The Lives of the Saints, Volume 03 (of 16): March

It would seem almost as if Colette had a natural love for mountains, so generally do we find her returning to them, and laying at their feet the foundations of her dearest homes...

Whilst praying in the church at Naples one day, we are told that Romanus, whom he had left in Paris as master of theology, stood before him. S. Thomas approached his friend and...

[Venerated in Brittany. Authorities:--A Life by Albert Le Grand, and the lections of the Church of S. Paul de Léon. Albert Le Grand wrote his life in 1623, from old MSS. histori...

In 540, he founded the great monastery of Moville, where S. Columba spent a portion of his youth. After labouring with energy in Ireland, S. Finnian returned to Italy, where, ac...

[30] Does not this remind the classic scholar of the description of the death of Polyxena, by Talthybius, in the Hecuba, "She even in death showed much care to fall decently."

None were better calculated to execute this mission than the brothers Methodius and Cyril, the former of whom had for some years governed a Sclavonic province, and both had been...

Francesca had just attained the age of twenty when her second son was born. He was baptized on the day of his birth, and received the name of John Evangelist. He might well have...

The nobles of Hungary, dissatisfied with Matthias Corvinus, their king, son of the great Huniades, begged the king of Poland to allow them to place his son Casimir on the throne...

"Who is that?" asked Basiliscus, pointing to the image of Apollo. "That is the god Apollo," answered Agrippa. "The name is appropriate enough," said Basiliscus, "for he brings t...

On Easter-eve, S. Patrick arrived at Slane. He pitched his tent, and made preparations for celebrating the festival of Easter, and accordingly lighted the Paschal fire about nig...

Many young men of rich and noble families came here, as at Subiaco, to put themselves under his direction, or were confided to him by their parents. They laboured with the other...

In the persecution of Decius many Christians fled to the mountains and deserts until the tyranny was overpast. Amongst these was a woman who was expecting her confinement; she h...

Eulogius belonged to one of the principal families of Cordova, then in the hands of the Moors, who had constituted it their capital. These Mohammedans, who had ruined the Gothic...

Albric succeeded his uncle Gregory, who had died about this time. Ludger gives a touching account of the old man's death. "He had been smitten with paralysis some years before:...

On the Passover in 1144, some Jews of Norwich took the child, and having strangled him, crucified him, and then took the body in a sack out of the town, to bury it in a wood. Bu...

Lupicinus and his younger brother Romanus, seeking solitude, climbed the rocks among the pines of the Jura, and established themselves in the wilderness of Joux, living on wild...

But putting aside this absurd story, which is to be found repeated _ad nauseam_ in almost all the forged and falsified Greek Acts of martyrdoms, with slight variations, we pass...

Nicolas von der Flue was born in Unterwalden in the year 1417, near the village of Sachseln. He was descended from a race of good and pious shepherds, in whom were transmitted f...

S. John-Joseph of the Cross, who must not be confounded with S. John of the Cross (Nov. 16th), was born in the island of Ischia, on the Feast of the Assumption, in the year 1654...

S. JOACHIM, _Father of the B. Virgin Mary_. SS. PHOTINA, JOSEPH, VICTOR, AND COMPANIONS, _MM., 1st cent._ S. ARCHIPPUS, _Companion of S. Paul, 1st cent._ SS. PAUL, CYRIL, AND CO...

S. Lubin, (Leobinus), was the son of poor parents near Poitiers, and was born in the reign of Clovis I. (the latter half of the 5th cent.) His boyhood was spent in ploughing the...

When he had done, the four cardinals gave in their report on the "Perils," which stated that it was full of false doctrine, injurious to the authority of the pope and the bishop...

The skeleton of Brother Klaus reposes in a shrine above the high altar of the Church at Sachseln, where also are preserved the habit, staff, and rosary of the saint. A contempor...

The fundamental principle of the new Manichæans, from which, as from a centre, the different sects radiated, was a Dualism of Good and Evil Principles equally matched, the Evil...

The sight of Aran peopled by this host of saints forcibly recalls to mind that other island, where, in an age of wild and fierce passions, the arts of peace, religious learning,...

From the first, the Dominicans seem to have had a kind of fore-knowledge of the great combat that would have to be waged in the arena of human reason. From the first, with prude...

Matthew was a knight of noble birth, of Agnetz, near Clermont, in Beauvais. He was a model of purity, sincerity, and piety, ever calm, and never giving way to petulance, or agit...

[68] This secular tradition was preserved in the following words:--"Subter gradus saxeos (secundum et tertium) climacis ascendentis et ducentis erga turrim campanarum in templo...

One of the most fervent and exemplary religious of the abbey of Vaucelles in the early part of the 13th century was Hugo de Villa, formerly dean of the church of Cambrai. He was...

His constancy and courage were called forth in contest with the Greeks, with that Eastern Empire which was represented by functionaries whose odious exactions had quite as great...

S. Duthac was a member of an illustrious Scottish family. Several legends are told of his life in the Aberdeen Breviary, and little else is known of his acts. For instance, when...

Her relics are preserved to this day at Nivelles, together with a goblet (Patera Nivigellensis), in which the custom to drink to the honour of S. Gertrude (Sinte Geerts-Minne)....

"How can I regard that religion as true, and that worship as true which consists in men running howling about the streets like rabid dogs with raw flesh in their mouths."[83]

Here also we find illustrations, as at all previous periods of his life, of the most delightful feature of his good and holy soul. In the obscure missionary of Melrose, in the a...

Saint Hilary, bishop of Aquileja, in Northern Italy, had a deacon named Tatian, whom he appointed to be his archdeacon. In the reign of Numerian, during which they flourished, t...

She was then sent into the kitchen, and made to chop up the wood for the fire, bake the bread, and cook the food. The sister who undertook this arduous task was usually exempt f...

All Friday the parents sought their son, but found him not, and the Jews, alarmed at the proceedings of the magistrates, who had taken the matter up, and were making investigati...

[Roman, and almost all Western Martyrologies, Bede, Usuardus, Ado, &c. Authorities:--The most authentic are S. Patrick's Confession, and his letter against Coroticus, Fiech's hy...

The young prince replied, "The things you tell me would be more likely to work faith in me if the hart you have taught to wander in the forest with the rope round its neck were...

THE HEAVENLY MESSENGER _to face p._ 450 "The Angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the...

S. Renovatus is chiefly memorable for his treatment of a gluttonous monk in his monastery at Cauliana, of which he was abbot. Indeed this is the only incident of his life record...