potu torn with scourges tipped with lead, and finally shut up in prison for eleven days without food or drink. imini During this interval, Maxibelli min's wife, and Porphyrius causa general of the army, going to ejus- see the virgin in prison, were Jesum by her exhortations brought postea to believe in Jesus Christ, and nt. In- were afterwards crowned with ucitur e martyrdom. Meanwhile Capeditur, tharine was brought out of præfixa prison, and a wheel was set s corpus up garnished with many sharp geraretur. knives, to cruelly rend the vi, Catha- virgin's body. But at CathaTracta est: rine's prayer the wheel was lti Christi speedily broken; by which ant. Ipse miracle many were converted mpietate et to the faith of Christ. Maxinatior, Ca- min only grew more obstinate percuti im- in wickedness and cruelty, ortiter dato and ordered Catharine to be Licatum vir- beheaded. Offering her head tyrii præmi- bravely to the sword, she took ptimo calen- her flight to heaven, adorned cujus corwith the double crown of virin Sina Ara- ginity and martyrdom, on the rabiliter collo- seventh of the Kalends of December. Her body was miraculously carried away by Angels and buried on Mount Sinai in Arabia. feast has inspired many liturgical com1 the West. We will limit our selections nce from the Gradual of St. Victor's, and ul and touching Responsory still used by r's Preachers. onora nostri chori SEQUENCE. Let the voices of our choir rito primus post sanctam Teresiam Carmelitarum Excalceatorum ordinis professor et parens habeatur. Virginitatem perpetuo coluit, impudentesque mulieres ejus pudicitiæ insidiari conantes, non modo repulit, sed etiam Christo lucrifecit. In divinis explicandis arcanis æque ac sancta Teresia, apostolicæ sedis judicio, divinitus instructus, libros de mystica theologia cœlesti sapientia refertos conscripsit. Semel interrogatus a Christo, quid præmii pro tot laboribus posceret, respondit: Domine, pati, et contemni pro te. Imperio in dæmones, quos e corporibus sepe fugabat, discretione spirituum, prophetiæ dono, miraculorum gloria celebratissimus, ea semper fuit humilitate, ut sæpius a Domino flagitaverit eo loco mori, ubi omnibus esset ignotus. Voti compos factus, Ubeda diro morbo, et in crure quinque plagis sanie manantibus, ad implendum patiendi desiderium constantissime toleratis, Ecclesiæ sacramentis pie sancteque susceptis, in Christi crucifixi amplexu, quem semper in corde atque ore habuerat, post illa verba: In manus tuas commendo spiritum meum, obdormivit in Domino, die et hora a se prædictis, anno salutis millesimo quingentesimo nonagesimo primo, ætatis quadra has thus every right to be called, after St. Teresa, the first professed and the father of the Discalced Carmelites. He preserved his virginity intact, and not only repulsed impudent women who tried to ensnare him, but even gained them to Christ. The Holy See has declared that, like St. Teresa, he was divinely inspired in explaining the hidden mysteries of God; and he wrote books on mystical theology, full of divine wisdom. When asked one day by Christ what reward he desired for so many labours, he replied: Lord, sufferings and contempt for thy sake! He was renowned for his power over the devils, whom he often cast out of the possessed; and also for the gifts of discernment of spirits and prophecy; while such was his humility that he often begged our Lord to let him die in a place where no one knew him. His prayer was granted; and after a cruel malady, and the patient endurance of five ulcers in his leg, sent him to satisfy his love of suffering, he fell asleep in our Lord at Ubeda, having received the Sacraments of the Church in the holiest dispositions, and embracing the image of Christ crucified whom he had ever had in his heart and on his lips. His last words were: Into thy hands I commend my spirit. His death took place on the day and at the hour he had foretold, in gesimo nono. Migrantem the year of salvation 1591, the forty-ninth of his age. A brilliant globe of fire received his departing soul; while his body gave forth a most sweet perfume, and is still reverently preserved incorrupt at Segovia. As he was renowned for many miracles both before and after death, Pope Benedict XIII. enrolled him among the Saints. ejus animam splendidissimus ignis globus excepit: corpus vero suavissimum odorem spiravit, quod etiamnum incorruptum Segovia honorifice colitur. Eum plurimis ante et post obitum fulgentem signis Benedictus decimus tertius, Pontifex Maximus, in sanctorum numerum retulit. On Carmel's height and on the mountains, in the plain and in the valleys, may there be an ever increasing number of such souls as are able to reconcile earth to heaven, to draw down the blessings of God, and to avert his anger! We are all called to be saints may we then, after thy example and through thy prayers, O John of the Cross, suffer the grace of God to work in us with all the plenitude of its purifying and deifying power. Then shall we be able one day to say with thee: 66 66 "O divine Life, who never killest but to give life, as thou never woundest but to heal; thou hast "wounded me, O divine hand! that thou mayest "heal me. Thou hast slain in me that which made 66 me dead, and destitute of the life of God, which I "now live. O gentle, subtile touch, the Word, the "Son of God, who, because of the pureness of thy nature, dost penetrate subtilely the very substance "of my soul, and touching it gently absorbest it wholly in divine ways of sweetness, not heard of "in the land of Chanaan, nor seen in Theman.1 "O touch of the Word, so gentle, so wonderfully "gentle to me; and yet thou wert overthrowing the mountains and breaking the rocks in pieces, in Horeb, by the shadow of thy power going before 66 66 1 Baruch, iii. 22. thee, when thou didst announce thy presence to "the Prophet in the whistling of a gentle air.1 O "gentle air, how is it that thou touchest so gently "when thou art so terrible and so strong? 66 "O my God and my life, they shall know thee "and behold thee when thou touchest them, who, "making themselves strangers upon earth, shall purify themselves, because purity corresponds with 'purity. As in thee there is nothing material, so "the more profoundly dost thou touch me, changing "what in me is human into divine, according as thy "divine essence wherewith thou touchest me, is "wholly unaffected by modes and manner, free from "the husks of form and figure. Thou the more "gently touchest, the more thou art hidden in the "purified soul of those who have made themselves "strangers here, hidden from the face of all crea"tures, and whom thou shalt hide in the secret of thy face from the disturbance of men. Thou "removest the soul far away from every other touch "whatever, and makest it thine own; thou leavest "behind thee effects and impressions so pure, that "the touch of everything else seems vile and low, "the very sight offensive, and all relations therewith a deep affliction." 2 66 66 Rome honours to-day one of her own illustrious sons, Chrysogonus, who gave his life for Christ at Aquileia in the reign of Diocletian. His splendid church in the Trastevere, which possesses his venerable head, was first built at the very time of the triumph of the faith over idolatry. Chrysogonus instructed in that holy faith the blessed martyr Anastasia, 1 III Kings. xix. 11, 12. Stanza ii. Line iii. passim. The living Flame of Love. whose memory is so touchingly united with that of our Saviour's birth, the Aurora Mass on Christmas day having been from time immemorial celebrated in her church. The names of both Chrysogonus and his spiritual daughter are daily pronounced in the holy Sacrifice. PRAYER. nos Adesto Domine supplicationibus nostris: ut qui ex iniquitate nostra reos esse cognoscimus, beati Chrysogoni Martyris tui intercessione liberemur. Per Dominum. Attend, O Lord, to our supplications; that we who know ourselves to be guilty on account of our iniquities, may be delivered by the intercession of thy blessed Martyr Chrysogonus. Through our Lord. |