Maidens of Hallowed Names

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Table Of Contents

Preface, ix

Introduction :....... xi

To the young Reader, xi

Preface

-^••4-

This little volume is written almost exclusively for young ladies. It embraces the lives of saintly maidens, who either in the home-life of girlhood, or engaged in different avocations, and surrounded by diflferent circumstances, withstood the trials and overcame the temptations of the world, and preserved to the end their virginity and their purity of heart.

They are lives, it is true, from which lessons may be learned by all, from the simple child to the serious matron, from the worldly-minded votary of society to the prayerful nun in the seclusion of the cloister ; but they are here presented chiefly to young women who, more than others, wish for good counsel and good example, in order that they may learn how dear to Heaven is their spotless purity, and what means they should employ in order to keep that purity alwa}'s unsullied in the midst of surrounding dangers.

Not all have the grace of vocation to the religious state, nor should all direct their life to that end. "The spirit breathes where it will," and without the divine whisper their eflforts would be useless, and their hopes only bwvlt w^ \.c^\>^

X PREFACE.

broken. But all can and should aim at perfection in the life which God wishes them to lead. It is along that life that all the blessings which God has in store for them will be scattered, and only that life will God ever be willing to crown.

Now» wherever it may be, whether in wealth or poverty, honor or obscurity, comfort or distress, there is, among the many beautiful virgins whom the Church venerates for their sanctity, some model for that life, some perfect pattern of its perfection. To gather and present some of these models, so that every young reader may select according to her taste, and shape her conduct according to the pattern, is an object which was not thought unworthy.

If our young Catholic women of America — our Children of Mary, our Sodalists of the Blessed Virgin, and the many who give some serious thought to their spiritual welfare, accept this little book in the spirit in which it is written, and choose from it some saint whom they will love more dearly and imitate more closely, the object of the little volume will have been accomplished and its mission fulfilled.

May it be to them in some way what the angel was to Our Blessed Lady in the Annunciation — a means employed by Almighty God to reveal to them the secrets of His love and the designs which He has upon their souls*

Feast of the Annunciatiany l88i.

Introduction

♦ 4

To THE Young Reader : My dear child,

In presenting this little book to you I wish to tell you how dear it should be to you. For your sake it was written and published; and if you only learn to love it, the indifference of all others will be held of litde account.

It comes to you full of kindness and full of cheerfulness, for it comes to remind you of your excellence and your power, and to teach you how to exert over others an influence much greater than any which even the cleverest woman or the strongest man can wield.

Perhaps you do not know that from the very beginning of Christianity the church has watched over the tender years of her children with a special care and affection. — And in doing so, she has only done the will of her Divine Master and imitated His example.

Our Blessed Lord himself loved the young with the most sincere and ardent love. While on earth it was His great (pleasure to be in their society, to talk to them and teach Ihem the lessons of virtue and the paths of a perfect life. tie loved them ior themselves — for their innocent hearts. Mid pure souls and winning ways. He said ticisiX. Vx. "^^^ ^\^

XII INTRODUCTION.

delight to be with them, and He forbade others to hinda them from coming to Him, because they reminded Him o? those whom He knew and loved in Heaven.

Again, He gave them as a model for all mankind, and . told great strong men that they could neve* enter into the kingdom of Heaven unless they became like unto His little children.

And do you think that this love and regard was only foi the youth of His time ? Oh, no ! His infinite charity extended even to you, and his love went forth through hundreds of years as fresh and warm as it seemed to those who were gathered at his feet. He loved you far back in the. eternal dawiL He has watched over you with fondest affection in your infancy and childhood, and through al) your school-days. It was His love that made itself known in that -of your parents, relatives, friends, teachers, and most of all, in the assiduous care with which- your guardian angel has guided you along every step of your life-path. And even now He sends this little book to you in ordel that you may the more closely watch over your soul, and not betray its virtues into the hands of vice.

No one ever knew so well as Our Lord the beauty of youf soul. He saw it in its origin, in its nature, in all its tendencies and possible developements. He saw it cleansed from sin and robed in His divine grace, and adorned with beautiful virtue, and prepared for an eternity of bliss in the^ company of saints and angels. It was to Him infinitely more than the beauties of earth and sea and sky ; anJj

I

all these things were made only that you might the better know your own beauty and value, and be the betteri

TO THE YOUNG READER. XIU

pleased with Him and with His work, and give Him your heart in deeper love.

It is this that He asks of you — your heart ! * ' Child, give me thy heart ! " He asks it for your sake and for His own. He knows that if he can win your heart's love in this life, He can secure your soul's happiness in the life to come. And He asks it for His own sake. — He wants it with its purity and its virtues. It is in these, my child, that all your beauty consists. The world's vanity can only degrade you in His eyes, as indeed it should degrade you in your own.

The gleam of precious gems is beautiful, it is true, when compared with common clay or the black loam ; the bloom of the flower and the fragrance which it gives are sweet by contrast with other things which spring from the earth; and the plumage of birds gives variety and makes the beauty of the world more beautiful still; but all these things can add nothing to your beauty, and a vain use of them would be

• only a degradation of yourself in stooping to borrow your charms from banks of earth and brutes of the field.

They would become more beautiful if they could borrow :» from you, but you cannot become so by borrowing from 1 them. If you could lend them your immortality with its e: life and love — oh! then their beauty would not fade or ^ perish ! The gleam would be like an Angel's crown — never h- fading; their bloom like the blush of health where sickness .; and sorrow cannot come ; and their many colors like the y loveliness of the rainbow that spans not the sea after the

* storm, but the throne of God in the sweet stiVVwess c>S. g, eternity.

XIV INTRODUCTION.

But you cannot give them this» my child ! Your immor tality is your own. • You cannot part with it, and God gave j it to you because He loves you more than He loves them. And they can lend you nothing but dust and ashes ! Immortality, you know, walks over crushed and crumbled gems that once decked the bosom, blooms in fullest life over flowers long fallen from the hair and withered, and robes • itself in colors that never fade or pass away.

And your beauty is precisely in your immortality ! It is this that makes you fit for God's divine grace, and the many virtues that come with that grace to adorn your soul, — yea, and to make you kin to Christ and to His Blessed Mother. It is the grace of Christ, my child, that makes more than beautiful your already beautiful immortality. What are blooms of flowers or gleams of gems, or songs ol birds to your sanctified soul in the attitude of prayer? Nothing ! Less than the shade of a shadow, not so much ; as the life of a dream !

But it is not only for your beauty and worth that Christ and his church love you. They love and cherish you for something more. There is in you a great moral power— the power of influence and persuasion.

Do you know what occurred during the Commune in Paris ? The saintly prisoners were going ft^om their prison to the place of their martyrdom, and their enemies, hating God even more than men, refused them the last consolation of receiving Holy Communion. Some one was wanted who feared no danger, and who heeded no threat And such a one came forth in the person of a young maiden. She took the little box containing the Bkssed Sacrament,

TO THE YOUNG RSADRR. XV

and inarching fearlessly through the ranks of the soldiers, entered the prison, and gave the holy martyrs the Viaticum for which they had so wished and prayed. Is it not true, then, that your power is sometimes stronger than that of men ?

No law or legislation can accomplish what your wish and will can often achieve. Look at tlie little picture representing the dawn of holiness 1 Could any voice plead like those eyes ? Could any pose or posture entreat like that attitude of prayer ? No I because there you find innocence, earnestness, purity and love ; and to the appeals of these the human, like the Divine heart, is ever open.

Even if your mission were limited to pleading for the poor only, would it not be glorious enough I This is one of the special pleasures of our Blessed Lady in Heaven, and she leaves its accomplishment upon earth to those of her clients who love her ardently and imitate her closely. But your power extends fiwther stiU, for prayer caa reach beyond \ all bounds, and can embrace all that are in need.

What you must do, then, if you wish to be happy, is to

cultivate purity of heart and innocence of life. You must

not let your influence die without bearing fruit There are

hundreds of souls whose destiny is in your hands, hundreds

, of thrones in heaven awaiting your appointment of those

, who are to fill them for eternity-

, Remember all the fulness of your life — -the sweet and

sinless days of your childhood, the pure affections of home,

j the bright promises you have made to yourself, and the high

I hopes you have cherished 1 Will you now let them perish

fcough inactivity and indifference ? Oh, no I Learn of

the beautiful lives here placed before you tixaiyoM \ia»^ ^

I

XVI INTRODUCTION.

great work to do, and that you can do it easily, if you on: imitate them. I-.eam that nothing is lost which is done f< God, and that all is lost which is not done for Him. He in America, you have such a wide field in which to woi for His glory. You can teach so much by your exampl accomplish so much by your prayers I

How many conversions are daily wrought by the powi of good example 1 Even Saint Augustine, chained to ea by his vices and evil habits, was led into the ways of vi by the example of pure maidenhood. He beheld a num of virgins marching before him, and heard a voice repeatinj '* Canst not thou do what these youths, what these maide can do ? "- He blushed for shame at the remembrance of sinful life, and through the example of these maidens he was converted.

Only study to keep the rules subjoined, and you will n only make yourself lovable in the eyes of God and man, b you will also be instrumental in calling many to the glory God, while at the same time you will adorn your own crown with new and varied gems, whose brilliancy will not pafli and whose worth will not perish.

Rules of Life.

Though I be still young, yet confiding in God's strength, illuminated with His light, fortified with His abundani graces, I promise to serve Him ever.

In order to secure the success of this irrevocable promi* to God, I dedicate myself wholly to the Blessed Virgin, whoti

RULES OF LIFE. XVll

hall love and honor as my most tender mother ; and )ugh her powerful intercession, I hope for grace 'and rage to keep the following resolutions :

. I will never blush at the Gospel nor at its obligations: I whatever be my station in life, I shall never forget that Dre everything else I am a Christian. !. Whenever I have a resolution to take, a plan to exee or a work to perform, I shall consider first of all, my character as a Christian^ if my duties as a Christian^ I allow me.

|. As a faithful servant of Jesus Christ, I shall be always dy to defend my divine Master, preventing men from jnding Him as far as I can, especially by my example I my prayers.

\. If I shall be so happy as to suffer insult and ridicule

my fidelity to my faith, I shall bear in mind how the

ostles accounted themselves unworthy to suffer for the name

Jesus Christ — and I shall pray for those who despise

•

;. When tempted, I shall invoke the aid of the Blessed gin, and pressing my medal to my heart, I shall say: •"or a passing pleasure shall I sacrifice the glory promised in heaven ?" Having received so abundantly of God's 5 shall I offend Him ? No, Lord, no — death were prefble.

Ay most tender Mother, Mary, remember that I am thy id. Oh I Let me die rather than that the beauty of my 1 should ever be stained with any sin. Amen.

XVlll INTRODUCTION.

Virginity.

When our Divine Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, came to. establish Himself as Saviour and Teacher of the world, to give us a new rule of rectitude and lead us in His own appointed way to Heaven, He seems to have taught through His whole life, both by precept and example, that we would reach the highest possibility of Christian perfection only in proportion as we could and would rise above the world, worldly, and the earth, earthy. Many times He said as much i explicitly, and the whole tendency of His public teachings as well as the eloquent lessons of His silent life, leave no doubt that the grades of perfection in His school are determined by the measure of our freedom from bondage in the service of the world. He assured us that we could not serve two masters, and that our allegiance to the one would detract from our devotion to the other. He told us that He was not of the world, nor was His kingdom, nor were His disciples. On this principle are based all the tenets of the new law, all the rules of Christian holiness.

But at the same time He made a marked distinction between precept and counsel. For them that live only by the former. He left a play-ground large and roomy, where human nature and its passions are less restrained, where the world can enter and take a moderate and lawful part in the ways of life, without injury to the soul and without insult to His service. On the other hand, for those who are called to live by the latter no such provision is made, and all their lessons may be reduced to one:

" Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect I "

VIRGINITY. XIX

)w, of all the virtues that belong to the life of holy sel, there is none so beautiful, so marked, so peculiarly own as the virtue of virginity. This is emphatically )wn. It is His in its institution and beginning; His in and favor; His in its rich and abundant fruits, ere is a feeling in the heart of every one who has reached peness of manhood or womanhood which exerts a great mce upon human life. It is not so much as a cool calculating judgment, and yet it is more than a mere Ise of instinct; it is, in a measure, left to the mercy of ination, and still it is subject to the powers of the , though it is more impressionable than the sense of r sight or sound. It comes with the dawn of life's iss and changes all that is past. Childhood's pleasures ne a mere memory, the hopes of youth take a deeper more vivid coloring, and thoughts of old age with ires and sorrows and bitter lessons of experience are hed. This is the feeling of love. God gave it to r a great and noble purpose, and it has had much to 1 the providence which provides for the success of the m family. He paid it due regard in the creation, latisfied all its reasonable demands; He sanctified it in edemption, and raised it to the supernatural plane in loly sacrament of Matrimony. Indeed, He made it olic of His own love for His divine bride, the Church. ir Lord, in establishing his school of perfect spirituality, with this passion in a most peculiar way. He taught ord and example that he wished to smooth away its features in some of his chosen ones, and soften it to a more spiritual emotion. To do this He vwstvtMle vjr^nal life.

INTRODUCTION.

The doctrine of the Church, on the subject of virginity, may be summed up in a few words from Saint Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians. He says to them: *'The unmarried woman and the virgin thinketh on the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit But she that is married thinketh on the things of the woild, how she may please her husband. And this I speak for your profit, not to cast a snare upon you, but for that which is decent, and which may give you power to attend upon the Lord without impediment. The virgin that is given in marriage doeth well, but she that is given not doeth better. More blessed shall she be, if she so remain, according to my counsel, and I think that I 'have the spirit of God."

No words could express more clearly the whole doctrine of the Church concerning virginity. She teach-es that the state of virginity is a more perfect state than that of matrimony, she encourages those to follow it who feel that th^ are called to it, and she leaves all free to do as they please.

The virginal life is peculiarly the life of Christ He it was, the virgin son of a virgin mother, that created it upon the earth. It was the foundation stone of the great Christian work — the first link in the chain of the Redeemer's mysteries. He sanctified poverty in the stable of Bethlehem, He sanctified fasting in the desert, and prayer in the Garden ofj- Olives, but before all these He sanctified virginity in the cottage of Nazareth, and wrought it into His own nature as Saviour of the world and Model of mankind. It was a thing utterly and entirely new. Israel had not known it Just as her shepherds wished, as they watched their flocks, that r

VIRGINITY. XXI

in their day the expectation of nations might be realized, and the Prince of Peace rise up in their midst, just so her young maidens lived in the hope that they might at least be in the direct ancestral line of the Mighty One, who, as their prophets told them, was to spring from the house of David. Virginity to them had not the charms of a virtue. The highest hopes of their holiest ambition led them away from it Jehovah had not taught that lesson. If we except the Vestals, it was almost unknown, too, among all the nations of the pagan world, and a spirit of profligacy had gone abroad and ruined the ver}' life of society.

But the new law giver came and all was changed. Virginity was looked upon with admiration and cherished with a Christian pride. The fathers of the Church in all ages tell us how it flourished in every kingdom and in every clime. It was limited in its growth to no age, no condition. It sprang up everywhere and blossomed to its fulness. It was found in the royal elegance of time-worn palaces, and in the want and poverty of the poorest human life; in the busy thoroughfares of great cities and in the desert caves and holes of the rock.

So early as the middle of the 3rd century. Saint Cyprian of Alexandria says of the virgins :

**They are the flower of the Church's growth ; the grace of the spirit finds in them its beauty and delicacy ; they are our pride and bloom ; in them praise and honor have their perfect and incorrupt work ; they are God's image reflecting the Lord's sanctity ; the more illustrious portion of Christ's flock. In them exults, in them beauteously flowers the glorious fecundity of our mother the Church,

XXn INTRODUCTION.

and the more virginity adds to its number the more thai mother's joy increases."

Some years later Saint Athanasius wrote :

"The Son of God, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, after becoming man for us, and annulling death, and freeing our race from the bondage of corruption, in addition to all His other gifts bestowed upon us this, to have upon earth the image, of Angelic sanctity — the virgin life. At least those who possess this virtue, the Catholic Church is wont to call the Brides of Christ. When the heathens around us behold these, they look up to them with admiration as shrines of the Word. For in real truth no where is this sacred and heavenly profession carried out save among us Christians alone. And this is above all a very great proof that real and genuine piety exists among us only."

And a little later, Saint Augustine exclaims :

**Look, O Lord, upon these troops of virgins, of holy youths and maidens 1 In thy church this race was brought up; for thee burst forth its vigorous bloom from the mother's breast; there it lisped its first accents in thy name, — thy

name which it drank in as the milk of its infancy

These offered their vow, and for the kingdom of Heaven shut themselves off from marriage, not through dread of thy threats, but through love of thy promises."

Yes, the virginal life is peculiarly Christ's, and He created it as a state for the perfect — for those who were to be united to Him more closely than others. He preached for all from the Mountain of Beatitudes, and bade us be perfect in those virtues. They are suited to all ages and all conditions of Christian life, and it was His wish that in some other degree a)) should arrive at that perfection.

VIRGINITY. XXlll

But the inheritance of His virginity He gave only to His chosen ones. He chose a virgin for a precursor. He sent the Angel of the Desert before His fece to prepare His way and make straight His paths — him whose voice was heard in the wilderness, who was great before the Lord, who was filled with the Holy Ghost in his mother's womb, and called the Prophet of the Most High to enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and direct their footsteps in the way of peace. He chose a virgin for a mother — the one that is all fair and in whom there is no spot or stain, ' coming up from the desert flowing with delights — the mother of holy hope and of beautiful love.

And He chose, too, a virgin for the companion of His toils and suflferings, and for the bosom friend of His Sacred Heart. He made him the last of the Prophets, the last of the Apostles, the last of the Evangelists, that a virgin might give the last, fine finishing touch to all their work, like the perfect artist who alone dares to touch the almost perfect stone. And He gave him a name, too, that will forever separate him from the rest of creatures, be they saints or angels, that will forever mark him as the great wonder in the economy of man's redemption, that makes him in the mystic sense the symbol of the prayer of earth, and the purity of Heaven. He was the Beloved Disciple, he was the disciple whom Jesus icvedf

Our Divine Lord made no secret of His partiality for this ^rgin disciple. He did not make him the everlasting head of His church, but He poured out upon him the sweetness of personal, individual love, in far greater measure than upon others. He was one of those whom Jesxi^ IooVl ^^\\. \.<5

XXIV INTRODUCTION.

see the gloiy of His transfiguration on the mountain ; it was he to whom Our Lord whispered at the last supper, and told who the traitor was that was to betray Hiih ; it was he that first recognized his Master, when after His resurrection He appeared to the disciples on the sea-shore, and when the Lord had foretold how Peter should die, that apostle turning saw St John standing near and asked what would become of him: and He answered: **so I will have him to remain until I come; what is it to thee ? "

See the loving partiality! '* So I will have him to remain until I come ; what is it to thee ? " You shall all die the death of anguish, but he 7— he shall remain 1 You, Peter, shall be crucified, Paul shall be beheaded, Matthew shall be murdered by the Parthians, Mark shall be dragged to death over the stony streets of Alexandria, Luke shall die nailed to an olive tree, and for the others, too, will come the triumph of the world, and the hour of the powers of darkness, but not for him ! — he shall remain I — what is it to thee?

He shall remain in spite of the world ! The head that I pillowed upon my bosom shall never droop from a cross. He may be hunted like the timid stag and hide in mountain caves, but he shall remain ! — he may be cast into a caldron of boiling oil, but I will have my arms around him and he shall suffer no harm ! — he may be banished to Patmos the lonesome island of the sea, but I and my angels will come to him and speak to him of Heaven, and unfold to his gaze the wonders of the city of God. The world shall never triumph over my virgin disciple ; his virgin flesh shall never be torn with whips and nails ; and a violent death

VIRGINITY. XXT

shall never leave its agony on his brow ! He shall remain i And this love was mutual. There was a perfect union between Christ and His virgin disciple. Saint John followed his master more closely than any of the others. His devotion was constant He was with Him when He went to pray in the Garden of Olives, and he alone clung to his master through the dark, dark days and nights of His passion, and alone of all the disciples climbed Calvary with Him, and stood by Him in His agony, and heard the thuds of the nails, and saw them split His hands and feet The virgin disciple followed the virgin Master up to and into the very tomb !

And if ever love was tenderly expressed, or devotion bountifully rewarded, it was in Christ's words on the cross, in His last will and testament made for His virgin disciple : *' Son, behold thy Mother ! '*

Then and there, under the shadow of the cross, Saint John, more than ever, was the expression of the Church's purity and holiness. It seemed like the very triumph of Christ's love ! Truth and holihess were the marks which He wished to make indelible for His Church, and as He chose Peter to represent the one, so now He chooses John to represent the other. Peter was the rock upon which Christ built His Church, and of which He said that the gates of hell should not prevail against it ; John was made the loving voice of that Church of which Christ said that whatever it should ask the Father in His name it should be given. Peter's strength lay in the wisdom of God which should teach him all truth and be with him till the consummation of the world ; John's was in the love of God,