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propagavit, eorumque domicilia Mediolani et Placentiæ instituit. Illius operam sanctus Carolus Borromaus, et Paulus de Aretio Clericus regularis, Cardinales, quibus erat acceptissimus, in pastoralis muneris curis adhibuerunt. Deiparam Virginem singulari amore et cultu prosequebatur. Angelorum colloquio perfrui meruit, quos, cum divinas laudes persolveret, e regione concinentes se audisse testatus est. Denique post heroica virtutum exempla, prophetiæ quoque dono illustris, quo et secreta cordium, et absentia, et futura prospexit, annis gravis et laboribus fractus, ad aram celebraturus in verbis illis tertio repetitis: Introibo ad altare Dei, repentino apoplexia morbo correptus est; mox sacramentis rite munitus, placidissime inter suos animam efflavit. Ejus corpus Neapoli in ecclesia sancti Pauli ad hæc usque tempora eo frequentissimo populi concursu colitur, quo fuit elatum. Illum denique insignibus in vita et post mortem miraculis clarum Clemens Undecimus Pontifex Maximus solemni ritu sanctorum catalogo adscripsit.

places, and founded houses for them in Milan and Piacenza. The Cardinals Charles Borromeo and Paul of Arezzo a Regular Clerk, bore him great affection, and availed themselves of his assistance in the discharge of their pastoral office. The Virgin Mother of God he honoured with a very special love and worship. He was permitted to converse with the Angels; and affirmed that when saying the Divine Office, he heard them singing with him as if in Choir. At length, after giving heroic examples of virtue, and becoming illustrious for his gift of prophecy, whereby he knew the secrets of hearts, and distant and future events, he was worn out with old age and broken down with labours. As he was at the foot of the Altar about to say Mass, he thrice repeated the words: I will go in to the altar of God, and fell down struck with apoplexy. After being strengthened by the Sacraments of the Church, he peacefully expired in the midst of his brethren. His body was buried at Naples in the church of St. Paul, and is honoured even to this day by as great a concourse of people as attended the interment. Finally, as he had been illustrious for miracles both in life and after death, he was solemnly enrolled among the Saints by Pope Clement XI.

How sweet and yet how strong were the ways of

Eternal Wisdom in thy regard, O blessed Andrew, when a slight fault into which thou wast surprised became the starting-point of thy splendid sanctity! The mouth that belieth, killeth the soul. Seek not death in the error of your life, neither procure ye destruction by the works of your hands. Thou didst read these words of divine Wisdom and fully understand them. The aim of life then appeared to thee very different, in the light of the vows thou wast inspired to make, ever to turn away from thyself and ever to draw nearer to the Sovereign Good. With holy Church in her Collect, we glorify our Lord for having disposed such admirable ascensions in thy heart. This daily progress led thee on from virtue to virtue, till thou dost now behold the God of gods in Sion. Thy heart and thy flesh rejoiced in the living God; thy soul, absorbed in the love of his hallowed courts, fainted at the thought thereof. No wonder it was at the foot of God's altar that thy life failed thee, and thou didst enter on the passage to his blessed home. With what joy thou wast welcomed into the eternal choirs, by those who had been on earth thy angelic associates in the divine praise!

Be not unmindful of the world's homage. Deign to respond to the confidence of Naples and Sicily, which commend themselves to thy powerful patronage. Bless the pious family of Regular Clerks Theatines, in union with St. Cajetan thy father and theirs. Obtain for us all a share in the blessings so largely bestowed on thee. May the vain pleasures found in the tabernacles of sinners never seduce us; but may we prefer the humility of God's house to all worldly pomp. If, like thee, we love truth and mercy, our Lord will give to us, as he gave to thee, grace and glory. Calling to mind the circumstances of thy blessed end, Christians honour thee as a protector

1 Wisd. i. 11, 12.

against sudden and unprovided death: be our guardian at that last moment; let the innocence of our life, or at least our repentance, prepare for us a happy exit; and may we, like thee, breathe out our last sigh in hope and love.1

Rome invites us to-day to honour with her a group of martyrs, the protectors and the treasure of her great hospital of the Holy Ghost, where they rest under the high altar. The church of St. Augustine, close to the ancient stational church of St. Tryphon, also possesses a portion of the latter's precious remains.

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NOVEMBER 11.

SAINT MARTIN.

BISHOP AND CONFESSOR.

THREE thousand six hundred and sixty churches dedicated to St. Martin in France alone,1 and well-nigh as many in the rest of the world, bear witness to the immense popularity of the great thaumaturgus. In the country, on the mountains, and in the depth of forests, trees, rocks, and fountains, objects of superstitious worship to our pagan ancestors, received, and in many places still retain, the name of him who snatched them from the dominion of the powers of darkness to restore them to the true God. For the vanquished idols, Roman, Celtic or German, Christ substituted their conqueror, the humble soldier, in the grateful memory of the people. Martin's mission was to complete the destruction of paganism, which had been driven from the towns by the martyrs, but remained up to his time master of the vast territories removed from the influence of the cities.

While on the one hand he was honoured with God's favours, on the other he was pursued by hell with implacable hatred. At the very outset he had to encounter Satan, who said to him: "I will beset

A list arranged according to the dioceses may be seen in the Ap, pendix to SAINT MARTIN by LECOY DE LA MARCHE.

"thy path at every turn; "1 and he kept his word. He has kept it to this very day: century after century, he has been working ruin around the glorious tomb, which once attracted the whole world to Tours; in the sixteenth, he delivered to the flames, by the hands of the Huguenots, the venerable remains of the protector of France: by the nineteenth, he had brought men to such a height of folly, as themselves to destroy, in time of peace, the splendid basilica which was the pride and the riches of their city. The gratitude of Christ, and the rage of Satan, made known by such signs, reveal sufficiently the incomparable labours of the pontiff, apostle, and monk, St. Martin.

A monk indeed he was, both in desire and in reality, to the last day of his life. "From earliest in"fancy he sighed after the service of God. He became "a catechumen at the age of ten, and at twelve he "wished to retire to the desert; all his thoughts 66 were engaged on monasteries and churches. A "soldier at fifteen years of age, he so lived as even "then to be taken for a monk.2 After a first trial of "religious life in Italy, he was brought by St Hilary "to this solitude of Ligugé, which, thanks to him, "became the cradle of monastic life in Gaul. To "say the truth, Martin, during the whole course of "his life, felt like a stranger every where else, except "at Ligugé. A monk by attraction, he had been "forced to be a soldier, and it needed violence to "make him a Bishop: and even then he never relin"quished his monastic habits. He responded to the dignity of a Bishop, says his historian, without de"clining from the rule and life of a monk. At first "he constructed for himself a cell near his church of 1 SULPIT. SEVER. Vita, vi. 2 Ita ut, jam illo tempore, non miles sed monachus putaretur. Ibid. ii. 3 Ita implebat episcopi dignitatem, ut non tamen propositum monachi virtutemque desereret, Ibid. x.

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