by the Gospel that Elizabeth was surrounded by her friends on that solemn occasion, and that the birth of St. John the Baptist drew to his father's house a great number of friends and kinsfolk. It is ob- jected that virgins were not usually present at such times, and the objec- tion is very proper ; but Mary was married, and therefore bound by 150 UFS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. certain rules of decorum, which she f could not violate without going in expi-ess contradiction to customs which had been handed down from the patriarchal times. The retir- ing habits of the Virgin are also brought forward to prove that the very rumor of the festivals which were to celebrate the birth of the Precursor would have driven her away like a frightened dove. But Mary could easily reconcile her dis- taste for the world with that exqui- site sense of propriety attributed to her by the Fathers, and her tender solicitude for her mother's niece. It * Some theologians, embracing an opinion contrary to that of Origan and St. Ambrose, maintain their position by quoting that passage of St. Luke which only mentions the delivery of Elizabeth after having brought the Virgin back to Galilee. It seems to us that the subject de- manded more reflection than these writers seem to have bestowed upon it. For ourselves, we have carefully examined the Gospel of St. Luke, and that minute investigation has convinced us that the proof brought forward is anything but conclusive ; for it is the manner of St. Luke to make just such transpositions, as we can show by two instances of a similar kind. For instance, after having followed the preaching of St. John the Baptist, and announced his imprisonment, St Luke speaks, in the following verse, of the baptism of Jesus Christ, which is well known to have taken place long before the Precursor was is, then, most probable that she remained in the house of the pontiff until Elizabeth was out of danger ; when, withdrawing herself fi'om the admiration which she never failed to excite, she quitted the mountains of Judea, after having embraced and blessed the new Elias.* A religious author observes that the blessed daughter of Joachim went with haste to visit her cousin, but that she slowly and reluctantly departed from those fresh valleys whose oaks had sheltered angels.f Perhaps, like the sea-bird, she had a presentiment of the coming storm. cast into prison. In recounting the adoration of the shepherds, St. Luke enlarges on their marvelous accounts of their visit to the grotto of Bethlehem, and the astonishment wherewith they were heard ; then, returning all at once to the scene of the adoration, he speaks of their de- parture from the stable. This, then, is our reason for adopting the opinion of St. Ambrose, which, of itself, is altogether the most probable. Father Valverde, who has closely studied the Holy Fathers, is also of opinion that the Blessed Vir- gin did not leave her friends till she had seen and blessed the young Precursor of the Messiah, f In the vale of Mambre, which is but six stadas from Hebron, there was still to be seen, in St. Jerome's time, a tree of enormous thick- ness, said to be the identical tree under which Abraham received the visit of the three angels, who came to announce to him the birth of Isaac. CHAPTER X. THE RETURN FROM HEBRON. 'iN her return to Nazareth, Mary cheerfully re- sumed her ple- beian life, and the toilsome oc- cupations which she had to suspend during her long visit. She became again the active and diligent young housewife, who finds time for work, time for prayer, time for pious read- ing ; whose whole conversation was in heaven, and who seemed to have applied to herself those wise and beautiful words of the Psalmist, " All the glory of the king's daughter is within." Meantime she was ad- vancing in her virginal pregnancy, and Joseph began to wax jealous. The high and upright mind of the patriarch was tortured with doubt and grievous perplexity. At first he could not believe his eyes, and thought it more just to distrust the evidence of his senses than the vir- tue of a woman who had always appeared to him a prodigy of holi- f ness and purity. But Mary's con- dition became daily more evident "She was found with child," says the Gospel; which means that all JS"azareth knew the fact, and that Joseph's friends, in the simplicity of their heart, came to offer their cruel congratulations, which he had to receive with a show of composure, while they gave a crushing certainty to what he had himself suspected. According to the Proto-gospel of St. James, he prostrated himself before God, bathed in tears, in the first paroxysm of his grief, and cried out, " Who has betrayed me ? who has brought evil into my house ?" Then, yielding to his tenderness for the young orphan, whom he had always regarded as the pearl and glory of her sex, he bitterly accused himself for not having taken more care of her. "Alas!" said he to himself, " my history is that of Adam ; when he rested most securely in his glory and happiness, Satan suddenly be- guiled Eve by deceitful words and 162 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Bcduced her."* When his mind t became calm enough to reflect, he found himself in a most painful pi*edicament Accoi*ding to the Jewish law, adultery was punished with death. When there were no witnesses (even one would have sufficed), and that the woman denied the crime laid to her charge, she was conducted, by order of the Sanhedrim, to the east- ern gate of the temple, and there, in presence of all, her veil was torn off, a cord from Egypt was put around her neck to remind her of the mira- cles which God had wrought in that country, her long hair was spread over her shoulders — because it was a disgrace for a Jewish woman to be seen with her hair disheveled — a priest pronounced a formal male- diction, to which she had to answer Amen, and then presented to her the famous cup of the waters of jealousy, which was also called the hitter waters, because they had the taste of wormwood.f That accursed cup was sure to kill the guilty wife, un- * Proto-gospel of St. James, in the Apocryph of Fabric, t, L, p. 97. f Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 22. J Wagenseil, in Sotah, p. 244 less the husband himself had been unfaithful. In that case, the miracle did not take place, " seeing," said the doctors of Israel, " that it would have been unjust if one criminal were absolved, whilst God himself punished the other."J A hasty, pas- sionate husband would not have failed to drag Mary before the priests of the Lord, ho as to have her go through the ordeal oUhe bitter waters; but Joseph, the most moderate as well as the most just of men, never so much as thought of taking such a step. Being unable to keep Mary under his roof, since the law of honor and the law of Moses both for- bade it, he would, at least, take all possible precautions to prevent the separation from injuring her charac- ter, for he was a Ju^t man, and un- willing piiblicly to expose her, " I will divorce her," said Joseph sadly within himself, " but before God, and not before the judges who would condemn her to death and me to throw the first stone. § I will save her from the reproaches of her fami- § It was decreed by the Jewish law that the accuser should cast the first stone at the person who was condemned on his accusation. (See Indit. de Mdise, t. ii., p. 65.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 153 ly and the contempt of the world. But how am I to get out of this labyrinth where death and dishonor stare me in the face at every turn?" And the son of David was over- Avhelmed with affliction. Mary could not but see the gloomy dejection of the just man to whom God had confided her, and certainly it must have cost her much to con- ceal from him the glorious embassy of the angel. But how was she to communicate an event so strange, so miraculous, as that of her divine maternity, and without other proof than her own assertion? Justly persuaded that the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word must be revealed by supernatural means in order to be believed, and leaving to Him who had wrought such great things in her the care of convincing Joseph of her innocence, " the daugh- ter of David," says the great bishop of Meaux, " at the risk of seeing her- self not only suspected and aban- doned, but also lost and dishonored. * " Undoubtedly," says Bossuet (Elev. sur les MysL), "God could have abridged these suflferings of Joseph by sooner revealing to him the mystery of Mary's pregnancy ; but his virtue would not then have been put to * left all to God and remained in peace." The Eternal, from the height of his starry throne, cast a look of com- passion on the just man whom he had made to undergo so hard a trial,* before raising him to the supreme honor of being his representative on earth; and the angels, with their eyes fixed on the holy house of Nazareth, anxiously awaited the result of that secret struggle where- in humanity, duty, and the noblest feelings of the soul were engaged. At length, the patriarch conceived an idea so generous, so heroic, as almost to place him on a level with the Queen of Angels. He resolved to sacrifice his honor, the respect which he had gained by his spotless life, the means of existence which furnished his daily bread, and the air of his native land, so necessary to the aged, in order to save the reputation of a wife who did not even seek to justify herself and who was so cruelly condemned by ap- the proof. We should not have seen Joseph ti'iumph over the most indomitable of all pas- sions, and the most rational jealousy that ever was would not have been cast down at the feet of virtue." r 151 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. peariinces. There was but one way to leave Mary without ruining her, for her family would have provoked explanations which must have ended fatally. It was, to expatriate him- self, to go leave his bones in a for- eign land, and to take upon himself all the odium of such a desertion. There is a species of resignation which is in itself a glorious triumpli, and there are sorrows which, if pa- tiently endured, Heaven repays as mmiiticently as martyrdom itself. Of this class was the unknown sac- ritice of the Virgin's spouse. In order to reconcile his duty and his humanity, he accepted beforehand the ignominious character of a heart- h ss husband, an unfeeling father, a man without conscience and without faith. He accepted the contempt of his neighbors, the mortal hatred of Mary's friends, and resolved to give up his good name for the sake of her whose mysterious and unaccountable position filled his heart with sorrow, and made his life miserable. St. John Chrysostom delights to dwell on the admirable conduct of St. Joseph. "It was expedient," says that great saint, " that coming on to the time of our Saviom* there ^ should appear many marks of greater perfection than the world had yet dreamed of. Thus, when the sun is about to rise, the East assumes a brilliant coloring long before the first streak of day has reached the hori- zon; so did Jesus Christ, about to emerge from the womb of the Virgin, already shed light on the world. Hence it was that, even before that divine birth, prophets leaped for joy in their mother's womb, women prophesied, and Joseph manifested a superhuman degree of virtue." We have here adopted the opinion of St. John Chrysostom in preference to that of St. Bernard, who supposes that Joseph penetrated of himself the mystery of the birth of Christ, and that, seeing Mary pregnant, he doubted not — in his profound vener- ation for her — that she must be the miraculous Virgin of Isaiah. "He believed it," says the Apostle of the Crusades, " and it was only from a sentiment of humility and respect like unto that which made St. Peter afterwards say, * Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man,' that St. Joseph, not less humble than St. Peter, thought of leaving the Vir- ^ gin, not doubting but that she LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 155 was pregnant of the Saviour of * mankind." This interpretation — a very pious one, indeed, and worthy of him who was honored with the title of devout chaplain of Mary — is yet more in ac- cordance with the ascetic notions of the middle ages than with the cus- toms of the ancient Hebrews, and will not stand a close investigation. In fact, the words of the Evangelist are so clear, that it takes no small industry to make them obscure. It is not at all that instinctive feeling of religious awe, which makes us shrink from a religious object, that suggests to Joseph the idea of leav- ing Mary; it is the prompting of conscience and of duty. "He was just," says Bossuet, " and his justice would not permit him to remain in the company of a woman whom he could no longer believe innocent. As for his suspecting what had happened by the operation of the Holy Ghost, it was a miracle as yet unexampled, and could by no means present itself to the human mind." The words of the angel would no longer have a meaning, and would savor of falsehood — which could not be the case — if St. Bernard's hypoth- esis were carried out. " Fear not," said the ambassador of God, " to take unto thee Mary thy wife : for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." Does Joseph pro- claim his unworthiness at the mo- ment when he is made certain that Mary bears in her womb the very Author of nature ? Does he reveal to the angel those scruples which must now be more urgent than ever ? Does he beg that the cup of honor, presented to him by the celestial messenger, may pass to some wor- thier mortal ? He does nothing of the kind. The storm of his soul is suddenly hushed, and he falls into that profound calm which follows great moral tempests. Some will have it that the proph- ecies relating to the Messiah were familiar to Joseph, as to all the Hebrews ; that he must have been aware that the time of the Messiah was at hand, and that he must have known at first sight, considering the sanctity of Mary, that she bore in her womb the Saviour of the world. But the understanding of those prophecies was then far from being as easy as may now be imagined 156 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Whether it was that Isaiah's alle- gorical descriptions of the glorious reign of Emanuel had led the synagogue into error, or that the carnal mind of the Jews could not raise itself above the earth and earthly things, it is certain that the Hebrew people — that hard-headed people — had taken a wrong view of the subject, and did not choose to be set right. The ambassador of God, the desired of the nations, was to be a legislator, a great captain, a monarch magnificent and powerful as Solomon. The Apostles them- selves were long mistaken as to the humble and pacific mission of the poor King, who passed silently along. They were seen to flatter themselves with gilded visions and kingdoms in perspective, even in sight of that deicide city where their Master was to be put to death. It was not without an effort that our Lord brought them back to spirituality, and rectified their ideas, ever ready to return within the narrow channel of material and palpable goods, whither they were directed by the * Bossuet, Elev. siir les Mysferes, t. ii., p. 135. t Whence comes he (the Messiah)? From the royal city, Bethlfcliem of Juda. Where are ^ salem.) ambitious dreams of doctors and traditionary Pharisees.* If even the Apostles, then, had so much trouble in divesting themselves of their childish prejudices — they who lived amid the miracles of the Messiah, and in constant intercourse with him — how could Joseph have done it of himself, without assist- ance from on high? The coarse garments of the workman had little resemblance to the purple of the kings of Juda ; and of all things, it was least expected that the Messiah should spring from the people. Gal- ilee was, besides, the last country that would have been thought of. " Search the Scriptures," said the doctors of the law to the disciples of Christ, " and see that out of Gali- lee a prophet riseth not." In fact, the prophets had specially mention- ed Bethlehem of Juda — Bethlehem, the house of bread — as the birth- place of the Messiah ; and the Jew- ish commentators, outstripping the prophets, pretended to point out the quarter of the city in which he was to be born.f Joseph was too hum- his parents? In the quarter Biral Harba of Bethlehem of Juda. (See Talmud de Jeru- LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 157 ble to think that his lowly roof was ^ to shelter so much greatness, and Mary's silence left him nothing to guess. As for the project of sending back the Virgin to her own family, through pure respect, as some learned theolo- gians of the Bernardino school will have it, it would have been utterly impracticable in a nation so jealous of all that concerned female honor. Mary was an orphan, and therefore under the care of her relations, all of whom were not of a pacific dis- position, while it is probable that some of them were far from being pleased by the marriage of their young kinswoman with the obscure Nazarene. It is very improbable that they would have taken Joseph's word, and admitted, without further information, that the Virgin was pregnant of the King-Messiah. It is much more likely that they would have brought the husband before the tribunal of the ancients, there to give an account of his conduct ; for the question was no longer of a sim- ple divorce, but of the state of the child borne by Mary, a young woman of illustrious birth and unsuitably married, according to the eleven who, St. Jerome says, had been themselves on the list of candidates for the hand of the young and lovely heiress of Joachim. . Thence there would have resulted two grave facts. Either Joseph would have kept silent, and then he would have been obliged to take back his wife and forbidden ever to put her away ; * or he would have solemnly sworn that the child which Mary bore was not his, in which case that child became incapacitated for any employment. His birth, de- filed in its source, would have de- barred him from the national assem- blies, public schools, and entrance to the temple or the synagogues. His posterity, inheritors of disgrace, would not be admitted to the privi- leges of the Hebrews till the tenth generation. He became a fugitive, without rights, without country, and the warrant which condemned his mother to be stoned would have stamped his brow and that of his children with the accursed mark of Cain. But such could never have been the case. Rather than suffer such a stain to be imprinted on their * InstU. de Mdise, t. ii., 1. vii. 168 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. royal genealogy, the proud descend- ants of David would have killed the Vii-gin with their own hands. Such examples ai'e not rare, and are of frequent occui-rence even now, in Judea as well as in Arabia.* Joseph was too wise and too hii- mane to place himself in either pre- dicament, and he found, as is always the case, that the most generous part was the best. He resolved, then, to quit his native city and his "^ dear, though suspected wife, who had made him so supremely happy ever since their chaste marriage. WTiilst he was preparing for this sad separation, as he slept one night on his solitary couch, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. * Niebuhr relates that, " in a cofifee-house of Yemen, an Arab having asked another who was present if he were not the father of a young and beautiful woman newly married in his tribe, the father suspecting an ironical meaning in the question, and thinking the honor of his family compromised, coolly arose, ran to his daughter's house, and, without saying a word, plunged his weapon into her bosom." Father Geramb gives an anecdote of the same kind. " The widow of a Bethlehemite Cathohc," says he, " became an object of suspicion ; not knowing where to con- ceal herself from the vengeance of her family, she took refuge in the convent of the Fathers of the Holy Land, and put herself under the sacred protection of the altar. Her asylum was disco v- 1 "Joseph, son of David," said the celestial envoy, "fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus ; for he shall save bis people from their sins." After this dream and the words of the angel, Joseph found himself completely changed. His humility was not in the least disturbed by the honor which God conferred up- on him, in transferring to him the guidance of his only Son ; but he had become a father and a spouse in aflfection, and he thought of noth- ing more but the care of Mary and her divine Infant. ered, the doors of the monastery forced, and the young woman dragged out, her hair all dishev- eled, to the public place, amid the shouts of the populace, and the supplications of the monks, who demanded, in the name of the crucified God, pardon and mercy for that unjiappy creature, who lotidly asserted her innocence. She called, in despair, on her father and brothers beseech- ing them, in the most touching manner, to save her from a cruel death. They advanced in gloomy silence, each grasping a poignard : the unfortunate woman shuddered ; a moment after, the three poignards were plunged into her heart, and the murderers, washing their hr.nds in the blood of their daughter and sister, exulted in having washed away the disgrace of their family." V/^'j!^. '^l^ LIFE OF THE B LESSEE) VIE GIN MARY. 159 St John Chrysostom inquired why the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph, and not manifestly, as to the shepherds, to Zachary, and the Virgin. '• It is," says he, an- swering his own question, " because Joseph had great faith, and required no clearer revelation. As for the Virgin, since there were things to be told to her greater and more in- credible than all that was told to Zachary, it was necessary that they should be revealed to her before they were put into execution, and that by a manifest revelation. The shepherds, also, as more rude and * simple, had need of a clear vision. But Joseph having already seen the pregnancy of Mary, having conceived iniurious suspicions of her,* and being ready to change his sorrow for joy, if he only had the opportunity, re- ceived with all his heart the revela- tion made by the angel .... This conduct of Providence was infinitely wise, since it served to prove the excellence of Joseph's virtue, and to render the Gospel history more credible, showing him actuated by the same motives that would have influenced any man on such an oc- casion." * CHAPTER XI THE BIRTH OF THE MESSIAH. impious empire-f had planted its eagles even on the farthest shores. The Ro- mans had caught the Eastern world as in a net. EANWHILE, the * before them in the depths of its deserts, and the most distant ti-ibes of Asia, the peaceable Chinese, sent a solemn embassy to Cassar to seek his powerful alliance. Egypt * St. John Chrysostom, Serm. 4. f The Jews designated the Roman Empire by Sarmatia trembled * the name of the impious empire. IGO LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. and Syria were nothing more than Roman provinces. Judea, herself, was tributary ; and the Jewish king, paying dear for a capricious protection, was no more than a crowned slave. The time was come — the Messianic oracles were to be accomplished. The power of Rome was at its height, as Balaam had pre- dicted ; and, according to the famous prophecy of Jacob, the sceptre had departed from Juda: for the phantom of royalty, which still hovered over the Holy City, was not even a nation- al phantom. Just then, there was published in Judea an edict of Caesar Augustus, ordering all the people to be enrolled. This census, much more complete than that which took place under the sixth consulate of the nephew of Julius Caesar,* comprised * Augustus had three diflferent enrollments made throughout the empire : the first, during his sixth consulate with Agrippa, in the year 28 before the Christian era ; the second, under the consulate of Caius Marius Censorinus, and of C. Asinins Qallus, eight years before the same era ; the third, and last, under the consulate of Sextus Pompeius Nepos and Sextus Apuleius Nepos, in the fourteenth year of the Christian era. It is of the second census that St. Luke speaks. The decree which ordained it was issued in the eighth year before the Christian era. (Sueton., in Octa, V. 27.) t Augustus had a work prepared, just then. ^ not only persons, but property, and also the various qualities of the lands. It was the basis on which the tribute was to be levied.f The Roman governors were charg- ed with the execution of this edict, each in his own department.^ Sex- tius Saturninus, governor of Syria, began fi.rst with Phoenicia and Celo- Syria, rich and populous cantons, which required long and patient toil. In fact, there is nothing like it on record, except the famous registry taken by William the Conqueror a thousand years later, and so well known in England as the Domesday- book. Having executed the orders of Caesar in the Roman provinces, with the kingdoms and principalities belonging to it, at the end of three years from the date of the decree, § containing the description of the Roman empire, and the countries subject to him. Tacitus, Sue- tonius, and Dion Cassius refer to this book, and its particular description of the provinces. From the way in which they speak, it must have been a most elaborate work. % TertuUian states that such was the case with Sextius Saturninus, who was governor of Syria, §The three years which were employed in making this census can make no difficulty, for it certainly took that length of time to enregister the whole of Syria, Celo- Syria, Phoenicia, and Judea. Joab took nearly ten months to number the fighting-men of the ten LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 161 they at length reached Bethlehem, precisely at the memorable period of our Saviour's birth. Cassar and his agents thought they were per- forming only an administrative oper- ation, by ascertaining the population and resources of the empire; but God had other designs, which they were made instrumental in execut- ing, though they^ knew it not. His Son was to be born in Bethlehem of Juda, the humble birth-place of King David. He had foretold it, by his prophet, more than seven hun- dred years before, and all the world was put in motion to accomplish that prophecy. It appe-ars that, faithful to an an- cient custom, the Jews still had themselves enrolled by families and by tribes. David was born at Beth- lehem ; his descendants, therefore, regarded that small city as their na- tive place, and the cradle of their tribes ; and the census of Augustus, at the time of the birth of Christ, consisted of many other details, since it embraced not only the individ- uals, but the various qualities of their lands. It took William the Conqueror six whole years to make his register, although the Domesday-book contained neither Ireland, Scotland, Wales, nor the Channel Islands, but merely England itself. ♦Never has date been more disputed than ^ house. There it was, then, that they assembled to give in their names and the state of their property, con- formably to the edict of Caesar. The autumn was near its close, the torrents were rushing wildly down into the valleys, the north wind whistled through the tall tur- pentine trees, and a gray cloudy sky announced the approach of the winter's snow. On a dark, gloomy morning, in the year of Rome 748,* a Nazarene was seen busily engaged in preparing for a journey, which could not be one of choice, for the time was unseasonable, and the woman who accompanied him, and whom he seated so carefully on the mild and patient animal which the daughters of the East prefer, was very young, and far advanced in her pregnancy. To the saddle of the beautiful animal f on which the young Galilean rode was attached a that of the birth of Christ. We adopt that of the authors of VArt de verifier les dates (the Ait of verifying dates), which seems to us the most, correct, and which places the birth of the Savi nu- on the 25th of December, in the year of Eonie 748. According to Baronius, our Saviour was born on a Friday. f The asses in Palestine are remarkably beau- tiful 162 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. palm-leaf basket, containing provi- sions for the journey; dates, figs, and dried grapes, ?onie barley-cakes, and an earthen pitcher for taking water from the spi'ing or the cistern. A leathern flask, of Egyptian manufac- ture, hung on the opposite side. The traveller flung over his shoulder a bag containing some clothes, gird- ed his loins, wrapped himself up in his goat-skin cloak, and holding in one hand his crooked stick, with the other tie seized the bridle of the ass which bore his young wife. Thus they quitted their humble abode, and descended the narrow streets of Nazareth, amid the good wishes of their friends and neighbors, who cried on every side, " Go in peace ! " These travellers, who thus set out on that cloudy morning, were the hum- ble descendants of the great kings of Juda, Joseph and Mary, who were going, on the order of a pagan and a stranger, to inscribe their obscure names beside the most illustrious names in the kingdom. This journey, undertaken at such an inclement season, and in a coun- try like Palestine, must have been * Mich., ch. v., ver. 2. * extremely painful to the Blessed Virgin, in the position in which she was; but yet she did not murmur. That delicate and fragile creature had a soul both firm and courage- ous ; a lofty soul, which greatness did not dazzle nor joy agitate, and which bore misfortune silently and calmly. Joseph, advancing by her side, was meditating on the ancient prophecies which promised, four thousand years before, a Liberator to his people. As he journeyed towards Bethlehem, at the bidding of a Roman, he reflected on the words of the prophet Micheas, " And THOU, BethlehexM Ephrata, art a little one among the thousands of Juda ; out of thee shall He come forth unto me, that is to be the Ruler in Isra- el."* Glancing, then, at his humble equipage and his modest sj^ouse, in her plain, unpretending apparel, he revolved in his mind the great proph- ecies of Isaiah, " He shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground ; there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: .... despised and the most abject of men." f And the patriarch began •|" Isaiah, ch. liii., ver. 2. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 163 to comprehend the designs of God on his Christ. After five days of a toilsome jour- ney, the travellers caught a distant view of Bethlehem, the city of kings, seated on a rising ground, amid smiling hills planted with vines, olives, and groves of verdant oaks. Camels, laden with women wrapped up in purple cloaks, and covered with white veils ; Arab nakas, dash- ing along at full speed, bearing gay and brilliant cavaliers ; groups of old men, mounted on white asses, and chatting gravely together, like the ancient judges of Israel,* were all going up to the city of David, already crowded with Hebrews, who had arrived on the previous days. Outside the city, but a short distance from its walls, arose a large square building, whose white walls stood out in strong relief from the pale green of the olive-trees which cover- ed the hill. It looked like one of the Persian caravansaries. Through * The horse was used, amongst the Jews, for military men ; hence it was taken as the emblem of fight. Judges, on the contrary, rode on asses of perfect beauty ; hence the scriptural words, " Speak, you that ride upon fair asses, and you that sit in judgment." — (Judges, V. 10.) its open door were seen a crowd of slaves and servants coming and going in its vast yard. This was the inn. Joseph, hurrying the pace of the animal on which the Virgin rode, hastened thither in hopes of arriving in time to obtain one of those narrow cells, which belonged of right to the first comer, and was never refused to any one ;f but mer- chants and ti^avellers were already issuing in crowds from the cara- vansary. It could accommodate no more. Gold might, doubtless, have procured admission, but Joseph had no gold. The patriarch returned with this saddening intelligence to Mary, who heard it with a smile of resignation, and taking hold of the bridle to con- duct the poor animal, which was already sinking with fatigue, he wandered about through the streets of the little city, hoping, but in vain, that some charitable Bethlehemite might offer them a lodging for God's f There is nothing found in these cells but four walls, an abundance of dust, and sometimes scorpions. The keeper is only bound to give the key and a mat. The traveller has to provide the rest ; hence he has to carry with him his bed, his cooking apparatus, and even his provisions. (Volney, Voyage en Syrie.) 164 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. sake. No one offered them any- thing. The evening wind fell cold and piercing on the young Virgin, who breathed not a word of com- plaint, though her face grew paler every moment, for she was scarcely able to support herself. Joseph, in despair, continued his fruitless at- tempts ; and more than once, alas ! he saw some wealthier stranger admitted where he had been rudely lepulsed. Surely interest, that rul- ing passion of the Jews, must have petrified every soul, when Mary's situation excited no pity. The night closed in. The lonely travellers, seeing themselves rejected by all the world, and despairing of obtaining a shelter in the city of their fathers, quitted Bethlehem, without knowing which way to turn, and advanced at random through the fields, still partially lighted by the fading twi- light, while the jackals made the air resound with their shrill cries. ♦Justin quotes the prophecy of Isaiah (xxxiii. 16), as applying to our Saviour's birth in a cave, " The for I locations of rocks shall he his highness." f"It is an incontestable fact," says Dupuis, " and independent of all the consequences which I will draw from it, that precisely at the hour of midnight, on the 25th December, in those ages when Christianity fiiv-it appeared, the celestial f as they roamed in search of their prey. Southward, within a short dis- tance of the inhospitable city, there appeared a gloomy cavern, hollowed in the rock. The entrance was to- wards the north, and the cave be- came narrower towards its farther end. It served as a common stable for the Bethlehemites, and sometimes as a shelter for the shepherds on stormy nights. The pious couple blessed Heaven for having guided their steps towards this rude asylum ; and Mary, with the help of Joseph's arm, made her way to a bare rock, which formed a sort of seat, though narrow and uncomfortable, in a hol- low of the rock. It was there, " in the fortifications - of rocks," as Isaiah had predicted,* just as the rising of the mysterious constellation Virgo announced mid- night,! that the ahna\ of the great Messianic prophecy, amidst the sol- sign which appeared on the horizon, and ushered in the opening of the new solar revolution, was the Virgin of the constellations. \ The word alma, employed by Isaiah, signifies, in Hebi'ew, a virgin in all her innocence. We have already said, in note fifty-five of the first chapter, that this word has given rise to many controversies between Jews and Christians. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 165 emn stillness of nature, concealed by * a luminous cloud,* brought forth Him whom God himself had produced before the hiUs,-f and who was begotten from all eternity. He suddenly ap- peared, like a sunbeam emerging from a cloud, before the eyes of his young, astonished mother, and came to take possession of the throne of his poverty, whilst the angels of God, prostrate around, adored him under his human form. J That vir- ginal childbirth was exempt from cries as from pains, and no groan disturbed the sacred silence of that night of wonders. Miraculously con- ceived, Jesus was born more mirac- ulously still. God was preparing for the world a new and grand sight, in the birth of a poor King. The palace which he destined for him was a deserted stable, a fitting asylum for him who, in the course of his life, was to say, * Proto-gospel, St. James, ch. 17. f According to the opinion of the Kabbins, the Messiah was in the terrestrial paradise with our first parents. (Sohar Chadaseh, f. 82, 4.) He existed even before the world. (Nezach Is- rael, ch. 35.) And before becoming man he was in glory with God. (Phil., ch. ii., v. 6.) Thus, immediately before the time of Christ, the idea of the Messiah's pre-existence found its way into the higher theology of the Jews. " The fox has his den, the birds of the air have their nests, but the Son of man has not where to lay. his head." Moses, proscribed at his birth, had, at least, a cradle of bul- rushes, when his sister, the young Mary, exposed him amid the reeds and the sacred lotus which at night- fall dip their leaves in the Nile ; § but Jesus, the divine outcast, who came amongst us to suffer and to die, had not even that. He was laid in a manger, on a handful of damp straw, providentially forgotten by some camel-driver from Egypt or Syria, hastening away before the dawn. God had provided a couch for his only Son, as he provides nests for the birds of the air. But this new Adam was to be covered from the inclemency of the weather, and also because modesty required it. Mary tore her veil into bands, wherewith she wrapped up 1 Hebrews, i. 6. Psalm xlvii. 7. §The lotus, which was consecrated to the sun, is an aquatic plant, the leaves of which dip into the Nile when the sun sets, and spring up again when he rises. This plant has a narcotic quaUty. It was said of those who made long voyages, that they had eaten of the lotus; that is to say, that they had for- gotten their country. (Basnage, 1. ix., ch. 15, p. 450.) 1G6 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. his delicate limbs; then the infant God was adored, by her and her lioly spouse, as Joseph of old, the tinest type of Jesus Christ, was by his father and mother. St. Basil, entering into the myste- ries of fervor and of rapture which passed through the soul of the Vir- gin, shows her divided between maternal love and holy adoration. •What am I to call thee?" said she, addressing her infant God " A mortal ? . . . not so, for I con- reived thee by divine operation. .... A God ? but thou hast a hu- man body. Am I to approach thee with incense, or to offer thee my milk ? Am I to cherish thee as a tender mother, or to serve thee pros- trate iff* the dust? A marvelous contrast! Heaven is thy dwelling- place, yet I rock thee on my knee ! Thou art on earth, and yet retainest thy place in heaven ! The heavens are witl^ thee!" * The village of the shepherds is situated on a very pleasant plain, about a quarter of a league to the north of Bethlehem, and in the depth of the valley is the celebrated field, where these shepherds were grazing their flocks on Christ- mas night. According to grave authors, both sacred and profane, the appearance of the angels to the shepherds was not the only prodigy that Thus were accomplished the great prophecies of Isaiah and Micheas. "And there were in the same coun- try shepherds watching, and keep- ing the night-watches over their flock. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the bright- ness of God shone round about them : and they feared with a great fear. And the angel said to them : Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people : for this day is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. And . this shall be a sign unto you : you shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and laid in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying : Glory to God in the moH- EST ; AND ON EARTH PEACE TO MEN OF GOOD WILL."* The marvelous vision had disap- signalized the birth of the infant God. They relate that, dtiring that holy night, the vines of Engaddi blossomed ; that, at Comus, the Temple of Peace suddenly fell, and the ora- cles of the demons were silenced for ever. The mere birth of our Lord was a sentence of banishment for those heathen deities, who had hitherto been permitted to deliver oi-acles. "R.TJudens:nx THE-NAnviTY OF CHRi:.! LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 167 peared, the heavenly music had ceased, and the shepherds, leaning on their crooks, still listened for a renewal of those ravishing sounds. When they could hear nothing more save the night-breeze murmuring through the valley, and could no longer discover in the deep blue sky a single radiant point which fancy could convert into an angel, the shepherds took counsel together, and said one to another, " Let us go to Betlilehem, and see this word that is come to pass." Then, taking baskets, w^ith such simple presents as their cabins could afford, they left their flocks to their own guidance for a while, and set out by the glimmering light of the stars for the little city of David. At sight of the poor stable, they felt their hearts burn within them, like the disciples of Emmaiis, and they said to each other, ''Perhaps this is the place." For they knew that the di- vine child who was born to them had not seen the light under gilded ceilings, nor was laid in a royally- Milton, with true poetic inspiration, thus de- scribes, in one of his earher compositions, the flight of these pretended divinities on Christmas Eve. f adorned cradle. The angel had made no such announcement. They advanced, then, with faith, hope, and love, towards that deserted stable, where they well deserved to find the promised Saviour, since they came to seek him with pure hearts and single minds. Looking into the cave, in order to assure themselves that they had real- ly reached the term of their noctur- nal pilgrimage, these " men of good will" discovered Him who came to preach the Gospel to the poor, and abolish the curse of slavery, under the humble form of a little babe peacefully slumbering in his crib. The Virgin, bent over her new- born infant, was regarding him with touching humility and profound ten- derness. Joseph stood close by, his venerable head bowed down before that adopted son, who was truly God. A ray of moonlight shone on the divine group, and on the reddish wall of rock ; without, the earth was calmly reposing in the bright, sil- very light.* * *"The Persians call Christmas night sch^b jaldai, the clear and luminous night, because of the descent of the angels." (D'Herbelot, BilL Orient, i, ii. p. 294.) 168 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. " This is the place," said the shep- hei-ds to themselves; and prostrat- ing themselves, respectfully, before the manger of the King of kings, they offered to the infant God " the mite " and the homage of the poor. There they related the apparition of the angels, their ravishing hymns, and their joyful words. Joseph ad- mired this divine manifestation, and Mary, who heard the simple tale in silence, treasured up every word within her heart. This duty fulfilled, and their mission ended, the Judean shepherds retired praising God, and published in the mountains the mar- vels of that holy night. Those who heard them were seized with aston- ishment, and said to themselves, " Can it be possible ? Are we, then, gone back to the days of Abraham, when angels visited shepherds?" Perchance it was these tales, told * " El Azraki quotes the ocular testimony of many respectable persons," says Burckhardt, "in proof of a remarkable fact which has not hitherto been noticed, as far as I am aware. It is, that the figure of the Virgin Mary, with the young Asia {Jesus) on her knee, was carved as a divinity on one of the pillars of the Caaba " (Burckhardt, Voyage en Arable, t. i., p. 221.) f This fact, which confirms the account of the Arab historian, is mentioned in the Toldos, a very ancient Jewish book, written with the t at evening in the skirt of the woods 01* in the deep ravine, whilst the camels drank together at the lonely spring, that induced one of the Arab tribes to deify Mary and the child. The sweet image of the Virgin, with her Son on her knee, was painted on one of the pillars of the Caaba, and solemnly placed amongst the three hundred and sixty deities of the three Arabias. In the time of Ma- homet they were still seen there,* as we find from grave Arab writers. After the massacre of the Holy In- nocents, that valiant tribe rose in a body, gave a long, loud cry of re- venge, and, heedless of the enemy's superior numbers, attacked Herod's son, protected as he was by the Roraans.f This authentic anecdote, so curi- ous and so little known, serves tfi confirm the supernatural fact related most violent hatred of Christians. We there see that Herod the Great and his son had to maintain a war against one of the tribes of the desert, who adored the image of Jesus, and Mary, his mother. This tribe sought the alliance of several cities of Palestine, and especially that of Hai. But, since the Jews themselves place this event in the lifetime of Herod, it must have been because of the massacre of the Innocents, as the old king lived only one year after the birth of our Saviour. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 169 by St. Luke ; a fact which the scoff- ing philosophers of the Yoltairian school, and the, if possible, still more pagan professors of panthe- ism, have not failed to set down as a fable. The fantastic devotion of these Arabs, who commit idolatry with the true God before the preach- ing of the Gospel, can only be ac- counted for by the miracles of the holy night of Christmas. On the eighth day after his birth the Son of God was circumcised, and named Jesus, according to the command of his heavenly Father. He must have had a godfather, like all the Israelites, but there is no record of the name of that favored man. As to the ceremony of the circumcision, which was always per- formed under the patronage of Elias * (who, according to the Hebrews, never failed to assist invisibly),* it took place, St. Epiphanius says, in the very cavern where Jesus was born; and St. Bernard presumes, with much probability, that St. Jo- seph was the minister on that occa- sion. Some men of the lower classes, docile to the call of the angels, came to adore the infant God in his manger, and to share with him their black bread and goat's milk. A miracle of a higher order, and of greater renown, brought soon after, to the same crib, the first fruits of converted gentilism. The shepherds of Juda had led the way, it was for kings and sages to follow. * * See Basnage, 1. vii., ch. 10. CHAPTER XII. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. jN the course of the * autumn which preceded the birth of Christ, certain of the Chaldean Ma- gi, skillful in the science of tho heavenly bodies, discerned a star of the first magni- tude, which they recognized, by its extraordinary motions and other unequivocal signs, as that star of Jacob, foretold by Balaam so long before— that star which was to rise on their horizon at the coming of the Messiah. According to the an- cient traditions of Iran, collected by Abulfarages, Zoroaster, the restorer of the Magian religion, a man of * Some have made Zoroaster a disciple of Jeremiah, but the times do not agree. It is much more probable that he was a pupil of DanieL f The learned are not agreed as to the country of the Magi. Some make them come from the depth of Arabia Felix, others from the Indies, which is by no means probable. The best au- thorities point out Persia as their country, and that opinion seems the most correct. The science, a great astronomer, and well Tersed, moreover, in the He- brew theology,* announced, under the immediate successors of Cyrus, and soon after the re-establi?hment of the Temple, that a divine child, destined to change the aspect of the world, should be born of a pure and immaculate Virgin in the extreme west of Asia. He added, that a star unknown in their hemisphere should signalize that remarkable event, and that, on its appearance, the Magi were to set out with pres- ents to the infant King. Faithful and religious executors of Zoroas- ter's will, three of the most illus- trious sages of Babylonia,! had no sooner remarked the star than they names Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, gener- ally given to the Magi, are Babylonian. In fact, Babylon, and after it, Seleucia, situated at a short distance, were the seats of the most famous astronomers of antiquity. Finally, those cities are to the east of Jerusalem, and it is only twenty days' journey from the banks of the Euphrates to Bethlehem. Origen, who was judicious and well-informed, states that the Magi were addicted to astrology. Drexelius, LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIBGIN MABY. 171 gave the signal for departure. Leaving behind them the city of Seleucides, with its stately palm- wood buildings,* and Babylon, where the mournful desert -wind seemed whispering to the silent ruins the fatal prophecy of the son of Amos, they quitted the land of dates and took the sandy road to Palestine. Before them, like the luminous pil- lar which guided the flying cohorts of Israel towards the desert strand of the Red Sea, moved the star of the Messiah. That new star, inde- pendent of the laws which govern the heavenly bodies, had no regular motion peculiar to itself. Now it advanced at the head of the cara- van, moving in a straight line to- wards the west; now it remained stationary over the tents erected for the night, seeming to balance itself gently in the clouds like a sleeping thereupon, takes upon him to scoff at Origen, which proves that he was but httle versed in the ancient history of the East, where every astron- omer was an astrologer. • * Strabo, b. xvii. f St. John Chrysostom, Serm. 6 in Matth. Chalcidius, a pagan philosopher, who lived about the end of the third century, makes men- tion of this star, and the Eastern sages whom it guided to the birth-place of Christ. St. Augus- tine, the doctor of doctors, says on this subject. ^ albatross. At the dawn of day it gave the signal for departure, as it had done at night for halting.f At length the lofty towers ol Jerusalem were visible in the dis- tance, amid the bare, bleak summits of its mountains. The camels were quenching their thirst at a wayside cistern, when the Magi gave a cry of surprise and alarm. The star had disappeared in the far depths of heaven, like a rational creature who perceives impending danger. J Thus puzzled, like the mariners of ancient times when dark clouds concealed the polar star, the Magi consulted a moment. What meant the sudden disappearance of their brilliant guide ? Were they, then, at the term of their long journey? It was very possible, and even probable, that the infant King whom they came from the banks " A new star appeared at the birth of Him whose death was to obscure the ancient sun." What, then, was that star which never ap- peared before or since in the firmament? Was it not the magnificent language of Heaven, pro- claiming the glory of God and a virgin's child- bearing ? X This cistern, or well, on the highway near Jerusalem, is still known as the Cistern of the Three Kings, or of the Star, in memory of this event. 172 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. of the Tigris to adore, might be f found in Jerusalem. "The God of heaven," thought they, "does not idly prolong his miracles; they cease when human agents are suffi- cient. That is the usual order of things. Wliat matter though the star has left us? We may easily, without its assistance, find this new king in the capital of his states. To find out the young Messiah, we have only to enter the first street which we shall find strewed with green branches, perfumed with es- sence of roses, and tapestried with cloth of gold. The sound of the Hebrew harps, their dancing cho- ruses, and shouts of joy, will speed- ily show us which way we are to go." Then, quickening their pace, they passed the boundary gate, and penetrated into the ancient Zion between two tiles of barbarian sol- diers. The aspect of Jerusalem was cheerless. Its populace, busy, yet silent, had no appearance of either joy or festival. Groups gathered together, here and there, to stare at the strangers, whom they recognized by their long white robes, girt with magnificent Eastern zones, by their ^ bazuhends* enriched with precious stones, and, especially, by the manly beauty of their features, as satraps of the great king. The Eastern cavaliers, as they passed along, bent over the neck of their dromedaries to ask some of the numerous spec- tators where they were to find the new-born Bang of the Jews, whose star they had seen in the East. The people of Jerusalem, regarding each other in surprise, knew not what to answer. ... A king of the Jews ! . . . What king ? They knew none but Herod, whom they abhorred, and he had no infant son. Astonished, in their turn, that all whom they interrogated declared their ignorance, and, moreover, see- ing no mark of festivity anywhere around, the Magi, in great conster- nation, ascended the populous street which led to the ancient palace oi David, and erected their tents amid its ruinous, but shady courts. Meanw^hile, the appearance of these Persian^ nobles, w^ho seldom visited the mountains of Judea, * Bazubends, ancient bracelets adorned with diamonds, turquoises, and pearls, which the satraps wore above the elbow. The king of Persia and his sons still wear the bazubend. {See Morier, Voyage en Perse et en Armenie.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 173 their startling questions, which both amazed and intimidated a people who were kept in constant trepida- tion by the system of espionage organized by Herod,* soon excited a general tumult in that seditious city, the most restless in all the East. The name of the Messiah- king, pronounced by the Pharisees — ever careful to excite the fears of the aged monarch, as to the pros- pects of his house and the dura- tion of his own power — ^fell amid the listening groups like a spark amongst stubble. The King-Mes- siah ! There was freedom in that sound. There was conquest — there was glory ! It spoke of the banner of Juda, waving in triumph over a conquered world. The satraps of Persia were considered the first as- trologers in the world.f They had, doubtless, read the birth of the He- brew GoelX in the stars. The heir of the kings of Juda was about * See Josephus, Ant. Jud., c. xv., ch. 13. f All the East then believed in Astrology ; and Philo tells us that the satraps of Persia were esteemed as the first astrologers in the world. X Go'il (Saviour), one of the names by which the Hebrews designated the Messiah. § Herod had strictly forbidden the Jews to speak of state affairs. They could not even ^ to ascend the great throne of his fathers, and to banish the race of the Herods, those half Jews, who were the slaves of Rome ! A sullen murmur, like that which precedes the ocean -storm, quickly spread from street to street, from house to house. Never had the people of Jerusalem felt less disposed to obey the royal edict which forbade them ''to meddle with any thing but their own afi'airs." § Vainly did the fierce soldiers of Herod fringe the ramparts of the towers. The peo- ple were roused : they were no longer afraid to talk together in the open street. "All Jerusalem was troubled," says the Gospel, and it was soon the tyrant's turn to be troubled himself. Herod then dwelt in his palace in Jerusalem ; but its flowery gar- dens, peopled as they were with rare birds, and intersected by lim- pid sti'eams, II could not divert his assemble to hold those great family-festivals hitherto so common amongst them. His spies, spread over the whole city, and even along the highways, instantly arrested those who in- fringed on the royal edict. They were thrown secretl}^ and sometimes even openly, into the fortresses, where they were severely puuished. ( Joseph., Ant. Jud., c. xv., ch. 13.) 11 Josephus, de Bello, b. v., ch. 13. 174 LTFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. mind from tlie gloomy recollections and dark forebodings which ren- dered life a burden to him. Ap- prised by his chief spy of the arri- val of the Magi, and their strange discom'se, his massive brow, wrin- kled with harassing thought, grew dark as a stormy sky, and his anxiety was visible to all. The apprehensions of the Jewish king are easily understood, and are explained by his peculiar position. Herod was neither the anointed of the Lord nor yet the chosen of the people ; a branch of laurel, gathered within the pagan precincts of the capitol, formed his tributary crown — a crown of slavery, intertwined with thorns, every leaf of which had been purchased by heaps of gold levied from the savings of the rich and the indigence of the poor. Hated by the nobles, whose heads he struck off at the first suspicion ; dreaded by his relatives, whose lives he sacrificed without remorse, on the slightest pretext ; detested by the priests, whose privileges he trampled under foot ; abhorred by the people, for his speculative re-, ligion and his foreign extraction, he had nothing to depjend on but his courtiers, his assassins, his artists, and the wealthy, but by no means numerous sect of the Herodians, who were infatuated by his mag- nificence. Often was the friend of Caesar openly braved by his obsti- nate subjects. The Pharisees, an artful and powerful sect, had mock- ingly and insultingly refused to take the oath of fidelity. The Essoeans, who were formidable from their martial courage, had followed the example of the Pharisees ; while the young and impetuous disciples of the doctors of the law had re- cently cut down, in broad daylight, the golden eagle which, in compli- ment to the Romans, he had placed over the gate of the Temple. Conspiracies were going on in every quarter against his life, hatch- ed and fomented by his nearest and dearest, so that he might fall at any moment under the dagger of some young enthusiast, who would deem it a virtuous and patriotic act to rid the earth of a prince * who reigned * The people were so fai* from applauding the discovery of this plot, or rejoicing in the king's escape, that they laid hold of the informer by whom it was revealed, tore him in pieces, and threw his flesh to the dogs. (Joseph., Ant. Jud. b. XV., eh. 11.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 175 like a madman. Ascribing this un- accountable boldness to the con- tempt inspired by his great age, he exhausted all the secrets of art to make himself young again.* He would fain have persuaded both himself and others that he was still that young and brilliant Herod who surpassed most of the Hebrews in all gymnastic exercises ; Herod, the bold cavalier, the skillful huntsman, the proud and handsome prince, who had despised the love of that famous Egyptian queen for whom Antony had lost the empire of the world. But, alas ! the silvery hairs which began to appear amid the dark locks of his sons, their impa- tience to reign, the spirit of revolt and sedition gliding in amongst the people, and the insolence of the brigands, who were again begin- ning their depredations in Galilee, all gave him but too clearly to un- derstand that his reign — hi§ dread reign — was drawing to a close. Harassed with suspicion, and dis- trusting even his spies, he some- * Herod painted his face, and had his hair and beard dyed black, in order to appear young. (Joseph., Ant. Jud., b. xvi., ch. 11.) f He often went out at night amongst the times wandered at night through the streets and squares of his me- tropolis,! and heard with his own ears the deep imprecations, the bit- ter reproaches, the biting sarcasms heaped on the upstart^ the Ascalonite, the wild beast, who had killed his innocent wife — that gem of beauty and pattei'u of chastity — and who had afterwards caused the two sons whom he had by her to be put to death — those two princes, so sad, so beautiful, so stately, and so dear to the people because of the Asmonean heroes, their ancestors, and their fair, but hapless mother. The day following these nocturnal rounds was sure to be one of mourning and death. None were spared. From the highest to the lowest, eveiy offender was cut off. Hence, on every side, there were heard vows of vengeance ; and as (5ften as the delusive report of Herod's death was spread, whether by accident or design, through the distant prov- inces, the people, greedily snatching at the deceitful bait, so gratifying people, under some disguise, in order to find out the opinion entertained of him, and woe betide those whom he heard censure himself or his doings. (Joseph., b. xv., ch. 13.) 176 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. to their hatred, hastened everywhere to kindle bonfires, which Herod quenched in blood. In the midst of these elements of civil discord, when the army is in a state of all but open revolt, and the whole nation seemed merely awaiting the signal for a general insm-rection, there arrives in Jeru- salem certain foreigners of lofty mien, who inquire, without either mystery or concealment, for a new- born king of the Jews, whose star they have perceived. Herod is astounded. He anxiously questions his memory. The fatal predictions concerning his dynasty, which the Pharisees carefully kept afloat, the oracles of the ancient seers, to which he has hitherto paid but little atten- tion, now recur to his mind. That warrior Messiah, that prophet-son of David, who was to overrun the world from east to west, begins now to give him some vague uneasiness. * Some are surprised at the fears wherewith Herod regarded a branch of the family of Da- vid; nevertheless, Herod was not the only one who persecuted that noble house, because of its ancient rights and its glorious hopes. Eusebius relates, from Hegesipus, that after the conquest of Jerusalem, Vespasian gave orders to seek and destroy all the posterity of David. Under Tra- jan, the persecution btill continued. Finally, ' It is not God who suggests these thoughts to the old king's mind; but the wily prince, the more he thinks of it, the more he is con- vinced that that mysterious event is connected with a vast conspiracy, tending to raise an occult and rival power on the ruins of his. What! he had shed like water the illustri- ous blood of the Maccabees, nor spared even his own wife and sons. He had crushed beneath the iron wheel of his despotism all that offered any sort of resistance. He had lost his soul, his honor, his peace of mind, his rest by night, w^hen his bleeding victims haunted his dreams And why all that? to prepare the way for the race of David !*.... That scep- tre, so dearly bought — that sceptre, still reeking with the blood of his own kindred — was it, then, but a dry and accursed rod, to be broken over his tomb ? Was he himself to Domitian had two members of this illustrious family brought to Rome, who were the lineal descendants of the Apostle St. Jude. The em- peror, having questioned them, found that they possessed only thirty-nine acres of land, which they tilled with their own hands. He 8ei\t them back to their home, being satisfied, on account of their poverty, that there was no danger from ^ their ambition. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 177 pass, like the meteor-glare of a tern- ^ pestuous evening, over that earth whose former glory would break out anew after his death ? And that nation, which hated him with a ha- tred so strong, so deadly, so infuri- ate, which his very favors could not propitiate — how it would love and cherish the descendant of its an- cient kings ! This last thought fell, bitter as wormwood, on the dark, desolate heart of the aged monarch; for, amid all his deeds of cruelty, he felt the desire of being loved — a strange desire, truly, but yet a real one, in that most extraordinary nature, which seemed made up of contrasts, and w^hich had devoted some of the very noblest qualities to the service of the most absorbing and the most cruel passion which can ravage the human soul — ambi- tion. " Let this child be earthly prince or heaven-sent prophet," said Her- od, after a pause, '' he must die ; . . . yea, and he shall die, w^ere I sure of extinguishing, with that fee- ble breath, all the glories which our seers behold in the future. Athalia, that strong woman, who knew so well how to reign, forgot only one ^- infant in the massacre of the royal family of Juda That child lived to deprive her of her throne and life. . . . For me, I shall try to forget nothing. But where are they hiding this 'new-born' king of the Jews, whose birth the stars proclaim, and whom these insolent satraps come to seek at the very gates of my palace ? .... Can it, indeed, be that Schilo foretold by Jacob ? . , . . These are, perchance, only the idle dreams of astrologers. .... No matter, .... we must make all sure." A few hours after, the doctors of the law and the chief priests were assembled in council, with Herod presiding, and were asked that question which seemed strange to them in the mouth of such a prince, "In what place is the Messiah to be born ?" The answer was prompt and unanimous, '' In Bethlehem of Juda." And the ancients of Israel, quite willing to annoy the friend of the Romans, failed not to add that, as the last week of Daniel was nearly at an end, the coming of the Mes- siah must be at hand. This infor- mation, by no means satisfactory, would not do for Herod, who must LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. ascertain wliere the blow was to be struck. He resolved to interrogate I lie Magi, and to find out, if possi- ble, the precise period of the child's birth, computing by the appearance of the star. Too cunning to grant the Persian sages a public audience, which would have given notoriety to a rumor that it was most impor- tant to stifle, the king had them brought before him, and examined them closely as to the time of the star's appearance. "He inquires minutely, not after the child, but the star," says St. John Chrysostom, "in order to observe all possible circumspection in laying his snare." Having learned all that he wished to know, the man of blood dismissed the strangers in an affable and gra- cious manner. "Go," said he, "and diligently inquire after the young child : and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I also may come and adore him." * The kings of Persia administered justice in quite a patriarchal manner. They had above their heads a golden bell, and to the bell was fastened a chain, the end 'of which hung with- out the palace. Every time that the bell rang, the oflBcers of the prince went forth from his apartments, and introduced before the great king the supphants, who demanded justice of Now, the Magi, like all lofty- minded men — sons of science and contemplation — were simple, sin- cere, and but little disposed to sus- pect evil. They understood despot- ism and cruelty in a prince, but they did not understand falsehood, for the first thing that the kings of Persia learn in their infancy is to speak the truth. They, therefore, gave implicit credence to the false words of the Idumean, and passing again under the stately porticos of the palace, which vied in magnifi- cence with that of the great king, but w^hich had not, with all its bronzes and arcades, the golden bell of the suj)pluints,'^ they quitted the Betzetha,f had their tents taken up, and once more traversed the Holy City to repair to the supposed birth- place of the Messiah. As they wound along the walls, enriched by trophies from the new amphitheatre, whose unusual style of decoration the prince himself, who instantly examined their case, and gave his decision with equity. (Antar. Translated from the Arabic by Terrick Hamilton.) f The quarter named Betzetha, or the new city, which Herod had joined to Jerusalem, was situated to the north of the Temple ; it con- tained the lower pond, the pond of probation, and Herod's palace. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 179 was an inexhaustible subject of rid- icule for the Pharisees, they met King Herod, surrounded by a forest of Thracian and German spears, going in the direction of Jericho.* The Persians quitted Jerusalem by the Damascus gate ; then, turn- ing to the left, they made their way through some hollow ravines, inter- sected with steep hillocks which they had to climb. They were nearly an hour's journey from the capital of Judea, and had permitted their camels to stop at a cistern to drink, when a brilliant point ap- peared in the heavens, and rapidly descended towards them like a fall- ing star. "The star! our star!" cried the slaves, in a transport of joy. "The star!" repeated their masters, equally delighted ; for they were now sure of being in the right way, and resumed their march with increased ardor. They were preparing to enter the city of David, when the star, inclin- * We have followed the authors who state that Herod set out for Jericho, where he was some time sick, just when the Magi went to Bethlehem : this is quite conformable to the Gospel narrative ; for if Herod had been in Jerusalem when the Persians returned thither, they would probably have seen him j^rior to the ^i ing towards the south, suddenly stopped over a deserted cave, which had the appearance of a rustic stable, and down, down it went till it seemed to rest, almost, on the head of the infant God. The sicrht of that motionless star, its soft rays falling brightly on that dreary grotto, filled the Magi with a lively faith, and a lively faith it did re- quire to discover the King-Messiah in a poor, unnoticed cliild, born in such a place, laid in a manger, and whose mother, though fair and full of grace, was evidently of very ob- scure condition. God, who would make the Jews ashamed of their obduracy by con- trasting it with the pious haste and the docile faith of infidels, allotted it so that the strange humiliation of the holy family should not shake the firm belief of the Magi. The worshippers of the sun — the Gentiles — who were to be saved by the Cross as well as the children of angel's warning, which was not given until the night. The illness of Herod, by diverting his attention from the Magi and the child, left the former at Hberty to return in peace to their own country, and gave the Holy Family time to set out for Nazareth. 180 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. tlie covenant, penetrated into the t lowly abode of Christ with as much venemtion as though it were one of their own temples, built over subterraneous fires, wherein starry spheres kept ever turning.* Fol- lowing the custom of theii* people, they prostrated themselves as they crossed the threshold, and having taken off their rich sandals, they adored the new-born infant as all the Eastern nations then adored their gods and their masters. Then, opening their caskets of perfumed wood, wherein were the offerings intended for the Messiah, they took out some of the finest gold, gathered in the neighborhood of Nineveh the Great, and perfumes, purchased with fruits and pearls from the Ai-abs of Yemen. These mysterious gifts were not carnal, like the offer- ings of the Jews. The cradle of Him who w^as come to abolish the sacrifices of the synagogue was not to be sprinkled with blood; hence, the Magi did not sacrifice to him ! * These spheres, composed of golden circles, I hollowed like our armillary spheres, turned with a loud noise at sunrise. They are still to I be seen at Oulam, where the Ghebers have a temple. {Rabbi Benjamin.) either spotless lambs or white heif- ers. They ofiered him gold, as an earthly prince — myrrh and incense, as a God.f Then, bowing down to the ground before Mary, whom they found "fair as the nuxm and modest as the pale water-lily," they invoked the blessing of God upon her, and prayed that " the hand of misfc^rtune might never reach her." This w^as the hist scene of splen- dor in w^hich the Virgin figured. The first period of her life, like a sw^eet dream of Ginnestan, had rolled away under roofs of cedar and of gold, amid sacred perfumes and the sound of harp and lyre ; the second, full of mysteries and w^on- ders, had brought her in connec- tion w^ith the inhabitants of heaven and the princes of Asia ; the third w^as about to open under other aus- pices : it was now her turn for per- secution, anguish and unutterable sorrow. Meanwhile, the Magi prepared to leave Bethlehem, having nothing f Much praise has justly been given to these verses of Juvencus — the most ancient Christian poet whose works have come down to us — on the gifts of the Magi kings : Aurum, thus, myrrham, regique, Deoque, Iiominique Dona fernnt .... LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 181 more to do in Jiidea. They pro- f posed, according to their promise, to seek the king in his palace at Jericho, to let him know where the Messiah was; but the angel of the Lord apprised them in a dream of the dark designs of that perfidious prince, and commanded them to go home by another way. The sons of Ormuzd returned thanks to the "Master of the sun and of the morning star," attributed this nocturnal revelation to their good genius,* and merited by their * Ormuzd, en zend ahurb-mezdeo (the most learned king), and Ahrimen, en zend ahyro- maingus (the wicked intelligence), according to the Persian mythology, sprang from good and bad genii, to whom ai'e ascribed divers functions in the universe, whether for the diffusion of good or the propagation of evil. One of the good genii, named Serosch, went seven times every night around all the earth, to watch over the safety of the servants of Ormuzd. (See the Amschaspand- Named, and the -Book of Kings of Firdousi. t Very ancient authors affirm that the Magi received baptism from St. Thomas ; it is be- lieyed that they suffered martyrdom in India, where they preached the G-ospel. I "The date trees of Babylon," says Diodorus of Sicily, " bear exquisite fruit ; they are six inches long, some yellow, others red, and others of a purple color, so that they are just as pleas- ing to the sight as to the taste. The trunk of the tree is of a surprising height, and is per- ^ perfect docility the gift of faith, which they afterwards received.f Instead of journeying by the barren and dangerous shores of that ac- cursed lake whose dark, stagnant waters cover the reprobate cities of the plain, they turned their camels' heads towards the coast of the Great Sea, where they could almost fancy themselves in the valleys of dates and roses J watered by the Euphrates and the Bend-Emyr, as they wound their way across the lovely strand of Syria. fectly straight and even, but the head, or tuft, is not the same in all. Some date trees extend their branches in a round form, and the fruit of some grows out in clusters from the bark, about the middle ; others have all their branches on one side, and their own weight bending them down towards the ground, gives them the form of a hanging lamp ; others, again, divide their branches into two parts, and they then fall to the right and left in perfect symmetry." {Diod. b. ii.) Here is a description of the banks of the Euphrates, by an Arabian poet, anterior to Mahomet : — " They saw populous towns, plains abounding in flowing streams, date trees, and warbling birds and sweet-smell- ing flowers ; and the country appeared like a blessing to enliven the sorrowing heart ; and the camels were grazing and straying about the land ; and they were of various colors, like the flowers of a garden." (Antar. D-analated from the Arabic by Terrick Hamilton. ) As to the fields and gardens of roses so common in ancient Persia, see Firdousi's Book of Kings. CHAPTER XIII. THE PURIFICATION. ^-ORTY days after the Saviour's birth, the Yir- gin prepared to return to Jerusalera for the fiillillment of the Levitical pre- cept, which prescribed the purifica- tion of mothers and the redemption of the first-born. Undoubtedly, this law did not apply to Mary ; for though she was the mother of the Redeemer, she was still a pure vir- gin, and that immaculate concep- tion had been followed by a spotless maternity ; " but she willingly sub- mitted, for example's sake, to a law which was no way binding on her," says Bossuet, " because the secret of her virginal maternity was not known." Meanly attired and undistinguish- ed from the crowd, in their first appearance on the dusty road of * This tree, under which Mary stopped to nurse Jesus, was destroyed in the 17th century, but the place where it stood is still pointed out. * Ephrata, Joseph and Mary, having attracted no observation, left behind them • no remembrance to become traditionary. It was far different, however, on their return to Jerusa- lem — thanks, we may suppose, to the wondrous tale of the shei)herds, and the brilliant visit of the Magi. At some distance from Bethlehem, Mary stopped under a spreading tree to nurse her divine Infant ; and that tree, according to the common belief, had ever after a secret virtue, which for sixteen centuries effected many marvellous things, — so it is said, at least, by the Christians of Asia, and also by the Turks, for whom that tree was, not more than two hundred- years ago, an object of veneration and the term of a pilgrimage.* After this memorable halt, the holy couple journeyed on to the tomb of Rachel, f where every He- f According to the Jewish doctors, Jacob only buried his beloved wife on the highway of Beth- lehem because his prophetic knowledge enabled LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 183 brew was to pray in passing. This primitive monument consisted of twelve large stones, overgrown with moss, on each of which was en- graved the name of a tribe, and its only epitaph was a white Syrian rose— frail, sweet emblem of that lovely woman who withered away ere yet her beauty had reached its prime, like the flower mentioned by Job. While they stopped to say a prayer for the dead over the revered dust of one of the saints of their people, the Virgin and Joseph little thought that the wailing of the dove, ascribed by Scripture to that fair Assyrian, was so soon to have its application, or that the mother of Joseph and of Benjamin was the desolate type of the mothers who, some days after, in the mountains of Judea, were to mourn for their him to foresee that a number of his descendants should pass that way as captives of the Assyr- ians, and that he would have Eachel intercede for them with Jehovah, according as they passed her tomb. Protestants have loudly exclaimed against this passage of the Talmud, as being too favorable to the intercession of the Virgin and the saints. This tomb of Rachel was so highly venerated, that every Jew who passed by made it a sacred duty to engrave his name on one of the stones; these enormous stones were twelve in number. ( Talm. of Jet. ) It is well known children massacred in place of Je- sus Christ. Going forth from the vale of Re- phai'm, whose ancient oaks shaded the graves of the gigantic race of Enac, the Yirgin observed a tree whose sinister aspect saddened and depressed her heart. It was a bar- ren olive-tree, whose pale leaves rustled in the evening breeze with a mournful sound that seemed like the wail of human sorrow. As she passed under its gloomy foliage, uncheered by the song of any bird, Mary felt that sensation of blighting cold which belongs to the fatal shade of the manchineel-tree. That tree, if local tradition be not mis- taken, was the infamous wood to which Christ was nailed.* At the moment when Joseph and Mary made their way into the sacred that the tears of Rachel, mentioned by Jere- miah, vs^ere but the figure of the tears shed by the Jewish women after the Massacre of the Innocents. (S. Mat. ch. ii., v. 17, 18.) * About half a league from Jerusalem stands the monastery of the Holy Cross. Inside its chapel is shown the spot which was occupied by the barren olive tree of which the Cross was made. The place where the trunk stood is now filled up by a block of marble in a niche under the high altar, where there is a lamp continually burning. 184 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. inclosiire, with the shekels of silver f for the ransom, and the two doves for the sacrifice, a holy old man named Simeon,* to whom it had been divinely revealed that he slionld not die until he had seen the Christ of the Lord, entered the Temple by an impulse of the Holy Ghost. At sight of the Holy Fam- ily, the eye of the just man became inspired. Discovering the King- Messiah under the poor swaddling- clothes of a common child, he took him in his arms, drew him close to him, arid gazed upon him with de- light, whilst the tears of joy rolled down his venerable cheeks. " Now," cried the pious old man — "now thou dost dismiss thy servant, Lord, according to thy word, in peace; because my eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast pre- pared before the face of all people — a light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy peo- ple Israel." Having uttered these words, Simeon solemnly blessed the — ^ ^ — * The Arabs give Simeon the title of Siddik (he who verifies), because he bore testimony to the coming of the true Messiah, in the person "^of Jesus, son of Mary, whom every Mussulman is obliged to receive as such, (D'Herbelot, BMioth. Orient., t. iii., p. 266.) mother and her spouse; and then, addressing himself to Mary, after a moment's mournful silence, he added that this child was born for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which should be contradicted, and that grief, like a sharp sword, should pierce his mother's soul. By this unexpected light, which partially disclosed the high destiny of Christ, the ignominies, the suffer- ings, and the agony of the Cross were suddenly revealed to the bless- ed Virgin. The ominous words of Simeon, like a stormy wind, made her bend her head, and her heart throbbed with anguish.f But Mary knew how to accept, without mur- mur or complaint, whatever came from God. Her pale lips touched that cup of wormwood and gall, she drained it to the dregs, and then, restraining her teai's, she meekly said, " Thy will, Lord, be done ! " At that moment, the daughter of Abraham rose superior to the chief f " Mary, my sovereign," says St. Anselm, speaking on this subject, " I cannot believe that you could ha"ve lived a single moment with such a sorrow at your heart, had not God, the giver of life, given you strength to bear it." LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. '185 and father of her people. She, too, sacrificed her son on the altar of the Lord ; but she had the sad certainty that her sacrifice would be accepted, and she ivas a mother ! Slie was still revolving in her mind these lofty thoughts, when there came in a prophetess named Anna, wife of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser, who was far advanced in years. This holy widow remained continually in the Temple, serving God night and day in prayer and fasting. Seeing the divine child, she began to praise the Lord aloud, and to speak of him to all those who expected the redemption of Israel. "Not only," says St. Ambrose, "did angels, prophets, and shep- herds proclaim the birth of the Saviour, but also the just, and the ancients of Isi-ael. A Virgin con- ceives, a barren woman brings forth, a dumb man speaks, Elizabeth pro- phesies, the Magi adore, the child in his mother's womb leaps for joy, a widow confesses that wondrous event, and all the just expect it." * Prideaux, Hidoire des Juifs. f There was then, and still is, amongst the Jewish doctors, a horrifying doctrine: they As women might not enter the inner court of the Temple, where the child was to be offered to the Lord, because of his sex, Joseph himself carried him into the hall of the first-born, asking himself whether the scenes which had marked the entrance of Jesus into the holy house were to be renewed before the Hebrew pontiffs. But nothing revealed the Infant -God in that privileged part of the Temple ; all there remained dull and cold, not- withstanding the radiant presence of the young Sun of Justice. A priest who was unknown to Joseph carelessly received from the hard hands of the man of labor, whom he regarded as the scum of the workl,"^ the timid birds prescribed by the law, and did not even deign to honor Christ with a look. The love of gold — that shameful idolatry, which conceals its unholy worship when it has still the grace to be ashamed of itr— had totally petrified the narrow, selfish, vindictivef heart of the princes of the synagogue. Leaving a monopoly of the toils ■ ^ ~^ ~k^ hold that he who nourishes not his hatred, and takes not revenge, is unworthy the title of i Kabbi. (Basnage, 1. vi., ch. 17.) ise LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. jiiul j)i'iviitions to the simple Le- * vites, whom they reduced to live on herbs and dry figs,* they passed by the poor man lying on their marble threshold, the wounded traveller stretched on the mountain - path, coldly averting their head. At bot- tom, they loved neither God nor man. And hence it was that our Lord, who Himself instituted a priesthood of charity, bitterly re- proached them with this in the par- able ol "^he good Samaritan. Thus, as Malachy had foretold, God cursed their blessings, and turned away from his Temple, which he was soon after to deliver to the fire and sword of the Romans. The presence of the Messiah, which inflamed the heart of the dis- ciples of Emmaus even before they had recognized him in the breaking of bread, passed over the soul of the Aaronites as the first ray of spring passes over the eternal snows of Ararat. Tliat solemn moment, which suspended the angelic concerts, and fixed the attention of the heavenly * The luxury and avarice of the chief priests of Jerusalem were incredible. They sent out and collected the tithes through the country, taking all to themselves, and leaving the inferior priests wholly destitute. At the first remon- hosts on a single point of the uni- verse — that moment, foretold by Ag- geus, when the gloiy of the second Temple effViced that of the first — that moment passed unnoticed be- fore the darkened vision of the priests and doctors. There was none to recognize the clean offering mentioned by Malachy. The De- sired of all nations — Him whose way the angels had prepared — the great Redeemer, so long promised and so long expected, w^as there, bodily, in his holy house, and no one thouGclit of welcomino* him with palms, crying out on the watch- towers of the Temple and the house- tops of Jerusalem, " Hosanna to the Son of David!" They knew well, as the Gospel says, how to predict the approach of rain by the clouds that rose from the west ; they could foretell heat by the blowing of the south wind: but these men, so clever in drawing presages from the different aspects of the heavens, saw not that the fig-tree of Solomon was about to put forth its fruit, and strance, the unhappy Levites, accused of revolt and sedition, were given over to the Romans ; and Governor Felix alone threw forty of them into prison, in order to propitiate the doctors and princes of the synagogue. (Joseph., Vita.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 187 they could not discover the God in that humble child. Oh, poverty I what a disguise thou art, even for the divine nature ! The real Christ was in the midst of his own, but he was poor, and his own received him not; hence they remained without a Saviour, for no Melech-Hmnaschiak ever came to justify their incredu- lous contempt for the divine Son of the Virgin, and they are reduced to cry, with cold, yet despairing malice, "Perish those who compute the time of the Messiah!"* Meanwhile, the Infant- God, who had recognized, along the streets of Jerusalem, the difterent stages of the passion, silently distinguished his futm-e executioners amid that grave and glittering crowd ; among the choirs who sang on the harp hymns of praise to the Eternal, Christ distinguished the loud, dis- cordant voices that were one day ere * Basnage, 1. vi., ch. 26. Talmud, 349. f We have followed the opinion of St. Luke, St. John Chrysostom, and some other authori- ties, in making the Holy Family set out for Nazareth immediately after the Purification. It is the only way to reconcile St. Matthew — who says nothing of the marvellous events of the Presentation — ^with St; Luke, who is silent as to the Massacre of the Innocents and the flight ^ many years to cry, "Crucify liiin ! crucify him!" Race of Aaron, where art thou now? The vengeful bre;;th of the Crucified has scattered thee, like chaff, over all the earth ; swallowed up in those masses which thou didst so despise, thy companions in exile know thee no more! But caring little, at that time, for the clouds which darkened above their heads, the Hebrew priests offered to that God who spurned their gifts the chosen victims of both high and low. One of them took Joseph's doves, ascended the gentle slope of the altar of holocausts, and offered to the Lord that simple and humble sacrifice. "After" Joseph and Mary "had performed all things according to the law of the Lord," says St. Luke, " they returned into Galilee, to their city Nazareth." f into Egypt. "What shall we say to reconcile these two evangelists," says St. John Chrysos- tom, " except that the return to Nazareth pre- ceded the flight into Egypt ? For God did not command Joseph and Mary to go into Egypt before the Purification, lest the law might be left unfulfilled. But, that duty accomplished, they returned of themselves to Nazareth, where they received the order to fly into Egypt." CHAPTER Xiy. THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. .CARCELY were they returned in- to Lower Galilee, when Joseph and Mary had to set out again on a long and perilous journey, ending in the land of exile. One night, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph, during his sleep. "Arise," said he, '"take the child and his mother, and fly into Egypt, and be there until I shall tell thee. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy him." At these words, Joseph rose affrighted, adored the Lord, and ran to awake Mary, who was sweetly sleeping be- side her child. The young mother quickly understood the necessity of this abrupt and secret departure. She casts a look of anguish on her son, and hastily collects a few clothes and some provisions for the journey ; then, preceded by Joseph, and carrying Jesus in her arms, she ^ quits her native city reposing in the calm star-light. The prophecies of Simeon were speedily accom})lislied. Scarcely was Jesus born, when a tyrant's persecution sought him in his cra- dle, and his mother, so young, so holy, was forced to fly by night like a guilty creature, accompanied only by an aged man who could only oppose prayer and patience to the Arab spears which, perchance, lay in ambush in the mountain ravine, or the murderous attack of Herod's soldiers. It would seem as though God himself abandoned that holy family to its fate, for, when giving the order for Joseph to set out, his messenger had not promised, as Raphael did of old to the young Tobias, to guard them on the way. But the Virgin's spouse understood that the solemn moment of Christ's manifestation not being yet come, God would save them from the de- vices of Herod by means of mere ■.*i*' ^.^JHIhi^i^ LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 189 human prudence. To Joseph, then, belonged all the care, and all the honor, of that arduous enterprise ; it was for him — a poor, obscure old man — to thwart the plans, to defeat the schemes, to elude the jealous watchfulness of a gloomy, politic tyrant, who was served by his myr- midons like an Eastern despot. What was to happen, and what was to be done, if any danger presented itself on the Jerusalem road ? The sudden departure of the Magi had aroused the suspicions of Herod, and those suspicions were strength- ened by the words of Anna and Simeon ; secret inquiries, dark in- vestigations were already on foot, and none might say where that san- guinary prince would stop, he who hlled with gold the red hand of the assassin. The more Joseph pon- dered, the more clearly he fore- saw some horrible tragedy, the very thouorht of which made the blood curdle in his veins. Mary, on her side, pale and silent as death, kept looking forward into the depth of * About the middle of February, when it is still very cold in the mountains of the interior, where the temperature, according to M. Volney, is nearly like ours ; on the plains of Syria, on the valley, the shade of the woods, or along the windings of the I'ocky path which Joseph had chosen as the safest, and the most remote from the dwellings of men. The soft moonlight illumined the earth, and guided the silent march of the holy travellers. "The weather was still cold,"* says St. Bonaventure, " and, while crossing Palestine, the Holy Family had to choose the wildest and least frequented roads. Where are they to lodge during the night ? Wliere can they venture to rest a little during the day? Where are they to take the frugal meal necessary to sustain their strength?"! Tradition is silent on most of the details of this touching and perilous pilgrimage. Doubtless, the holy travellers made long and painful marches through the mountains, availing themselves of the lirst hours of day, and often, too, await- ing the rising of the moon to re- sume their ■ journey. Whilst their way lay through Galilee, they found the contrary, it was already the heat of summer {See note 3 of ch. vi.) ■f St. Bonaventure, De Vita Ghridi. 190 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. places of rest and shelter in its deep * ca\es, with their secret branches winding no one knew whither ; but uMMi these had their dangers, for they were often chosen as a secure hiding-place by some of those jiu- merous bands of robbers who had long bid defiance to all the forces of the kingdom, and who were now emboldened by the illness of Herod.* The fear of happening unawares into one of these murderous dens, must have made Joseph hesitate many a time at the mouth of a cave that would seem to ofl'er a secure asylum. At length, after a thousand dan- gers, and a thousand trials of vari- ous kinds, the Holy Family reached the environs of Jerusalem. Here caution and anxiety were increased in proportion to the imminence of the danger. The fugitives dared no longer approach cities, nor even populous villages, where a troop of spies and informers had their eye * These armed bands, ofteu two or three thousand strong, were commanded by expe- rienced chiefs, who gave both Herod and the Romans enough to do. Some of these had a political object in view, and made a guerilla war ; others were simply a band of assassins, who carried long daggers under their robe, ^ on every stranger. j- They folh^wed the bed of the torrents, plunged into by-ways, or through the damp foliage of the woods, not daring to turn aside for a fresh stock of pro- visions, and suffering at once from fear, cold, and hunger. They had passed Anathot, and were making for Ramla, to descend into the low country ; anxious to escape from a dangerous vicinity, they had bor- rowed some hours from the night, when they saw winding fi'om a gloomy ravine just before them a number of armed men, who blocked up the way. He w^ho appeared the leader of this troop of brigands stepped forward in front of his men to take a view of the travellers. Joseph and Mary stood still, look- ing on each other in terror and alarm ; Jesus was sleeping. The bandit, who was on the look-out for blood and gold, cast an astonished glance on the defenceless old man, with his simple, patriarchal air, and and murdered all obnoxious persons who fell in their way, even in the streets of Jerusalem. {De Bello, b. ii., ch. 5.) f Herod, who pez'fected the spy system in the East, had his spies scattered along all the highways of Judea. (Joseph., Ant. Jud., b. xv., ch. 13.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 191 then on the young veiled woman, - with her infant clasped convulsively to her heart. " They are poor," said the robber to himself, " and, as they travel by night, they must be fugi- tives!" Perhaps he, too, had an infant son ; or perhaps the atmos- phei-e of mildness and mercy which surrounded Jesus and Mary had its effect on that ferocious soul ; how- ever it was, he lowered the point of his lance, and, extending a friendly hand to Joseph, offered him a lodg- ing for the night in his rock-built fortress hard by. This frank offer was accepted with a holy confi- dence, and the brigand's roof was as hospitable, on that occasion, as the Arab tent.* On the following day, about noon, the Holy Family stopped in the shade of a vast forest of palms, nopals, and wild fig-trees, which is situated at a short distance * The site where local tradition places this scene, and where the ruins of the brigand's for- tress are still seen, bears even now a bad char- acter. During the Cr-usades, the Franks, to whom this tradition was familiar, converted the bandit chief into a feudal lord; "it is, never- theless, a rare thing," says Father Nau, with amusing coolness, "for a great lord to turn highway robber." The Crusaders knew what they were about better than Father Nau. There has been added to this legend — which appears from Ramla;f a bed of amaranths, narcissuses, and anemones, received the Loi'd of heaven and earth ; the heat of summer was abroad on the plain, and the warbling of birds, the odor of plants, the thick shade of the fig-trees, and the distant mur- mur of a rivulet, lulled the divine Infant to sleep. After a short and anxious halt, the travellers resumed their journey. There is no knowing why it was that they directed their com'se towards Betlilehem; tradi- tion has preserved the memory of their visit, and Christians have erected an altar in the cave where Mary hid with her child J whilst Joseph went up to the city, either to inquire a,bout the departure of a caravan, or to exchange Mary's gentle, but slow palfry, for a camel. Whatever motive it might have been that drew Joseph and Mary authentic — an embellishment for which we do not vouch, viz., that the hospitable brigand was no other than the good thief in person. f It is a charming spot which tradition points out as one of the resting places of the Holy Family ; the ruins of a monastery are now seen there. I This cave is called " The Grotto of the Vir- gin's Milk," because it is thought that some di-ops of Mary's milk fell on the rock while she ^ nursed her divine Infant. 192 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. into the crater of tlie volcano, it is f certain that they stayed but a few hours, and that they thence hast- ened to gain a maritime town of the Philistines, there to join the first caravan destined for Egypt. According to the learned calcula- tions of chronologers, who admit of no interval in this long journey, the holy couple must have found a car- avan at once setting out from the Syrian coast. This is the more like- ly, inasmuch as the spring equinox was drawing near, so that every traveller would be anxious to out- strip the season when the simoom sweeps over the desert, rendering its sands as treacherous as the ocean -wave.* Excepting only the mortal dread of Herod's pursuit, the latter part of the journey was just as much marked by fatigue, suffer- ing, and even insecurity. On leav- ing Gaza, whose dilapidated towers reechoed the hoarse murmur of the waves, our travellers saw before them only immense wastes of sand, dreary, desolate, and fearfully naked, * The Arabs call the hot wiud of the desert idmoom, or poison ; some idea of it may be con- ceived by standing for a moment at the mouth of a common baking-oven, when the bread is taken out. These fiei-y winds are much more ^ agitated by the scorching wind of the desert, and overhung by a fiery sky. Not a trace of vegetation, save, perchance, an occasional patch of heath stretching here and there across the desolate waste ; no water, except the brackish spring, which the Virgin and Jose[)li, who were tired, poor, and unprotected, were only allowed to approach after the rich merchants, their slaves and their camels, had drained it dry, so that they could barely take up a little of the thick, muddy water, in the hollow of their hand. Accoi'd- ing as they receded from the fron- tiers of Syria, the thirst became greater, and the water inoi'e scarce. At times, there was seen afar off, amid the interminable plain, a large lake, blue and sparkling as that of Gennesaretli ; the sky was reflected in its limpid waters, with one soli- tary date -tree; the camels were hurried on, and Mary raised her head, drooping like the rose of Jeri- cho when bent by the rain.f That blessed lake was gained ; already frequent during the fifty days preceding and succeeding the solstice. (Volney, Voyage en Syrie.) f This rose, whose corolla opens and shuts according to the changes of the atmosphere, is LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 193 was the raging thirst quenched in imagination ; but, oh, misery ! some mocking demon removed the lake some leagues farther, and left in its place only burning sand.* Another optical illusion which frequently takes place in those arid and scorching regions, appears to the distant travellers in gigantic |)roportions. Arab horsemen, cov- ered with their tloating abbas with brown and golden stripes, and armed with the djombie — a dagger with a crooked blade, which every inhabit- ant of the desert wears in his girdle — appeared from afar of the height of lofty towers, seeming as though they moved in the air. The Virgin consulted as a barometer by the Arabs. (Vi- comte de Marcellus, Voyage en Orient, t. ii.) * This is the phenomenon commonly known as mirage. During the expedition of the French to Egypt, in 1798, the soldiers crossing those fiery deserts, consumed with thirst, were often deceived by this cruel illusion. Every object rising from the soil, amid those seas of sand, appeared to them surrounded by water ; thus a little mountain which they perceived afar off, seemed to them to rise from the midst of a lake. Dying with thirst, they hastened thither, but only to find themselves grievously mis- taken ; the lake had fled, and was now farther than ever from their longing eyes. {See De Eellens, du Mirage, Art. 6.) f "I had occasion," says Niebuhr, "to remark a phenomenon which struck me as very singu- lar, but which, in time, became familiar to me. shuddered, and drew Jesus closer to her bosom ; but hei- fears were calmed by the serene countenance of Joseph, though even he could assign no reason for the strange phenomenon.f At the approach of night, the song of the camel-drivers ceased, J the leader of the caravan hoisted the flag which was the signal for halting, and all the travellers gath- ered around the spot. An ani- mated scene quickly followed. The camels, squatting down at the feet of their masters, were freed from their heavy burdens ; bales of goods were heaped up pyramidically ; a circle of stakes was planted around, An Arab mounted on a camel, whom I saw at a distance, appeared to me as high as a tower, and seemed to move in the air ; nevertheless, he was walking on the sand like ourselves. This optical illusion proceeds from the stronger refraction of the atmosphere in those arid re- gions laden with vapors of a very different nature from those which fill the air in temper- ate climates." {Voyage en Arahie, t. i., p. 208.) I It is an almost universal custom in the East for people to enliven their journey or their work by singing. A Mussulman pilgrim has given a very picturesque description of the nightly march of a caravan from Mecca, lit by the lan- thoms placed on the camels, and cheered by the modulated song of the drivers. {Travels of Abdoul Kerim. ) The camel-drivers still sing songs peculiar to themselves, in Syria and in Egypt. {Gorrenp. d' Orient, t. vi.) 194 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. and to these the beasts of burden * were fastened : llic wealtliy travel- lers had tlieir tents erected, and the master of the caravan placed senti- nels, who w^ere to give notice of the approach of the Bedouins — those ])irates of the desert — who were then, and still are, plunderers like Ishniael, and hospitable as Abra- liani. Each merchant, after having taken his repast of dates and milk, lay down to sleep under his tent, awaiting the rising of the moon. The slaves, and the poorer travellers — amongst whom were the Son of God, his divine Mother, and Joseph — seated themselves on a rush mat spread on the ground, with no other covering than the sky, w4th the cold night air falling chill and moist on their shivering and exhausted limbs.* Now and then there was heard a cry of alarm: some band of Arabs was discovered prowling around the sleeping caravan; dis- concerted by the vigilance of the watchmen, a shower of arrows an- * Though at this season it is burning hot during the day, in the desert, yet the nights are extremely cold. (Voln. — Sav ) f On the dome of the sanctuary in the prin- cipal temple of Heliopolis, there was an im- mense mirror of polished steel, which reflected nounced their departure, instantly followed by the groans of the wounded. Then the Virgin, who had bent over her divine Son, so as to make a rampart of her own body, raised to heaven her tearful eyes and her grief- worn brow: she knew but too well that her Jesus was subject to death, like all the children of men ! Wlien the moon shed her mild light over the shadeless and noise- less desert, where no blade of grass waved in the midnight air, the tents were folded up, and the dreary journey resumed, with all its incon- veniences, all its sufferings, all its terrors. At length, the outskirts of that strange and silent region were gained. Egypt — that ancient nur- sery of all know^ledge and of all idolatry— presented itself to the travellers, with its red granite obe- lisks, its colossal pyramids, its tem- ples crowned with burnished steel,f its island-like villages, and its pro- every ray of light. There was just such another on the top of the lighthouse of Alexandria, and the image of vessels coming into port was re- flected in it long before they appeared on the horizon. {Gorresp. d' Orient, t. v. Lettres de Samry.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 195 vidential river fringed with reeds and covered with boats. That conn- try appeared more rich, more popu- lous, more commercial, than Judea, but still it was the land of exile ! Beyond the desert was home^ and there lay the heart of the banished children of Israel. After a journey of one hundred and forty leagues,* the fugitives reached Heliopolis, where there was a colony of their people. In that city arose the Temple of Jehovah, which Onias had constructed on the plan of the Holy House. The or- naments of that Egyptian temple almost equalled those of the other, only, as a token of inferiority, a massive golden lamp, suspended from the roof, replaced the famous * Vid. Bar ad., t. i., ch. 8. The authoi* of Voy- ages de Jesus Christ reckons but a hundred leagues, but he probably overlooks the winding and turning of the roads. f The Arabs, who had gradually forgotten the God of Abraham, at that time adored a multitude of idols, one more fantastic than the other. " The date-tree," says Azraki, " was wor- shipped by the tribe of Khozua, and the Beni- Thekif venerated a rock ; a lai'ge tree, named zat arouat, was adored by the Koreisch, etc. The Persians contemptuously distinguished the Arabs as worshippers of stones." \ We owe this incident to Sozomeues, and it is rather hazardous to bring it forward in this scoffing age, though it is, after all, scarcely a candlestick of Jerusalem with its seven branches. At the gate of that city, which was chiefly inhab- ited by Egyptians and Arab idola- ters, there was a majestic tree, of the mimosa kind, to which the Arabs of Yemen, settled on the banks of the Mle, paid a species of worship.! At the approach of the Holy Family, this idol - tree slowly bent its shady branches, as if saluting the young Master of nature, whom Mary caiiied in her arms ; J and, if we may believe the historian Palladius, at the moment when the divine travellers passed under the granite arches of the gate of Heliopolis, all the idols of a neighboring temple fell prostrate on the ground. § miracle. It is certain that there exists in Arabia a tree of the sensitive kind, which bends its branches at the approach of man. Niebuhr, who is not at all suspected of credulity, found that tree in Yemen ; and the Arabs, who call it the hospitable tree, hold it in such high venera- tion that no one is permitted to pluck a leaf. If that mimosa, by a natural phenomenon, bends its branches at the approach of man, how much more likely is it to do so at the approach of the Son of God? § Palladius is not the only one who relates this miracle : Dorothy martyr, Sozomenes, St. Anselm, St. Bon.aventure, Lira, Denis the Car- thusian, Testat, Ludolphus, Baradius, etc., like- wise attest it. hm; LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Joseph and Mary only passed tlimuirii tin' riiy of ilic sun, and repaiied to Matarieh, a pretty vil- hiiie shaded with sycamores, and having the only fountain of fresh water to be found in Egypt. There, in a habitation like a bee -hive, where the doves made their nest, the persecuted family found rest and peace, being at last free from the power of Herod. That cruel prince, having vainly expected the Magi in his palace of Jericho, ' his favorite residence, learned, at last, that they had re- passed the frontiers of his kingdom, and that, regardless of his injunc- tions, they had returned to Persia, without letting him know the result of their mission. Pale already from the slow fever which was wearing him away, the king of the Jews became paler still with anger. He was himself duped at the very moment when he revelled in the thought of his unrivalled dexterity in deceiving others .... duped by those " uncircumcised dogs" who had so unexpectedly penetrated the * This evangelical fact, which the disciples of Voltaire have called in question, is proved not only by our sacred books, but also by the testi- ^ very depths of his tortuous policy! .... If the Magi had not found the child to whom they were led by the star, they would have come back and told him They had, then, discovered his secret asylum, which must be somewhere about Bethlehem, since they had extended their search no farther Now, how was that dangerous child to be distinguished from all others ? . . . . There was but one way to make sure of his destruction : to include all in a general massacre But the people ! .... At that thought the old king paused a moment ; then a strange, a contemptuous smile curled his haughty lip. '' The people dare nothing," said Herod, " against kings who dare all ! "... . "And sending, he killed all the men- children that w^ere in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, accoi'ding to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men." * According to many grave au- thors, supported by tradition and probability, the Holy Family re- mony of Jews and pagans. (Macrobius, b. xi., ch. 4, den Saturnale^. Orig. Contr. Celn., h. xi., ch. 58. Toldos Huldr., pp. 12, 14, 20.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 197 mained seven years in Egypt.* Traces of their sojourn are still found there ; the fountain where Mary went to wash the Child's swaddling-clothes,! the bushy knoll where she dried them in the sun, the sycamore in whose shade she loved to sit with her Son on her knee, 'I are still pointed out, after the lapse of eighteen hundred years. The pilgrims of Europe and of Asia know these objects well, and they are held in reverence by the Egyp- * Vid. Tromhel, in Vit. Deipn. — Zachariam, in diss, ad hist. eccl. — Anselm. — Cantual. — Euseb. — S. Tho. f This is still called "Mary's Fouutain." There is an ancient tradition to the effect that the Blessed Virgin used to bathe the child Jesus in its limpid waler. In the first ages of Christianity, the faithful built a church there ; in later times, the Mussulmans also constructed a mosque ; and the disciples of both creeds went to Mary's Fountain for the cure of their dis- eases. The fountain is still there ; the pilgrim- ages still continue ; but both the church and the mosque have long since disappeared. ('Savary, t. i., p. 122. Gorresp. d' Orient, t. vi., p. 3. X "Not far from the fountain, I was shown an inclosure planted with trees ; a Mussulman, who acted as our guide, made us stop before a syca- more, saying, " That is Jesus and Mary's Tree." Vansleb, priest of Fontainebleau, relates that the ancient sycamore fell, from age, ir. 1058 ; the Franciscans of Cairo piously preserve in their sacristy the last remains of that tree ; in the garden there only remained a stump, of which the tree we saw was doubtless a shoot. ^ tians themselves. To each of these clings, like the moss to the damp walls of the ruined monastery, some simple legend of other days.§ In Nazareth, Mary had led an humble and laborious life; but in Heliopolis, she descended into the depths of poverty, and saw misery under every aspect. The holy couple were left entirely to their own resources, amongst a people who were parcelled out into national and hereditary corpora- General Kleber, after his victory of Heliopolis, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Family's Tree ; he carved his name on the bark of one of the branches, but that name has since disappeared, effaced by time, or by some envious hand." {Gorresp. d' Orient, t. vi., lettre 141.) § The following is one of the legends brought from Eastern climes by one of our old French barons, the Seigneur d'Englure ; we give it ver- batim, in all its artless grace : — " When Our Lady, the Mother of God, had crossed the desert, and reached this place, she laid Our Lord on the ground, and went all around in quest of water, but there was no water to be found. She went back, sad and sorrowful, to her dear Child, where he lay on the sand, but, behold ! he had stuck his heels into the ground until a fountain of clear, sweet water gushed out. Our Lady was overjoyed at this, and thanked her son. Our Lord. She then washed Our Lord's clothes in the water of this foun- tain, and spread them on the ground to dry, and every drop of water that trickled from those clothes sprang up into a bush, which bushes bear balm," etc. ins LTFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. tions^ and who were by no means * favorable to strangers. " They being poor," observes St. Basil, " it is clear that they had to work very hard in oi-der to procui-e the necessaries of life, .... and even those — were they always able to obtain them?" . . . . "Often," says Landolph, of Saxony — '' often did it happen, that the child Jesus, pressed by hunger, asked his mother for bread when she had none to give him." .... Meanwhile, Herod had died of a horrible and nameless malady, after being literally eaten alive by worms. Occupied to the last with thoughts of how the people would rejoice at the news of his death, he implored his sister Salome — a very wicked woman — implored her with tears to have some Jewish nobles — the flower of their nation, whom he * Joseph., Ant. Jud., h. xvii., cli. 8. The mem- ory of Herod was held in such detestation by the princes of the people and the priests, that they instituted a festival to be celebrated on the 25th of September in joyful commemoration of that prince's death. "There is a feast on the had kept imprisoned for that pur- pose — put to death, in order that the people might be forced to wee}) at his funeral.* He was borne to his castle of Herodion in a golden litter covered with scarlet cloth and adorned with precious stones. His sons and his army followed his re- mains with a dejected air, whilst the people, proud of their deliver- ance, heaped curses upon him as the procession passed along. Apprised in a dream, by the An- gel of the Lord, that Herod was dead, Joseph returned with Mary and the Child into the land of Israel ; " but hearing that Archelaus reigned in Judea in the room of Herod his father, he was afraid to go thither: and, being warned in sleep, retired into the quarters of Galilee." 7th of September," saj's the Jewish calendar, " on account of the death of Herod, for he had hated the wise ; and they rejoice before the Lord when the impious leave this world." (Basnage, t. 1, hv. ii., ch. 8.) CHAPTER Xy. MARY IN NAZARETH. tr^ J how mourn- ful are the days of exile, and how sweet it is to breathe once i^^^^^MmS^ more the air of (;ur native land ! The bread of the stranger, like that of the wicked, is hard to eat, and bitter to the heart ; tlie streams of the foreign land mur- mur not tales of our childish sports ; the song of its birds wants one melodious note ; its scenes, however fair, have not that sweet, that sooth- ing charm which endears every ob- ject in our native land ! How great must have been the joy of the holy spouses on again beholding that land of Chanaan, whose stately hills, waving outlines, harmonious scenery, and endless variety, contrasted so happily and so strikingly with the monotonous splendors of Egypt! Here, a bold and active population, martial, frank and gay, with a pure and holy ; worship ; there, slaves shackled by castes, addicted to theft, mixino* up the most infamous practices in their senseless worship, and lavish- ing their treasures in building tem- ples to the ox Apis, the crocodile, and the sea-onion. One must be profoundly religious, like Joseph and Mary, and love his country as the Hebrews loved theirs, in order to comprehend the deliglitful emo- tions wherewith they greeted the land of Jehovah and their pretty town of Nazareth. The Holy Family retiu^ned to their humble home, after so long an ab- sence, amid the congratulations and endless questions of their friends and neighbors, who celebrated their return as an event of great joy. But the scene was soon and sadly changed. The neglected dwelling of Joseph was scarcely habitable; the roof, in some places broken and falling in, had given free admission to the winter storm and the equi- '200 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. noctial rains;* the lower cliainber f was cold, (lamp, and overgrown wilh weeds ; wild doves made their nests in the sacred and mysteri(5us cell where the "Word was made flesh; the little court was overrun with briers ; everything, in short, in and around that time-honored dwelling had assumed that ruinous and deso- late aspect which rests on deserted houses like the seal of the mas- ter's absence. These needful re- pairs were, then, to be made ; fur- niture and tools, lost or broken, had to be replaced ; and perhaps a debt contracted in Egypt, to defray the expense of the return, had to be discharged. It was, doubtless, at this juncture that the little patri- mony of Joseph was sold till the jubilee. All that remained of what they had possessed before their de- parture was the ruined house, the workshop, and their own arms ; but Jesus was there. Young as he w^as, Jesus took an axe and followed his foster-father to the villages, where * The rainy season, in Judea, is that of the equinoxes, and especially the autumnal equi- nox ; it is also the time of storms, accompanied by violent showers of rain or hail. (Volney, Voyage en Syrie. ) t St. Justin Martyr {Dialog, cum Ti'yphone) work was procured for them;f liis labor, proportioned to his age and strength, was always devoted to his mothef.^ Comfort had long disap- peared ; but they succeeded, by hard work and persevering industiy, in obtaining the necessaries of life. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph led a life of ceaseless toil ; and He who might command legions of angels, asked nothing from God for himself or his but their " daily bread." The interior life of that blessed family, surnamed the earthly trinity, has not come to the knowledge of men ; it is like the streamlet hidden in the long grass, or, more properly, it is the Holy of Holies, with its cloud of perfumes and its double veil. Nevertheless, by studying minutely, and examining one by one, under every point of view, the evangelical facts, what w^e know enables us to guess to a certain extent at what we do not know, and the public life of Jesus Christ throws some bright rays of light on states that Jesus Christ assisted his foster- father to make yokes and plou^-^hs. And Godes- card, t. xiv., p. 436, Vie de la Sainte Vierge, says : — "A very ancient author asserts that, in his time, there were yokes to be seen which Our Saviour had made with his own hands." LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 201 his own hidden life and that of the t Blessed Virgin. That sacred abyss we are about to sound with all the reserve, all the conscientious ap- plication, that so grave a subject requires, Jesus, in whom were hidden all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge,* had no need of human teaching; and the contrary suppo- sition is positively condemned by the Church. St. John also, in his Gospel, mentions that the Jews, contemporaries of Jesus Christ, re- garded him as a man who had "never leai'ned;"f and the surprise of the Nazarenes, on seeing him so profoundly versed in sacred letters, shows clearly enough that he had not been, to their knowledge, brought up, like St. Paul, at the feet of a master. The Talmudists and the Jewish authors of the Toldos maintain, on the contrary, that a celebrated rabbin initiated Jesus in the mysteries of science and of magic ; but, deducing from the second part of the assertion, whiclj is wholly absurd, and viewing the . matter in a purely human light, as * St. Paul, Ep. Golos., ch. ii., ver. 9. f St. John, ch. vii., ver. 15. do the rationalists, this is evidently false, for two reasons. In the first place, Jesus was neither a zealot nor a traditionist, and it is every- where apparent in the Gospel that he openly disapproved of the nar- row views, the captious distinctions, and shallow subtilties of the Syna- gogue. In the second place, Rabbi Joshua Perachia, whom they name as his preceptor, was yet unborn, as he flourished an hundred years later. To place Jesus amid the Rabbins in the capacity of a pupil would be just about as illogical as to try to support an oak by surrounding it with reeds. He taught not as the scribes and Pharisees, says an evan- gelist, J and that is easily conceived, for he derived his wisdom from him- self; and his teachings, even view- ing them in a natural way, seem to emanate from a soul lofty, pure, up- right, and from a mind so vast, and so uniformly sound, that it never could have been perverted by scho- lastic disputes. Strauss admits that all the wis- dom and aU the science of the X St. Matthew, ch. vii., ver. 29. iOft LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGTN MART. perioti would have been unable to ^ form such a man as Jesus Cluist. " Even if Jesus had exhausted," says he, "ail the soui'ces of instruction then to be had, it is no less true that none of these elements would suffice, even remotely, to effect a revolution in the world, and the leaven necessary for so great a work he must have drawn from the depths of his own soul." His eloquence, like his morality, was peculiar* to himself. It was not the emphatic exaggerations of the Rabbins, nor yet the majestic, overwhelming, and violently - con- trasted diction of the ancient pro- phets ; it was, as he himself said, a source of living water, reflecting in its . course the birds of the air, the crops, and the flowers of the field. That eloquence, so simple, pene- trated to the very bottom of every thing, and was easily connected with high and lofty ideas. Every word was a precious seed of virtue ; * "T confess to you," says J. J. Bousseau, " that the majesty of the Scriptures astonishes me, and the sanctity of the Gospel speaks to my heart. Behold the books of our philoso- phers, with all their pretensions ; how small they are, when compared with this ! Can it be that a book, at once so simple and so sublime, every lesson threw afar, over the mysterious wastes of the future, a long train of light, which was insen- sibly to spread into the perfect day of the world's regeneration. Even those who have audaciously denied his miracles, were yet forced to acknowledge that his words were those of a God.* Jesus was endowed with a high and meditative soul, which required a vast space for its expansion. Confined during the day at manual labor, which occupied every moment of his time, he made up by night for his obscure toil, and was again the legislator and the prophet in presence of the starry heavens. Standing on the lofty terrace wliich commanded a view of the moun- tains and forests of the land of Chanaan, he poured out his soul before the Author of Nature, whose Ambassador, whose Son, and whose equal he was. These communings with God, in the silence of the is the work of men ? Can it be that be whose history it records is himself but man ? Is his . *the tone of an enthusiast or of an ambitious sectary? What sweetness! what purity in his morals ! what touching grace in his instructions ! what elevation in his precepts ! what profound wisdom in his discourse 1^' [Eviile, t. iii., p. 365.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 203 night, of tlie desert, and of thought, * were customary with Jesus, as we see in many places of the Gospel. The model-man, the incarnate Word, would thus, we may suppose, in- struct his own to distinguish the pure gold of prayer from the mon- strous alloy of ostentation and hy- pocrisy wherewith the Pharisees of his time were wont to mix it up. The Virgin, who was never either troublesome or exacting, placed no obstacle in the way of her Son's solitary habits ; she knew that he was then sounding the depth of the unfathomable abyss opening under the feet of men, and that the world's redemption was to be the fruit of these silent meditations. Respect- ing the workings of that mighty spirit folded up within itself, and ever looking forward to that glo- rious future which every passing moment brought more near, Mary already beheld heaven opened, death overcome, and the Messiah gather- ing the nations around his standard. .... But all of a sudden she re- membered the prediction of the old man in the Temple, and its image * Tertullian said, in the third century, that Mary earned her living by working ; and Cel- arose, gloomy as a funeral-pall, at the end of that enchanting pros- pect; a shudder ran through every vein of the poor mother, and her heart, so absorbed in the love of Jesus, was torn asunder with an- guished forebodings. A secret voice seemed to cry, '' Blood must expiate sin ! Christ must die ! " Then, leav- ing off the manual toil to which her poverty condemned her,* the daugh- ter of David went to seek her Son ; she longed to see him, to assure- herself, by a maternal embrace, that he was still there, that he was yet living ! At her approach Jesus withdrew his pensive glance from the starry heavens ; his youthful brow, con- tracted by a thought as vast as the universe, became again the smooth, fair brow of the child. Mary then, driving back into her heart every mournful apprehension, advised him to seek repose. Strength must be recruited for the morrow's fatiguing labor The Son of God followed his mother in silence, for he loved and was svhject to her. The entrance of Jesus into adoles- sus, in the second century, said that Mary waa a woman who lived by the labor of her hands. 904 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. cence was marked by an extraor- * dinary incident, which gave Mary's soul a most violent shock. Joseph and Mary, faithful observers of the law of their fathers, went regularly every year to Jerusalem to cele- brate the Passover. This journey, which they made in secret so long as the throne of the Maccabees was tilled by. the son of the enemy of God, had now become more easy since the banishment of Archelaus •and the occupation of the Romans. When Christ had attained his twelfth year, his parents, having the fear of Herod no longer before their eyes, brought him with them to Jerusa- lem. They set out from Nazareth in a crowd ; and, on the way, the Hebrew pilgrims formed themselves into little bands, according to age and sex, and the ties of family or friendship.* With the Virgin were Mary of Cle- ophas, the sister-in-law of Joseph ; another Mary, mentioned in the Gospel as altera. Maria ; Salome, * St. Epiphanius and St. Bernard inform us that, in these journeys, the men went in troops, separate from the women, and that St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin being thus one in one company and one in another, gave themselves at first no concern about the disappearance of ^ wife of Zebedee, come from Beth- saida with her husband and sons ; Joanna, wife of Chus; and a num- ber of Nazarean women, her neigh- bors and friends. Joseph followed at some distance, in grave conver- sation with Zebedee, the fisherman, and the ancients of his tribe. Jesus walked with the young Galileans, whom the Gospel, according to the idiom of the Hebrew tongue, calls his brethren, they being his nearest relations. Amongst this youthful group, who went before the others, the sons of Zebedee might be distinguished ; James, impetuous as the sea of Tiberias on a stormy day ; John, still younger than Jesus, and seem- ing, as he walked beside his brother, the true personification of the lamb of Isaiah dwelling in peace with the lion of the Jordan. Beside the fishermen of Bethsaida, whorn Jesus afterwards surnamed Boanerges (sons of thunder), were the four sons of Alpheus ; James, Jesus, and indeed knew nothing of it till the evening, when all tLe travellers assembled to- gether. See likewise Aelrede, abbot of Reverby, Serm. sen tractatus de Jesu ditod^ni^ Dominica intra octav. Epiphan. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 205 who was subsequently bishop of Jerusalem, an austere and grave young man, with long hair, pale face, and cold, subdued manner. Proud of having taken the Nazarite vow, he put jn provoking airs of superiority towards him whom he then considered as the carpenter's son. In the character of Jesus were seen the virtues and the imperfec- tions inherent in the soil; immov- able firmness, upright and religious inclinations, but, at the same time, a strong contempt for all who were not of the race of Abraham, and an excellent opinion of himself. Jude, Simon, and Jose, the other sons of Alpheus, were youths of a rustic, simple, and warlike mien, already arrived at adolescence, and regard- ing the son of the humble Mary as their inferior in every way — a feel- ing of which they could with difiS- * St. John Chrvsostom, Serm. 44. f The Rabbins have taken occasion to make the most odious insinuations against Jesus on account of the color of his hair ; but what is most extraordinary is that they make precisely the same remarks on David. He was red as Eaau ; he had blood on his head ; the soul of Esau had passed into him. They have only forgotten the evil eye wherewith they endow the prophet- king. J Nicheph., Hist. Eccles., t. i., p. 125. His portrait of Our LoVd, drawn from tradition, is culty divest themselves in after times, as we see by the Gospel.* And Jesus ? Jesus affected noth- ing, neither devotion, nor austerity, nor wisdom, nor science, because he possessed the fullness of all those things, and people seldom affect anything but what they have not. To see him clad so simply — like an Essenian — his long hair, of the color of ancient bronze,f parted on his high sun-browned forehead, and floating gracefully over his shoul- ders, one would have taken him for David as he presented himself to the prophet Samuel, small, timid, attired in a shepherd's dress, to receive the sacred unction. Yet there was something more in the soft brown eye of Jesus J than even in that of his great ancestor, gleam- ing as it was with the brightness of poetic inspiration ; there was some- the most authentic that we now have. The Rev. Mr. Walsh, author of a recent work de- voted to the rare and unpublished monuments of the first age of Christianity, calls attention to a very curious medal, which was known so early as the 15th century. The front side represents the head of Our Lord in profile ; the hair is divided after the manner of- the Nazarenes, smooth to the ears, and waving on the shoul- ders ; the beard bushy, and not very long ; the features fine, as also the bust, over which the tunic falls in graceful folds. 206 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. thing penetrating and divine which laid bare the inmost thoughts and reached the most secret recesses of the soul ; but Jesus then veiled the splendor of his look, as Moses did his radiant brow on going forth from the tabernacle. He walked, then, in wise, yet appropriate con- versation with his young kinsmen according to the flesh, whom he designed to make his apostles ; he discovered, beneath their rough ex- terior, the weight and the value of those unpolished diamonds which were one day to shine with such surpassing splendor, and he loved them by anticipation. He was not deceived in his expectations ; those men, who had had, like the rest of the nation, their dreams of gold and power regarding the Messiah, cast away at his bidding all their preju- dices, both national and religious, and adopted a calumniated doc- trine, whose principles and whose promises, like the maledictions of the old law, spoke only of suffer- ings to endure and persecutions to encounter. They bound themselves to him by ties so strong that neither the princes of the earth, nor cold, nor nakedness, nor hunger, nor the f sword could separate them from his love; they walked in his foot- steps, courageously trampling on the thorns which the world threw in their way, and allowing them- selves to be treated, for his sake, as the very scum of mankind. They were neither ashamed of the Son of man, nor of his Gospel, nor of the folly of the Cross ! And why should they ? It is for impostors to be ashamed ; and the Apostles never preached but from sincere convic- tion. Those honest and simple hearts enforced their testimony by all that could render it credible and sacred amongst men ; they aban- doned all, suffered all, forgave all, and sealed with their blood the Gospel of their divine Master.* But at the period of which we speak, these heroic virtues were not even in blossom, and those young Galileans little thought that they should one day maintain with their life the divinity of their fellow- traveller. After a journey of four days, the pilgrims reached the Holy City, then filled with an immense con- * Pascal said, " I am ready to believe any his- ^ tory the ■witnesses of which Buffer death for it." L LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 207 course of Jewish strangers.* The family of Joseph and Mary assem- bled to eat the Paschal lamb, which the priests took care to immolate between the two evening prayers, f in the court of the Temple ; to this was added unleavened bread, wild lettuce, and all that belonged of right to that ancient ceremony. The festival days being over, the parents and kinsfolk of Jesus met together, in order to return home; as they went back in the same order in which they came, it was not, at iirst, perceived that Jesus was missing. Mary thought him with Joseph, or the two James's; Joseph, on the other hand, thought him with his young kinsmen, or with Mary. At night-fall, the vari- ous companies came together, and the Virgin sought Jesus in vain amongst the crowd of travellers who arrived successively at the inn; no one knew what had become of him. The grief of the holy spouses was inexpressible. " The deposit * The feast of Easter gathered to Jerusalem ^bout two millions, five hundred thousand per- sons. {De Bello, 1. vii., ch. 17.) Cestus, wish- ing to persuade Nero that the Jewish nation was not so contemptible as he thought, caused the people to be reckoned by the priests. At f of heaven, the Son of God!" mur- mured Joseph sadly. "My son!" said the poor young mother, her voice choked with sobs. All that night they sought him and all the following day, asking every one they met along the road, calling him in the woods, looking fearfully down the precipices, now fearing for his life, now for his liberty, and not knowing what was to happen if he were lost. They returned to Jerusalem; ran to the houses of their friends, and, tired of wander- ing through every part of that large city, they, at last, entered the Tem- ple. In the porch, where sat the doctors of the law, was a child who charmed the ancients of Israel by the depth of his observation and the clearness of his answers to questions, even the most difficult; they all stood in a circle round him, every one wondering within himself at his marvellous and precocious wisdom. "It is either Daniel, or an angel," said some one within a the feast of Easter, they killed two hundred and fifty-six thousand six hundred lambs ; there was a lamb for every family. f That is to say, from noon or one o'clock, till sunset. (Basnage, t. v., L vii., ch. 2.) -I SOS LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. few paces of the sorrowful Virgin. "It is Jesus!" said the young mother, making her way through the doctore. Then, approaching the Messiah, with a look of tender re- proach — "Son!" said she, mildly, " why hast thou done so to us ? behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing?" Tlie child had disappeared before the God: the answer was dry and mysterious. "How is it that you sought me ? Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?" The holy couple were silent; they did not, at lirst, com- prehend the drift of this reply. Jesus arose and followed them to Nazareth ; his perfect submission to their will very soon effaced this light cloud. "And his mother kept all these things in her heart ; and Jesus advanced in wisdom and age, ¥ and grace with God and men." CHAPTER XVI. MARY AT THE SERMONS OF JESUS. HERE are two worlds in his- tory," says one of the finest wi'iters of our time : " one be- yond, the other on this side, the Cross." The pri- meval world, old and decrepid at * The pagan Gauls of the 6fch aud 7th cen- turies deified oaks ; they burned torches before those trees, and invoked them as though they could have heard them; the enormous stones the time of Christ's regenerating mission, presented a strange spec- tacle, for the ridiculous went hand in hand with the horrible. The Arab and the Gaul, after having for ages retained the primitive idea of the unity of God, adored the acacia and the oak;* the Hindoo deified the Ganges, and sacrificed human which were found near had their share of the divine honors. (Histoire Ecclesiastique de Bre- tagne, t iv., 7th century. — GapUal. Garoli Magni, hb. 1, tit. 64.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 209 victims to Sactis, goddess of death;* * the Egyptians — wisest of nations — rendered devout worship to the gar- lic, the lotus, and nearly all bul- bous plants ; f the unknown tribes of young America adored the tiger, the vulture, the tempest, and the roaring cataract; J finally, the Greeks and Romans confessedly filled their temples with demons, § and those nations so intellectual, so polished, so prolific of great men, had deified vice under its most hid- eous aspects, and peopled their Olympus with robbers, adulterers, and murderers. Their morals cor- responded with their creeds ; cor- ruption, descending like a vast river from the height of the seven impe- rial hills, overspread all the prov- * See Tableau d'Inde (Picture of India) by Buckingham. f Juvenal's sarcasm is well known : " O sanc- tas gentes, quibus hsec nascuntur in hortis nu- mina." (Sat. xv., v. 10.) J Garcilasso, 1. 1, c. 2 and 12. § Porphyrus, who was so well acquainted with the sources of polytheism, admits that the devils were the objects of Gentile worship. "There are," says he, "unclean spirits, mali- cious and deceitful, who wish to pass for gods, and be adored by men ; these must be ap- peased, as otherwise they might injure us. Some, being gay and playful, are propitiated by games and festivals ; others, of a more gloomy inces. Judea, which had, no more than the others, escaped the conta- gion of vice, was falling Avith fearful rapidity ; its religion no longer con- sisted in fundamental dogmas, but in a multitude of parasitical super- fluities, and the dreams of its Rab- bins had taken the place of the Mosaic law. II And what had become of haughty Reason amid all these deplorable aberrations — of Reason, that queen of intelligences, who takes her own limited horizon for the bounds of the universe, and stretches gods on the bed of Procrustes ? Where did she hold dominion? where had she hoisted her colors, whilst her ram- parts were thus universally attack- ed? If she could, without foreign turn, must have the smell of grease, and delight in bloody sacrifices." II It is a saying amongst the Jews, that the Covenant was made with them on Mount Sinai, not on the iSasis of the written law, but on that of the oral law. They annihilate the former to install the latter in its stead, and finally reduce all religion to tradition. This corruption was so prevalent amongst the Jews, even at the time of Our Lord, that he reproaches them, in St. Mark, with having nullified the word of God by their traditions. But it is now much worse ; they compare the sacred text to water, and the Misnah, or Talmud, to the best wine ; again, the written law is salt, but the Taimud is pepper, cinnamon, etc 210 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. assistance, reconquer the earth * which she had lost, why did she not do it? . . . Alas! she felt that tlie torrent would sweep away her frail barriers ; and, powerless to re- strain it, she contented herself with noting its ravages. Resting on phi- losophy, she mourned over the life- less remains of the social body, whose fall she could not prevent; Christianity came forward, and said to the dead body, "Arise and walk." .... And it was done according to her word. From that day forward a new race, cured of all diseases, cleansed from all impurity in the sacred laver, gathered around the Cross which the Son of Mary had set up over the regenerate world, as the tiiumph of God over hell. That glorious revolution which placed Charity on the throne, at- tended by all the other #^'irtues — that ever -memorable event which changed the aspect of the world, and whose results shall be felt till the end of all things, had its origin in Nazareth : from the hollow of that nameless rock flowed the hum- ble stream of Christianity. "An obscure spring, an unnoticed drop of water, in which two sparrows could not drink, which one sunbeam might have dried up, and which now, like the great ocean of mind, has filled up all the depths of hu- man wisdom, and bathed with its exhaustless \^ters the past, the present, and the future."* Nothing is known of the means which brought about that grand fact which stands pre-eminent above all modern history. From the day of his manifestation in the Temple, the Son of God led a hidden and meditative life with his mother and his adoptive father. This period, lost to the world, was undoubtedly that in which the Virgin spent her calmest and happiest days. It is not when human life rolls noisily on, like a wintry torrent, that it is the happiest; but when it resem- bles the streamlet gliding in silvery ripples through the flower-bespan- gled meadows. Mary, deprived of all the enjoyments of luxury and all the pleasures of affluence, but living near her Son, working for him, studying his tastes, seeing him every hour, offering to him, as it were, the fii'st-fruits of his sacred * M. de Lamartine. Voyage en Orient. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 211 harvest ; the first, the humblest, and the most docile of his disciples, and bending her cultivated understand- ing before the divinity and superior mind of her Son — Mary must then have been a happy mother ! If, at times, whilst Jesus was explaining to her the most profound meaning of the prophecies, he came on some passage which spoke of sufferings to be endured, a dark cloud gath- ered on the modest brow of the Virgin, it soon passed away, and that mild, benign countenance re- sumed its wonted serenity. The storm was still afar off, and their bark was moored in a quiet harbor. Her Son was there; she hung on his look, on his words, on his slight- est gestures. And how she loved to serve that Son ! how joyfully would she sit up all night to sew, or weave his working tunics, his fes- tival robes, and that seamless gar- ment, a masterpiece of art and skill, which was afterwards! .... But as yet the Lord had only anointed His Son with the oil of gladness. The companion of the Spouse, the wise Virgin of the Gospel, left the morrow to provide for itself "and the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, dwelt in her heart and mind." Jesus was perfection itself, the omniscient, the thrice holy, the mighty and the wise ; as God, he could owe nothing to His creatures, but as man he owed something to Mary. She it was who initiated him, from his earliest childhood, in the humble virtues appertaining to humanity, and to her own dmple and poetic tastes. That patient and unalterable meekness which he knew how to unite with the firmness of the prophet and the legislator; that merciful compassion which tempered the wrath of an angry God, and rendered Him — the model man, the Just by excellence — the Advocate of sinful man; that ten- derness so kind, so simple, towards children whom he delighted in bless- ing and caressing during his divine mission; a thousand imperceptible shades, a thousand beams half ab- sorbed in the blaze of light which constitutes the mortal life of Jesus Christ, all bear the seal of Mary.* * Nel vestire il Verbo d'umana came non gli diede ella (la Vergine), punto, o di potenza, o di santita, o di giustizia che egli (Gesu) gia da ^ se solo non possedesse ; ma gli die molto bensi 212 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Tims heaven is pleased to inhale the sweet scent of powers, although the flowers are creatures of the earth. We caiiiiol doubt but that Jesua returned, with interest, all the Vir- gin's tenderness and solicitude; a woman so noble in blood and in heart was entitled to the respect of all, and especially of a Son for whose sake she had imposed on hei*self, in the eaiiy spring of life, so many privations, so much toil, and so many sacrifices. He who takes note in heaven of a glass of cold water given in his name, must assuredly be mindful of the obliga- tions which he owed to Mary ; and, if we see in the Gospel that he sometimes spoke to his divine mother less as her son than as her Lord, it is that at such times he detached himself from all earthly connections in order to promote the glory of his Father, whose interests were ever paramount with him. The Virgin knew too well the sacred mission of her son to be disturbed by this occasional severity; she calmly awaited the moment when di misericordia. (P. Paolo Segneri, Magnificai spiegato.) * the legislator should give place to the young Galilean whom her milk had nourished, and never had she to wait long : the human nature very soon granted what the divine nature had refused. Jesus had just attained his twenty-ninth year when the angel of death summoned away the ven- erable head of the Holy Family. Joseph — that patriarchal man — whose submissive faith and simplic- ity of heart recalled the memory of Abraham and the era of the tent; Joseph, on whom the Holy Ghost himself bestowed the title of Just ; Joseph slept calmly in the Loi-d, in the sweet presence of his adopted son and his chaste spouse. Jesus and Mary mourned him, and kept their melancholy watch by his cold remains ; the night wind only was heard to mingle in the lamenta- tions of the poor family. The great ones of Galilee died not thus ; their death was attended by more show and greater ostentation, although they had not, at the linal moment, the glorious prospects of the car- penter of Nazareth. The obsequies of the son of David ^ were humble as his fortune, but l-^ ^ c^ .>)^' LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 213 Mary slied abundant tears over his funeral bed, and the Son of God was himself chief mourner. Wliat emperor was ever so highly hon- ored ? At length, the time for preaching the Gospel began to approach, and He whom God ordained from all eternity to be its pontiff and apos- tle quitted Nazareth to repair to the banks of the Jordan, where John was baptizing. That parting of the Blessed Virgin and her Son must have been both solemn and affecting. The public life of Jesus was about to commence. Unfriend- ed, poor, of humble origin, without other* resource than his courage, his patience, and that gift of miracles which he never employed for his own personal advantage, he was going to confront an order of things "not strong enough to resist him, but strong enough to cause his death." * The Virgin could not help feeling an emotion of terror on see- ing Jesus commit himself to that stormy sea — the Jewish world — on which so many illustrious prophets had perished. She knew the insur- mountable pride of the Pharisees, * M. de Lamartine, hook quoted. * the narrow and revengeful fanati- cism of the Synagogue, the sanguin- ary whims of Herod Antipas ; she also knew the Messianic oracles which spoke of suffering and igno- miny! .... The daughter of the kings of Juda, who was not of the race of the feeble, and who knew that her son was God, was none the less overcome by that first separa- tion, w^hich seemed the prelude and the image of one much more cruel. With a breaking heart she saw Jesus set out, and when the sound of his footsteps died away in the distance ; when she found herself alone — all alone — in that house where she had passed so many happy hours with her Son and her holy spouse, she hid her face be- tween her hands, and remained long silent and motionless. The absence of Christ was pro- longed ; the Virgin learned with profound admiration, but without surprise, the wonders of liis bap- tism, when the Holy Trinity was, as it were, made palpable and re- vealed to men: the white dove ex- tending its divine wings over the Saviour who was, at the "same time, ^ announced as the Son of God by a 214 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRQIN MARY. voice from heaven. Her maternal joy was, however, replaced by griev- ous apprehension when she heard that Jesus, almost immediately after his baptism, had plunged alone into the deep and perilous ravines of the lofty Mount Quarantine,* to prepare for the work of the world's redemp- tion by fasting, prayer, and medita- tion. What must she suffer as she thought of Jesus wandering through a labyrinth of naked rocks, where the bird found not a particle of moss to- make its nest, or a wild berry to maintain life — where all is rock and fire ! What anguish when the tempest roared without! Where was Jesus ? What was h^ doing, alone and unsheltered, on the high mountains of Jericho, whose * The desert wherein Jesus fasted forty days — whencse it was called the Desert of Quaran- tine — is situated in the mountains of Jericho, about a league from that city, and towards the western bank of the Jordan. Mount Quaran- tine is oue of the highest on the northern side, presenting a profound chasm, hollowed out below, as though to prevent all access to the upper part ; from west to north it displays a series of steep rocks, which open in many places, and contain caverns. The fourth part of the ascent is only gained by a precipitous slope, strewn with stones which roll from under the foot. When one has reached this fourth part of the mountain's height, he finds a very narrow pathway, which conducts to a flight of * steep pathways — full of rolling stones — womid amid frightful pre- cipices, f Certain death awaited him if he missed his foot on the edge of an abyss ; and no aid was near, if, during that fast — so com- plete, so long, so far beyond human strength — he fell fainting on the way. Those forty days were, to Mary, so many ages — maternal anxiety making every minute thus passed an eternity ; but Jesus re- turned to Nazareth with his disci- ples, and his loved presence was, for Mary, like the balmy breath of spring, after the piercing frosts of winter. Just then it was that the' wed- ding took place in Cana of Galilee. The bride and bridegroom, who steps surrounded by fearful precipices ; this must be climbed at the most imminent risk, catching at certain stones which project here and there, and to which one is obliged to cling with feet and hands ; if one of these stones chanced to give way, one would fall into a terrific chasm. ( Voyages de Jesus Christ, Heme voyage.) f The sacred retreat wherein the Man-God spent forty days is a natural grotto, which is only to be gained by cHmbing a path cut in the rock. A niche has been made in one of its sides as if for an altar. Therein are seen some frescoes, almost effaced, representing angels. A thick wall closes up this species of chapel, which is lit by a window whence one cannot look down without a shudder. (Ibid.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 215 were relatives of the Blessed Yir- f gin,* invited Mary, with Jesus and his disciples. All accepted the cor- dial invitation, and the Virgin, ever kind and obliging, undertook to assist in making preparations for the banquet, in which custom re- quired a certain degree of splendor. But the company was large, and the family poor ; the bridegroom had been mistaken in his reckon- ing, and the wine-jars were almost empty, when Our Lord — who would raise marriage to the rank of holy things, purifying it by his presence — entered the banquet-hall, follow^ed by Peter, Andrew, Philip, and Na- thaniel^four young fishermen whom he had impressed with confidence in his genius and power. The wine ran out in the middle of the repast, and Mary, having first perceived it on a sign of distress from the hosts, turned to Jesus, who was sitting * The Eastern tradition, which the Moham- medans have received from the Christians, is, that St. John the Evangelist was the bride- groom at the wedding of Cana, and that, after having witnessed the miracle which Jesus wrought, he immediately quitted his wife ^ follow him. (D'Hei-belot, Biblioih. Orient, t. ii.) — Baronius, t. i., p. 106. — Maid, (in Johan.) also adopts this opinion, for which we cannot certify. near her, and said, pointedly, " They have no wine ! " Jesus answered her in a low voice, and with much emphasis, " Woman, what is it to me and to thee ? My hour is not yet come." f The Virgin, anxious to save her friends a most painful humiliation, was yet not at all discouraged by these words ; she knew that, if the hour of his manifestation were not come, Christ would anticipate it for her sake ; and, with that faith which would remove mountains, she mildly said to the servants, "Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." JSTow there were there six water-pots of stone used for purifications ; at the bidding of Jesus, these were filled to the brim with fresh water from a neighboring spring, and that water was changed into delicious wine. Thus it is that the Blessed Virgin had the first fruits of the miracles f Our Lord's reply to his blessed mother must have been in an under tone, as may even be inferred from the Gospel narrative. It is wholly impossible that Jesus Christ could have given his mother such an answer aloud; the guests, who were not in the secret, would have considered it extremely disrespectful towards her. It is clear that the servants, hearing what the Blessed Virgin said, were ignorant of the ^ f Saviour's a pparent refusal 916 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. of her divine Son, and that her in- * tercession changed the very will of God. The miracle of Cana was soon followed by a number of others, which stamped with the seal of the Divinity the high and providential mission of the Saviour. At his voice, the storm was hushed, human infirmities disappeared, the devils were hurled back to their gloomy kingdom, corpses arose from their coffins, and, all over that spot of earth which his blessed footsteps marked, there was a great ameliora- tion of both spiritual and corporal suffering.* People came to him from Sidon, from Tyre, from Idumea, and from Arabia ; and wiiole multi- tudes, gathering along his way, kiss- ed the hem of his garments, and humbly asked him for health and life — things which only a God can 'give. Mary, whom Our Lord had not as * A Mugsulman poet has described, in graceful verse, the dominion which Jesus exercised over the diseases of the soul ; the following is their substance : " The heart of the afflicted man draws all its consolation from thy words." " The soul recovers life and vigor by the mere bearing of thy nanw?." yet thought proper to associate in his painful and wandering life — Mary heanl these extraordinary tid- ings with great joy, not unmixed, however, with trouble and anxiety. Her fears . were well founded ; for, if the people followed the Messiah, loading him with blessings, the Pharisees, the scribes, and the l)rinces of the Synagogue began to be greatly scandalized — worthy souls ! — ^by the conduct of the Son of God. He remitted sins — blas- phemy ! he consoled and converted sinners — degradation ! he healed the sick on the Sabbath-day — open and shameless impiety I His doc- trine fell from his lips like a benefi- cent dew rather than a stormy rain, so that he was in every way unlike the ancient prophets. He preached humility, forgiveness of injuries, vol- untary poverty, alms given for God's sake alone, universal charity What novel doctrines these were ! "If ever the mind of man can ai*ise to the contemplation of the mysteries of the Deity. " It is from thee that it obtains the lights thereby to discover them, and thee it is who givest it the attraction which leads it thereto." " A Christian," says the learned Orien- talist, D'Herbelot, " could not express his ideas ^ vith greater force. ' jw' LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 217 A host of enemies rose up against him after every sermon, whether in the desert or in the city. He could not attack hypocrisy without of- fending the Pharisees, nor condemn avarice without exciting the ire of the doctors of the law ; the discon- tented — ever ready to engage in dark conspiracies which broke out in rash and bloody revolt — were scandalized because he did not preach up sedition against Caesar; the Hei"odians accused him of as- piring to the throne ; and the Sad- ducees could not bear to hear him announce eternal life. These men, divided in their views, their creeds, and their political interests, made a truce amongst themselves in hatred to the Galilean ; they girt up their loins to attack him, which they did on every side. E^'ery word was a snare, every smile one of treachery. Some openly treated him as an impostor and a Samaritan ; others * The Methnevi-Manevi, speaking of the envi- ous and impotent hatred of the Jews for Jesus Christ, expresses its opinion in these terms con- cerning these attacks — so common against all that obtains success ; attacks which are, in the end, hurtful only to those who make them : — " The moon sheds her light, and the dog barks," says the Persian author, "but the barking of the dog prevents not the moon from shining. ; gently hinted that he was mad ; the whole phalanx of the envious, tired of hearing the people prUise this new prophet, and being unable to deny his miracles, would fain give the honor thereof to Satan. " If he drives out devils," said they, " it is through Beelzebub, the prince of devils ; in Beelzebud, principe dceino- niorimi, ejicit dcemonia."'^ These vague rumors alarmed Mary, and the evil dispositions of her neigh- bors were calculated to do anvthing but. reassure her. Of all the cities of Galilee, Nazareth was the most incredulous, and the most hardened against the divine word ; and of all the families of Nazareth, that of Jesus was the least disposed, it seems, to accept him for the King- Messiah. As the divine maternity of Mary had never been revealed to her relatives, and the miracles which had been wrought during the Lord's infancy had taken place in We throw sweepings into the running water of a river, and that scum swims on the surface of the water without either stopjjing its course or disturbing it. The Messiah, on the one side, raises the dead, and you see, on the other, the Jews devoured with envj', biting their nails and tearing their hair." ( Hussein- Vaez. — D'Herbe- lot, Biblioth. Orient.) 218 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. distant countries, so they saw in the supposed son of Joseph only a young- Israelite without learning, brought up amongst themselves, fed like them, more poorly lodged, more simply clad, and living from day to day by hard work, which brought him chiefly in contact with the lower classes. Christ, who would ennoble poverty by taking it for his portion, incurred the conse- quences of the position he had chosen. "Neither did his breth- ren," says St. John, "believe in him."* The report of the miracles which accompanied the preaching of the Gospel astonished, but could n6t convince, these obstinate Naz- arenes. Knowing that Jesus was saluted all over Galilee by the dan- gerous title of Son of David, and that crowds of two or three thou- sand persons gathered to hear him, they feared that these numerous assemblies might excite the sus- picions of Herod Antipas, and that themselves might be brought into trouble on account of the young prophet. For this reason they pub- licly gave out that Jesus was mad, and swore that they would bring * St. Jobu, ch. vii., v. 5. ^ him back to Nazareth in 'safe keep- ing. Concealing this family plot from Mary, they induced her to go with them to Caphernaum, in order that they might gain access to his presence by the authority of her name, f The Messiah was teaching in the synagogue, in the midst of a silent and attentive audience, when tlie Nazarenes arrived. Ostentatiously displaying an authority which they were quite willing to magnify in the eyes of the crowd, as St. John Chrysostom remarks, they deliber- ately sent word to the Saviour that his mother and his brethren were without, and wished to see him ; but Jesus, knowing the secret thoughts of his relations according to tlie flesh, and availing himself of the occasion to extend the narrow limits of the old law by solemnly and un- reservedly adopting all the great human family, gave this admirable reply to the impudent message of his kinsfolk — "Who is my mother and my brethren?" Then, looking around on his numerous disciples — ■ " Whosoever," said he, " shall do the will of God, he is my brother, and t St. Mark, ch. iii., vs. 21, 31-35. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 219 sister, and mother." After this se- vere reprimand, which the sons of Alpheus could well understand, the Son of God immediately went out, says St. John Chrysostom, to do his mother all the honor that decorum required. When he had saluted Mary, and stopped some time with her on the sea-shore, the Saviour went up into a bark, whence he began to teach the people. The Virgin, lost in the crowd, but profoundly attentive, heard, in religious silence, the par- able of the ^sower. The Nazarenes, petrified by the resistless eloquence and the superhuman dignity of Jesus Christ, asked each other, in surprise, if he were indeed the son of Mary. They experienced that kind of fascination which attracts the snake of the American savan- nahs when he hears afar in the woods the sound of sweet music. They had come with the swiftness of fear, with the eloquence of ego- tism, with the arrogance of superi- ority, to withdraw Christ from his perilous mission, and they quailed under his very look, and could not even open their lips in his presence. This is clearlv indicated by the text * of St. Matthew, which, after having informed us of their hostile inten- tions, gives us nowhere to under- stand that they ventured even to speak to Our Lord. Some time after, Jesus returned to Nazareth, and great was the joy of the Virgin. To see her son seated on the mat where he used to sit in his childish days ; to eat the bread which he had blessed and broken ; to lead him silently to the sick bed of some poor sufferer, whom he healed, with an injunction of secrecy ; to see him mighty in word and work, he who had been so long the man of toil and silence — this was too much happiness in the cup of her existence! And God, who often afflicts those whom he loves, soon mingled gall with its sweetness. On the Sabbath-day, the son and mother went together to the synagogue. A great con- course of people had assembled there to see and hear Jesus; but the curiosity of the Nazarenes had not that character of confidence and respectful attention that Christ had so often met elsewhere. They were there, scandalized beforehand by , what the son of Mary was to do 320 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. and say, and admirably disposed to ^ stone him if occasion offered. There are countries decidedly hos- tile to all that does them honor, until the grass of the grave grows over the object of their envy. Nevertheless, one of the ancients presented the Saviour of men with the book of the prophet Isaiah, and Jesus, unrolling the parchment, read this passage with simple grace and mai-vellous dignity: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me ; he hath sent me to preach to the meek, to heal the contrite of heart, and to preach a release to the captives, and deliverance to them that are shut up: to proclaim the accepta- ble year of the Lord." Having closed the book, he sat down, and, speaking with that lively and natural eloquence which so strongly impressed his auditors, he made to himself the application of the Messianic oracle, and taught, not as a disciple of the synagogue, but as the very master of the syna- gogue. A low murmur ran through the assembly. Some were amazed at the force and the grace of his discom-se ; others, faithful to their ^^ system of contemptuous calumny, said aloud, " Is not this the carpen- ter's son?" And Jesus, penetrating their thoughts, and reading their false and envious hearts, spoke to them those words which have be- come proverbial: "A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country and in his own house." Knowing that they intended to ask him for prodigies like unto those which he had wrought in €apher- naum, he told them plainly that their incredulity rendered them un- worthy of any such, and that, in order to obtain miracles, they must be asked in simplicity and with faith. Thence, alluding to the prop- agation of his Gospel, and to that wild olive grafted on the ancient tree of the synagogue, symbolical of the call of the Gentiles : "In truth I say to you there were many widows, in the days of Elias, in Israel, when heaven was shut -up three years and six months, when there was a great famine through- out all the earth. And to none of them was Elias sent but to Sarepta of Sidonj to a widow woman. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet, and LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIBGIN MARY. 221 none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian." These last words were the drop of water which makes the cup over- flow. Wounded in their national pi'ide, in their hereditary hatred, in their traditional hopes, the assem- bly in the synagogue were filled with fury, and thirsted for blood. They rose up tumultuously, and thrust him out of their city: and they brought him to the brow of the hill whereon theii- city was built, that they might cast him down headlono:;. Seated amongst the humbler wo- men, in a grated gallery, the Virgin had observed, with intense anxiet}^, the rise and progress of the storm. Reading the sinister projects of the Nazarenes in their fierce glances and furious gestures, she hesitated not to brave the danger in order to make her way to her son; but her * Between the steep mountain whence the Jews intended to cast Jesus and the city of Nazareth " there is seen half way," says Father Geramb, "the ruins of a monastery formerly inhabited by monks, and those of a very fine church built by St. Helena, and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, under the name of Our Lady of Terror. According to some, Mary was stand- ing there when the Jews dragged her son along towards the summit of the mountain to cast him * strength was not equal to her cour- age. The Jews ran swiftly — they were always swift to shed blood — and Mary, trembling like a leaf, hardly able to support herself, walk- ed slowly after them, like one in a dream. She sees Jesus at the summit of a steep rock which over- hangs a fearful precipice ; she hears from afar the death -cry ringing; her knees bend under her ; a mist gathers over her eyes ; her voice dies away in a piteous moan ; she falls like a flower stricken down by the wind, and lies prostrate on the ground.* Meanwhile, the ferocious wolves in pursuit of the lamb had been grievously disappointed ; the horn of sacrifice was not yet come for the Son of man, and no one could take his life until he chose to give it up. Striking that murderous crowd with blindness,! Jesus passed unseen thence. According to others, she had hastened thither, on hearing of the diabolical project in contemplation, but had arrived too late ; over- come with terror, she covUd go no farther." f The most ancient heretics — preparing the ■way for modern rationalism, which unwittingly dons their tattered rags — pretended that Our Lord escaped through the illusion of a mist, illudere per caliginem. Tertullian strongly op- poses this supposition. {Adv. Marc, 4, 8.) 222 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VJRQTN MARY. Ihmugh the midst of his enemies, f and returned once more to Capher- naum, where he was soon after join- ed by his mother, Mary of Cleophas, and the sons of Alpheus. After having preached the Gospel in the country bordering on the ftiir lake of Tiberias, whose waves are radiant as the light, and having wrouglit the great miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes in the desert of Bethsaida, Jesus went up the Jordan again, with his disciples, to Ca3sarea Phi- lippi, the ancient Dan of Nephtali (which name had just been changed by Philip, son of Herod) , visiting all the different towns and villages on his way. It was probably at this period — for Euthymius,* who relates this traditional fact, leaves its date undecided — that the waters of the Jordan, already sanctified, beheld another affecting ceremony. Jesus, the Virgin, and thp Apostles set out one morning at sunrise, for that sacred river "which flows through * According to St. Euthymius, Our Lord bap- tized none but the Blessed Virgin and St. Peter, who afterwards baptized the other Apostles. " Some," says this holy abbot, who flourished in Palestine in the 4th century — " some have writ- ^ two lakes," says Tacitus, " and emp- ties itself into the third." f Its banks were robed in a magnificent vegetation ; ivslets, rising here and there from its bosom, sparkled amid its shining waves like baskets of verdure, fruit, and flowers ; blue herons hovered over those flowery isles, where the wood -pigeon and the white turtle still hang their mossy nests on the branches of the wild pomegranate. The dew glit- tered on the green leaves of the willows like a shower of pale dia- monds, and the rushes of the Jor- dan, which sometimes conceal tigers, were gently bending beneath the light breeze which shook the tops of the tall palm-trees, with their clusters of coral-colored dates. Far away, on the opposite shore, troops of gazelles were seen skipping around on the slopes of the gray, mottled mountains ; and over the sandy plain flew some of the fierce children of the desert, mounted on coursers fleet as the wind, and armed with those long spears made ten that Jesus Christ himself baptized the Vir- gin and Peter." f Nee Jordanes pelago accipitur : sed unum atque alterum lacum integer perfluit ; tertio re- tinetur. {Taciti historiarum, lib. v.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 223 of reeds from tlie banks of the Eu- phrates, which they used even in the first ages after the Dekige, if we are to believe the Persian legends.* Clouds of the richest violet hue, or of soft and tender rose-color, floated like flowers in the deep blue sky; and the nightingale, that loves to sing in the lofty sycamores which overhang the sacred river of Pales- tine, was heard to warble its most melodious sti'ains : Nature had don- ned her gala dress for the baptism of Mary. The Virgin was clothed in white, according to the custom of the He- brews when they figured alone in any religious ceremony, and she stood calm and collected by the side of her Saviour and her son ; they both stepped into the river. Rais- ing then, with his divine hand, the Eastern veil worn by his chaste and beautiful mother, Jesus fixed his mild and penetrating eyes upon her with a look of infinite tenderness ; then, pouring on the Virgin's fore- head the sacred water of regenera- * There grows on the banks of the Euphrates a certain kind of reed which almost equals the Indian bamboo. In early times, the Arabs and .Assyrians made lances of them. (Firdousi, Book of Kings. ) * tion, he baptized her in the name of the most Holy Trinity, Himself one of the three divine persons. It was then that the Blessed Vir- gin left off her solitary habits to follow her son in his journeys. She had ministered to him for thirty years both abroad and at home ; she had worked for him, wept over him, suffered for him, and had wor- shipped him, without fail, evening and morning, even when he lay cryinsc in his cradle, as we learn from Albertus Magnus. It was nat- ural that, attaching herself to his persecuted lot, she should abandon the peaceful roof under which he was born to follow his blessed foot- steps whilst he evangelized the Hebrews. Amidst all the trials of that troubled life, the Virgin was admirable as ever. Loving Jesus more than ever mother loved her child, yet never did she intrude into his presence when, by so doing, she might interfere with the duties of his regenerating mission; never once did she speak to him of her fatigue, her fears, her melancholy forebodings, or her personal wants. Mary was not only a sacred dove hidins: in the cleft of a rock ; a pure 224 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIROTN MARY. vii*gin, called to nourish with her milk iind to cradle in her arms a celestial guest; she was also a sti'ong woman, whom the Lord w^as pleased to place by turns in every situation of life, in order to leave the daughters of Eve an example to follow, and a. model to imitate. It was not proper that the Mother of God should follow Jesus and his Apostles alone through all Judea; hence Mary's retinue consisted of Mary of Cleophas, mother of James, Simon, Joseph and Jude, vulgarly called the brethren of the Lord ; Salome, mother of the sons of Zebe- dee, whom most the Saviour loved ; Susanna, wife of the tetrarch's stew- ard, together with some wealthy women of Galilee, who had given up all for Jesus. One of these, a Jew- ess, young, rich, well-born, and sur- passingly beautiful, was the most tenderly attentive to the divine mother of her Lord. This woman — whose noble heart, storm-tossed like the waves of the JEgean sea, had burned with an unholy flame before the eyes of men, and braved public opinion with mockery and disdain . — had come, penitent and submis- sive, to prostrate herself before * Christ, and to ask of him, wliom she acknowledged as God, a cure for the wounds of her soul. And the chaste love of the Lord had absorbed all the vain love, all the worldly attachments of the young lady of Magdalum. She had tram- pled under foot her pearl necklaces, her jewels and chains of gold, and sold her castle by the lovely sea of Galilee ; and now^, without other ornament than a coarse brown gar- ment, and those magnificent dark tresses wherewith she had dried the Lord's feet, the young patrician, rich in her alms, adorned with her new virtues, poured out her penitent tears in the pure and pitying bosom of Mary. The immaculate Virgin had received her with open arms, and having thus won her heart, she J^ cultivated in that fertile, but long- neglected soil, the flowers that bloom for heaven. After many and divers sufferings — many fears and apprehensions, which it were tedious to enumerate — the Virgin entered Jerusalem, the fatal city, in the train of Jesus Christ, to celebi-ate the last pasch which the Lord made with his dis- ciples. She saw the people of the 'm //l^i //A./ .<,„,//,r, LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 225 royal city trooping out to meet the son of David, who came to them full of sweetness, mounted as the young princes of his race were wont to be, and graciously receiv- ing the simple honors so eagerly and so spontaneously offered by the multitude, thirsting for a sight of their proj)het ; for Jesus never re- jected the humble testimonies of love and gratitude offered by his creatures. Trifling as were those pledges of grateful affection, they were yet received with divine good- ness the moment they came from the heart. Magdalen, by turns regarding her Xorc?, and that multitude of people who made the air resound with their hosannas, wept in silence be- hind her veil. Mary's eyes were likewise moist; but her gaze was turned towards the northwest, in the direction of Calvary. CHAPTER XYII. MARY ON OALVA RY. HE branches of f the palm, cast by the HeLrews under the feet of their Mes- siah, were still lying green and fresh on the steep road to Bethany ; the echoes of the Valley of Cedars* were still murmuring the expiring * " Valley of Cedars," the ancient name of the Valley of Josaphat. sounds of the glad, triumphant shouts wherewith the daughters of Sion had welcomed the poor Icing, w^hen Jerusalem was again agitated by a new event of great and melan- choly importance. The chief priests, the senators, and the Pharisees, sought to get hold, even at a golden price, and without shrinking from domestic treachery, of a great criminal, who, they said, was endangering both 226 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. religion aiid the state. Dangerous indeed must this man have been, since those honorable personages had imposed upon themselves an extra- ordinary fast in order to get posses- sion of him,* and had even distri- buted certain alms through the city, by sound of trumpet, with the same intention. The Pharisees — those conscientious Jews who robbed only the uncircumcised, and who would have left their neighbor at the bot- tom of a well rather than draw him out on the Sabbath-day, although they would have quickly taken out their ox or their ass — these had undertaken to spread amongst the people, who are so easily influenced one way or the other, ominous re- ports and vague rumors, which had produced a sort of feverish uneasi- ness that could only end in a vio- lent outbreak. Things thus pre- * This anecdote is found in the Toldos, pub- lished by Huldin, pp. 56 and 60. f This ofl&ce is known to the Gospel, which often speaks of these captains of the Temple, who must be distinguished from the Roman officer who kept guard with his cohort around that sacred edifice to prevent the tumults and disorders which the multitude might cause. These captains of the Temple were necessarily Jews, and descended from sacerdotal families ; to them was intrusted the ward and the keys of * pared, there was seen descending, one evening, from Mount Moria, a well-armed troop, accompanied by some senators, and commanded by the captain of the Temple guards ;f after them came the footmen of the chief priests, and at the head of this batallion marched, with a measured step, by the light of those large lanthorns which the Asiatics hoist on long poles with some flaming torches, a man with a downcast brow, an unsettled look, a mean and unprepossessing countenance, whose belt was stuffed with gold stolen from the poor, J increased, in imagination, by the thirty pieces of silver which he was to gain by de- livering up to the wily Synagogue his Master, his Friend, his God ! For it was, indeed, the Son of David, the Conqueror of the preced- ing days, Jesus of Nazareth, the the Temple in order to provide for the security of the sacred vessels ; this officer, in right of birth, was entitled to a place in all the priestly councils. (Basnage, b. i., ch. 4.) X Then Judas Iscariot, who was to betray Jesus, said, " Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor ? " Now he said this, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and, having the purse, carried the things that were ^; put therein. (St. John, ch. xii., v. 4-6.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 227 great Galilean prophet at whose voice greedy Death gave up his p-ey, and whose orders the winds and seas obeyed ; it was he whom the myrmidons of the chief priests and Pharisees were going to seek on the Mount of Olives, whither he retired at night, after having taught by day in 'the Temple, as St. Luke relates. They did not dare to arrest him in open day, fearing some re- sistance from that multitude of dis- ciples who thronged, from the dawn of day, to hear him in Solomon's Porch. The armed band, led on by Isca^ riot, crossed the ravine through which flows the Kedron, that gloomy torrent* which King David crossed of old when he fled, with a hand- ful of faithful servants, from the re- bellious soldiers incited to revolt by his son Absalom. Whilst the soldiers of the Temple, fierce and silent, followed the course of the torrent, which reflected the light of their torches, in order to .gain the * The Kedron is a torrent which passes through the Valley of Josaphat, between Jeru- salem and Mount Olivet. It has been named Kedron because its course lies through dark and obscure places : its Hebrew name signifies tenebrosus fuit. heights of Gethsemani, and the evening wind rustled in the droop- ing branches of the willows, from one of which Judas was soon to hang — a punishment too mild for such a traitor, but to which the im- perishable contempt of succeeding generations continually adds — a sad and solemn scene was passing in that same Garden of Olives, where the unworthy Apostle was going to seek his Master to destroy him. After having prayed a long time, prostrate on the ground, in that fearful agony which bedewed his divine brow with a bloody sweat, Christ arose in submissive resig- nation to the terrible will of his Father, and ready to drain the bit- ter chalice even to the dregs. He raised his large soft eyes to the midnight heavens, studded with bril- liant constellations, and illumined by the meridian moon, that fair lamp of the firmament whose useful light the children of Abraham bless in their prayers ;f she was then at f The day of the new moon is a festival day for the Hebrews ; the women abstain from work, and the devotees fast on the previous day. After reciting a number of prayers in the sj'nagogue, they keep the remainder of the day as a joyous festival. Three days after, the Jews 328 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MAliY. her full, and cast a sheet of radiant * light over that austere landscape whose dark mountains, rising one above the other, were traced on the clear blue of the sky. Jerusalem, half hid in shade, and in some places brilliantly lit up by the moon's rays, sent afar an aromatic odor from the rare plants of its gardens, and its groves of palm- trees rose stately and grand, inter- spersed with towers of white mar- ble. Silence reigned amid the mountains, but a low murmur arose from the depth of the valley, and Jesus shuddered. "It is they!" he said within himself, and he walked slowly towards the spot whei-e he had left the three Apostles whom he had chosen to share his lonely watch. Alas! either fatigue or the drowsy murmur of the wind through the pale olive branches had gradu- ally overcome those careless senti- nels. Jesus stood looking on them a moment with holy bitterness ; he had told them that his death was assemble on a platform, and fixing their eyes steadfastly on the moon, they bless God in a long prayer for having created, and also for re- newing her, to teach the Israehtes that they ought to become new creatures : " O moon ! blessed be thy Creator, blessed be he who made near at hand, that the hour of dan- ger had arrived, and yet they slept — they, his kinsmen, his friends, his chosen disciples — apparently indif- ferent to his danger and death vanity of favors, of the ties of blood and friendship! They could keep awake on Thabor, at the time of the glorious transfiguration, but they slept in the hour of trial and misfortune ! A confused noise was heard on the hollow road leading to the little village of Gethsemani, and soon after the light of many torches flashed on the trees. Jesus then, bending over his sleeping Apostles, said in a low, deep voice, "Arise! he who is to betray me is near at hand !" He had scarcely spoken these words when Judas and his band arrived. Advancing to Jesus, audacity in his eyes, and the false smile on his lips, he pointed hini out to the hostile troop who came to seek him, giving him, at the same time, that sacrilegious kiss which thee ;" and then they jump three times as high as they can, saying to the moon : " Even as we leap towards thee, but cannot reach thee, so may our enemies rise against us without power to harm us ! " . . . . (Basnage, 1. vii.-, ch. 16.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 229 has since taken his name. This was the signal. Jesus received the traitor kindly, and said to him, with touching sweetness, " Friend, where- to art thou come?" Whereto was he come ! .... He was come to earn the thirty pieces of silver promised by the Syna- gogue. Cupidity — a cold and cal- culating passion — commits tenfold more crimes, and crimes of a darker dye, than violence. Judas had not time to answer this embarrassing question, for all the others, advancing, threw them- selves on Jesus and laid hold of him. Then arose the hot blood of Peter ben Cephas,* Prince of the Apostles ; he drew his sword and smote one of the servants of the high -priest; but Jesus, arresting the only arm that was raised in his defence, commanded the sword to be restored to its scabbard. " That the Scriptures may be fulfilled," said the sacred Victim, '' so it must * Peter hen Cephas (Peter son of Peter). This is tlie name by which the Prince of toe Apostles is linown in the East. f The Garden of Gethsemani, or Olives, at the foot of the mountain of that name, is surround- ed by a wall about three feet high; it is two * be done." The Lamb of God was willing to be immolated for the sins of the world. Thereupon, there was heard with- in the garden a confused sound of hasty footsteps, of breaking branches, and cries of terror; and men were suddenly seen scaling the low fence f which surrounded the garden: these were the disciples making their escape ! . . . . The hostile troop, having bound Jesus like a criminal, retraced their steps to the holy city, bending their course towards the stone bridge which the Asmonean princes had thrown over the Kedron; but the people of Jerusalem, coming in crowds, had it already occupied; and tradition relates that Jesus was dragged across the stream ; where- by the prophecy w^as literally ful- filled, "He shall drink in the way the water of the torrent." The holy marks of the Saviour's feet and of one of his knees are imprinted in hundred paces long by one hundred and forty wide. It contains a rock, forming a reddish grotto, where it is said that the three Apostles slept. ( Voyages de Jesus Christ, 44th voyage). — Its name of Gethsemani is derived from the richness of its soil: Gethsemani, in Hebrew, signifies fertile valley. 230 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. the betl and on the stone margin f of the brook; so, at least, say the Christians of Jerusalem, who still point them out. Having climbed the hill of Sion, they entered Jeru- salem by the Sterquilian gate, and repaired to the house of Caiaphas, the high-priest, where the scribes and the ancients were assembled. The chief priests and the scribes then demanded of Jesus whether he was the Cheist. "If I tell you," replied the Saviour mildly, "you will not believe me." "Art thou the Son of God ?" demanded Caia- phas. "Thou hast said it," an- swered Jesus; "I am." "He has blasphemed!" cried the high-priest, rending his garments. "He has deserved death," said the scribes and Pharisees. Then they spat upon his face, struck him with their fists, and marched him to and fro, crving; out in bitter mockery, "Prophesy unto * Josephus, Ant. Jud., b. xviii., ch. 4. ■f" Before Judea had fallen under the Roman domination, the Sanhedrim had the power of life and death; but the conquerors took that privilege to themselves. It was the custom of the Romans to leave vanquished nations their temples and their gods ; but in civil matters they obUged them to follow the laws and ordi- nances of the Republic. At the time when us, Christ! and tell us who it was that struck thee !" Meanwhile, Peter, who had sworn rather to die than to abandon him, denied him three times in the court- yard of the high-priest ! Next day, the chief priests and the Pharisees dragged Jesus before Pontius Pilate, who was exceedingly unpopular with them since the af- fair of the imperial ensigns which he had introduced by night into Jerusalem;* but as they hated the Son of God still more, and that the Romans alone could condemn him to death,! they submitted to appear in the pretorium of that idolater, taking every precaution, however, to avoid coming in contact with his garments, his banners, or even his judgment-seat, which would have rendered them unclean for the whole day. Having, therefore, done all that depended on them to avert such a misfortune, these scrupulous Christ was condemned, the Romans were abso- lute masters of the temporal jurisdiction, and the authority of the Jewish senate was confined to. matters purely religious. The Talmudists admit the fact, for they acknowledge that the power of judging was taken from the senate forty years before the ruin of Jerusalem — that is to say, three years before the death of Christ. (See Basnage, liv. vii., ch. 4.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 231 men accused Jesus of having per- verted the people by his doctrine, of having prevented them from pay- ing tribute to Caesar, and, finally, of having assumed the seditious title of King of the Jews As many lies as words. Jesus listened in silence to these false accusations. Pilate, convinced of the profound malignity of the accusers, and the innocence of the accused, would have wished to save Jesus, but could not succeed. The Pharisees, skillful in the art of rais- ing popular tumults, worked upon the people, who kept crying out for the death of the descendent of their ancient kings ; and the governor, * They preserve in Jerusalem the sentence pronounced by Pilate on Jesus Christ We give it here, not as an authentic document, but as a local tradition. " Jesum Nazarenum sub- versorum gentis,* contemptorem Csesaris, et fal- sum Messiam, ut majorum suce gentis testimonie probatum est, ducite ad communis supplicii locum, et cum ludibrio regise majestatis in medio duoruni, latronum aflSgite. I, lictor, expedi cruces." — " Conduct to the ordinary place of execution, Jesus of Nazareth, the se- ducer of the people, who has despised the au- thority of Csesar, and falsely announced himself as the Messiah, according to the testimony of the ancients of his nation; crucify him between two thieves, with the derisive title of King. Go, lictor, prepare the crosses." (Ardicom. In descript. Jesus. ) f Pilate undertook to construct an aqueduct * who well knew how to appease the clamors of the Jews when it suited himself, contented himself with faintly defending, against the fury of his iniquitous accusers, the in- nocent man whom he should have firmly protected. Tired of their cries, overcome by their persever- ance, the Roman washed his hands of his sentence, and pronounced it* He then became anxious to make amends, as it were, for his display of clemency towards Jesus, and to regain the favor of the Jerusalemite populace, whom he had recently caused his lictors to cudgel because of a tumult f arising from his mak- ing too free with the sacred treas- with the money of the sacred treasury, to bring water into Jerusalem from a distance of two hundred stadia. The people, violently excited against the Roman governor, whose real inten- tion they penetrated, assembled by thousands in the streets and public places of Jerusalem; the whole city resounded with execrations against Pilate; "and some even provoked the governor," says Josephus, "by violent abuse, as is usual in popular outbreaks." Pilate, who was not so easily intimidated, ordered his men to take large sticks under their garments and surround the mob; when the latter, after a short respite, began again with their clamors and cutcries, Pilate made a sign to his soldiers, who instantly fell on the people, and even went beyond their instructions, beating those who said nothing as well as those who were loudest X in the clamor. " Those poor people having no 282 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. uiy, under pretence of constructing an aqueduct, with which he had nothing to do, — so he ordered the son of David and of Solomon to be scoui'ged, amid the accUimations of the deicide people, who had dared to ta)ve upon their own heads and tliose of tlieir children the dread responsibility of his death. That done, he delivered him up, though regarding him with pity and with admiration,* to the taunts and in- sults of a soldiery whom the princes of the Synagogue, despite their hatred of them, had stooped to bribe, in order to secure their co- operation in the execution of their revengeful projects, f They well arms," adds Josephus, with compassionate sym- pathy for the Jewish riot, " were therefore in- humanly treated ; some were killed, others wounded, and thus the tumult was quelled." (Joseph. Anl. Jud., 1. xviii., ch. 4.) * Tiberius, acting on the report sent by Pilate, proposed to the senate to deify Jesus. Tertullian mentions this as a notorious fact in his Apology, which he presented to the senate in the name of the Church, and he would not have weakened so good a cause by making any statement that could not be verified. (Tert., Apol. 5.) f Salvador would fain exculpate his co-reli- gionists by casting on the Roman soldiers the odium of the treatment inflicted on Jesus in the pretorium ; but it is clear that the Romans only acted as they did on the instigation of the ene- mies of Christ. The following is the opinion of f knew how to hate — those zealots of the law of Moses, who would kill and mock the Christ, /or God's sake ! When Jesus had reached the court of the pretorium, they seated him on a fallen pillar, J and the entire cohort amused themselves by offering him every imaginable spe- cies of insult. It was the season when the dangerous rhamnus§ was ill full bloom — that bush in whose green thorny mass the symbolical ram of Abraham's sacrifice || was, of old, entangled ; one of the sol- diers ran out and gathered a branch to form a derisive crown for Christ ; the fresh green blossoms were soon St. John Chrysostom on this subject : " It was, in reality, the Jews themselves who condemned Jesus to death, although they attribute the act to Pilate. They would that his blood should fall on themselves and their children. It was they alone who offered him all the insults that he received, who tied him, led him to Pilate, and had him so cruelly treated by the soldiers. Pilate had ordered nothing of all this." (Ser- mon 77, in Matth. ) I This pillar, of gray marble, and not more than two feet high, is in Rome, in the Church of St. Praxeda. § The detached thorns of this crown, which are still preserved, are now recognized for the rhamnus spina Chnsli of Linnaeus. II St. Jerome [in Philem.) says that the ram which Abraham saw entangled in the bush was -i the fiq-ure of Jesus crowned with thorns. Xj) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 233 stained with his sacred blood, every thorn making a deep and insup- portable wound. Having stripped him perfectly naked, they threw over his shoulders a purple rag, placed a reed in his hand by way of sceptre, and, with irony and mocking genuflexions, they saluted him as king. His whole body was but one gajDing wound, for the sharp, pointed lashes mangled the flesh, and sent it flying in pieces through the hall ; his sacred face was covered with spittle, and the blood which flowed from his divine brow, which his chained hands could not wipe away ! . . . . The princes of the priests, the Pharisees, and the doctors of the law, regarded this scene with secret satisfaction ; com- passion was a degrading weakness* in the eyes of those honorable men ! When the Pharisees thought that the idolatrous soldiers had suffi- ciently degraded Jesus before the people to destroy the idea of his * Basnage, 1. vi., ch. 17. — The punishment of scoui'ging was very ancient amongst the Jews, and was not considered infamous. According to the Talmud, kings themselves were punished in this way on certain occasions. " Tradition teaches," says Maimouides, " that the king must not have more than eighteen wives ; if he mar- ^ divinity, the approach of the Sab- bath rendering expedition neces- sary, they took their Victim, whom the Roman procurator reluctantly gave up, and, after placing the enormous Cross on his bleeding and mangled shoulders, they spurr- ed him on with the shafts of their lances in his slow and painful jour- ney to Calvary, where they were to crucify him. The streets were thickly lined with the multitude of spectators ; some displayed a ferocious joy, and loudly anathematized the son of David ; others deplored the hard fate of that young prophet who had done nought but good to men, by whom he was now abandoned and betrayed. But these barren proofs of sympathy were scarcely percep- tible ; the good wept in silence ; those whom he had fed with five loaves in the desert, those whom he had cured, those whom he had loved, were there, lost in the crowd, ries one above that number, he is to be scourged. If he have more horses than his chariot re- quires, let him be scourged. If he amass more gold or silver than is required to pay his minis- ters, let him be scourged." (Maimon., Hdach., Malach., ch. 3.) 234 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRQIN MART. and no voice was raised to protest against his execution;* the Apos- tles whom he most loved had dis- owned him ! the others had f1od, with one single exception ! As he painfully toiled down the long street which leads to the Gate of Judgment, a woman made her way through the crowd; she was very fair, and her mild, sweet face wore the stamp of purity, but it was full of unutterable sorrow ; she was pale as death, and trembled in every limb ; her eyes, which could now weep no more, fell with a glance of such mortal anguish on the gaping wounds of the Saviour,. that the daughters of Jerusalem wept as they saw her, murmuring, " Poor, poor mother ! " She silently glided through the people, who made way for her through an in- stinct of sympathy and compassion. Some hardened Pharisees were load- ing Jesus with bitter taunts and f reproaches — he who was bathed in sweat, and almost expiring under the weight of the Cross ; but his mother heard them not : the foreign soldiers who surrounded her Son made threatening gestures at her; she saw them not. But when a number of spears, pointed against her bosom, arose between her and Jesus, all the fire of the blood of David sparkled in her eyes, and she raised her beauteous head with an air of such ma;jestic sorrow, such utter contempt of death, that the astonished soldiers slowly lowered their arms before that holy and heroic woman. Fierce as their martial life had made them, they still remembered their mothers. Mary turned her trembling steps towards the Saviour; she fixed her sorrowful eyes on that humbled form moving slowly along, bleeding and half naked, under a heavy load ; on that imposing countenance, so * We read in the Misnah that, in the days when the Jews were governed by their own laws, when a criminal was led to the place of execution, a herald went before him on horse- back, crying, " Such a one is condemned for such a crime ; if any one has anything to say in his defence, let him speak." If any one came forward, the criminal was brought back, and ^ the reasons advanced in his favor were exam- ined by two judges who walked beside him ; the prisoner might be thus brought back as often as five times. {Misnah, Tract, de Syned., ch. vi., p. 233.) Jesus Christ being condemned by the Roman laws, could not profit by this national custom. ST MARY MAGDALEN. ;hK:D,& j sadlier xc" LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 23" mild and merciful, which she had ' scarcely ever dared to touch with her chaste lips, and which now, swollen and discolored, covered with blood and spittle, scarce retained the image of the Creator. She passed her hand sadly over her brow, as though to assure herself that the whole was not a fearful dream. No groan relieved her op- pressed heart, no gesture of despair betrayed the secret of her agony ; it only seemed that she was going to die, and die she must, in fact, a thousand times over, during that solemn and heart-rending pause, if He who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb had not divinely sus- tained her. Jesus soon perceived the presence of that mute and mo- tionless figure, and bending still lower his already bowed head, he pronounced the name of "Mother." * Tradition, supported by the authority of St. Boniface and St. Anselm, relates that Jesus saluted his mother with the words, "Hail, mother ! " As the Blessed Virgin is known to have been at the foot of the Cross, there is nothing improbable in this tradition of the Fathers. " There is nothing contrary to faith in these traditions," says M. de Chateaubriand ; "they serve to show how the marvellous and BubUme history of the Passion was engraved on the minds of men. Eighteen centuries have ^ At that word, which fell on the Virgin's ear like a funeral knell, a thrill of anguish ran through her heart; she was seen to totter and grow pale; then, sinking beneath the accumulated load of sorrow, she fell prostrate on those rough stones marked with the blood of Jesus.* .... A young Galilean, with a gloomy, dejected countenance, and a young woman bathed in tears, quickly made their way to where Mary lay ; thanks to their tender solicitude, the sorrowful Virgin recovered her senses, together with the conscious- ness of that physical and moral martyrdom which none, according to the Fathers, ever equalled. Doubt- less, John and Magdalen did all they could to keep her away from the bloody scene about 'to be en- acted on the Golgotha; but their rolled away ; endless persecutions and number- less revolutions fail either to hide or eflface the trace of a mother mourning for her sou." There was built in memory of Our Lady's swoon a church, which was consecrated under the name of Our Lady of the Spasm. "It was there," eays M. de Geramb, " that Mary, repulsed by the soldiers, met her Son bending under the weight of the ignominious wood on which he was to die." 236 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. efforts were vain, for, raising herself * with difficulty, Mary began to climb, under a burning sun, the steepest side of Calvary, which, being the shortest way, was that which they had made Jesus take.* They had reached the fatal and sacred place where the Lamb of God was to satisfy the justice of ofiended Heaven, substituting Him- self for all victims, and taking upon him all our miseries. It was there that he was to offer up that great sacrifice, the efficacy of which goes back, on the one side, to the orig- inal transgression, and extends, on the other, through the night of futu- rity, even to the consummation of the world. That little rocky plat- form was the altar whereon the blood of Christ was to flow in waves to wash a^ay the sins of the world, and annihilate for ever the compact of perdition which made us over at our birth to the Enemy of Souls. But what had become of the sacred * This road, which formerly led to Calvary, and by which the Saviour passed, now exists no longer ; it is covered with houses, in the midst of which is seen a large pillar, pointing out the ninth station ; Turkish fanaticism has done all it could to make the place disagreeable, by heaping dung around it so as to shock the sen- Victim ? Where had his execution- ers hid him from the desolate eyes of his mother ? Mary cast an anx- ious glance over the dreary moun- tain ; she saw the expecting multi- tude, the crosses laid on the ground, laborers carelessly digging out the deep holes that were to receive the three instruments of torture But where was Jesus ? He appeared, but in what a con- dition ! stripped of his garments, without a rag to cover his lacerated flesh and his bleeding wounds — ^lie, so chaste and so pure ! His execu- tioners, ignominiously dragging him along, exposed him thus for some time to the ridicule of the people ; then, the Just One stretched him- self on the Cross, that bed of honor prepared for him by the gratitude of men in return for his immense love ! It was a sight too horrible for those who loved him ; Mary was taken some paces thence, to a species of natural grotto,f where she sibilities of the Christians. (De Geramb, t. ler, p. 363.) f Near the spot where Our Saviour was nailed to the Cross there is a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows. It was to this jjlace that the Virgin retired during the doleful preparations ^ for her Son's execution. (Id. ib., p. 151.) remained standing, white and cold as marble. There was heard with- out a humming noise like that made by the bees of Engaddi when the Hebrew shepherd drives them from the hollow oak. At times there suddenly arose, amid that dull mur- mur, a storm of shouts, mocking cries, and hoarse bursts of laughter: the populace of all nations has ever had ferocious instincts, but that of the Hebrews surpassed itself on this occasion. During an interval of profound silence, accorded perhaps to some new act of barbarity which capti- vated the attention of the multitude, there was heard the stroke of a hammer, a heavy stroke falling on wood and crushed flesh. Magdalen, with a shudder, pressed close to Mary, and the beloved disciple leaned for support against the side of the grotto. Then came a second stroke, heavier, duller, more sinister still; it was followed by two or three others, falling at equal inter- vals, and all was done I " They are nailing him to the Cross," coolly observed a Koman soldier. John and Magdalen exchanged a mourn- ful glance; they felt a sensation something like that which rends the heart during a nocturnal storm, when the waves bring to the shore the drowning mariner's piteous cries, without any possibility of our assisting him. But Mary ! .... a cold sweat bedewed her body, a con- vulsive trembling shook her limbs ; she, too, was crucified — poor, feeble woman ! for never did confessor on the rack, or martyr amid the flames, undergo such tortures both in soul and body. Soon was heard the sharp rub- bing of the cords on the pulleys; the Cross arose slowly in the air, and the Son of Man — his face turned towards those western re- gions where the light was so long expected — was hoisted like a stand- ard before the heathen nations : even so was it written. Thereupon, the reprobate people raised a long, hoarse shout of joy. "Hail, King of the Jews! If God loves him, let Him now deliver him ! If thou art the Son of God, Nazarene, come down from the Cross!" And the robber crucified on his left cursed him in the intervals of his agony; the wretch would fain be a Jew to the last. Jesus, maintaining with 238 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. calni and sublime dignity his great character of prophet and Saviour- God, silently sealed with his blood the high doctrines of the new law. No complaint, no reproach escaped him amid the infamous torture which he underwent, in presence of a w^hole city. He looked down on that misguided people with pity and forgiveness, and, seeking to bend the divine justice in favor of those who crucified him, "Father," said he, with his dying voice — "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" "And yet for eighteen centuries the Father has not forgiven them, and they drag their punishment all over the earth, and everywhere the very slave has to humble himself to look at them."* The Virgin left the temporary asylum where she had taken shel- ter, and walked, with her head bowed down, towards the place of execution. At some paces from the infamous tree, rude soldiers were * M. de Lamennais. f It is an ancient tradition that the Virgin herself wove her Son's tunic. \ The cathedral of Treves possesses one of these sacred garments, and at one of its recent annual expositions, the police reports announced * casting lots for the seamless robe which her own hands had spun,f and clamorously contending for the sacred garments which had wrought so many miracles. J A slight con- vulsion passed over Mary's features; she thought of the time when, rich only in the love of Jesus, but free from immediate anxiety, she worked, in the evenings, by his side, fabri- cating that festal robe; now, the remembrance was torture to her heart, for the light which gilded her past days of happiness did but darken the gloom of her present sorrow. She raised her eyes to heaven, seeking there, as usual, the strength to endure, and her eye met that of the crucified God. At that fearful sight, hei' feet were rooted to the earth, and she stood so petri- fied with horror that all she had hitherto suff'ered seemed no more than a dream, a half-efi'aced vision : all was absorbed in the Cross. § Jesus, casting on the Virgin a sweet and mysterious look, seemed the presence of twenty-five thousand pilgrims in that cit}\ § The Fathers and the gre.at doctors of the Church place the sufferings of the Virgin on Calvary above those of all the martyrs. "Virgo universos martyres tantum excedit quantum sol LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 239 to say to her, as he did on the * preceding evening to his Apostles, "Mother, the hour is come!" And what hour was that? It was the most memorable and eventful hour ever marked by the shadow of the sun since time began its course ; the hour when the Son of God was to triumph over the world, death, and hell, and even over divine justice itself; the hour of the fulfillment of prophecies, of the abolition of sacrifices, of the restoration of woman to her prime- val dignity, of the slave's emanci- pation, and of our eternal redemp- tion. And the Virgin fancied she could see the patriarchs, the just kings, the prophets inspired by God, bowing down before Christ, like the sheafs of the sons of Jacob before the mystical sheaf of Joseph. She thought she could see Moses and Aaron laying before the new tree of life the ark of the covenant, the ephod, the rational, the golden plate and the almond-tree branch — symbols of the Hebrew priest- ad reliqua astra," says St. Basil; and St. Aiisehn adds, " Quidquid crudelitatis inflictum est cor- poribus martyrum leve fuit aut potius nihil comparatione tuse passionis." {De Ex. Virg., cap. 5.) . hood whose mission was about to end ; then, David placing his pro- phetic harp beside the sword of Phineas, the sacred knife of Abra- ham, and the brazen serpent. Priests and victims, rites and ordi- nances, types and symbols, grouped around the Cross, awaited their con- summation ; and the book with the seven brazen seals was opened at the foot of the High-Priest accord- ing to the order of Melchisedech, which replaced that of Aaron. The ancient world, receding like the waves, gave place to other images, and Mary seemed at. that moment to behold all the nations of the earth waiting at the foot of the Cross to receive tlie Gospel. Ethio- pia and the isles sti-etched out their hands towards the Messiah; the desert, beginning to rejoice, blos- somed like the rose ; the knowledge of God, filled the whole earth as the great waters cover the sandy bed of the ocean; and a thousand voices seemed to repeat in a thousand barbarous tongues, " Chiist has conquered; blessed be his name!" The noble and generous heart of Mary forgot, for a while, its own , poignant suiferings, to sympathize 240 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. in the triumph of the law of grace, f and in the world's regeneration ; but the vision of glory quickly vanished, and grief returned in all its force; like Rachel, the Virgin mourned for her first-born, and would not be comforted. Meanwhile, all nature seemed to sympathize in the sufferings of its God ; the sky was gradually ob- scured, and the waning light gave a mournful coloring to that grand and sterile landscape so well suited to the crime of which it was the theatre. Every moment the dark- ness increased ; the dew fell, from the sudden interruption of the heat; the eagles screamed as they sought their nightly shelter; the jackals howled on the banks of the Kedron, and Calvary, already so gloomy in itself, assumed the appearance of a great mausoleum of black marble. The people, strongly impressed by this unusual occurrence, were struck * Phlegon relates that in the two hundred and second Olympiad, corresponding with the 33d year of our era, there was the greatest eclipse of the sun ever seen, and that the stars appeared at noon-day; but astronomy proving that there was no echpse in that yeai', compels OS to acknowledge that the cause of this un- heard-of darkness was altogether supernaturaL silent with fear, and only a few voices — those of the chief priests and Pharisees— continued to curse the Christ. Soon, through the gloomy veil which shrouded the face of the firmament, the stars shone out like funeral torches burning around a coffin, shedding over the scene of the deicide a lurid, greenish light, which gave to the mass of specta- tors grouped on the sides of the mountain the appearance of an assembly of demons and spectres. They looked at each other and grew pale. Yainly did the scribes and Pharisees — too far advanced in crime to attempt to recede— en- deavor to account for this prodigy by natural means ; the longer the darkness continued, the less conclu- sive did their reasons appear. Old men, shaking their hoary heads, declared they had never beheld such an eclipse;* and the learned. " We observed," says St. Deuis, the Areopagite, who was then at Heliopolis, " that the moon sud- denly interposed between the sun and the earth, although the time of that conjunction was not in accordance with the natural order of the laws to which the stars are subject," etc. (Seventh Epistle to Polycarpe). LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 241 who were versed in the science of the Chaldeans, maintained, on the other hand, that no eclipse was either foreseen or possible in the then position of the moon. This eclipse, of three hours, was one of the Messianic prodigies which were to signalize the wrath of heaven when Christ was put to death. "It shall come to pass in that day, " said the prophet Amos, "that the sun shall go down at mid-day ; and I will make the earth dark in the day of light." This darkness extended even to Egypt, where St. Denis, the Areopagite, was studying philosophy at Heli- opolis. Struck with terror, the young Greek cried out, address- ing his preceptor, Apollophanes, "Either the world is about to be destroyed, or the God of nature suffers ! " * In the midst of the general con- sternation, Jesus occupied himself with the faithful souls who gathered around his Cross in that hour of ignominy. Touched by the courage of John, and the profound affliction which that young and ardent dis- ciple sought not to conceal, he * Seventh Epidle to Polycarpe. * would leave him a pledge of his divine affection. He could leave him no worldly wealth — he, who had not had a stone whereon to lay his head, and who was even about to receive interment from the charity of a disciple — he had nothing in the world to leave but his mother ! that mother who had clung to him through every trial, and who was now dying, as it were, with him. Her he solemnly bequeathed to his favorite disciple as an earnest of the celestial treasures which he reserved for him in the kingdom of his Father. Knowing how well he was loved by those two holy souls, he foresaw, in his adorable good- ness, the fearful vacuum which his death would make in their hearts, and he would strengthen these two helpless shrubs by intertwining their detached branches. By this arrangement, which gave her a new and dear interest in life, the Virgin was to understand that she was not permitted to follow her Son to the grave, and that the term of her earthly pilgrimage was not yet arrived. She submitted to the divine will through love for us, whom she adopted in the person of 242 LIFE OF THE BLESSED yiJiUJN MARY. the holy Apostle. Mary's sacrifice, humanly speaking, almost equalled that of Chiist. He willingly con- sented to die; she to live! .... Both those noble hearts were con- simied with love for men, and were alone able to understand each other; fbr their thoughts were not as our thoughts, and the gold of their vir- tues was without alloy. The manner in which Jesus be- queathed Mary to the yoimg fisher- man of Bethsaida was dignified and simple, like all the acts of his mor- tal life. "Woman, behold thy son;" and to the beloved disciple, "Behold thy mother." K he used not, in speaking to Mary, a more endearing appellation, it was because he knew the power of the name which he thought proper to omit, and would not re- open wounds already so deep and so painful. Then Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, " I thu-st." "Now there was a vessel set there full of vinegar. And they, put- ting a &ponge full of vinegar about hyssop, offered it to his mouth." Infamous to the last! Jesus having taken the vinegar, said, "It is consummated." Then, in order to prove to the world that he died, not by the power of death, but by a formal act of his own will, he gave a loud cry, bowed down his head and expired ! . . . . At that moment the pagan idols tottered on their pedestals ; the star of Moses, which had shone, but for one single point of the globe, and that but for a season, sank then, below the horizon, and the sim of the Gospel, destined to light the world from pole to pole, and to last through all time, arose radiant from the east. But God owed prodigies to the despised dignity of his Son, and they were not slow in coming. The supernatural darkness, as it began to disappear, was succeeded by the violent shocks of an earth- quake, which destroyed twenty cities in Asia.* At the same in- stant the veil of the Temple was rent asunder, rocks split, and sev- eral bodies of the saints who had * Pliny and Strabo speak of this earthquake. "It was so violent," say both these authors, " that it was felt even in Italy." THE CRUCIFIXION. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 243 slept in death arose and came into Jerusalem, to the great terror of the inhabitants. Then it was that there was a marvellous reaction in favor of Je- sus ; the centurion and his soldiers, who had presided at the execution, cried out with one voice that the Nazarene prophet was certainly more than man; and that immense crowd of people who had heaped blasphemies and insults, mockery and derision, on Christ in his agony, went down from the mountain strik- ing their breasts, and repeating in dismay, "Indeed Tms was the Son OF God!" In the midst of the despairing cries of the people, who fled in all directions without knowing where to turn their steps, and whilst the rocky flanks of the Golgotha were bursting open, there was seen by the pale, lurid light a woman stand- ing completely motionless amid the t convulsions and ruins of nature. She seemed insensible to the gen- eral consternation ; her htinds joined in the attitude of prayer, she was wholly absorbed in the sorrowful contemplation of the crucified pro- phet. And the daughters of Jerusalem wept again, saying with compas- sion, " Poor mother !" Towards evening the Pharisees, unwilling that the sanctity of the Sabbath, which commenced at night- fall, should be endangered by allow- ing the bodies to remain on the Cross, went to ask Pilate's permis- sion to have them removed. The permission obtained, 'they placed ladders against the gibbets whereon the two thieves were still in their agony, and, having rudely torn their hands and feet from the Cross, dis- patched them by breaking their legs and arms. Jesus being quite dead,* a soldier contented himself * According to the Mussulmans, Jesus is not dead. " The Jews," says Mahomet, " did not kill Jesus Christ ; another body was substituted for his, so as to deceive their barbarity ; they did not crucify him ; God took him up to heaven." {Koran, ch. 4.) The Mussulman tra- dition says that when the last trumpet shall sound, Aisa (Jesus Christ) shall come down from heaven and announce to all the children ^ of men the great day of general judgment ; he shall then die and be interred beside Mahomet ; when the dead arise from their graves, both shall go forth together and ascend to heaven. Burkhardt, who visited the great mosque in Medina which contains the three tombs of ^I - hornet, Aboubeker, and Omar, all three of black stone covered with precious stuffs, and sur- rounded with magnificent ex-voio, says that S44 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY: with plunging his spear into his side, whereupon the sacred blood that was to piu-ify the world of its crimes flowed in streams to the ground. At some distance stood two veiled women, one of whom leaned on the other for support with a helplessness that betrayed the most heart-rending grief; both were timidly watching the move- ments of the soldiers ; it was Mary and Magdalen, for Magdalen was also there ; and at a distance were seen the other women of Galilee who had quitted all for Jesus, and who had not abandoned him even in his hour of death and ignominy. "Honor to them!" says Abeilard, "for, when the disciples and Apos- tles fled like cowards over the mountains, these frail but com-age- ous creatures accompanied Christ even to the foot of the Cross, and quitted him not till he was laid in the sepulchre ! " Then came Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy senator who had ob- tained from Pilate the body of Jesus, — whose disciple he was in there was left near the touib of Mahomet" a vacant place, destined to receive Jesus after his death. Abo »'e this space and Mahomet's tomb f secret, — in order to give him decent burial. lie took it down from the Cross and prepared to wrap it up in a shroud of flne Egyptian linen, which he had purchased in Jerusa- lem, when he saw at his feet a woman pale as death, holding out her arms, with all the touching and sublime energy of grief, to receive the crucified God. Her whole frame was convulsed with anguish, and her lips refused to utter the prayer that arose from her heart, but every feature of her beautiful face was expressive of the most earnest sup- * plication. The senator, recognizing Mary, made a sign of compassion- ate sympathy, and laid on her trem- bling knees the divine burden which he had respectfully borne on his own shoulders. Tlius, the Blessed Virgin had, at- length, the mournful consolation of pressing to her bleed- ing heart the disfigured body of her Son, and to lay her bloodless lips on the wounds made by the nails. Magdalen, on her knees, bathed with her scalding tears the bloody feet of her Lord, and moaned like a was hung a splendid brocade canopy, giirnished with diamonds, which was stolen by Sioud when he took Medina. ^Vi)t '\}thfM''hnm^'^]pi^nll t J-.Sadlf!r * C'New'V - LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 24t woimded dove. Behind them stood the weeping women of Galilee.* Meanwhile, some of Joseph's ser- vants prepared the perfumes on the * Some authors hold that these holy women picked up earth soaked with the precious blood of Jesus, aud that this is how it came to be in some French churches, such as St. Denis and the Holy Chapel, in Paris. stone of unctwn,f and others opened the sepulchre, hewn in the rock, which was to receive the mortal remains of the Son of God. f The "stone of unction" is now in the chapel of Calvary. Those in whose keeping it is have been obliged, in order to preserve it, to cover it with white marble, and surround it with an iron balustrade. CHAPTER XYIII. DEATH OF MARY. ALM was begin- ning to reappear, and the signs of divine wrath no longer terrified the Jews who had just shed the Saviour's blood. Like all other ferocious animals, the executioners of Christ had laid aside their savage instinct during the hour of peril. Frightened, at frst, on account of what they had (^one, they feared that the riven locks of Calvary might crush them in their fall, and that the rending earth might swallow them alive into ^ the gloomy depths of the scJieol ; but their remorse vanished with their fears, and according as the sky resumed its wonted serenity, so did their evil nature resume its sway. Unable to deny the prodigies which a whole people had seen with their eyes, and which was still verified by the yawning rocks, the tombs scarcely closed, and the riven veil of the Temple, they ascribed them to magic, and maintained that this Jesus, so mighty in word aud work, was but a son of Belial, who had infatuated the people and com- 246 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. iiiaiuled the elements by the ineifa- ble name of the God of Israel, which he had taken by surprise from the Holy of Holies.* And the people allowed themselves to be caught by this bait thrown out by their chiefs ; for there is no slanderous absurdity which finds not credulous ears to receive, and nimble tongues to spread it. Meanwhile, a vigilant guard, chosen from amongst the sat- ellites of the high-priest, watched by turns around the sepulchre ; for Jesus had announced that he would rise on the third day, and the princes of the synagogue pretend- ed to fear that his disciples might carry him off during the night. The third day was beginning to dawn, but the east was, as yet, scarcely tinted with its roseate flush, when several women of Gali- lee, bearing perfumes and aromatic plants to embalm Jesus, after the manner of the kings of Juda,f ap- peared on the fatal mountain, mov- ing pensively towards the garden wherein was- the tomb of Christ. * See Basnage, 1. vi., cb. 27 and 28. f It is clear that they intended a peculiar sort of embalming for Jesus, since Nicodemus had already wrapped him up in cloths perfumed with mvrrh. f Tradition has it that Mary wjis amongst these holy women. Iler dejected countenance resembled some beautiful ruin prostrated by the fierce wind of adversity; but her look was expressive not only of grief, but of expectation. The deicide city still slept in the balmy breeze of the morning ; the flowers w^ere opening their cups heavy with dew, the birds were singing in the damp branches of the wild fig-trees, and the air was gradually assuming the warm coloring of the daw^n ; nature seemed to assume her robe of light with unwonted joy, and that grand, though gloomy, landscape w^liich surrounds Jerusalem, began to wear a softer and gayer aspect, till then unknown, as though con- scious of some glorious mystery passing near. Suddenly, in the midst of that smiling scene, a shock is felt; the stone that closes the mouth of the sepulchre rolls back as if pushed by some mighty arm ; the guards fall stupefied to the ground, and the w^omen, who stood by Jesus during his long agony on the Cross, now shudder and grow pale, fearing that the terrible prodigies w^hich accom- LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIROIN MART. 247 panied the death of the Son of Man * are about to be renewed. But an angel in snow-white gar- ments, with a face radiant as the lightning, appears sitting on the stone, and reassures the servants of Christ. "Fear not," said he, mild- ly, " I know that you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified ; he is not here ; he is risen, as he told you. Come and see the place Tvhere the Lord was laid." Whilst the pious Galileans looked timidly into the sepulchre, wondering at sight of the shroud and the per- fumed cloths wdiich remained there, the Virgin, her face radiant with a holy joy, stood leaning against an olive-tree at some distance. A young man, in the homely garb of the people, stood conversing w^th her in a low voice. That young man was the first-born amongst the dead, the glorious conqueror of hell, Jesus Christ* No one knew^ what passed during that solemn inter- view", but w^e may believe that * St. Ambrose, who lived in the 4th century, says that the Virgin was the first who had the happiness of seeing Jesus after his resurrec- tion ; and the poet Sedulius, who flourished shortly after St. Ambrose, likewise introduces that tradition into his poems. They both speak ^ Mary, whose strong mind had been so severely tried by affliction, felt then a degree of bliss which we cannot know without dying. Our Lord, during the forty days following his resmiection, frequent- ly manifested himself to the Apos- tles, and talked with them on mat- ters appertaining to the kingdom of God and the regeneration to be wrought amongst men by baptism. Pious authors have supposed that the Virgin was the most favored in these consoling apparitions, and that she found in them a foretaste of the joys of heaven. The bitter waters of her affliction were changed into sources of grace, and the Sav- iour " nourished her with the hiddea manna which he reserves for those who practise the patience enjoined by his law." At length, the hour came when, by the divine behest, the Son of God was to be recalled to heaven ; his redeeming mission was accom- plished, and the Apostles, fully con- of it as a belief general amongst Christians. The Arab historians have preserved this tradi- tion : iemael, son of AH relates that Jesus came down from heaven to console Mary, his weeping mother. An altar has been erected on the site of this touching interview. vinced of his divinity by his resur- rection, had received from him the necessary instructions for convert- ing the nations to his admirable Gospel. At noon, on the fortieth day, he went out with them from Jerusalem towards the heights of Bethany. This dh-ection was not taken by chance ; there was that olive-crown- ed mountain whereon the Saviour, detaching himself from the crowd, had often prayed to his Father, while the silent moon shone bright- ly over the still waters of the Dead Sea, the green valley of the Jordan, and the gigantic palms of the plain of Jericho, for in that elevated posi- tion "all far things seemed near." There was, also, that famous garden where Christ had undergone the first of his agony. It was just that his glory should commence in the same places that had witnessed his generous sufferings, and that those fields, those woods, those shady wilds, where he had so often prayed and meditated, should receive the impression of his last footsteps be- fore he again ascended to heaw3n. Arrived on the summit of that lofty mountaiif, whence he could be- f hold a great part of Judea, and make a farewell sign to those scenes which he had rendered famous by his miracles and his death, the Saviour stopped on an open place, near a grove of olives, whose pale foliage w^as parched and shrivelled by the scorching noonday sun. There, after raising his pierced hands towards his heavenly Father, as though recommending to Him his infant Church, he extended them over his mother and his dis- ciples, as Jacob did over the sons of Joseph; then lifted himself up by his own power and slowly as- cended into heaven. This last act of the Saviour w^orthily sealed his divine mission. During his life, he went about doing good ; on Cal- vary, he prayed for his execution- ers ; and he ascended to heaven blessing the humble friends whom he left behind him on the earth. While his hands were still raised over his prostrate disciples, they saw him enter a white cloud, which concealed him from their view. The ascension of Our Lord had not that gloomy and awful charac- ter which terrified the people in ancient times. The law of Moses LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 249 had been proclaimed with sound of trumpet, amid the thunder's roar and the lightning's flash ; Elias had been taken up to heaven in a liery chariot; but the world's Redeemer was gently borne on a fleecy cloud, with that sort of calm and serene majesty which accorded with the genius of the Gospel and the touch- ing character of its author. The angels — those beneficent spirits who rejoice in the happi- ness of men — were also seen to figure in that closing scene of the great drama of Redemption. Their divine songs had announced to the shepherds the birth of the King- Messiah; their voice had proclaim- ed his resurrection from the dead; it was proper, then, that their words should confirm his glorious ascension. Whilst the disciples were atten- tively watching Jesus as he ascend- ed into heaven, two men clothed in white stood suddenly before them, and said, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking up to heaven? This Jesus, who is taken up from you to heaven, shall so come as you have seen him goi ng into heaven." * Apoc, ch. xxi., V. 4. The Apostles and disciples cast down their eyes, dazzled by the glorious vision ; but did the Virgin cast down hers ? Was she denied the privilege of seeing her divine Son take his place in majesty at the right hand of Jehovah, amid the inaccessible light of the Saints ? Was she really less favored than St. Stephen and the beloved dis- ciple? That is scarcely possible. She who was morally crucified with Jesus on Calvary deserved to be glorified with him ; it was her right, and she had dearly purchased it! Yes, Mary must have been per- mitted to catch a glimpse of that peaceful and happy country into which Jesus obtained admission for us by his blood, and where he him- self wipes away the tears of the just;* then the pearl gates of the heavenly Jerusalem f slowly closed on the conquering God, and the Virgin, separated for a time from him she loved, remained alone on the earth. Forty days after, we find her at prayer in the "upper chamber," where she received the Holy Ghost with the Apostles. ^_^ t Jbid., V. 21. '2:)0 LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Maiy was the luminous pillar t that guided the march of the infant Church. It was to her that the Apostles did homage for the numer- ous ears which they gathered from the barren field of the synagogue into the granary of the Lord. She accepted this tribute in the name of her divine Son with graceful humility, and was continually seen surrounded by the poor, the sinful, and the unhappy; for she always loved in an especial manner those to whom she could do good. The Evangelists came to her for light ; the Apostles, for unction, courage, and constancy ; the afflicted, for spiritual consolation, — and all went away blessing her. The Sun of Justice had set on the gloomy hori- zon of the Golgotha; but the Star of the Sea still reflected his softest- rays over the renovated world, and shed a benignant influence on the cradle of Christianity. The Virgin remained in Jerusalem till the terrible persecution, which broke out in the year 44 of Our Lord, forced her to leave it with the Apostles. Her adopted son took her with him to Ephesus, whither she was followed by Magdalen. Nothing is now known of Mary's sojourn in Ephesus ; this is easily accounted for by the engrossing anxieties of the time. After the resurrection of the Saviour, the Apostles, solely taken up with the propagation of the faith, considered everything as of minor importance that did not immediately bear "on that all-absorbing object. Full of their lofty mission, entirely devoted to the salvation of souls, they forgot themselves so completely, that they have barely left us a few unfinished records of the evangelical labors which changed the face of the globe, — so that their history resem- bles a sublime but almost effaced epitaph, having neither beginning nor end. That the mother of Jesus shared the fate of the Apostles may well be conceived; the last years of her life having passed away, far from Jerusalem, in a strange land, where her dwelling was signalized by no striking incident, have left no durable impression on the fleet- ing memory of man. Neverthe- less, the flourishing condition of the Church of Ephesus, its tender devo- tion to Mary, and the praise which St. Paul bestows on its piety, suffi- LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIBGIN MARY. 251 ciently indicate the fruitful cares f of the Virgin, and the divine bless- ing which followed her everywhere. The Eose of Jesse left a portion of her perfume on the air, and that vestige, however slight it be, is a precious revelation of her passage. The coasts of Asia Minor, covered with opulent cities, rich in vegeta- tion, and washed by a sea which bore thither a multitude of vessels, would have seemed, to ordinary exiles, a splendid compensation for the tall, bleak mountains of Pales- tine. It is doubtful whether such was the opinion of the Virgin of Nazareth : the steps of the Man- God had not hallowed that enchant- ed land, and the graves of her fathers were not there ! . . . . How often did Mary and Magda- len sigh for their native land, as, seated under a plane-tree on the margin of that fair Icarian sea * "We read in some Greek authors of the 7th and following centuries, that, after the ascen- sion of Christ, St. Mary Magdalen accompanied the Virgin and St. John to Ephesus, and that she died and was buried in that city. Such is also the opinion of Modestus, patriarch of Jeru- salem, who flourished in 920 ; of St. Gregory of Tours, and of St. Willebald. The latter, in his account of his journey from Jerusalem, says that he saw at Ephesus the tomb of St. Mary whose waves die away amid myr- tles on the narrow sandy beach, they followed the course of some Greek galley bound for Syria ! The stainless snows of Lebanon, the blueish peaks of Carmel, the spark- ling waters of the Lake of Tiberias, were each, in turn, the subject of their discourse ; the scenes of their own land, embellished by distance, passed successively before them, and seemed a thousand times preferable to that soft, luxurious Ionia which was, in fact, to the land of Jehovah what the lyre of Anacreon is to the harp of David. It was during her stay at Ephe- sus that the Virgin lost the faith- ful companion who, in imitation of Ruth, had left her home and kin- dred to follow her across the sea: Magdalen died, and Mary wept for her, as Jesus had wept for Lazarus.* Of all the ties of kindred and Magdalen. The Emperor Leo, the philosopher, had the reHcs of the saint translated from Ephesus to Constantinople, where they were placed in the church of St. Lazarus, about the year 890. — Another tradition, maintained by some respectable authors, will have it that St. Mary Magdalen ended her days in Provence. We have adopted the contrary opinion, because it seemed more probable, but yet without at- ^i tempting to decide the question. 252 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. affection, St John alone remained | to the Virgin — St. John, the kind and loving disciple whom her dying Son had bequeathed to her. She followed him, it is thought, in his travels, and it was doubtless in his conversations with the Queen of prophets that St. John acquired the marvellous knowledge which he dis- plays in his Gospel. Assisted by light fi-om Her whom the Fathers have compared to the golden can- dlestick with seven branches, the young fisherman of Bethsaida dived deeper than any other into the in- comprehensible mystery of the un- created essence of the Word, and his mind took so bold a flight amid the mysterious heights of heaven, that, compared with him, the other Evangelists seem but to skim the earth.*..,. ,,. ■J » ■ Meanwhile, the sowers of Christ had sowed the good seed of the word over every part of the Roman world ; the evangelical harvest was * The Abb6 Rupert {in Cant. Cant.) states that the Blessed Virgin supplied by her lights what the Holy Ghost, who had given Himself ip proportion to the disciples, had not thought proper to reveal to them ; and the Holy Fathers all agree that it was from the Blessed Virgin St. Luke obtained many of his marvellous and minute particulars of the infancy of Jesus Christ. ^ green, and the laborers of the Lord worked with ardor in the sacred field. Mary considered that her mission on earth was accomplished, and that the Church could hence- forward maintain herself. Then, like a tired workwoman who seeks rest and shelter during the heat of the day, she began to sigh after the cool shade of the tree of life which grows near the throne of God, and for the living, sanctifying waters which flow beneath its branches.f This desire of his mother was known to Him who fathoms the depths of the soul, and the angel who stands at his right hand came to inform the future Queen of heaven that her Son had granted her wish. J At this divine revelation, to which was added, as Mc^phorus tells us, that of the day and hour of her death, the daughter of Abraham began to sigh yet more ardently for her distant country ; she would fain behold once more the lofty f Apoc, ch. xxii., v. 1 and 2. X Tradition relates that the Blessed Virgin was apprised of her approaching death by the ministry of an angel, who made her acquainted with the day and the hour when it was to take place. (Descoutures, p. 235. — Pere Croiset, t. xviii., p. 138.) LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIROIN MARY. 253 mountains of Judea, where the memory of the Redemption still floated on every breeze, and to die in sight of Calvary. St. John, to whom her wishes were at all times laws, made immediate preparations for returning to Palestine. The Hebrew travellers probably embarked at Miletus, which was then famous as the rendezvous of all ships from Europe and Asia navi- gating those waters. While cross- ing the Grecian seas, the Virgin and the Evangelist recognized, in pass- ing, the isle of Ohio, whose people, long possessed of the empire of the sea, were the first to introduce that odious slave-trade which the Gospel was gradually to abolish ; then Les- bos, the land of lyric poets, where the hymn to the most pure Virgin was to replace the burning odes of Sappho and the more masculine strains of Alceus. Seeing the top of the Temple of Esculapius soaring into the clouds — that temple which then attracted whole multitudes of people to the Island of Cos — the * The followers of Mahomet have preserved the remembrance of the miracles of Christ. They pretend that the breath of Our Lord, which they call had Messih (the breath of the ^ * Virgin-mother was reminded of her divine Son, who, of all the children of men, had power instantly to heal the sick and raise the dead to life.* Delos, the birth-place of Apollo, Ehodes, the cradle of Jupiter, rose successively from amid the waters, with their green mountains and their ancient temples, peopled with gods who were soon to be banished to the depths of hell by the God who was crucified on Calvary. At some distance from Cyprus there was seen, far up amid the clouds, a dark point traced on the blue dome of heaven ; it was the mount whereon the prophet Elias had of old erected an altar to the future mother of the Saviour, and where his disciples were then about to place themselves under her special protection. Next day, the galley entered a port of Syria — Sidon, per- haps — its commercial intercoui*se being frequent with Palestine, as the sacred books relate. They returned to Israel after an absence of several years. Mary Messiah), not only raised the dead, but could even give life to things inanimate. (D'Herb., Biblioth. Orient., t. i., p. 365.) S54 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. withdrew to the mountain of Sion, within a short distance of the ruin- ous and deserted palace of the princes of her race, to the house which had been sanctified by the descent of the Holy Ghost. St. John, on his side, went to seek St. James, a cousin-germain of the Vir- gin and the first bishop of Jerusa- lem, to inform him, as well as the faithful who composed his already numerous church of Jerusalem, that the mother of Jesus had returned to die amongst them. The day and the hour were come; the saints of Jerusalem once more beheld the daughter of David, still poor, still fair, still humble ; for one would have said that this admirable and holy creature escaped the de- stroying action of time, and that, predestined from her birth to a complete and glorious immortality, nothing in her was to perish.* Se- rious, but not sick, she received the Apostles and disciples seated on a small bed of mean appearance, suit- ed to her unpretending garments. * St. Denis, an eye-witness of the death of the Blessed Virgin, affirms that, at that advanced period of her Ufe, she was still strikingly beau- tiful * There was in her modest yet noble mien something so solemn and so touching that the whole assembly burst into tears. Mary alone was calm, although the vast chamber was crowded with old disciples and new Christians, all equally anxious to see and hear her. The night had fallen, and lamps, with many branches, seemed to shed, with their pale light, something solemn and mysterious over that sad and silent assembly. The Apos- tles, deeply moved, stood close around the bed of death. St. Peter, who had so tenderly loved the Son of God during his life, contemplated the Virgin - mother with profound sorrow, and his speaking glance seemed to say to the bishop of Jeru- salem, " How much she resembles Christ!" In fact, there was a re- markable likeness ;f and the bowed head of Mary, recalling that of the Saviour during the last Supper, com- pleted the effect. St. James, who had received from the Jews them- selves the surname of Just, and who f Jesus hung his head a little, which took some- thing from his height ; his face had much resem- blance to that of his mother, especially in the lower part. (Nic, Hisl. Eccles., t. i., p. 125.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 255 well knew how to subdue his feel- ings, sternly repressed the tears which moistened his eyelids. The Prince of the Apostles — a frank and impulsive man — was deeply affected, and strove not to conceal his emo- tion ; St. John had wrapped a fold of his Greek mantle around his head, but his sobs betrayed him. There was not, in all the crowd, a heart unmoved, or an eye unmoistened by a tear. Mary, sympathizing in the general emotion, and almost forget- ting the splendor which awaited her on high, in order to wipe away the tears of those who loved her, applied herself to confirm the faith of her children, to revive their pious hopes, and to inflame their charity; she told them with unequalled eloquence of those mighty and sublime things which people hold their breath to hear, which raise man above himself, and render him capable of any undertaking. Her speech, so mild that the Scripture has compared it * St. John Damascene. f Some ancient Fathers, and, amongst others, St. Epiphanius, seem to doubt whether the Mother of God really died, or whether she re- mained immortal, being taken body and soul to heaven ; but the opinion of the Church is, that the Blessed Virgin did really die according to to a honeycomb, became gradually strong ; the daughter of David and of Solomon, the inspired prophetess who had extemporaneously com- posed the triumphal hymn of the Ma^nijicat, soared up to considera- tions so high that the listeners forgot, in their ecstasy, that death was to close that mystic strain. But the fatal hour approached. Mary ex- tended her protecting hands over the poor orphans whom she was about to quit, and, raising her beau- tiful eyes to the stars which shone brightly in the firmament, she saw the heavens open, and the Son of man extending his arms towards her from amidst a luminous cloud.* At this sight a roseate flush overspread her face, her eyes sparkled with ma- ternal love, joy attained its height, adoration became ecstatic, and her soul, disengaging itself without an effort from its fair and virginal cov- ering, fell gently into the bosom of God.f the condition of the flesh, and this opinion is clearly manifested in the Mass for the Feast of the Assumption. The Blessed Virgin died dur- ing the night which precedes the 15th of August The date of her death is very uncertain. Euse- bius fixes it in the year 48 of our era ; so that^ according to him, Mary lived sixty-eight years ; SM LIFE OF THE BLESSED VTROTN AfARY. Mary was no more, but her coun- tenance, which had assumed the ex- pression of a tranquil slumber, was 80 sweet to look upon that it seemed as though Death hesitated to set his seal on that ti'ophy which he was only to retain for a day. The death-lamp was lit ; the win- dows were all thrown open, and the summer breeze made its way into the room with the flickering beams of the stare. One would have said that a miraculous light filled the room when Mary had drawn her last sigh : it was, perhaps, the glory of Grod which surrounded the spot- less soul of the predestined Virgin. When the death of Mary was no longer doubtful, there was nothing heard, at first, but tears and lamen- bnt Nicephorus (b. xi., ch. 21) formally says that she died in the fifth year of the reign of Claudius, that is to say, in the 3'ear of Rome 798, or 45 of the Christian era. Then, supposing that the Blessed "Virgin was sixteen years old when the Saviour was born, she would have lived sixty- one years. Hippolytus of Thebes states, in his chronicle, that the Blessed Virgin became a mother at the age of sixteen, and died eleven years after Jesus Christ. According to some other authors, the Virgin was sixty-six when she died. * " All the host of heaven," says St. Jerome, *' came to meet the Mother of God at the mo- ment of her death, singing hymns and canticles, t tations ; then the funeral chant arose on the stillness of the night ; the angels chimed in with their golden harps,* and the echoes of David's mouldering palace sadly repeated the wail over the tombs of the kings of Juda. On the following day, the faithful brought in, with pious profusion, the most precious perfumes and the richest stuff's for the burial of the Queen of Virgins. They embalmed her, according to the custom of her people, but her blessed remains ex- haled a sweeter odor than the per- fumed bands wherewith she was bound. The preparations being duly completed, the sacred body of the Mother of God was placed in a portable litter filled with aromatics,f which were heard by all present. Militiam ccelorum, cum suis agminibus, festive obviam venisse Genetrici Dei cum laudibus et canticis, earaque ingenti lumine circumfulsisse et usque ad tronum perduxisse." f Coffins, amongst the Jews, in Mary's time, were a species of litter so contrived that it was easy to carry the dead body ; this litter was filled with aromatics. Josephus, describing the interment of Herod the Great, says that his litter was adorned with precious stones, that his body reposed on purple cloth, that he had the jewelled crown upon his head, and that his whole household followed the htter to the ^ sepulchre. LIFE OF TEE BLESSED VIRGIHT MARY. 257 and covered with a sumptuous veil, and the Apostles bore it on their shoulders to the Yalley of Josaphat.* The Christians of Jerusalem, bear- ing lighted tapers, and chanting hymns and psalms, followed sadly and reverently the remains of Mary. Arrived at the place of sepulture, the mom-nful procession stopped. Through the care of the holy women of Jerusalem, the tomb was de- prived of its gloomy aspect, and the sepulchral cave presented to the view only a flowery arbor, f The Apostles gently laid down the mortal remains of Mary, and, doing so, they wept. Of all the pane- gyrics pronounced on that occasion, that of Hierotheus was the most remarkable. St. Denis, the Areo- pagite, who describes the scene as an eye-w4tness, relates that as he praised the Virgin, the orator was almost beside himself. J * Metaphrastes relates that the Apostles car- ried the Blessed Virgin to the grave on their shoulders. t Greg. Tur., 1. i., de 01, ch. 4. I Books of Divine Names, chapter 3. These books of St. Denis, the Areopagite, have been rejected by Protestants, but are not the less authorized by a multitude of proofs from the most ancient Fathers and doctors of the Church, For three days, the Apostles and the faithful watched and prayed be- side the sepulchre, where they heard distinctly the sacred concert kept up by the heavenly spirits, § as though to soothe the last sleep of Mary. One of the Apostles, return- ing from a distant country, and not having been present at the death of the Virgin, arrived just then, iv was St. Thomas, the same who had placed his hand in the wounds of his glorified Master. He hastened to take a last look, and to water with his tears the cold remains of the privileged woman who had borne in her chaste womb the Supreme Master of Nature. Over- come by his tears and entreaties, the Apostles removed the block of stone from the door of the sepul- chre ; but they saw within only the still fresh flowers whereon Mary's body had reposed, and her white by the Third CEcuinenical Council of Constanti- nople, and many others. § Juvenal, patriarch of Jerusalem, who lived in the 5th century, writing to the Emperor Marcian and the Empress Pulcheria, says that the Apostles, reUeving each othei*, passed day and night with the faithful near the tomb, min- ghng their canticles with those of the angels, who, for three days, were constantly heard mak- ing the most divine harmony. 958 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. shroud of Eg}T^)tian linen, which shed a delicious fragrance. The pui'e body of the Immaculate Virgin was not a prey for worms. During * A very judicious remark of Godescard comes to the support of the Assumption : it is, that "neither the Latins nor even the Greeks, so greedy for novelty, and so easily persuaded in rsgai'd to relics and legends ; no people, in a word, no city, no church, ever boasted 'of pos- her life earth and heaven had each a share in that wondrous creature ; after her death, heaven took all, and glorified all.* sessing the mortal remains of the Blessed Vii- gin, nor any portion of her body. Hence, with- out prescribing a belief in the corporal assump- tion of Mary into heaven, the Church gives us clearly to understand the opinion to which she inclines." (Godescard, t. xiv., p. 449.) ''' i:. .4 >-? /U^^-t^C^y 7 _ / '- ^ apewElIA KJTnmpL cl ^^~ ^f Mir^m m} Inkni f THE HISTOEY OF THE DEVOTION TO THS BLESSED VIRGIN MAEY ittotl)er of ®otr. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF THE ABBE OBSINI, BY MRS. J. SADLIER. ' PUBLISHED WITH THE APPROBATION OF THE LATE MOST REV. JOHN HUGHES, D. D., AND THE MOST REV. J. McCLOSKEY, D. D., ARCHBISHOP OF NEW YORK. A NEW, ENLARO-ED AND REVISED EDITION. i^w fori: PUBLISHED BY D. & J. SADLIEK & CO., 31 BARCLAY STREET. MONTREAL :— CORNER OF NOTRE DAME AND ST. FRANCIS XAVIER STS. 1873. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, By D. & J. SADLIER & CO., In the Clerk's Office of tlie District Court of the United States for tlie Soutliem District of New York HISTOH Y OP THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIKGIN MAKY, Mot\}tx of (Bolt. CHAPTER I. ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE DEVOTION TO MARY. HE invocation of * Saints, which heretics impute to us as idola- try, and which a Protestant minister has been pleased to set down as "the malady of the Christians of the fourth century," is so far from being of modern date that it may, in truth, be regarded as of Apostolical tra- dition, and of Jewish origin. The Hebrews sought counsel and mira- culous cures of the dead, when those dead had been accredited prophets of the Lord. The prophets were their saints, and saints who read ^ the future clearly, from the depths of the sepulchral cave where they slept beside their fathers. Behold Saul with the witch of Endor; the ghost of Samuel, though conjured up by enchantments which the law of Moses condemns, appeared by God's permission to terrify the reprobate monarch. The prophet, shrouded in his mantle, emerges slowly from the earth in awful majesty ; the sor- ceress utters a cry of terror at sight of the illustrious shade which she takes for a god. Saul, bowing down before him who was so long the supreme judge of Israel, questions him on the issue of the battle which he is going to fight with the Philis- 262 HISTORY OF THE VJ^VOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. tines ; aiid the prophet answers him in a voice which no breath of life accompanies, f . ; his body is at Kamatha, mourned by all Israel: "To-morrow, thou and thy sons shall be with me : and the Lord will also deliver the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines 1" The Jews believed, then, that their saints knew the future. In the fourth book of Kings, we see a dead man restored to life by touching the bones of Eliseus. The saints of Israel, therefore, wrought miracles. We read in the second book of Maccabees that the high -priest Onias and the prophet Jeremiah were seen, after their death, pray- ing for the people ; and we find in the Gemare that Caleb escaped from the hands of his pursuers, be- cause he went to the tomb of his ancestors to ask them to intercede for him, that he might escape.* Hence, the Jews believed that the intercession of the departed just was of some avail. From the earliest times of their settlement in Palestine, the Israel- * Wagenseil, Excerpta ex Oem. f Ecdes., ch. xlix., v. 18. * ites visited the tomb of Rachel, a primitive monument composed of twelve enormous stones, whereon every pilgrim inscribed his name ; the tomb of Joseph, the saviour of his brethi'en — whose bones prophe- sied-f — was likewise a place of prayer. On the dispersion of the tribes, such immense crowds flocked to the sepulchral cave of Ezechiel, on the banks of the Chobar, where he had had his divine visions, that the Chaldeans, fearing lest these vast assemblages might conceal under the cloak of religion some political project, resolved to take the pil- grims by surprise, and disperse them at the point of the sword. A massacre would inevitably have fol- lowed, if the dead prophet had not wrought a miracle to save his peo- ple, by dividing the waters of the Chobar. J This sepulchre of a saint of Israel was surrounded by a superb edifice, and before it burned, day and night, a golden lamp, which the leaders of the captive people ^vere charged to keep lit.§ It is now once more a mere cavern ; but X Benjamin of Toledo, Itinerary, p. 70-80. § Epiphan., de Vitis Prophetarum, v. ii., p. 241 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 268 still it is visited by all the Jews of Asia, who never pass through Bag- dad without turning aside to pray there. At the foot of Orontes, whose rich foliage waves over a thousand silvery streams which reflect the splendor of the Asiatic sun, there is a city — once royal and magnificent — lying extend- ed amid ruined columns, prostrate temples, and mausoleums of red granite with inscriptions written in some language long unknown : it is Ecbatana, the ancient capital of the Medes, now the obscure Hamadan. At one of the extremities of the fall- en city rises a brick monument, the door of which, according to the old sepulchral style of the country, is very small and made of one solid stone: it is the tomb of a young queen, fair and virtuous, who braved * " He built her a mausoleum after the manner of the Iranians (Iran was, before Cyrus, the true name of the vast kingdom which is now called Persia), filled her skull with musk and amber, wrapped her body in Chinese silk, placed her, as kings are placed, on a throne of ivory, and hung her crown above her ; then they painted the door of the tomb red and blue." (Firdousi, Book of Kings, Kei Khosrou. ) •f Travels of Sir Robert Ker Porter in Per- sia and Armenia. The present tomb of Esther and of Mardochai occupies the same ^ death to save her people — the noble Esther, who was laid there on a bed of ivory overlaid with gold, embalm- ed in musk and amber, and wrapped in a shroud of Chinese silk,* beside the great Hebrew patriot Mardo- chai. f This illustrious tomb, which the Jews of Persia regard as a place of peculiar sanctity, and to which they repair in crowds at the time of the Feast of Phurim,J is still, and has been for two thousand years, the term of a pilgrimage. In the Middle Ages, under the Sar- acen domination, the Arabs having threatened the Jews with a general massacre during a grievous drought which prevailed all over Syria and Palestine, if rain did not fall on a day appointed, they gathered in great numbers around the tomb of Zachary, which is still to be seen in place as did the old, which was destroyed by Tamerlane. \ This festival, which was instituted at Suza by Mardochai and Esther, was solemnly cele- brated on the 14th or 15th day of the month of Ader, which is our February moon. The Jews had formerly a custom of making a wooden cross on which they painted Aman, and dragged it through the city, so that every one might see it. They afterwards burnt it, and threw the ashes into the river. The emperor Theodosius forbade them to play this comedy, fearing that it might have reference to the death of Christ. 164 BlSTOLl lUE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. the vicinity of Jerusalem, fasted and ^ piiiyed for Beveral days in sackcloth and allies, in order to obtain from God, through the intercession of that prophet, that he might save them fi-om certain death by making it rain upon the earth. The custom of applying to the liv- ing the merits of the dead, is of He- brew origin ; the proof of this is found in a liturgy of the synagogue of Venice. In the office entitled Mazir nechamot (remembrance of smils), we hnd a prayer conceived in the following terms: "Hear us, Jehovah, for the sake of those who loved thee and are now no more; hear us, for the sake of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sara, Rachel," etc. The invocation of saints is not, then, a CatJwlic invention. Besides the saints, the Jews pray- ed to the angels, whom the ancient Ai*abs also invoked, and to whom * Amongst the Persians, every month was under the protection of an angel ; to the angels was confided the care of seas, rivers, springs, pastures, flocks, trees, herbs, fruits, flowers, and seeds : they also guided the stars ; prayers were oflfered to the angels soliciting their protection in danger. The modem, Persians still sacrifice to the angel of the moon. (Firdousi, Book of Kings. — Chardin, Voyage en Perse.) the Assyrians ofi'ered sacrifice, at- tributing to them charming functions on the earth.* Jacob confesses him- self indebted to an angel for deliver- ance from the evils which threatened him, and beseeches him to bless his children : Angelas qui eripuit me cle cundis malis henedicat pueris istis.f This prayer is addressed to an angel. It is even thought that the Jews carried the worship of the angels too far, since they are suspected of ador- ing them. J This veneration, or wor- ship, never ceased amongst the modern Jews till the time of the pretended Reformation, when they abandoned it in order to conciliate the German innovators. There exists in the Vatican library a Hebrew manuscript, containing a litany com- posed by R. Eliezer Hakalir, wherein is said to the angel Actariel: " De- liver Israel from all affliction, and quickly procure its redemption." t Genesis xlviii., v. 16. X The author of the Preaching of St. Peltr, which is very ancient, cited by St. Clement of Alexandria, makes that Apostle say that wo must not adore God with the Jews, because, although they profess to acknowledge but one God, they adore the angels. (Clem. Alex., ^ book v.) mSTORT OF TEE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 265 Similar favors are asked of Barachiel, * Wathiel, and other princes of the heavenly court. The litany ended by saying to Michael, "Prince of mercy, pray for Israel, that it may be greatly exalted." The tombs of the martyrs were early venerated by the Christians of Asia ; the first to which pilgrimage was made was most probably that of St. John the Baptist, which, after the Holy Sepulchre and the tomb of the Blessed Yirgin, is the most re- spected by Orientals of all creeds. The body of the precursor of the mau-God was at Samaria, where it was visited by St. Paula in the fourth century, and his head, care- fully embalmed by his disciples, was at Hems, whence it was transported to Damascus in the reign of Theo- dosius. It was placed. in a superb church bearing the title of St. Zach- ary, which took, thenceforward, that of St. John. The caliph Abdelmelek took forcible possession of this * St. Augustine speaks of the miraculous cures wrought by dust from the tomb of St. John the Evangelist. There is now seen amongst the ruins of Ephesus, the church of St. John, of which the Turks had made a mosque. f The history of the martyrdom of St. Poly- carp, written in the form of a letter, in the name church, and now the venerated tomb of him who was a prophet and more than a prophet^ is inclosed within a Turkish mosque; but it is neither solitary nor without honor; the Mus- sulmans come there from all parts on pilgrimage, and the celebrated Saadi himself relates, in his Gulistan, that, going to pray there, he met with princes from Arabia. At the close of the first centmy, the faithful of Asia Minor were wont to repair in great numbers to Ephesus to visit the tomb of St. John the Evangelist, the dust of which, carefully gather- ed, was said to effect marvellous cures.* St. Stephen, the first martyr, whose relics wrought so many miracles, as attested by St. Augustine, and who died before the Blessed Virgin, was likewise very early invoked by the primitive Christians, who also ven- erated the blessed remains of St. Ig- natius and St. Polycarp.f St. Aster of Amasia has preserved to us, in a of the church of Smyrna, by those who had them- selves witnessed it, and addressed to the church of Philomel, contains these words : " We took from the fire his bones, more precious than gold or jewels, and we put them in a suitable place, where we hope to assemble every year to cele- brate the festival of the Lord's martyr, to the HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. sermon on the martyrs, the prayer ^ addressed by a Christian of the early days to a saint whose tomb she vis- ited: "Thou didst invoke the mar- tjyrs before thou wert thyself a mar- tyr; thou hast sought and found ; be then liberal of the blessings which thou hast received." Eusebius of Caesarea, who flour- ished towards the end of the third century, defending our sacred dog- mas against the sophisms of the idol- aters, rests on the honors which they paid to their ancient heroes to justify the veneration of saints, and con- tinues in these terms: "We honor as friends of God those who have fought for the true religion ; we go to their tombs; we offer them our vows, professing to believe that through their intercession with God we are powerfully succored."* These words of Eusebius, who, in his double capacity of bishop and historian, must necessarily have been well informed, clearly indi- cate an ancient usage, a custom lap- proved by the Church and generally end that those who come after us may be en- couraged to prepare for similar combats." St. Poly carp consummated his- sacrifice in the year 166, on the 23d of January, on which day the received. On the other hand, Vig- ilantius and Arius, enemies of the veneration of saints, were openly treated as innovators and heretics by St. Epiphanius, St. Jerome, and St. Augustine. Now is it to be pre- sumed that these great doctors would have dared to set down as heretics and innovators men who labored but to establish in its native purity the ancient doctrine of the Church? The word innovators explains all ; and it must not be forgotten that Yigilantius lived at a period so near the times of the Apostles that there was between them and him not more than three generations! St. Cyprian, who suffered martyr- dom in Carthage in the year 261, shows us the Christians of Africa crowding to the glorious tombs of the martyrs, making a funeral re- past there on the day of their anni- versary, and so eager to invoke them that, not even waiting for their death, they went to solicit the pray- ers of those imprisoned confessors of the faith who had as yet survived church of Smyrna kept his festival in the middle of the third century, as we see by the acts of St. Peter. * Prapar. Evang., b. xiii, ch. 7. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 267 their torments.* St. John Chrysos- f torn, on his side, asserts that in his time the tombs of the martyrs con- stituted the fairest ornament of royal cities; that the days which were consecrated to them were days of joy ; that the great men of the empire, and even the emperor him- self, laid aside the proud insignia of their power before they dared to cross the threshold of the sacred places which contained the revered sepulchres of the servants of the crucified God "How much more illustrious," exclaims the great Christian orator, "are the monu- ments erected to old men who were poor and humble while on earth, than the tombs of the mightiest kings ! Around the tombs of kings reign silence and solitude ; here do multitudes throng with prayer and homage."! Behold, then, the worship of dulia (of saints), which Protestants style idolatrous and detestable — behold what it was in those ages which they themselves call the ages by excellence, the pure ages.\ As to the worship of hyperdulia * St. Cyprian, Epist. 28. f St. Chrysost., Horn. 66 ad pop. Antioch. (of the Blessed Yirgin) — which, without being adoration — which God forbid ! — is far superior to that of the saints — it commenced, ap- parently, at her very tomb. The Jewish doctors have preserved to us, in the Talmud, a historical fact long unknown, which establishes the high antiquity of this pious veneration so much blasphemed. A tradition of the Temple, recorded in their Toldos — that book wherein the Virgin is so grossly abused, and which they early circulated through Greece, Persia, and every place where it could at all injure Chris- tianity — relates that the Nazarenes who came to pray at the tomb of the mother of Jesus underwent a violent persecution from the princes of the synagogue, and that a hun- dred Christians, kinsfolk of Jesus Christ, were put to death for having raised an oratory over her tomb.§ This act of barbarous fanaticism of which they boast, being quite con- formable to their treatment of St. Stephen, St. James, and St. Paul, and the oratory erected over a ven- erated tomb being in no way ob- X Dailld, Latin Traditions, b. iv., ch. 16. § Toldos Huldr., p. 115. 168 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. noxious to their customs and tradi- tions, this fact, it seems to us, may be regaitied as authentic, even without any very great stretch of credulity. Tradition, supported by religious monuments, asserts that the devo- tion to Mary is of Apostolic tradi- tion. St. Peter, on his . way to Ah- tioch, raised, it is said, in one of the cities of ancient Phoenicia, an ora- tory to the Blessed Virgin, and gave it a solemn consecration ; St. John the Apostle placed the beautiful church of Lydda under the invo- cation of his adoptive mother; the first church of Milan was dedicated to Mary by St. Barnabas the Apos- tle. Our Lady of the Pillar, in Spain, and Our Lady of Carmel, in Syiia, dispute the priority with these churches, and their claims are bolder, but more contestable. Ac- cording to Spanish tradition,* the Blessed Virgin appeared to St. James, before her death, on the banks of the Ebro, and commanded him to build a church on that spot. According to the Syrian tradition, the prophet Agabus, the same who predicted the fa nine which took * Cronologia sacra . . . cU ano 35 de Cristo. * place under Claudius, erected also in the Virgin's lifetime, that church which is seen from, so far at sea, and where pilgrims and travellers of all religions and of every region receive, in the name of Mary, such affecting hospitality. Without dis- puting the antiquity of these two sanctuaries, very venerable indeed, and justly revered by all nations, we must be permitted to say that it is very unlikely that the Blessed Virgin, the humble&t of the daugh- ters of Eve, would have solicited the Apostles, during her lifetime, to build churches in her honor. That the gratitude of nations and the piety of the Apostles may have erected them after her death, is both simple and natural, but that she gave orders for any during her life, is extremely doubtful. As to the oratory of Carmel, Flavius Josephus, who particularly mentions the disciples of Elias in connection with Vespasian (to whom one of them promised the empire), nowhere says that they were then converted to Christianity, and the contrary is inferred from his recital. This negative authority is very im- portant. Jfirst |Peri0ir d tlje §thihn k Parj. BEFORE CONSTANTINE. CHAPTER II. THE EAST IDOLS. |S we have already * observed, the devotion to the « Mother of God had its origin at her very tomb, and the first lamp lighted in honor of Mary was a sepulchral lamp, aromid which the Christians of Jerusalem came to pray. This, it would seem, did not last long ; the Synagogue — oppressive, like .all dominations be- set by the fear of sudden overthrow, and suspicious, like all who are con- scious of evil-doing — became alarm- ed at the simple homage rendered to the mother of the young prophet whom it had not only refused, after all his miracles, to acknowledge as the Messiah, but audaciously cruci- fied, as a seditious man and an im- postor, between two thieves. It ex- tinguished the lamps, silenced the ^ hymns, and mercilessly kiUed the first servants of Mary, — so, at least, we are informed by the Synagogue itself, and we know that it was very capable of doing it. This was done a little through fanaticism, a little through self-love, and a little through fear. The Jewish authorities would not that that Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had unjustly condemned to an ignominious death, should arise, he and his, from the obloquy of the Golgotha. It was annoying to hear that the Galilean whom they called a son of Belial, and whose miracles they treated as vain illusions, was truly God, and his mother a great Saint; and then it feared that this new worship, con- nected with the religion of the tombs, and supported by the incon- testable miracles wrought by the Apostles in Jerusalem, might oper- ate injuriously on the fickle mind 270 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. of the multitude, and provoke a f dangerous reaction in favor of the crucified ' prophet. In fine, as it fi-ankly acknowledged to Peter and John, it had no wish to be called on by the people to account for the blood of Jesus. For all these reasons, the sena- tors and chief priests took another step on the slippery road of guilt, in order to justify the abominable sentence which they had wrimg from the Roman .^ and they openly boasted of having stifled in the bud the devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Their iniquitous hopes were defeat- ed. The most furious tyrants, even when most implicitly obeyed in the gloomy caprices of their cruel- ty, cannot kill remembrance — that flower of the soul which blooms, mysterious and consoling, in the inaccessible region of ideas, and is but rooted the more firmly by the wind of pei'secution. The memory of the Virgin -mother resisted this Jewish huiiicane; people sang no more in her grotto, but they went there to weep, and the tears which * Most people are familiar with the sarcastic jest of that courtier of Nero, who, being scolded and threatened by an old priestess for having devotion sheds are equal to the in- cense of Saba, which, itself, trickles like tears from the pierced bark. Violently uprooted by the sacri- legious hands of the princes of the reprobate people of God, the ven- eration of Mary was transplanted by the Apostles to the still idola- trous land of the stranger. In their own lifetime they saw it beginning to appear in Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Spain. It is true that this devotion, so ten- der and so poetical, which was to replace the impure and seductive worship of the divinities of Olym- pus, shone, at first, but like a small star on the zenith of a few cities ; for Christianity was, in the begin- ning, only the religion of cities, and of the common people in those cities. Paganism, repudiated by all serious minds, despised by philoso- phers, ridiculed on the stage, where men publicly read "The last will and testament of Jupiter, deceased," and scofi'ed at in the true Voltairian style by the young Epicureans of the imperial court,* retained, never- killed one of her sacred geese, threw her two gold pieces, saying, "There, you can buy both gods and geese." HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 271 theless, an incredible number of partisans; connected with numer- ous interests, defended by prejudice and by ancient superstitions, attrac- tive from the splendor of its festi- vals, and mingled with every glo- rious recollection, it still dazzled, though on its decline. Proud of its advantages, it did not, at first, con- descend to fear "the carpenter's son" and the young " spinner of Nazareth."* How could it fear them? it saw them not. The re- ligion of the poor God and his holy Mother advanced, noiselessly, by the rough and toilsome medium of the people ; it addressed itself espe- cially to the artisan, the woman, the slave — to all, in fine, who were weak and lowly, and oppressed by pagan society — that society so pro- foundly selfish, so avaricious, so ef- feminate and corrupt, and withal brilliant and cold as its marble gods. It was soon perceived that the moral world — that old decrepit Titan — was growing young again under the mighty, though secret, influence of a regenerating charm. What magician had restored to that new * See Celsus. * JEson the fresh, warm blood of its earlier years? What new Prome- theus had scaled the heights of heaven to bring down to man, fro- zen to death by selfislmess, a spark of the sacred fire ? For there was no overlooking the fact that society was pregnant of something strange and grand which was to restore its pristine loveliness and strength; it was becoming again, to all appear- ance, what it was in the days so lamented by Horace, when it de- spised pomp, honored the "gods, and esteemed poverty as an honor. In- visible, but persevering hands seem- ed already to have raised from their ruins, where they lay beneath the grass of ages, the altar of chastity and the austere temples of Faith, Honor, and Virtue. Beneficence, long unhonored with the smoke of sacrifice, in the frantic pursuit of material pleasures, began once more, it seems, to be mysteriously respect- ed. The old equality of the age of Saturn re-appeared here and there on the earth. In fine, Humanity bore in her arms the children whom the elegant matrons of pagan society exposed on the banks of the river, in the depths of the forest, and on 272 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. the verge of the precipice, where the eagles, dogs, and wild beasts tore them to pieces.* Charity, sustain- ing with one vigorous arm the old man panting under his load of toil, extended the other to the infirm creatures abandoned on the steps of the temples. gods of Greece! wandering gods, who were sheltered beneath the cottage-roof of Philemon and Baucis, did you again traverse the earth to restore thereon the fair reign of virtue? Not so, for you were, as • the Scriptures say, deaf gods, powerless gods, blind gods, — or, rather, you were nothing. Behold I In the midst of that so- ciety — luxurious, efieminate, crown- ed with roses, drinking to the gods of Olympus from golden cups — there are seen, here and there, groups of persons with noble aspect and au- stere demeanor, who avert their eyes from those pagan orgies with indig- * Philo gives details of this abominable custom of exposing helpless abandoned children, which are enough to make one's hair stand on end. It was only the Jews who then condemned this barbarous practice. fThe vestals bore the name of Amatce, in memory of Amata, the first Roman virgin who was consecrated to the worship of Yesta. (Aulu- GelL, b. i.ch. 12.) X The austere chastity of the Christian women t nation mingled with ridicule Can these be Stoic philosophers? No; for they give a tear of pity to the supplicating poor, while placing in their hand the liberal alms, con- cealing themselves as they do so. Can that be a vestal, that young maiden who walks, with folded hands and eyes cast down, beside her mother, veiled like herself? No; for she has neither the em- broidered zone nor the purple- bordered robes of the amatce,^ and modesty is her only ornament. Those youthful widows who light no more the hymeneal torch,J whilst the great ladies of paganism reck- on their divorces by consulates, § whence come they? And those young men who bow with reverence before the aged, blush like young maidens, and yet, in war, are brave as lions, who are they? They are not seen in the theatre, they fre- excited the admiration of the pagans themselves. St. John Chrysostom mentions that the famous sophist Libauius, from whom he took lessons in oratory, hearing from him that his mother had been left a widow at twenty, and would never take a second husband, exclaimed, turning to his idolatrous audience, " O gods of Greece 1 what women are found amongst these Christians ! '' {Sancti Chrysosiomi vita.) § Seneca, Treatise on FUvors, b. iii. HISTORY OF TEE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 273 quent not the circus, they figure not in the pagan festivals with garlands of flowers or baskets of sacred fruit on their heads, and pass by the stately temples of Greece and Rome without entering. The sight of a sacrifice makes them fly, and they quickly shake off from their dark cloaks the drops of purifying water which fall on them by chance. Fi- nally, they prefer to die rather than touch the meats offered to the gods. Can these men be impious, they whose hands close with gold the gaping wounds of misery, whose lives are the mirror of propriety? No ; for they assemble thrice in the day, and sometimes in the night,* to pray in common, with uplifted hands, to an unknown God ; and, on the altar of their ancient house- hold deities, where the lamp still burns,f may be seen the graceful * The first Christians met to pray at the house of Terce, Sext, and None, as mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles ; they passed the night in prayer on the eve of great festivals, singing hymns in honor of Jesus Christ, as St. Basil jmd Socrates testify. ■f The gods that were indiscriminately named Lares or Penates were the tutelary gods of houses. They had their own distinct worship. Wine and incense were offered to them ; they were crowned with flowers, and a lamp was kept ^ ; image of a young Asiatic woman, half- veiled in a light blue drapery, J holding in her arms a Divine In- fant. That woman, with the calm, deep eyes, is the Inspirer of chas- tity, modesty, devotion, mercy; the Guardian of honor, the Protectress of home — in a word, that sweet Virgin Mary to whom the Greeks have given the beautiful name of Panagia, which means all holy. Asia claims the honor of having placed the first oratory and chapel under the invocation of Mary. The most ancient of these shrines was Our Lady of Tortosa, which St. Peter himself founded, according to the Eastern traditions, on the coasts of Phoenicia. These early Syrian churches were, at first, but very simple structures, with cedar roofs and latticed windows. The altar was turned towards the west, like burning before their little statues. There was found, under ground, in Lyons, in 1506, a copper lamp with two sockets, the chain sealed in a piece of marble, bearing this inscription : Laribus sacrum. P. F. Eomum — which signifies, Puhliccefelicitali Romanorum. X In the oldest pictures of the Virgin, being those painted on wood, whose high antiquity is indisputable, she wears almost always a bhie veil. 274 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. that of Jerusalem, and during the f day a wooden screen concealed the sanctuary, in memory of the famous veil of the Holy of Holies. There were A'osses in those churches ; and there were also, at a very early pe- riod, pictures of Mary; for tradition relates that her image was painted on one of the pillars in the beautiful church of Lydda, which had been dedicated to her by her adopted son, and that St. Luke presented to the cathedral of Antioch a portrait of the Virgin painted by himself. This image, to which the Mother of God was believed to have attached signal graces, became so famous that the Empress Pulcheria had it brought to Constantinople, where she built a magnificent church to place it in. Edessa, the capital city of that king Abgarus who was on the point of making war on the Jews to re- venge the death of our Lord, and who was only prevented from doing so through fear of the Komans, their masters, as Eusebius tells us, had also, in the 1st centuiy, its church of Our Lady, adorned with a mirac- * The worship of Mithya, before it reached Greece or Rome, had passed from Persia into ulous image. Egypt boasts of hav- ing had, about the same time. Our Lady of Alexandria, and Saragossa, in Spain, then called Caesar Augus- ta, its famous shrine of Our Lady of the Pillar. But nowhere was the devotion to Mary canied on with such enthusiastic fervor as in Asia Minor. Ephesus, where the memory of the Blessed Virgin was still fresh and vivid, soon built in honor of Mary the Miriam, a superb cathe- dral, wherein was held, in the 5th century, the famous council which confirmed her proud title of Mother of God. This example was followed from one end of the immense Roman provinces to the other. Phrygia, having become Christian, consigned to oblivion those Trojan gods sung by Homer; Cappadocia suffered those sacred fii^es to die away which the Persians had kindled side by side with the elegant temples of the Grecian deities ; and the caverns whose gloomy vaults had so recently witnessed the bloody mysteries of Mithra* became, during the religious persecutions — which nowhere broke Cappadocia, where Strabo, who travelled there, says that he saw a great number of the priests mSTORT OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 275 out with greater fury than amongst those Greek colonies — a place of refuge for the Christians and their proscribed God. At length, the gods of Greece, those indigenous deities, sprung from the sparkling foam of the .^gean sea, born under the still-existing palms of the Cycla- des, or cradled in the shade of the woods which crown the lofty moun- tains of Crete — were abandoned for the God who died on Calvary, and the humble Virgin of Nazareth ; so truly, so entirely abandoned, that Pliny the younger, on his arrival iu Bythinia, of which province he had been named governor, wrote to Tra- jan that Christianity had not only invaded the cities, but the rural districts, so much so that he had found the temples of the gods of the empire completely deserted.* Asia Minor possessed, from the earliest times, miraculous images of Our Lady. The two most famous were that of Didynia, where St. of Mithra. The mysteries of Mithra, ifrhich were celebrated in the depth of caverns, were something horrible, according to the holy- Fathers, Human victims were there sacri- ficed, as appears from a fact mentioned by Socrates in his "Ecclesiastical History," viz., that the Christians of Alexandria having ^ * Basil, during the reign of Julian, went to pray for the afflicted Church, and that of Sosopoli, an image painted on wood, from which there oozed out a marvellous oil, which effected the astonishing cures referred to in the second Council of Nice. Greece, that brilliant land of arts and letters, was not more tardy in honoring Mary. In the time of St. Paul, Corinth — where Greek liberty, like an expiring lamp, had given one last brilliant flash — was con- verted almost entirely to Christi- anity. The faithful met, at first, in the spacious halls of private houses, where the Virgin was solemnly in- voked. By degrees the temples of Paganism were deserted, and after the lapse of a hundred years the curious traveller made his way alone up the steep sides of the Acro-Ceraunes to visit the Temple of Venus, whose lofty porticoes, ris- ing above the smrounding sea of discovered a den which had been long closed up, and in which the Mithraic mysteries were said to have been formerly celebrated, they found therein human skulls and bones, which they took out to show to the people of that great city. * Pliny, lib. x., Epist. 97. 276 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. green foliage, were traced on the Grecian sky, so deeply, darkly blue. The protecting goddess of the Cor- inthians had been dethroned by the holy woman who re-established in that effeminate country modesty, so long unknown, and maternity, so long despised. Thanks to her, the pure pleasures of the domestic cir- cle, the touching joys of home, were easily substituted for the shameful disorders, the gigantic orgies, the depraved morals of that small re- public which had ever led the van in the march of corruption. Cor- inth ti-anstigured became a Chris- tian Sparta, and the eulogy pro- nounced on its Church by St. Clement, the pope, towards the end of the 1st century, gives a marvel- lous idea of its fervor. Arcadia, whose forests were peo- pled with rural gods — and where eveiy grotto, every murmuring spring had its altar — likewise ab- jured, though not so promptly, the worship of Pan and the Naiads for the veneration of the humble Vir- gin, whose divine Child was pleased to receive his first homage from simple shepherds. But as ancient superstitions are more difficult to t eradicate from rural districts than from any other places, it was long believed in the Arcadian hamlets that Diana still followed the chase in the depth of the great woods of Menales and Lyceum. Young and credulous shepherdesses, divided be- tween the Christian faith and their ancestral superstitions, sometimes imagined that they saw, by the flick- ering light of the moon, fair white Dryads amongst the trees, Naiads bending pensively over the springs, or playful elves dancing on the but- tercups and daisies in the meadows. But, about the time of Constantino, the Blessed Virgin had definitely prevailed over deified nature; and the numerous churches bearing her name, which still adorn the rustic scenes . of the land of the ancient Pelages, attest the profound devo- tion of the Arcadians to the Virgin- mother. Elida, too, very early built a church in honor of the Blessed Vir- gin on the banks of its romantic rivei*, the Alpheus, and as it was surrounded by noble vineyards, it received the name of Our Lady of Grapes. Macedonia preceded Greece prop- HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 277 er in the veneration of Mary. Thes- salonica had a bishopric even in the time of the Apostles, and its church was a superb edifice with jasper cokimns, dedicated by the pious Macedonians to the Blessed Virgin ; this structure is still to be seen, but the Turks have converted it into a mosque.* Nero, travelling in the Pelopon- nesus, did not dare to cross the fron- tiers of Laconia ; the stern gloom of Sparta inspired him with fear. The mild, sweet Virgin of Galilee was more valiant than Csesar; she passed the Eurotas, which hides its waves under rose-bays, and pre- sented herself to the people of Le- onidas, whose ancient virtue was preserved in the bitter but invigor- ating waters of poverty. She was welcomed with enthusiasm, and that brave people hastened to build the fairest church of Greece in honor of that young foreign Virgin who came to teach the daughters of Sparta to cast down their eyes. Ever since that time Mary rei§ns in Sparta with absolute power ; for her are culled the earliest violets that bloom by the Eurotas' stream ; * Wheeler's Travels. * it is before her image, rudely painted in red and blue on the walls of their dwellings, that the young Lacede- monians nightly light a lamp of clay or bronze ; a pious act which is duly noticed when the Grecian women pronounce the funeral eulogium of the dead. Finally, the inhabitants of Laconia substituted the name of Christ and the Virgin wherever their ancestors introduced the name of Jupiter in affirmation, and this oath has become of such common use that even the Turks of Misistra, prior to the Greek revolution, instead of swearing by Allah and by Mahomet, like the other Mussulmans, swore, like the Greeks of Sparta, by the Blessed Virgin.f Athens, the elegant and learned, celebrated for its monuments, the finest in the world, and its schools, which were frequented by the flower of the studious youth of Europe and Asia — Athens was slower in being converted to Christianity than the other countries of Greece. From the earliest times, however, it had had a bishop and a church dedicated to Mary, Our Lady Spiliotissa, or Our Lady of the Grotto ; but Poly- t Pouqueville, Voyage en Moree, t. ler. 278 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. theism was sheltered under the bril- * liant aBg's of Minerva, and Athens was at the same time full of Chris- tian churches and of idols. It was in one of these churches that Julian filled the office of Lector, by com- mand of the Emperor Constantius ; but it was in the Parthenon that he was to plan the revival of idolatry, while reading Homer. That the devotion to the Blessed Virgin had a powerful influence on the spread of the Gospel in Greece and in Asia, is a fact which the habits and tastes of the Levantines would have rendered probable even were it not attested, before all the bishops of the East, by St. Cyril, at the first Council of Ephesus, in a discourse which is still extant. "Hail, Mary, Mother of God !" said that holy and learned bishop ; " it is through you that, in the cities^ the towns, and the islands of those who have received the true faith, * S. Cyr. Alex. Oper., t. v., p. 2. f Whilst the sun is above the horizon, and as the heat is excessive in their climate, the Arabs most generally prefer to remain under their tents. They go out at the ap- proach of sunset, and then enjoy the charms of a lovelier sky and cooler air. The night is partly for them what the day is for us. Hence their numerous churches have been found- ed!"* Beyond the great sea, several tribes of Arabs were converted to Christianity, and greatly honored Mary, the Sultana of Heaven, as they still call her. Seated in the shade of the date-trees or tamarinds, which flourish best on the margin of brackish streams, and inhaling with delight the freshness which the night brings in those burning re- gions,! the story-tellers of the Chris- tian ti-ibes, by the light of those eternal lamps of God which they suppose fastened by chains of gold to the vault of the firmament, J re- lated the principal facts in the life of the Blessed Virgin, coloring them with that marvellous tint so pleas- ing to the sons of Ishmael. They told, according to the Arab gospel of the holy childhood and the tradi- tions of the desert, how the holy angels came to bring to the Virgin, poets never extol the charms of a fine day ; but the Words, "Leili! leiU! O night ! O night !"aro repeate(f in all their songs. (Sav., note on the 7th eh. of the Koran. ) \ The first sky is of pure silver ; it is from its beautiful vault that the stars are suspended with strong chains of gold. {Koran, the Legend of ^ Mahomet, by Savary, p. 15.) EISTOBY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 279 in the temple where Zachary, her guardian, had placed her, delicious dates, amber grapes, figs sweeter than honey, and odorous flowers gathered in the celestial gardens where limpid streams and green trees abound ; for Paradise, in warm climates, is always composed of fresh waters and cool shades. And there, they recite, in their own pecu- liar style, the prodigies of the birth of Jesus, which they still call (Mus- sulmans as they have since become) al Milad — the hirth by excellence. They placed the scene in the desert, on the banks of a stream and at the foot of a withered palm-tree, which was suddenly covered with leaves and fruit at the bidding of the angel Gabriel, whom God had sent to con- sole Mary. These marvellous tales increasing their veneration for the Blessed Yirgin, they believed, in time, that they might adore in heav- en her whom angels had served on earth, and they offered her, in fact, oblations of cakes made of flour and * Geladeddin, note on the 16th ch. of the Koran. •\ The idolatrous Arabs had several she-camels consecrated to the gods of the Caaba ; the cream of their milk served to make libations. * honey ; hence their name of coUyri- dians, from the Greek word coUyre (cake). St. Epiphanius warmly re- bukes them for this worship, which exceeded the prescribed limits, ex- plaining to them that oblation and sacrifice are only to be offered to God. On the other hand, the idolatrous Arabs had placed the image of Mary in the Caaba, amongst the angels, whom they represented un- der the figure of young women, and called the daughters of God.^ Mary, whom they had made the sister of those pure spkits, came in for a share of the divine honors paid to them. They sacrificed to her vic- tims adorned with leaves and flow- ers ; thay offered to her the first of their crops, together with the first dates from their trees, and, in gold- en vases, the frothy milk of the sacred camels.f The image of the Blessed Yirgin with the Divine Child in her arms remained in the Temple of Mecca till the time of (Savary, in a note on the 5th ch. of the Koran.) The inhabitants of Mecca oflfered one portion of their fruits and of their flocks to God, an- other to their idols. (Geladeddin, note on the 6th ch. of the Koran.) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Mahomet, who had it removed with the genii and the angels. The holy name of Mary began to be invoked amongst the nations who dwell between the Caspian and the Euxine seas; but the shrines of Judea and the scenes of the Redemption were, alas! profaned * by Greek and Syi-ian idols which were only overthrown mider Con- stantino. The statue of Jupiter was sacrilegiously raised on the spot where the weeping Maiy saw Jesus crucified, and it was to Adonis that sacrifice was offered ¥ in the cave of Bethlehem. CHAPTER III. THE WEST THE CATACOMBS. HE sacred vine of Christianity ah-eady flour- ished in Asia so as to extend its branches over a multi- tude of nations;* but it did not' take root so quickly in the West. Rome, thoroughly idolatrous — Rome, drunk with the blood of martyrs, which she shed like water — Rome * protected Polytheism with all her power, and her power extended over an entire world ! In the East, a mysterious sign, which made Satan tremble in the depth of the fiery abyss, announced that the kingdom of God was near; but in Italy and the regions beyond the Alps, Christianity was, as yet, in the condition of a secret society; people were received into its ranks wi% aU manner of caution and * We learn from Arnobus and Eusebius that the Gospel, during the three first centuries, had spread far beyond the limits of the Roman em- pire, amongst the Persians, the Parthian s, the Scythians, and many other nations whom they do not name. (Arnob., Adv. Gentes, lib. ii., chapter 12. — Euseb., Demonstr. Evang. L lii., ch. 5. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 281 even mystery; its members recog- nized each other by certain signs; and, doubtless, the sign of the Cross, the origin of which is unknown, was one of those mysterious signs, which revealed an unknown Chris- tian to his brethren scattered through the crowd. It was not that the Christians were so few in the regions of the West ; they were al- ready sufficiently numerous to form armies; but persecuted by idola- trous governors, tracked like wild beasts, and finding no protection in the Roman laws, which recognized only to punish them, they lived iso- lated "as drops upon the grass, as a dew from the Lord, which waiteth not for man, nor tarrieth for the children of men."* The first Latin churches were domestic chapels, and the first al- tars, portable wooden chests like * Micheas, ch. v., v. 7. f One of these altars, whereon St. Peter was thought to have celebrated the divine mysteries, and which Pope St.. Sylvester inclosed under the high altar of St. John of Lateran. ivaS ex- amined on the 29th of March, 165.8, under Alex- ander VII., by the Chevalier Baromini, in con- cert with the chief sacristan of the church; it is four palms long, by eight wide. Its form is that of a chest. The altar was moved from place to place by means of several ringfs. * the Ark, having the same form and the same kon rings.f Those primi- tive churches of Rome, which were in existence before the an-ival of St. Paul, were composed chiefly of Greeks and converted Jews; but the Roman people soon heard speak of that new law which said that all men are brethi-en, that they are all equals, and ought to love each other. They fomid this holy law both fair and good; they wished to follow it, and came in crowds to receive the regenerating waters of baptism. " It was then perceived," says Tacitus, "that Rome contain- ed an incredible number of Chi-is- tians."J The pagan priests were troubled ; Nero, emperor and su- preme pontifi", took the alarm, and the persecutions commenced. § They assembled, at first, where- ^ver they could, as St. Justin the I Tacitus, Anncd., lib. xv., ch. 44. § This first persecution had for a pretext the burning of Rome, of which Nero accused the « Christians, though it was his own act; it was extremely cruel ; they clothed the Christians ' with garments soaked in pitch, or some other combustible matter; they then set fire to them, so that they served as torches during the night, Nero had a festival on the occasion, in his gar- dens, where he drove his chariots by the light of i those fatal flames. (See .fibc/es. 5w<., v. i., p. 98.) 282 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Martyr said when asked by the pre- * feet of Rome where the Christians were accustomed to meet; but the halls and upper chambers of private houses becoming too small, and the scrutiny of. the senate daily more rigorous, it became necessary 'to seek a ,temple vast enough to con- tain a great multitude of people, and so hidden as to escape the eyes of that host of spies wliich then, in- fested the empire, not unlike on6 of the plagues of Egypt. Somerbold,- hearted Christians proposed the Catacombs, ^'''herein were found ^ vast and gloomy halls, interminable avenues, "where the darkness was so profound," says St. Jerome, " that it seemed as though one went down alive into the, sepulchre, and the walls around • were -- sheeted with mouldering bodies," This labyrinth of cofi&ns, from which there appeare^ ^ no egress, .and where any one ven- tm-ing in without a guide Was sure to perish — those di-ea'ry vaults, where all was silence, fear and ^ death, had no terrors for the first Chiistians of Rome. On the sabbath- day, then fii'st called Sunday, they assembled in that dismal metropoli- tan church to read the writings of | the Apostles or the Prophets ; then, they offered up, on an altar of un- hewn stone, the sacrifice of bread and wine, which was preceded by a sermon, and followed by a collection for the poor." * Some rude frescoes, representing the Saviour or Mary, which are still to be seen, half ef- faced, jn the Catacombs of Naples and of Rome, were the sole decora- tion of this place of prayer, whose congregation consisted of ten dead and one living generation. What a temple! Instead of golden vases, there were wooden cups ! instead of the Roman lamps of massive silver, th^ were fiafiiig torches ! instead of martial spoils, there were the fearful trophies of the angel of death! Behind, before, and all around the spot where the faithful assembled, were endless subterrane- ous avenues, where distant torches gleamed from time to time, and veiled figures were seen moving, looking more like spectres than hu-* man beings ! Beneath was the dust o^^'fgpublic which had carried off its^.virtues in the folds of its great shroud : terror within ; and without, in case of discovery, was the amphi- *Apolog. S. Just. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 283 theatre, red with the blood of mar- tyred Christians! When we come to reflect on these things, we ask ourselves in amaze- ment, what intrepid heroes wei-e they who braved these horrors ? . . . Those heroes, who thus braved death and terror, were ignorant men who had grown up* amid the auguries, the signs, and the thousand super- stitious fears of paganism ; they were timid virgins, wo7}t to hloomfar from the world like solitary roses ; *' fair and rich patricians, s^ved by legions of slaves, who slept on beds of massive gold, eat from tables ^- citron-wood, inhabited apartments ceiled with ivory, and trod but on flags of marble strewed with gold or silver dust ; young men, wrapt up in rich scarlet cloaks, and bearing%uch names as Anicius, Olib7'ius, Probus, Gracchus ^ — in a word, the flower of the lloman patricians ; knight, * S. Ambr., de Virg., lib. i., ch. 6. f See Prudentius jn his two books against Symmachus, According to that author, the family of Anicius was the first patrician family that embraced Christianity in Rome. I Fiavius Clement, cousin-germain of Domi- tian, whose two sons had been appointed by the Emperor himself as his successors^ was put to death as a Christian shortly after ^ who might be known by their eques- ti'ian ring, great ofl&cers of the pal- ace, tribunes of the people, favorites and kinsmen of Caesar, whose sons were appointed to succeed him in the empire. J • • • . Who else? Im- perial princesses who traversed by night, escorted by some feithful slaves, the ati^iuin of their «gilded palace on Mount Palatine, and glid- ed like spirits out of the city of Komulus, to go worship the Galilean in the Catacombs — the Galilean so d.€spised arid ridiculed py the haughty pagan arisfeicracy-^^and to i^ invoke that sweet Virgin Mary for whom the noble descendants of the Gracchi and the Scipios abandoned their favorite temple of Juno Lu- cina. § V If the Tiber overflowed, or the rain failed, or ^ an earthquake hap- frened, and^ the -Koi^an people, to avert these disasters,' cried out, ac- the expiration of his consulate. The princess Domitilla, his wife, a Christian like himself, was banished to an island. (Hist. Eccles., t. i., p. 105.) § The temple of Juno Lucina was frequented in preference to any other by the great ladies of Rome ; prostitutes were forbidden to enter ; it was in -this temple that mothers prayed especially for the advantageous marriage of their daughters. 264 BlSTOlil 01' TUK DEVQTKm TO THE BLESSED VIRQIN MARY. cording to ci stom, " The Christians f to the lions I ' * they brought before the altar coffins filled with bones gathered in the amphitheatre. There- upon, a song of tiiumph, softly chant- ed, arising from the bosom of the earth, went up to mingle with the continued noise of the waters brought in by the aqueducts over the walls of Rome, and the low, sweet murmur of the tall Italian poplars, which sounds like the rippling of streams. Often would the bishop, a saintly old man, leaning on a crooked stick — true emblem of his pastoral charge — rebuke the deserters who came over from the camp of wealth to worship the poor King, for a linger- ing attachment to Roman luxury. He told the great ladies, who stood pen- sively listening, that it became not Christian women to wear in rings and in bracelets " the substamja of a thousand poor." Some days after, a daughter of the Anicii was asked what had become of her j^- els; tTie poor of her neighborhood, both pagan and Christian, might have answered, showing bread and gold! Or perchance he spoke of Blaveiy; and, on the morrow, it * Apolog, Tertullian. was everywhere told in wonder that a prefect of the palace had just set free fifteen hundred slaves. There it was that charity was taught; and what charity that was ! " Alms- giving is a mystery," said the priest of Jesus Christ ;*" when you do it, close your doors." And then, on going forth from these assemblies where fervor was renewed, poor toiling women went and took up from off the banks of the Tiber the helpless infants left there by pagan ladies of rank ; the patriciahs set apart a portion of their palaces tor hospitals ; and the young Christian nobles undertook distant voyages to succor their breth- ren in Africa or Asia. These acts of charity, of abnegation, of devotion, a^t()nished the pagans, to whom they were wholly unaccountable.f The noble matrons of Rome then wore images of Mary engraved on emeralds, cornelians, or sapphires, and, dying, bequeathed them to their daughters as symbols of their faith. Galla, the widow of Syinma- chus, had a superb church erected, long after, to deposit therein one of these precious stones, the relic of a * Lucianus, de Morle Peregrini. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 283 persecuted faith; the workmanship of this stone was so fine that it Avas thought to have come from a hand more than human, and was vener- ated as a gift from heaven.* Besides these religious ornaments which served those Christian women as distinctive marks, they exposed, amid flowers, on the domestic altar where the lares had so long reigned, miniature figures in gold or silver, representing Jesus Christ, the Vir- gin, and the Apostles. These statu- ettes, the discovery of which brought a whole family to the ampBitheatre, were usually so small that they could be put out of sight on the first alarm, and even concealed on the person.f A little later, private chapels re- ceived the bodies of martyrs, which were clothed in costly white gar- * Astolfi, Delle Imagini Miracolose. f M. Kaoul-Kochette attributes the invention of these little statues to the Gnostics ; but the Gnostics themselves make them go back much farther than their sect. According to all appear- ance, this custom was established amougst the patricians of Rome first converted to Christian- ity. The images of Jesus Christ, of the Virgin, and the Apostles, were substituted for those of Fortune and several other divinities, which were placed, crowned with flowers, on the altar of the Lares ; they were small enough to be con- cealed about the person in case of necessity. One of these statuettes, representing Harpoc- ^ ments and inclosed in magnificent marble tombs. During the last persecutions, Aglad, a fair and wealthy Roman matron, sent for these holy relics as far as Bithynia, where the Roman governors — who traded in every thing, even dead bodies — sold them at a high price. J In the interval between one per- secution and another, the Christians gathered their dead into cemeteries outside the walls of Rome, and went thither frequently to pray. The walls of these cemeteries paint- ed in fi'esco, represented Jesus Christ on his tribmial, in the ma- jestic and severe attitude which becomes the -sovereign Judge of men; near him, Mary, veiled in the Roman style, stood ready to implore his mercy for sinners. § rates, god of Silence, has been found in Bro; tagne ; it was of gold, an(f':about two inches in height. — (See Hist. Eccles. de Bretagne, t. iif,, page 358.) We know, moreover, that the ancients hung around their neck, or fastened to their clothes, little imag-es of Fortune. Hence came the custom of wearing madonnas, crosses, and other sacred images in gold or precious stones. Being unable to destroy this ancient cuotom, the Church, in her wisdom, changed its object. I Simplician, governor of Cilicia, sold to the servants of the martyr Bonifaciii*, the body of their master for five hundred gold crowns. § A very ancient painting in the cemetery ol HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO TUE BLESSED VJliGlN MARY During the halcyoi. days of the ^ iciuu of Alexander Severus, the Christians of Home, Imowing that that prince honored Jesus Christ, whose image he had placed in his laraHum, amongst the holy souls,* and counting on the support of his mother, the Empress Mamea, who was a Christian, demanded and ob- tained, notwithstanding the clamor- ous opposition of the pagan priests, permission to erect a church on a waste spot which had long been encumbered with mouldering ruins. This was the first that reared its cross beside the marble fanes of the gods of the empire; it was dedi- cated to Mary, and 'took the name of Om- Lady beyond the Tiber. Christianity, violently oppressed in Italy, was cruelly persecuted in the Gauls, where it progressed but very slowly, according to Sulpicius Severus, who wrote in the 4th cen- tury. Nevertheless, there were a few bishoprics established so early as the 3d century, amongst others that of Lyons, where St. Pothin had intro- duced the veneration of Mary ; and St. Calixtus, in Borne, still represents the Bless- ed Virgin in this costume. * Lamprid., in Alex Sev., ch. 29-31. missionaries, amongst whom were even Roman knights, went all over the Gauls. But these sowers of the Gospel often fell beneath the impi- ous sword of the idolatrous govern- ors — who hmited them like wild beasts f — before their task was lully accomplished. Their labors, how- ever, though unfinished, were not lost; their generous blood fertiliz- ed the soil which they had cleared, and in after times other laborers came in to reap what they had sowed. The fsland of Britain boasts of having preceded the Gauls in its conversion to Christianity, and, if we may believe its most ancient chronicles, it had the first Christian king. Venerable Bede relates that, in the time of the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, a prince named Lucius asked of Pope Eleu- tlierus two Italian missionaries to evangelize the little kingdom which he governed for the Romans. His request was graciously received, and two apostolic men, to whom the Gauls subsequently erected al- f " You have escaped us, then, if yo ii be a Christian," said HeracUus to St. Sj'mphoiiau, " for but few of them now remain." HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 287 tars,* went to preach the Gospel to the native tribes of Great Britain, then divided between Druid ism — still in its prime — and the gods of the Ccesars. God blessed their ef- forts : the Britons, still in a semi-bar- barous state, went forth in crowds from their bee-hive-like huts to hear them. Sometimes, in the midst of the desert and stony heath where they went to seek the sectaries of Esus, collected by the pale moon- light f for some secret sacrifice, a young priestess of the Celts having listened attentively to the divine doctrine, leaning against an aged oak, suddenly let fall the golden sickle that was to have cut the mis- tletoe — that sacred plant which grew out of the furrowed bark of the oak — and bowing down before the minister of Christ, her fair tresses still bound with the sacer- dotal wreath, she cried out in trem- bling accents, " I am a Christian ! " whereupon, the priest, taking water from the still worshiped spring, ad- * Harpisfield, Hist., lib. i., ch. 3. f The Gauls and the insular Britons assem- bled only by night in their temples, when the moon was in her first quarter, or at her full ; this traditional custom dates from the most re- ^ ministered the regenerating sacra- ment of Baptism to the young and stately neophyte, who gave up her proud title of Uheldeda (sublimity) for the sweet strange name of Mary.+ During the persecution of DIocIq- sian, according to the best authori- ties, Christianity crossed the double wall which separated the Britons, politically enervated by their con- querors, from their wild and restless neighbors of the North. The island of Britain, where Roman civiUzation flourished like a pale and forced ex- otic, had cities adorned with baths, palaces of marble, temples radiant with gold, side by side with dreary- wastes of sand and rock, and thick primeval woods; but Caledonia, whither the eagle of the Caesars had not yet penetrated, was still the land of foam and flood, of rock and torrent, having no other worship than a half-efi'aced Druidism, min- gled with German superstitions. All was hazy and indistinct, like mote antiquity. {Hist. Eccles. de Bret., i' iv., p. 540.) \ The Venerable Bede asserts in his Ecclesias- tical History, that, at this remote period, a great number of Druids became Christians. Bluiuiii OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. a landscape veiled in mist. The Druids, having had a misiinder* standing with the great chiefs, had been expelled in the 4th century,* and their notions relating to the one God were gradually almost forgot- ten ; but the people believed in the spirit of the waters, and the spirit of the mountains, and in a certain aerial dwelling where the shades of their ancestors, wandering by night on their cloudy chariots, their white drapery glittering in the moon- beams, and their transparent hands, holding by way of sword, a half- extinguished meteor.f The Chris- tian apostles of these regions, then almost unknown, took possession of the caves which the Druids had abandoned, J and established them- selves on the margin of stieams, in the depth of forests, or on the steep hill -side. It sometimes chanced that the Highland hunter, careless of pui"suing farther over the moor the red deer or the roe, came to seat himself on the gray, mossy stone which marked the grave of a war- rior, in order to converse with the ♦ Poems of Ossian. Dissertation on the Era of t See Ossian. old man of the cave, the Christian Cnldee,^ who told him of Christ and his Mother. With one aim thrown over his unbent bow, and the other resting on the head of his favorite hound lying at his feet, the Scottish chief listened, with respect and at- tention, to the grave discourse of the solitary ; then, when the sanctity of the Gospel had, at length, touched his heart ; when, with clasped hands and kindling eyes, lie said, "I be- lieve ! " his entire clan repeated like a faithful echo, " We also believe 1 " Not content with having spread their doctrine over hill and dale, the priests of Christ would fain pursue the old idolatiy even to its most an- cient and remote sanctuaiies. The isle of lona, one of the islands of the Scottish archipelago, surrounded by a green and turbulent sea, was a sacred place for the lords of the isles and the mountain chiefs, who came to swear peace on an ancient block, which they called the stone of power. The stone quickly disappeared, and in its stead arose, amid the pictur- esque rocks, the most ancient and ♦ X Ibid. § Gxildee, in G-elic, Culdich, a hermit, a soli- tary. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 289 the most venerated abbey in Scot- f land : alas ! its cloisters are now, and have long been, roofless, though they cover the ashes of a race of kings. Four centuries had passed away, and Christianity had already spread from east to west. " We are but of yesterday," said TertuUian to the senate of pagan Rome, " and yet we fill your palaces, your cities, your fortresses, your armies, both by land and sea; we leave you only your temples ! " It was true ; but what torrents of blood had, during all that time, reddened the great standard of the Cross ! The last persecution was meant to eradicate Christianity : Dioclesian either levelled or closed up all the churches, and put Chris- tian cities to the sword,* promising the most magnificent rewards to apostacy, which, however, was very uncommon, notwithstanding the im- perial encouragement, the Christians of those times generally preferring martyrdom. Men thought that it was all over with Christianity : the idolaters clapped their hands in ex- ultation over its approaching down- fall, and hell was heard to bellow out its shouts of triumph ; but the holy angels, looking on with a smile, said amongst themselves : " Christ is about to gain the victory ; bless- ed be His name !".... A young maiden of Bithynia, named Helena, whom the Emperor Constantius Chloris had married for her rare beauty and virtue, had just given birth to a son, who was named Con- stantine. ^ * Eusebius, Eccles. Hist. — Sulpicius Severus. Mr-^. 'tronlr ^nioi of tjjt gthtion U P^arj. FROM CONSTANTINE TO THE MIDDLE AGES. CHAPTER lY. THE EAST THE ICONOCLASTS. N the delightful banks of the Bosphorus, in Thrace, within sight of the dis- tant mountains of Abia Minor, whose lofty summits are at evening tinged with the richest gold and crimson, the coast of Europe is indented by a large bay of incomparable beauty, and over its sheet of bright blue waters rises a vast city, all white and all Christian;* it is Constantinople, which the son of Helena and of Constantius Chloris has just dedi- cated solemnly to Mary; for the master of the world, still treated as a god in idolatrous Rome, be- longs himself to Jesus Christ ; and the cross whereby he has conquered decorates his banners, glitters on * CoDstautine would have it so that there was not a single idolater in Constantinople; he left * his coin, and surmounts the sump- tuous basilica which he has placed under the invocation of St. Sophia, the Virgin, and the twelve Apos- tles. Idolatry is still erect, but it is a withered palm-tree, whose lofty branches are ah-eady lifeless. Nought is seen but deserted altars, over whose steps reptiles crawl; birds begin to nestle in the arches of the temples where spiders spin their webs ; the wild vine spreads its green branches over their walls of polished marble, and the travel- ler profanely cuts a walking-stick in those sacred groves from which it was, formerly, death to pull a single branch. The ceremonies of pagarj worship have ceased in Greece; the most venerated idols serve only for ornament in the pub- idols only in profane places, to serve as orna- ments. • {Eecles. Hist., vol. i., p. 523.) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 291 lie places of Constantinople; but no one is forced to enter the church; for, though Polytheism be a relig- ion essentially bad and supremely absm'd, yet the emperor respects that liberty of conscience which the pagans so badly understood when they abused the dread right of the strongest. Lactantius, one of the brightest luminaries of Christianity, lays down as a principle, in a fam- ous contemporary work, that nihil est tarn voluntarium quam religio.^ It is such moderation as this that gains success for a holy cause. It was not merely by dedicating to her the new Rome that Constan- tine testified his respect for Mary; at his request, the Empress Helena, converted by him, set out for Pal- estine, and covered that holy land with sacred monuments, in which Mary had her full share. The grotto of the Nativity, sheeted with marble and lit up with golden lamps, was surrounded by a mag- nificent chm*ch, which bore the name of St. Mary of Bethlehem. St. Mary of Nazareth, erected on the site of the humble dwelling of the Holy Family, was long consid- ered one of the finest chm-ches in * Asia. The sepulchral cave in tlie valley of Josaphat was consider- ably enlarged, and adoraed with a superb staircase of marble; silver lamps were suspended around the Virgin's tomb. Finally, two sump- tuous churches commemorated the Visitation of Mary and her swoon near the rock from which the Naz- arenes would have cast Jesus. The successors of the first By- zantine emperor showed themselves in general very devout towards the Blessed Virgin. Theodosius the Younger, having learned that a great concourse of Christians from all parts of Europe and Asia, flock- ed to the tomb of the Blessed Vir- gin, had a stately Byzantine church erected there, which was called by the Arabs la Giasmaniah (the church of the body) , Kosrou-Paviz (Cosroes 11.) tluew down this church at the instigation of the Jews, in his in- vasion of Syria and Palestine ; but subsequently repenting of that act of violence, for which he was tear- fully reproached by Sira, his Chris- tian wife, the follower of Zoroaster built a church himself to the Bless- ed Virgin, in his city of Miafarc- * Lactantius, InatiiiU., v. 20. m mSTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO TEE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. kin.* The Empress Piilclieiia, daughter of Theodosius and wife of the Emperor Marcian, had her- self no less than three -churches constructed, under the invocation of the Panagia, within the limits of Constantinople. Being unable to enrich them with relics of the Mother of God, since the body of Mary is in heaven, she tried to make up the deficiency by some of her garments, sent by the faithful of Jerusalem. The beautiful church of the Blaquernes had her robe, that of Chalcopratee, her girdle ; but that of the Guides obtained the best of all. Therein was placed on an altar glittering with gold and embellished with columns of jasper, a portrait of Mary sent from An- tioch, said to have been painted by St. Luke during the life-time of the Virgin, and to which she had at- tached graces.f This portrait was considered as the palladium of the empire ; and the emperors — amongst others John Zimisces and the Comneni— con- veyed it to the army, whence it was brought back on a ti'iumphal car drawn by magnificent white * D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientate. * horses. In great solemnities, this miraculous image was taken from the church of the Guides, where it was usually kept with the most reverential care. The people al- ways hailed its presence with shouts of joy and canticles of praise. The fate of this image re- mains doubtful. Some hold that it was this image which, after the taking of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204, was brought to Venice by the doge, Henry Dandolo; others maintain that it was the one found by the Turks when sacking the city of Constantino, and by them contemptuously trampled un- der foot, after being stripped of the jewels and gold wherein it was set. Leo the First built, in 460, a superb basilica, which he dedicated to Our Lady of the Fountain, in gratitude for that the Holy Virgin had appeared to him on the mar- gin of a lonely spring, whither he had led a blind old man, and prom ised him the empire, though he was then but a young Thracian soldier. The diadem of the Caesars no sooner encircled his brow, than he set about perpetuatino- by this monu- f Niceph., Mist. Eccles., 1. xiv. and xv. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 293 nient, the remembrance of Mary's protection "•= The Emperor Zeno, son-in-law of Leo L, was not less devoted to Mary than his father-in-law had been ; he built her a church on Mount Gari- zim — the sacred mountain of the Samaritans — and as that restless people, then in open rebellion, had spoiled some images of Mary, he surrounded the mountain with a wall, whereon he placed a garrison of soldiers to prevent the renewal of these sacrileges. The Emperor Justin rebuilt, with increased splendor, in Constanti- nople, the church of Our Lady of Chalcopratee, overthrown by an earthquake. Two churches built at Jerusalem in honor of the Blessed Virgin, St. Mary the New, and another on the Mount of Olives, with a monastery erected on a shelf of Mount Sinai, and in Africa, a sumptuous basilica, with the name * Niceph., 1. XV., ch. 25. This church, built with much magnificence, had windows of stained glass, but not representing historical subjects. At the end of the 5th century, painting on glass was still a new art. ■j" Leo rV., son of Constantine Copronymus, having taken from the church of St. Sophia one of the crowns of gold which the Emperor Mau- rice had consecrated to the Virgin, his death, * of Our Lady of Carthage, were last- ing testimonies of the devotion of the Emperor Justinian to the Mother of our Lord. Not content with building temples to her, the Caesars of Constantinople piously venerated Mary in their private chapels ; they offered her splendid crowns of gold,f and wore on their persons a little figure of her carved in the same pre- cious metal.| . They brought from the monastery Hodegium, to the imperial palace of Constantinople, the celebrated image of the Virgin HocUgetrie (conductress), during the last days of Lent, and it remained there till the second Easter-holiday. It was to the Virgin, too, that Michael Paleologus did homage, when he -had succeeded in expelling the race of Courtenay from Con- stantinople. § The Greek people were not slow in following the example of their emperors ; the lares and the Olympic which occurred soon after, was attributed to that sacrilege. (Blond., 1. xxi., decad. 2.) I The Emperor Andronicus II. usually wore round his neck one of these statuettes of the Blessed Virgin ; it was of gold, and so small that he put it in his mouth, in liexi of other viaticum, at the moment of death. § Antiquities of the chapel, &c., of the King of France. 894 HISTORY OF THE JJEyuiiON TO THE BLESSED VIHUIN MAHl. idols were almost everywhere re- placed by the Paimgia, The altars of Bacchus were overthrown with their green garlands of ivy, and Our Lady of Grnpes received amid the vineyards the homage of the vinta- gers; Ceres herself began to be forgotten in the ruins of her myste- rious shrine at Eleusis, destroyed by the Goths in the third century, together with the temples of Del- phos, Corinth, and Ephesus; finally, Mount Athos, the mountain of Ju- piter, had become, since the time of Constantine, a little colony of hermits and solitaries, of which Mary was proclaimed the queen. The Gospel facts of her life were reproduced in frescoes, grounded on gold, on the ceilings of an infinite number of chapels built in her honor amongst the vines and olives wliich clothe the sides of that lofty mountain, whose shadow extends across the sea to the distant isle of Lemnos. Who would believe that it was amongst those very Greeks, so de- * Lfto the Isauriau was exceedingly cruel. Having failed in imparting his own hatred of images to the learned men charged with the care of the public library, he had them shut up within it, surrounded the building with wood * vout to the Blessed Virgin, that the ideas most opposed to her personal dignity and the perpetuity of her reign had their rise. It was with- in the walls of Constantinople that the heresy of Nestorius was first broached, disputing her right to be called the Mother of God ; and also that of the Iconoclasts, who dragged her images through the mire, and burned them in the streets. Under Leo the Isaurian, who had acquired, it is said, amongst the Jews, a furi- ous hatred for all religious painting and statuary, faithful Catholics were seen thrown in heaps into the Bos- phorus, or beaten to death with rods, for having lit lamps before a domestic Madonna, prayed at the foot of a crucifix, or bent the knee in passing the statue of a saint* Constantine Copronymus, successor of this wicked prince, even surpass- ed him in cruelty, and Leo, his son, walked in the ways of both; but Irene, sincerely attached to Catho- licity, had the second council of Nice convoked, when the veneration and combustible matters, and then set fire to it. Medals, numberless pictures, and more than three thousand manuscripts wore consumed in that conflagration. ■ .*■ HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 295 of images was solemnly reestablish- ed,* and the Empress Theodora, aided by the patriarch Methodus, consolidated the pious work of Irene. If the insult had been great, the reparation was complete ; the Greeks, thenceforward, endeavored to honor Mary by every imaginable means. They decreed her crowns of gold ; they ever after represented her with the imperial purple, the tiara of pearls, and the diadem of the empresses ; f they stamped her image on their coins ; they struck medals in her honor, and fought under her auspices. " Eomans," said Narses, when about to offer battle to the Goths at Taginas, " Eomans, fight bravely, the Virgin is with us ; fail not to invoke her during the combat ; for she beholds our cohorts, and will deliver to us the wretches who dispute her title of Mother of Godr \ It was quickly rumored through the ranks that the Paiia^ia^ to whom JSTarses was very * Protestants have protested loudly against this council, which explains so clearly the vene- ration of images. In the 16th century, they had quite a horror of the Empress Irene, whom they surnamed the furioun, aiRrming that she had established the worship of images. {Letter devout, had promised him victory, and appointed the hour for the attack. Persuaded that Heaven favored their cause, the Greeks dis- played an energy foreign to their character. Totilla was slain ; his army fled, leaving the plain covered with dead, and Italy, delivered in the name of Our Lady of Victory, loudly blessed the Virgin and Par- ses. Mcetes records a historical fact, which proves how highly Mary was honored by the princes of the Low- er Empire. ^' John Comnenus, after gaining a battle," says that histo- rian, "was to enter Constantinople in triumph, as he was entitled to do; all was prepared for the gor- geous ceremony; the streets were hung with silk and cloth of gold, and numerous scaffolds were erected through the streets for the accom- modation of th'e multitudes of spec- tators who had come from all parts of the empire to see that glorious sight. to the Bishop of Angers on the Miracles of Our Lady of Ardilliers, in 1594.) ■{■ It is under this costume that the Blessed Virgin is represented on the medals of Zimisces and Theophanes. I Hist. Arianism, by Father Maimbourg, voL ii, 996 lii.>iuhY OF THE JjrAuLlvN TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. "The trumpeters crowned with laui'el walked in front of the pro- cession; then appeared representa- tions of the conquered cities, to- gether with the vanquished princes, in painting, in sculptuie, in marble, and in ivory, all of the most exqui- site workmanship ; * then the spoils of the enemy — arms, precious robes, vases of gold enriched with jewels, so as to dazzle the eyes of the be- holders ; after these came the cap- tives, barbarian princes of majestic statm'e and of haughty bearmg, walking in chains according to cus- tom, their eyes cast down, and their heads, now bowed in shame, now raised in a sudden fit of fury and despair. After them came the tri- umphal car, drawn by four white horses ; all expected to see the em- peror seated on this car, clothed in a robe of purple or scarlet, richly embroidered, and his lordly brow encircled with laurel; but in his stead there w^as seen an image of the Blessed Virgin, to whom, and not to himself, he considered the triumph due. The emperor on horseback, followed by his brilliant court, closed this Christian proces- sion, happier in the triumph of ^ Mary than if he had triumphed liimself" In order to show how far the Virgin was revered in Asia Minor, it will sufiice to relate, as briefly as possible, what passed in Ephesus during the sitting of the council which condemned the heresy of Nestorius, in 431. The day on which the council was to decide on the divine maternity of Mary, the people, anxious and dis- turbed, blocked up the streets and crowded around the magnificent temple which the piety of the in- habitants had built under the invo- cation of the Virgin. There it was that two hundred bishops were exam- ining the propositions of Nestorius, who dared not come to defend them, so little confidence had he in the justice of his cause or the sound- ness of his arguments. Profound silence reigned amongst the vast multitude who thronged the vicinity of the basilica, and anxiety was painted on every countenance ; the fine expressive features of the Greeks manifesting, as in a glass, every in- * Josephus gives a magnificent description of the representations of cities which adorned the ^ triumphs, HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 297 ward emotion of the soul. A bishop at length appears ; he announces to the mute and attentive crowd that the anathema of the council is launched against the innovator, and that the Most Holy Virgin is glo- riously maintained in her august prerogative. Thereupon, the most deafening shouts of joy burst forth on every side. The Ephesians and the strangers gathered together from all the cities of Asia, surrounding the Fathers of the council, kissed their hands and their garments, and * burned odoriferous perfumes in the streets through which they were to pass. The city was spontaneously and suddenly illuminated, and never was joy more universal. It is thought to have been in this council of Eph- esus that St. Cyril, in concert with the holy assembly over which he presided, composed that beautiful and touching prayer to the Mother of God, which has been adopted by the Church : — " Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of om- death. Amen ! " CHAPTER Y. THE EAST THE HOLY WARS. HE Christians of Asia were no less active than the Greeks in manifesting their devotion to Mary. Be- fore the time of Constantine, a chm-ch bearing the name of the Blessed Virgin arose like a light- house on the lofty promontory of Mount Carmel. Tyre, the deposed but still mighty queen of the Le- vantine seas, was distinguished for her church of Our Lady, composed principally of cedar and marble, and I'ivaling the Byzantine basil- ica of the Cgesars. Damascus, the emerald of the desert, willingly ex- pended two hundred thousand di- ^8 mSTORT OF TEE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VTJIGTN MARY. nai*s of gold in building its splendid church of Mart-Miriam (St. Mary), which was buined by the Mohame- tans during the caliphate of Moc- tader, in the year of the Hegira, 312.*. Antioch had, likewise, a superb basilica of Our Lady, and hung golden lamps before that im- age of her which was soon to be given up at the pious desire of the Empress Pulcheria; for this sacred image the good Christians of Anti- och substituted a small cedar statue of the Mother of God, miraculously found in the time-hollowed trunk of an enormous cypress which over- hung the Orontes.f Lebanon, that lovely mountain, which, "beneath a tiery sky remains faithful," says Tacitus, " to snow and shade ; \ Lebanon, whose cedars were plant- ed by the hand of the Lord, shel- tered in its rocky caverns a crowd of solitaries who had devoted their labor to Mary. Seated on the banks of that river which took, from their vicinity, the name of JToly^ which it still bears, and which flows between two mossy banks picturesquely shaded, those * D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient. f istolfi, delle Imagini miraculose. ^ men of toil, of contemplation, and of prayer, carved, in the majestic shade of the cedars — which let fall on them, through their rich foliage, a light like that which comes down tinged with pmple, blue, .and gold, through the stained windows of our cathedrals, — those little statu- ettes of the Blessed Virgin, called block virgins, which the western pilgrims, who visited the Holy Land during the first ages of Chris- tianity, brought back to Europe to place them either in the domestic chapels, or in chiu'ches which they have rendered famous by their miracles. Mary had also shrines in the rocky solitudes of Mount Sinai. In the depth of a grassy ravine, so profoundly set amongst enormous rocks that the top of its loftiest cedars is never shaken by the wind, there arose, in the midst of a little grove of olives, poplars, and date- trees, a convent placed under the invocation of the Virgin. There was nothing to disturb the gloomy silence of that oasis ; even the storm that shook the aged cedars I Taciti Historiarum, lib. v. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN 3IARY. 299 of tlie moimtain was scarcely heard there ; that peaceful tomb of the living was only animated when there arose from it songs of praise to " Him who was before the moun- tains," and to "Her in whom he hath done great things." In Persia, where the ruins of nu- merous churches and monasteries dedicated to Mary are still seen, the Christians were early distinguished by their zeal in building those places of prayer. Eliseus Yertabed, a highly-esteemed Armenian author who flourished in the 5th century, has preser^^ed for us, in his religious history of the Armenian wars, a dis- course of the king of kings Jesgird — in the west, Isdigerdes : — " I have learned from my fathers," said that prince in a great council composed of satraps and magi, wherein the question of an approaching persecu- tion of the Christians was discussed, "I have learned from my fathers that, in the time of King Chabouh II. (in 319), when the religion of Christ began to spread in Persia, and other Eastern countries, our principal moheds (doctors) advised the king to abolish Christianity in his states ; he tried to do so, but in * vain, for the more he exerted him- self to arrest the progress of that religion, the more it seemed to flour- ish. The Christians of Persia were so bold that they built, in all the cities, churches which surpassed the royal dwellings in magnificence ; they also raised oratories over the graves of their martyrs ; and there was no place, whether inhabited or waste, where they did not put up convents."* The extinction of Christianity was decided on in this council, where the Magi were all-powerful ; but the king resolved to try bribery before he had recourse to violence ; he tried, as the Persians have it, " to infuse deadly poison into the cup of milk." Calling around him the nakarars or nobles of Armenia, who governed by feudal tenure the small principalities hereditary in their families, under the authority of a marzhan or vice-king named by Per- sia, he loaded them with praise, with sweet words, and alluring promises, to obtain from them the sacrifice of their religion. Those who yielded were rewarded with governments, * HtHtory of the Rising of Christian Armenia^ ^ by Eliseus Vertabed, ch. iii. 300 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. honorary titles, fair and fertile lord- | shii>s, or Arab horses superbly ca- parisoned. Never had there gone forth from the royal treasury so manv bracelets of emeralds, so many girdles of beaten gold, stud- ded with rubies and pearls; so many pieces of brocade, grounded on red and gold, and spangled with precious stones — for no cost was spared to gain the desired end. But, alas! the deserters from the true faith to the camp of the Magi were so few in number, and the " king of kings " was so urged to put an end to Christianity, that, suddenly throwing off the mask of moderation which he had at first assumed, he issued a very curious proclamation, wherein, after having praised, according to the ancient formulas of the Persian court, the holy God, " master of the moon and stars," whose power nothing escapes, * " Trust not your chiefs whom you call Naz- arenes," said he to the Armenians, in this royal edict mentioned by Eliseus Vertabed, " they are liars and impostors. What they teach by word, they belie by their deeds. To eat meat, say they, is no sin, and yet they eat it not! It is lawful to marry, they tell you, and yet they will not so much as look on a woman ! They will tell you that it is no sin to gather riches honestly, and yet they are forever preaching up poverty. "from the sun to the darkness of night, from the little sprhig to the blue sea-wave," he went on to ex- pose the fundamental points of his own false doctrine, and to slander that of the Christians.* This royal edict was promptly followed by an- other commanding the Armenians to embrace without delay the worship of fire; to contract marriage with their nearest relations, contrary to the laws of Jesus Chi'ist, which de- clares such marriages criminal, and ending by ordering sacrifice to the siin, consisting of goats and white bulls. The Apostle said, " Be ye subject to the powers that be ; " but God has commanded us to prefer death to idolatry. Hence, the Armenians, instead of conforming to the impious edict of the Persian court, continu- ed to celebrate the divine service in their horse-camps, and to listen to They extol affliction and condemn prosperity ; they despise glory of every kind ; they love to clothe themselves in homely garments, like poor beggars, preferring worthless things to those that are of value ; they praise death and despise life; finally, they have even gone so far as to make a virtue of chastity, so that if their advice were followed, the world would speedily come to an end ! " {Rising of Christian Armenia, chap- ter ii.) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 301 the preaching of the priests who, in imitation of the ancient Jewish Levites, accompanied the army. In vain did Isdigerdes, separating them into small bodies, station them at the most distant and dangerous points along the frontiers ; in vain did he give them for winter-quarters the most unsheltered mountain pass- es, and the most unhealthy localities; in vain did he seek to reduce them by the extremities of hunger and thirst, whilst, on the other hand, poor Armenia, squeezed like the grape in the wine-press, gave to the Persian treasury its last drops of gold. The tree of the faith, amidst all these miseries, remained " green as a stately cypress surmounted by the full-orbed moon." The Christians of Armenia had endured all ; but their patience failed when the " king of kings" madly undertook to destroy the monasteries placed under the invocation of the Saints, and to convert the churches into Temples of the Sun. They rose from one end of the kingdom to the other, and, making up in enthusiasm what they wanted in numbers, all the Persian fortresses were taken, and the tem- ples of the sun burned to the ground. ^ A great battle, in which the Persians were ten to one, was fought on the frontiers of Georgia, on the banks of a small river which flows into the Gour [Cyrus). The Persian army presented the most splendid and im- posing sight; its war-elephants — loaded with towers from whose top the skillful archers darted their long poplar arrows — extended over the wings, and in the centre was the terrible phalanx of the immortals. These numerous squadrons, resplen- dent with gold, moved to the sound of clarions, trumpets, cymbals, and little Hindoo bells ; flags of yellow, red, and violet flaunted like tulips at the end of the spears ; the cap- tains and the satraps drew their In- dian swords from their golden scab- bards, and pushed on their swift Arabian horses with golden bridles and brilliant housings. Clothed in dark-colored garments, and with the cross displayed on their banners — dark like their garments— the Ar- menians, a handful of heroes, hav- ing raised their hands and hearts to heaven, marched to meet the enemy singing a canticle from the psalms. '^ Judge between us and our enemies, Lord ! " sang the 802 HISTORY OF TUE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. insurgent Chiistiiuis ; " take up bow and buckler for us, for our cause is thine; spread terror through the countless hosts of the wicked. Let them fly and be dispersed before the august sign of the holy cross. We ai'e willing to die for thy sake, and if we slay these infidels we shall be martyrs to the truth."* Excited by this prayer, the Arme- nians bm'st with fury on the Persians, and shattered their right wing at the first shock. The conflict was terri- ble ; the air, bristling with arrows, resembled " the ^^lture's wing," and blue swords flashed like heaven's lightning. Enthusiasm, exalted by faith, prevailed ; the Persians were completely routed, and the bodies of nine great sati'aps lay on the field of battle. The waters of the Lomeki were changed into blood, and only a single horseman escaped on his dromedary to bear these disastrous tidings to the Persian court. But this victory, great and un- hoped for as it was, could not be decisive ; the Christians of Armenia had neither gold nor allies; Mar- cian, the Greek emperor, whom they had besought, in the name of Christ and his Blessed Mother, to assist them, basely sent an express ambas- sador to the com't of Persia to pro- test to the " king of kings " that he had nothing whatever to do with the rebellion in Armenia, and was resolved not to interfere. Isigerdes imderstood that Caesar was afraid; and, trusting to his cowardice, he resolved to pursue the extermination of Christianity in Armenia; happily, he did not succeed. The Christians, overwhelmed by numbers, lost a great battle, together with the hero who commanded them, Yartan the Mamigonian, a prince of Chinese origin, who fell after performing prodigies of valor. The Armenians, reduced to the last extremity, would not declare themselves conquered ; they deserted the cities for the for- ests and mountains ; they celebrat- ed the divine office in the caverns of the rocks. The Armenian bishops suffered martyrdom with unshaken firnmess ; the princes, accustomed to the fresh, bracing air of their high mountains, were taken in chains to Korassan, where the sky is fire and the wind is the dread Simoom, which kills like thunder, while the soil is * Eliseus Vertabed, ch. iiL HTSTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO TUE BLESSED TIBGTN MABY. 303 a sea of flaming sand.* There they would have perished miserably had not two confessors, mutilated by the Persian sabre, undertaken to collect alms amongst the Christians of the neighboring provinces for the relief of the captive nobles : this lasted about seven years. One of these angels of charity died of fatigue in the burning deserts of Kohistan, the heat of which has been compared by a modern traveller to that of a plate of red-hot iron ; the other con- tinued alone the same work of mercy. Isdigerdes, overcome by so much constancy and devotion, at length put an end to this hard captivity ; but it was only after fifty years of negotiations, treaties, and fighting, that Yahan the Mamigonian, neph- ew of the great Vartan, terminated this bloody war, commenced in 430.f * The Simoom is a deadly wind which stifles travellers and all sorts of animals, unless they fall prostrate on the ground. Curious details relating to the Simoom are found in Niebuhr's description, pp. 6, 7, and 8, Copenhagen edition. This wind rises between the 15th of June and the 15th of August. It blows with great vio- lence, appears red and inflamed, and kills every living thing that it strikes. But the death which it causes is not its most surprising effec-t : the bodies of those who die by it are, as it were, dissolved, without losing, however, either their If the Christian churches of Persia deserved to be compared to the pal- aces of its kings, of whose magnifi- cence the Arab poets have left such glowing descriptions, J those of the nations who dwelt between the Euxine and the Caspian seas were very poor in comparison. These were, at first, wooden buildings, to which the faithful were summoned, on festival days, by striking two planks, one against the other ; bells were then unknown. The first stone church of the Armenians, built near the sources of the Tigris, was placed under the invocation of Mary ; it possessed, like many of the shrines of Syria and Asia Minor, a mirac- ulous image of the Virgin, which was intrusted to the care of pious w^omen. § The cathedral of Mtzkhetha, the shape or color, so that it would seem as though they were asleep. If one touch these bodies, the part which is touched remains in the hand. f Continuation of Eliseus Yertabed, by Laz- arus Parbe, ch. iii. % Antar's description of the palace of Cosroes resembles that of the Thousand and One Nights : he gives it halls of marble and of red cornelian, fountains of rose-water, basins from which arise emerald pillars surmounted by birds of bur- nished gold, with topaz eyes, &c. § Ancient Geography of Armenia, Venice, 1822 804 SISI\J.^1 HIE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. ancient capital of Georgia, was the first Christian church of that coun- II \ : the Georgians dedicated it to the Virgin. In it was formerly kept the famous khiton^ one of the torn garments of Jesus Christ. Often thrown down, but as often elegantly reconstructed in the highest Geor- gian style, it is still rich in marble and green jasper. An inscription, written on one of the pillars in let- ters of gold, announces that this di- vine and venerable temple of Mary, Qneeii of the Georgians, Mother of God, and ever Yirgm, was rebuilt at the expense and by the care of a princess of Georgia, named Peban- pato. The metropolis of the Mingrelians was likewise dedicated to the Vir- gin ; one of her robes was venerated there, and was kept in a casket of ebony, adorned with silver flowers. This robe, composed of a precious stuff, of a buff color, ornamented with embroidery of various colors, was exhibited in Chardin when it was taken through Mingrelia on its way to Persia. In the Caucasian regions, which abound in convents dedicated to Mary, it wa^ always on the loftiest * heights that the most beautiful mon- asteries were seen : they were often even defended by strong castles. That of Miriam-Nischin, in Georgia, was built on a rock of the Cauca- sian chain, in the midst of a lovely mountain lake, which rendered it inaccessible by land ; it was protect- ed by a fortress that was considered impregnable. The castle and the monastery were besieged by Melik- Scliah, in the reign of Alp-Arslan, his father, second sultan of the Seljoucides line. Just as the army of the Mussulman prince was pre- paring to embark to commence the siege, and the garrison, decimated by hunger, regarded the approach- ing attack with fear and sad fore- bodings, a terrible earthquake took place, and the monastery of St. Mary fell shattered into the lake.* This strange catastrophe was con- sidered miraculous. "The Virgin," said the Georgians, " would rather see her sanctuary destroyed than desecrated." Before the principal gate of Djoulfa, an ancient and commercial city of Armenia, situated near one of the most convenient fords of the * D'Herbelot, BiOlioth. Orient. r/:, cxi; HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 305 Araxes, there stands a solitary peak, on whose narrow platform there was built, in the first ages of Christian- ity, a monastery in honor of the Blessed Virgin. The declivities of this steep rock, still adorned with the pretty blue hyacinth and the fragrant marjoram, are covered with rich tombs and ancient tumuli ; but the living — where are they? One day it came into the head of a cer- tain Asiatic despot* to erase Djoulfa, a city of forty thousand inhabit- ants, from amongst the cities of the globe, and he sent Thamas-Kouli- Beg with an order for the citizens to evacuate it in three days' time : he was obeyed. The inhabitants hastily concealed their treasures in secret places, hoping — vain hope! — that Schah- Abbas,' when the storm of his wrath had blown over, would permit them to return to their city. At the end of the third day, when they were forced to set out, and the last moment of respite had passed, each one, taking the keys of his house, followed the priests, who carried those of the churches. Arrived at the foot of * Schali-Abbas totally depopulated the city of Djoulfa, in 1605. the rock where Mary's shrine still overlooks the ancient tombs of their fathers, their despair broke forth in heart-rending sobs. Forced to con- tinue their journey, the unhappy exiles cast a parting glance on their poor deserted city ; and, after placing their churches and dwell- ings under the special care of the Blessed Yirgin, they threw their keys into the river. The Egyptians, who had never bent the knee to strange gods, and who seemed inclosed, as it were, in their beastly region (as Jose- phus called it while still flourish- ing), had abandoned their grazing divinities^ and giving back to the waters of the Nile the hideous crocodiles which had had their devotees for food,f they had come to adore the God of Calvary. The descendants of the ancient people of the Pharaohs had built, at an early period, a beautiful church in the small Egyptian village where the Holy Family had taken refuge from the fell designs of Herod, and they had given it the name of Our Lady of Matarieh; a pretty foun- t Josephus against Appio, b. ii. ^06 HISTkRY of the devotion to the blessed virgin MARY. tain, where of old the Blessed Vir- f gin used to wash the clothes of the infant-God, had received the name of Mary's Fountain, and that foun- tain, together with a gigantic syca- more which had often shaded the Mother and Child, was the object of numerous pilgrimages. The me- tropolis of Egypt was also dedi- cated to Our Lady; The church of Alexandria, which shone amongst all the churches of the Christian world like a beacon on a lofty eminence, had attached to its patriarchal see, in the fourth century, a kingdom almost unknown to the Romans, and of which Pliny related the strangest things ; * this was Abyssinia, whose people, Jews, Sabeans, or fetichists, according as they pleased, were governed by kings descended from Makeda, the beautiful black queen who filled Jerusalem w- ith jewels and perfumes, and who had a son by King Solo- mon. A young Tyrian merchant, a trader in jewels, having been shipwrecked on the African coasts * According to Pliny and some other ancient geographers, Abyssinia was peopled with men who had neither nose nor mouth to their face, and whos-e eyes were placed in the pit of their stomach ; men were seen there without a head, ^ of the Red Sea, was first plundered and then conducted , to Axoum, the ancient capital of the Queen of Saba, where he was presented as a prisoner of note to the Neguz (emperor), that prince "at w^hose name the lions bow down;" he succeeded so far in conciliating the Neguz that he made him his treas- m-er. After the death of the black prince, the education of his young son, Abreka, w^as confided to the Tyrian, who secretly instructed his pupil in his own belief, and con- ceived the magnificent hope of be- coming the apostle of those half- savage regions. In order to succeed in this, he repaired to Alexandria, where St. Athanasius consecrated him bishop of Axoum. On his return, Frumentius, who was sur- named Ahha Salama (the father of salvation), baptized Abreka, with the principal personages of his court; a great part of the nation followed the example of its chiefs. This religious revolution was effect- ed, as all religious revolutions and others with asses' heads, &c. Pliny, who relates (b, vi. eh. 30, and b. v. ch. 8) these pro digious things, leaves the subject unfinished, and modestly stops, for fear, he says, of not being believed. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 307 should be effected, without shed- ding a single drop of blood. Ab- reka and his brother Atzbeka, who reigned together in edifying har- mony, preached the Gospel them- selves to their subjects,* and built a great number of churches in hon- or of the true God, under the invo- cation of Mariam [Mary). One of these ancient churches took, from the woods by which it was sur- rounded, the pretty name of Mari- am- Chaoiiitou, Our Lady the Green. Christianity then spread over the opposite coast of the Eed Sea, into Yemen, the inhabitants of which adored the stars and the trees ; amongst them there were a good number of Jews ; a prince of that nation, who had usurped the su- preme power in Arabia, persecuted the Christians, and, in 520, ban- ished St. Gregentius, an Arab by birth and Archbishop of Taphar, * " Hail, Abreka and Atzbeka, who reigned together with the greatest harmony, who preach- ed the rehgion of Christ to the children of the Mosaic law, and erected temples to the honor of God." {Abyssinian Liturgy, Commemoration of the dead.) f The following is a prayer addressed to the martyrs of Nagran by the Abyssinian Church : — " Saluto pulchritudinem vestram amoenam, bidera Nagrani ! gemmae qui illimiiaatis muudum, metropolis of that country. St. Aritas, Governor of ]N"agran, the an- cient capital of Yemen, would not give up his faith; he was taken and conducted out of the city, where he was put to death on the banks of a rivulet. His wife and daughter likewise perished in the midst of- torments, together with three hundred and forty Christians ; f and as Dunaan continued to sacri- fice all those who would not apos- tatize, Caleb, King of Abyssinia, marched against him, in 530, and gained a complete victory over him. Some time after, the same Caleb, disgusted with the throne, sent his crown to Jerusalem, J abdicated in favor of his son, and shut himself up in a monastery, taking with him only a cup and a mat. The African troops whom he had sent to the assistance of the Christians of Asia, seduced by the beauty and fertility Conciliatrix sit mihi ilia pulchritude, et pacificatrix. Coram Deo judice si steterit peccatum meum, Ostendite ei sanguinem quem effudistis propter pulchritudi- nem ejus.'' (Abyssinian Liturgy.} X " Hail, Caleb ! who gave up the sign of your power when you sent your crown as an offering to the temple of Jerusalem : you did not abuse your victory when you destroyed the army of the Sabeans." {Abyssinian Liturgy.) 808 nrsTOii ) ITE DEVOTION TO THE ^LESSED VIRGIN MARY. < >f that tutjtpy land, resolved to settle * till re. These were the black Chris- tians, who, commanded by the Gov- ernor of Yemen, carried on, against the Arabs of Mecca, that war known as the elephant-war, Arabia Felix, however, did not long remain in their hands; it was wrested from them in 590, by the Persians, who weie themselves conquered, and ex- pelled by Mahomet's captains. At the time of the conversion of Abyssinia, the doctrine of Nestorius was agitating the Church. It is generally known that the opinions of that bishop, who refused to Mary the title of Mother of God, were con- demned by the Council of Ephesus. The Abyssinians, in their exagger- ated enthusiasm for the Blessed Vir- gin, did not content themselves with rejecting the heresy of Nestorius ; to the title of Mother of God, they add- ed that of Mundi Creatrix, to testify their boundless veneration for Mary. Nothing, in fact, can exceed the love and respect of which she is the object all along the Blue Nile, and * The first day of the mouth of August was called in the Syrian calendar saum Miri- am, Our Lady's Fast, because the Christians even as far as the Mountains of the Moon. The errors of Dioscorus and Eutyches, which the Abyssinians have unhappily adopted, have made no change in this respect. The old East seemed to grow young again through its devotion to Mary ; it loved to do her honor, and pompously solemnized her fes- tivals, which were, -for the most part, of apostolic origin. The Feast of the Annunciation was regarded, in the time of St. Athanasius, as he himself tells us, as one of the great- est festivals of the year, and for that of the Assumption — which was cel- ebrated with splendor from the Nile to Mount Caucasus, under the name of Our Lady's Easter — the people prepared themselves by a fast of fifteen days.* All seemed to promise that the Gospel was about to spread from one end of Asia to the other, and it was already beginning te be announced to the idolatrous people of the Celestial Empire, w^lio heard without surprise of that Holy One, teenth, which they named Jithr Miriam, that is to say, the end of the fast, or our Lady's Pasch. (D'Herbelot, Bihliolheque Orientale, t. of the East fasted from that day till the fif- ^ ler, p. 2.) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 309 born of a Virgin, whom the earth f expected, according to the disciples of Confucius, " as drooping plants expect the dew ; " but, alas ! a storm more furious, more destructive, more irresistible than the burning wind of the desert, and born, like it, amid the sandy wastes of Arabia, came to trample down Christianity with a force derived, doubtless, from Satan himself. At first, there was heard but a confused clashing of arms along the sea of reeds ; Arab fought. Arab with savage fury, and the idol-trees fell to the ground as well as the Christian temples ; then, all was silent in that region, and myriads of horsemen wearing abhas striped in black and white, cast themselves * The ancient Romans had bound up the fate of their empire with that of the temple of Jupi- ter Capitohnus, which was burned precisely on the first appearance of Christianity ; the Per- sians had ancient traditions which announced the fall of the Magian empire when their famous standard should fall into the hands of the enemy. The empire did, indeed, fall at the same time that its standard feU into the power of the Mussul- mans, in the battle of Kadesia. This banner was at first a blacksmith's apron, which was hoisted in a war of independence against the tyrant Zohak, and accepted as an omen of suc- cess by Feridoun, one of the greatest kings of Iran (ancient Persia) ; it was covered with brocade and adorned with a magnificent image ^ on Syria like clouds of locusts, de- stroying with the back of their scim- itars fourteen hundred Christian churches ! Thence they swept on to Persia, which gave way before them, leaving in their hands the famous banner of Kawed, on which the fate of the empire of the Magi was thought to depend ; * the flames of the superb library of Alexandria lit them on their devastating course through Egypt; a little time and they leaped on the African coast, where Carthage ruled of old, and conquered all before them. Arrived at the place where the ancients had planted the pillars of Hercules, the haughty conquerors pushed on their stately coursers into the waters of the Straits of Gibraltar, crying out, of the sun, wrought with jewels ; a globe of gold, representing the moou's orb, surmounted this image, and around it floated broad bands of red, yellow, and violet-color. This standard was called Kaweiani direfsh (the standard of Kawed). From the time of Feridoun, the kings of Persia made it a point to adorn it with precious stones, and. in order to make room for them, they had been obliged to enlarge this famous banner be- yond all proportion, so that it had obtained a dimension of twenty-two feet by fifteen, when it fell into the hands of the Arabs, who tore it in pieces and divided it with the mass of the booty. (Price, Mohamm. History, volume i., page 116 ; and Hvft Kalkoum, volume iv., page 126. ^ liU) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. us they proudly waved their flashing * dejected heads beneath the brutal scimitars, "God of Mahomet, thou seest it is the land that fails the conquests of the true believers / " * and ferocious yoke of Islamism, and the shades of ignorance soon thick- ened and settled down over the Africa and Asia had to bow their ^ splendid regions of the East. CHAPTER YI. THE WEST THE MADONNAS. ONSTANTINE, af- ter having raised within the very walls of Rome — that goddess city which Paganism placed amid the stany heavens f — the superb Lateran basilica, had closed the Pagan temples ; but his hand was not strong enough to pluck up the deep roots of idolatry. It is certain that the greater num- ber of the Roman patricians re- mained obstinately faithful to the ancient idols of the empire; the * riorian. Precis hintorique sur les Maures. f " Hear ine, O magnificent queen of the uni- verse — Rome, admitted into the starry skies," said Rutilius, a famous heathen poet of the last * senate itself was divided into two parties, the one Pagan and the other Christian, which made St. Ambrose say that there was, as it were, two senates. It was of the idolatrous senators that Prudentius said : " The successors of the Catos, sunk in shameful error, still invoke the Trojan gods, and in the privacy of their homes venerate the exiled lares of Phrygia ; the senate — I shame to say — the senate still hon- oi's two-faced Janus, and celebrates the feasts of Saturn." As to the great mass of the peo- age of Roman letters. " Thanks to thy temples, I am not far from the heavens." Rome was, in fact, a deified city, and had its priests and its temples. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 311 pie, by far the greater number were sincerely devoted to Christ, and, despising the altars of Jupiter, thronged around the tomb of the Apostles.* The Italian peninsula was divid- ed, like its capital, between Jupiter and Jesus, Juno and Mary; the darkness of error struggled with all its might against the increasing light of truth. The heathen priests ascribed to the desertion of their gods the calamities which befell the empire. If the famine were unu- sually great in Latium, it was be- cause Caesar, ill-advised by the Christians around him, had sup- pressed the privileges of the Ves- tals ; if the frontiers were ravaged with impunity by the Barbarians, or if the Goths penetrated to the very heart of the empire, it was because the altar of Victory had been destroyed. "We demand back the religious state which has so long served to maintain the repub- lic," said Symmachus, prefect of Rome, to the Emperor Yalentinian II. ; " we demand peace for the gods * "All this populace, inhabiting the upper sto- ries of the houses and living on the bread of the rich, visits, at the foot of the Vatican mount, * of our country; our religion subju- gated the world, it repulsed Hanni- bal from our walls, and drove the Gauls from the capital. Whatl would Rome reform in her old days what has all along been her safety ? The reform of age is tardy and de- grading ! " Paganism was vanquished by St. Ambrose in this struggle, but it continued, notwithstanding, to rear itself up against the new religion, which it overwhelmed with sarcasm, calumny, and haughty contempt. It was with transports of joy that Rome restored, under Julian, the altar of Victory, which, neverthe- less, did not prevent the Barbarians from sacking the city several times. Panic-struck to see the enemy at its gates, it became again more than half Pagan ; ceremonies for- bidden by the laws of Gratian and Theodosius were publicly perfoi'med ; the prefect of Rome called in the aid of Tuscan diviners, and the last of the consuls revived the augurial rites by another parody on the day of his installation. "It was too the tomb which contains that precious pledge, the ashes of St. Peter, our father." (Pruden- tius contra Symmachum.) i- 812 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. much," says Bt^ssuet ; " God remem- bered, at last, all the bloody decrees of the senate against the faithful, and the furious shouts wherewith the Roman people, in their thirst for Christian blood, had so often filled the amphitheatre ; he gave up to the Barbarians that city which was drunk with the blood of the martyre. . . . That new Babylon, the imitator of the old; like her, inflated with her victories, glorying in her riches, defiled with idolatry, and persecuting the people of God, falls, like her, with a great fall ; the glory of her conquests, which she attributed to her gods, is taken ft-om her; she is the prey of the Barbarians, taken three, four times, pillaged, sacked, destroyed : the sword of the Barbarians spares only the Christians. Another Rome — entirely Christian — rises from the ashes of the former, and it is only after the inundation of the Barba- rians that Christ finally triumphs over the Roman g)ds, who are not only destroyed, but wholly forgot- ten." Idolal ly was dead at last ; its marble fanes were rc-opened and purified, and the most beautiful * were dedicated to the Blessed Vir- gin, before whom all Italy bent tlie knee with a faith and a fervor which, thank God, still remains un- shaken. The i)atricians built innu- merable churches or chapels, and ornamented them with a munificence which testified their piety; the al- tars of Mary were incrusted with gold, silver, and precious stones ; * lamps no less splendid gave them light ; nothing was spared to have the splendor of religious decorati(m commensurate with the dignity of the Saint. The people, having no gold at their disposal, paid her a homage more touching, more tender, and move picturesque. On the smiling sea-side hills, in the fertile fields of the Campagna^ amid the gorges of the Apennines, in the glaciers of the Alps, and amongst the arid heaths of the Abruzzas, humble altars were here and there raised to the Madonna. These little prim- itive chapels, shaded with a net- work of ivy or green vine-leaves, * The counter-tables of some