Part 74 (1/2)

ST. GREGORY of Tours informs us,[1] that he was sent with other preachers from Rome to plant the faith in Gaul. St. Saturninus of Thoulouse, and St. Dionysius of Paris, were crowned with martyrdom: but St. Paul of Narbonne, St. Trophimus of Arles, St. Martial of Limoges, and St. Gatian of Tours, after having founded those churches, amidst many dangers, departed in peace. Prudentius says,[2] that the name of Paul had rendered the city of Narbonne ill.u.s.trious.

Footnotes: 1. Hist. Franc. l. 1, c. 30.

2. Hymn. 4.

ST. LEA. WIDOW.

SHE was a rich Roman lady; after the death of her husband she mortified her flesh by wearing rough sackcloth, pa.s.sed whole nights in prayer, and by humility seemed every one's menial servant. She died in 384, and is honored on this day in the Roman Martyrology. St. Jerom makes an elegant comparison between her death and that of Praetextatus, a heathen, who was that year appointed consul, but s.n.a.t.c.hed away by death at the same time.

See St. Jerom, Ep. 20, (olim 24,) to Marcella, t. 4, p. 51, Ed. Ben.

ST. DEOGRATIAS, BISHOP OF CARTHAGE, C.

GENSERIC, the Arian king of the Vandals, took Carthage in 439, filled the city with cruelties, and caused Quodvultdeus, the bishop, and many others, to be put on board an old leaky vessel, who, notwithstanding, arrived safe at Naples. After a vacancy of fourteen years, in 454, St.

Deogratias was consecrated archbishop. Two years after, Genseric plundered Rome, and brought innumerable captives from Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, into Africa, whom the Moors and Vandals shared among them on the sh.o.r.e, separating without any regard or compa.s.sion weeping wives from their husbands, and children from their parents.

Deogratias sold every thing, even the gold and silver vessels of the church, to redeem as many as possible; he provided them with lodgings and beds, and furnished them with all succors, and though in a decrepit old age, visited those that were sick every day, and often in the night.

Worn out by these fatigues, he died in 457, to the inexpressible grief of the prisoners, and of his own flock. The ancient calendar of Carthage, written in the fifth age, commemorates him on the 5th of January; but the Roman on the 22d of March. See St. Victor Vitensis, l.

1, c. 3.

ST. CATHARINE OF SWEDEN, VIRGIN.

SHE was daughter of Ulpho, prince of Nericia, in Sweden, and of St.

Bridget. The love of G.o.d seemed almost to prevent in her the use of her reason. At seven years of age she was placed in the nunnery of Risburgh, and educated in piety under the care of the holy abbess of that house.

Being very beautiful, she was, by her father, contracted in marriage to Egard {645} a young n.o.bleman of great virtue: but the virgin persuaded him to join with her in making a mutual vow of perpetual chast.i.ty. By her discourses he became desirous only of heavenly graces, and, to draw them down upon his soul more abundantly, he readily acquiesced in the proposal. The happy couple, having but one heart and one desire, by a holy emulation excited each other to prayer, mortification, and works of charity. After the death of her father, St. Catharine, out of devotion to the pa.s.sion of Christ, and to the relies of the martyrs, accompanied her mother in her pilgrimages and practices of devotion and penance.

After her death at Rome, in 1373, Catherine returned to Sweden, and died abbess of Vadzstena, or Vatzen,[1] on the 24th of March, in 1381.[2] For the last twenty-five years of her life she every day purified her soul by a sacramental confession of her sins. Her name stands in the Roman Martyrology on the 22d of March. See her life written by Ulpho, a Brigittine friar, thirty years after her death, with the remarks of Henschenius.

Footnotes: 1. The great monastery of our Saviour at Wasten, or Vatzen, in the diocese of Lincopen, was first founded by St. Bridget, in 1344; but rebuilt in a more convenient situation in 1384, when the nuns and friars were introduced with great solemnity by the bishop of Lincopen. This is called its foundation in the exact chronicle of Sweden, published by Benzelius, Monum. Suec. p. 94.

2. St. Catharine of Sweden compiled a pious book, ent.i.tled, Sielinna Troest, that is, Consolation to the Soul, which fills one hundred and sixty-five leaves in folio, in a MS., on vellum, mentioned by Starnman, Sur l'Etat des Sciences en Suede, dans les temps recules.

The saint modestly says in her preface, that as a bee gathers honey out of various flowers, and a physician makes choice of medicinal roots for the composition of his remedies, and a virgin makes up a garland out of a variety of flowers, so she has collected from the holy scriptures and other good books, chosen rules and maxims of virtue.

MARCH XXIII.

ST. ALPHONSUS TURIBIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF LIMA,

CONFESSOR.

From his life by F. Cyprian de Herrera, dedicated to pope Clement X., and the acts of his canonization.

A.D. 1606.

ST. TORIBIO, or TIIRIBIUS ALPHONSUS MOGROBEJO, was second son to the lord of Mogrobejo, and born in the kingdom of Leon, on the 16th of November, in 1538. From his infancy he discovered a strong inclination to piety; and, in his childhood, it was his delight, at times of recreation, to erect and adorn altars, and to serve the poor. He trembled at the very shadow of sin. One day, seeing a poor pedler-woman angry because she had lost something out of her pack, he most movingly entreated and exhorted her, that she would not offend G.o.d by pa.s.sion; and, in order to appease her, gave her the value of her loss, which he had begged of his mother for that purpose. He was very devout to the Blessed Virgin, said every day her Office and Rosary, and fasted every Sat.u.r.day in her honor. While at school, he usually gave part of his slender dinner to the poor, and was so much addicted to fasting, that his superiors were obliged, by strict commands, to compel him to moderate his austerities. He began his higher studies at Valladolid, but completed them at Salamanca. He was introduced early to the notice of king Philip II., honored by him with several dignities, and made president or chief judge at Granada. This office he discharged during five years with so much integrity, prudence, and virtue, that the eyes of the whole kingdom were fixed on him, and his life in the world {646} was a holy novices.h.i.+p to the pastoral charge. The pressing necessities of the infant church of Peru required a prelate who inherited, in a distinguished manner, the spirit of the apostles; and the archbishopric of Lima falling vacant, Turibius was unanimously judged the person of all others the best qualified to be an apostle of so large a country, and to remedy the scandals which obstructed the conversion of the infidels. The king readily nominated him to that dignity, and all parties concerned applauded the choice. Turibius was thunderstruck at this unexpected news, and had no sooner received the message, but he cast himself on the ground at the foot of his crucifix, praying with many tears that G.o.d would deliver him from so heavy a burden, which he thought absolutely above his strength. He wrote the most urgent letters to the king's council, in which he pleaded his incapacity, and other impediments, and laid great stress on the canons, which forbid laymen to be promoted to such dignities in the church. This humility it was that obtained the succor of heaven by which he performed wonders in the service of souls. Being compelled by obedience to acquiesce, he at length testified his submission by falling on his knees and kissing the ground.

After a suitable preparation, he received the four minor orders on four successive Sundays, the better to dispose himself for the functions of each; and after pa.s.sing through the other orders, he was consecrated bishop. Immediately after which he set out for Peru, and landed at Lima, in the year 1581, of his age the forty-third. That diocese is extended one hundred and thirty leagues along the coast, comprising three cities, and many towns and villages, with innumerable cottages scattered over two ridges of the mountains of the Andes, esteemed the highest and the most rugged in the whole world. Some of the European generals, who first invaded that country, were men who seemed to measure every thing by their insatiable avarice and ambition, and had so far lost all sentiments of humanity towards the poor savages, that they deserved the name rather of tyrants and plunderers than of conquerors. Civil wars and dissensions completed the misfortune of that country; and covetousness, cruelty, treachery, fraud, and debauchery, seemed triumphant. Nor were the repeated orders of the Spanish court able to redress these evils.

The sight of these disorders moved the good pastor often to tears, but his prudence and zeal overcame all difficulties, extirpated public scandals, and made that kingdom a flouris.h.i.+ng portion of the Christian church. Upon his arrival he immediately began a visitation of his vast diocese: an undertaking of incredible fatigue, and attended with many dangers. He often crept over the steepest and most rugged mountains, covered with ice or snow, to visit some poor hut of Indians, and give them suitable comfort and instruction. He travelled often on foot, and sometimes barefoot, and by fasting and prayer never ceased to implore the divine mercy for the salvation of the souls committed to his charge.

He placed everywhere able and zealous pastors, and took care that no one in the most remote corners of the rocks should be left dest.i.tute of the means of instruction and of the benefit of the sacraments. To settle and maintain discipline, he appointed diocesan synods to be held every two years, and provincial synods every seven; and was vigilant and severe in chastising the least scandal, especially of avarice, in the clergy.

Without respect of persons, he reproved injustice and vice, and made use of all the means which his authority put into his hands, to check the insolence of public sinners, and to protect the poor from oppression.

Many of the first conquerors and governors of Peru, before the arrival of the most virtuous viceroy Francis of Toledo, were men who often sacrificed every thing to their pa.s.sions, and for their private ends.

From some of these saint suffered many persecutions, and was {647} often thwarted by them in the discharge of his duty. But by the arms of meekness and patience he overcame all affronts and injuries, and with an invincible constancy he maintained the rights of justice and truth. He showed that many sinners misconstrued the law of G.o.d to make it favor their pa.s.sions; but that, as Tertullian observes, ”Christ calls himself the truth, not custom,” and will weigh our actions not in the false balance of the world, but in the true scales of the sanctuary. Thus he extirpated the most inveterate abuses,[1] and established with so great fervor the pure maxims of the gospel, as to revive in many the primitive spirit of Christianity. To extend and perpetuate the advantages of religion, which by his zeal he had procured, he filled this country with seminaries, churches, and many hospitals; but would never suffer his own name to be recorded in any of his munificent charities or foundations.

When he was at Lima, he every day visited several hospitals, comforted and exhorted the sick, and administered the sacraments. When a pestilence, though that calamity is seldom known in Peru, raged in some parts of his diocese, Turibius distributed his own necessaries in relieving the afflicted: he preached penance, because sins are the cause of chastis.e.m.e.nts, and infinitely the worst of evils. He walked in the processions, bathed in tears, with his eyes always fixed on a crucifix, and offering himself to G.o.d for his flock; fasted, watched, and prayed for them, without intermission, till G.o.d was pleased to remove his scourge.