Curiosities of Christian History Part 19

WHY ST. AMBROSE FELL ASLEEP AT Ma.s.s.

St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, died in 397, on the day which he himself had predicted. On that day Severinus, Bishop of Cologne, asked his archdeacon if he heard any sounds in the air. The latter stood erect and listened, and then answered, "I hear voices as of those singing in heaven, but what they may be I know not." And Severinus was then informed that these were the songs of angels as they carried Martin up to heaven. At that same hour also the blessed Ambrose was celebrating Ma.s.s at Milan, and the custom was, that the reader should not begin to read till the bishop nodded to him. And when he would have begun standing before the altar, the blessed Ambrose fell asleep on the altar. Though many saw this, no man presumed to wake him, till after two or three hours had elapsed, when they spoke to him, saying, "The hour has pa.s.sed by; let my lord the bishop command the lector to read, for the people are waiting and already are very weary."

And Ambrose bade them not be disturbed, for that his brother Martin had departed from the flesh, and he had just been attending his funeral. And greatly astonished, and noting the day and hour, they afterwards discovered that at that very time the blessed Martin had been buried at Tours, where the whole city and neighbourhood had followed him with hymns and tears to the grave.

SOME SAYINGS OF ST. AMBROSE.

It was related that an obstinate heretic who went to hear St. Ambrose preach, only to confute and mock him, beheld an angel visible at his side and prompting the words the saint uttered. On seeing this, the scoffer was self-convicted and became a convert. One day St. Ambrose, calling at the house of a Tuscan n.o.bleman, was hospitably received, and began to inquire into the condition of his host, who replied, "I have never known adversity--every day has seen me increasing in fortune, in honours and possessions; I have a numerous family of sons and daughters, who have never caused me a moment of sorrow; I have a mult.i.tude of slaves, to whom my word is law; and I have never suffered either sickness or pain." On hearing this, Ambrose rose suddenly from the table and said, "Let us make haste to quit this roof ere it fall upon us, for the Lord is not here!"

And he had scarcely left the house when an earthquake shook the ground and swallowed up the palace and all its inhabitants. The church, the basilica of St. Ambrogio Maggiore at Milan, is one of the oldest and most interesting in Christendom, and was founded in 387. Though rebuilt and restored at least twice, it still retains the form of the primitive churches, with doors of cypress wood. On the front of the high altar, which is all of plates of gold enamelled with precious stones, are represented in relief scenes from the life of our Saviour.

ST. AMBROSE AND THE RELICS OF ST. GERVASIUS.

One of the points which stagger modern Christians about St. Ambrose and St. Augustine is their enthusiastic and apparently genuine belief in saints' relics. When St. Ambrose was asked to consecrate a new church, and he consented on condition that he should have some new relics to place therein, the relics were soon forthcoming. He professed that he was told in a dream where the relics of Gervasius and another saint were buried.

The bodies were afterwards found in the spot indicated and placed in the new church. Ambrose delivered impa.s.sioned and fanciful harangues during the proceedings, claiming for these relics that they had expelled demons and restored sight to a blind butcher named Severus, who merely touched them. Mosheim, Gibbon, and Isaac Taylor treat all this as a mere trick or imposture. But others are not prepared to come to any decision, as next to nothing is known as to the circ.u.mstances under which all these events or apparent events happened. The expelling of demons may be explained by some hysterical excitement; and the blindness may have been something more or less temporary. Ambrose, however, apparently had the most unfeigned belief in the miracles, and he related the whole story to his sister Marcellina in a letter which does not savour of knavery. St. Augustine, at a later date, also related similar miracles worked by the same relics, which he vouches to be true.

ST. JEROME'S LIFE OF PAUL, THE FIRST HERMIT (A.D. 400).

St. Jerome, in his Life of Paul, the first hermit, says that Paul, when a boy, suspecting his life to be in danger, fled to the wilderness, and found a convenient great cave in which to live. "In this beloved dwelling," says Jerome, "offered him as it were by G.o.d, Paul spent all his life in prayer and solitude, while the palm tree gave him food and clothes; as to which, lest it should seem impossible to some, I call Jesus and His holy angels to witness that I have seen monks, one of whom, shut up for thirty years, lived on barley bread and muddy water; another, in an old cistern, which in the country speech they call the Syrian's bed, was kept alive on five figs each day. These things therefore will seem incredible to those who do not believe, for to those who do believe all things are possible." St. Paul the hermit, in his one hundred and thirteenth year, was visited by Antony, who was ninety, Paul being in a dying state in a sequestered cell. Antony was sent on a message, and on his return Paul was found on his knees with hands uplifted as if in prayer, but was quite dead. Antony, according to previous instructions, wished to bury the saint, but had no spade, and sat down to consider how he was to proceed. Forthwith, as Jerome relates, two lions came running from the desert tossing their manes, fearless and innocent as doves. They went straight to the corpse, crouched, wagged their tails and roared, and then began to claw the ground and dig a deep place, large enough to hold a man. When they had finished they came to Antony, dropped their necks, and licked his hands and feet, as if praying for a blessing. Antony praised G.o.d, who taught the dumb animals, and without whose word not a leaf drops nor one sparrow falls to the ground; and then signing with his hand to the lions, they went away peaceably to the desert from which they came.

ST. JEROME'S REFLECTIONS ON PAUL THE HERMIT.

St. Jerome, after narrating the life and death of Paul, the first hermit, thus concludes: "I am inclined at the end of my treatise to ask those who know not the extent of their patrimonies, who cover their houses with marbles, who sew the price of whole farms into their garments with a single thread, What was ever wanting to this naked old man? Ye drink from a gem; he satisfied nature from the hollow of his hands. Ye weave gold into your tunics, he had not even the vilest garment of your bondslave.

But, on the other hand, to that poor man Paradise is open; you, gilded as you are, Gehenna will receive. He, though naked, kept the garment of Christ; you, clothed in silk, have lost Christ's robe. Paul lies covered with the meanest dust to rise in glory; you are crushed by wrought sepulchres of stone, to burn with all your works. Spare, I beseech you, yourselves; spare at least the riches which you love. Why do you wrap even your dead in golden vestments? Why does not ambition stop amid grief and tears? Cannot the corpses of the rich decay save in silk? I beseech thee, whosoever thou art that readest this, to remember Jerome the sinner, who, if the Lord gave him choice, would much sooner choose Paul's tunic with his merits than the purple of kings with their punishments."

ST. JEROME WITH THE LION AND THE a.s.s.

A legend of St. Jerome, who died 420, relates that one evening as he sat within the gates of his monastery at Bethlehem, a lion entered, limping as in pain, and all the brethren when they saw the beast fled in terror. But Jerome arose, and went forward to meet the lion as though it had been a guest. And the lion lifted up his paw, and Jerome, on examining it, found that it was wounded by a thorn, which he extracted; and he tended the lion till it was healed. The grateful beast remained with his benefactor, and Jerome confided to him the task of guarding the a.s.s, which was employed in bringing firewood from the forest. On one occasion, the lion having gone to sleep while the a.s.s was at pasture, some merchants pa.s.sing by carried away the a.s.s, and the lion, after searching for him in vain, returned to the monastery with drooping head as one ashamed. St. Jerome, believing that it had devoured its companion, commanded that the daily task of the a.s.s should be laid upon the lion, and that the f.a.ggots should be bound on its back, to which it magnanimously submitted, until the a.s.s should be recovered, which was in this wise. One day, the lion having finished its task, ran hither and thither, still seeking its companion, and it saw a caravan of merchants approaching, and a string of camels, which, according to the Arabian custom, was led by an a.s.s. And when the lion recognised its friend it drove the camels into the convent, and so terrified the merchants that they confessed the theft and received pardon from St.

Jerome. Hence the lion is often introduced into the pictures of St.

Jerome.

THE DEATHBED OF ST. JEROME.

The ancient biographer Peter de Natalibus thus describes the last hours of Jerome: As Jerome's death drew near, he commanded that he should be laid on the bare ground and covered with sackcloth, and calling the brethren around him, he spoke sweetly to them, and exhorted them in many holy words, and with tears received the blessed Eucharist. And sinking backwards again on the earth, his hands crossed on his heart, he sang the _Nunc Dimittis_, which being finished, suddenly a great light as of the noonday sun shone round about him, within which light angels innumerable were seen by the bystanders in shifting motion. And the voice of the Saviour was heard inviting him to heaven, and the holy doctor answered that he was ready. And after an hour that light departed, and Jerome's spirit with it. And at that very hour Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, was sitting in his cell meditating a treatise on the beatific vision, and had begun an epistle to Jerome, consulting him on that mystery, when an ineffable light with a fragrant odour filled his cell, and a voice came to him therefrom, reproving him of presumption for deeming that, while yet in the flesh, he could comprehend the eternal beat.i.tude. And Augustine demanding who spoke to him, the voice answered, "Jerome's soul, to whom thou writest, for I am this very hour loosed from the flesh, and on my way to heaven." And after Augustine had asked him many questions concerning the joys of heaven, the angelic nature, and the Blessed Trinity, and Jerome had answered thereto, the light and the voice departed.

ST. JEROME'S EPISTLES.

Mr. Roberts, in his "Church Memorials," speaks of St. Jerome as follows: The various letters of Jerome to Helvidius, Jovinian Vigilantius, and even to Augustine, leave the fact unquestionable that he was a man of great infirmity of temper, disposed alike to depreciate the merits of others and unduly exalt his own. To the exercise of his vituperative talents it must be owned that we are indebted for some of his most vigorous productions.

Few of his corresponding friends were without some experience of the rough discipline of his pen. Ruffinus says he spared none, neither monk nor maiden. Ambrose and Didymus and Chrysostom himself shared his reproaches.

Those who submitted to the obligation of celibacy on the ostensible ground of religious abstinence were among the rare objects of his eulogy. He breaks out in his writings into gross and unwarrantable sallies against the matrimonial estate, and exalting above all comparison with it the felicity of virgins. His opinions on this subject appear to have arisen out of the self-sufficiency of his own brain, which led him to consult his own fervid impressions and prejudices rather than the teaching of Divine wisdom. But after making all necessary deductions from the dignity and deserts of Jerome on the score of prejudice and pa.s.sion, our obligations to him remain very great, not only for his admirable contributions to the stores of sacred learning in all its departments, but for his strenuous and efficacious advocacy of the truth as it is set forth in the oracles of G.o.d. Lessons of practical piety and discriminating Christian prudence not seldom flowed from his able pen.

ST. CHRYSOSTOM'S ELOQUENCE AS A PREACHER (A.D. 407).

St. Chrysostom became noted for the eloquence of his sermons soon after he was ordained a presbyter in 386. One of his sermons at a time when the people were given to riots ended thus: "When you return home, converse on these subjects with all your house, as some, when returning from the meadows, take home to their families garlands of roses or violets or some such flowers; others branches laden with fruit from the gardens; or the superfluous dainties from costly feasts in like manner. When you depart home, carry admonitions to your wives, your children, your dependants. For these counsels are more profitable to you than flowers, fruit, or feasts.

These roses never wither; these fruits never decay; these meats never corrupt. The former impart a transitory pleasure; the latter insure a lasting advantage, an enjoyment both present and to come. Let us thus occupy ourselves instead of the accustomed anxiety with which we trouble to ask each other, 'Has the Emperor heard of the things that have happened? Is he incensed? What sentence has he p.r.o.nounced? Has any one appeased him? Can he persuade himself to utterly destroy so great and populous a city?' Casting these and the like cares upon G.o.d, we shall do well to heed only the observance of His commandments. Thus will all our present sorrows pa.s.s away."

ST. CHRYSOSTOM ON THE WEAK POINT OF MONKERY.

Though St. Chrysostom was himself a hermit for six years, he thus, in the height of the mania for monkery, exposed the weakness of that practice in one of his sermons: "Those who forsake the city, the favour and society of men, and cease to instruct others, are apt to excuse themselves by saying that they must not become dead to G.o.dliness. How much better were it to become more dead to G.o.dliness, and to profit others rather than remain on the heights looking down on their perishing brethren! For how shall we overcome our enemies if the greater part of us have no heed to G.o.dliness, and those who have a heed to it withdraw from the order of battle? No deed can be truly great unless it impart benefit to others. This is manifest from the example of him who returned the talent, which he had received, whole, because he had added naught to its value. Wherefore, my brethren, though ye fast, though ye sleep upon the bare ground, though ye strew yourselves with ashes, though ye mourn without ceasing, yet if ye do no good to any one, ye shall have done no great thing, for this was the chief care of those great and holy men who were in the beginning. Examine closely their lives, and ye will see clearly that none of them ever looked to his own interest, but to that of his neighbour. If ye seek not the advantage of your neighbour, ye cannot attain unto salvation."

ST. CHRYSOSTOM ON PEOPLE SPEAKING IN CHURCH.

St. Chrysostom, who died 407, in his homily on the text, "Brethren, be not children in understanding," thus rebuked the habits of his people in church: "The church itself is a house, or rather worse than any house. For in a house one may see much good order. But here great is the tumult, great the confusion, and our a.s.semblies differ in nothing from a vintner's shop, so loud is the laughter, so great the disturbance: as in baths, as in markets, the cry and tumult is universal. And these things occur here only: since elsewhere it is not permitted even to address one's neighbour in the church, not even if one have recognised a long-absent friend; but these things are done without, and very properly. For the church is no barber's or perfumer's shop, nor any other merchant's warehouse in the market-place, but a place of angels, a place of archangels, a palace of G.o.d, heaven itself. As therefore if one had rent the heaven and had brought thee in thither, though thou shouldst see thy father or thy brother, thou wouldst not venture to speak, so neither here ought one to utter any other sound but those which are spiritual. For in truth the things in this place are also a heaven. Here the buffoon who is moving laughter or the giddy woman who collects vast crowds is listened to; but when G.o.d is speaking from heaven on subjects so awful, we behave ourselves more shamelessly than dogs."

ST. AUGUSTINE WITNESSING TWO MIRACLES.

St. Augustine in 426 relates two miracles which he himself witnessed. Two persons, Paul and Palladia, brother and sister, natives of Caesarea, were afflicted with excessive trembling in their limbs. They had visited many places in search of a cure, and at last were directed by a venerable person, who appeared in a vision to Paul, to go to the church at Hippo, where St. Stephen's relics had been deposited a year before. One Easter Sunday Paul was praying before the relics, when he suddenly fell and lay motionless, as if asleep, but without trembling. The spectators were astonished, and uncertain whether to raise him up or leave him alone. He rose up soon quite healed, whereon the congregation began to praise G.o.d and shouted with joy. They ran to another part of the church to tell St.

Augustine, who was already beginning the service. He next day made Paul and his sister sit in a raised part of the church, the one healed, the other trembling, and after a general discourse thus concluded: "Now, listen to what we have heard of this miracle. During the stoning of St.

Stephen a stone which had struck him on the elbow rebounded on a believer who was present. He took it up and kept it. This man was a sailor, whom chance at last brought to Ancona, and he knew by revelation that he was to leave this stone there. A chapel was erected there to St. Stephen, and a report was spread that one of his elbows was there. It was afterwards understood that the sailor had been inspired to leave this stone in that place because Ancona signifies 'the elbow' in Greek. But no miracles were wrought there till after the body of Stephen had been discovered." St.

Augustine was going on with his discourse, recounting other miracles from these relics, when a great shout arose, and the congregation interrupted him, and some brought before him Palladia, who had just been suddenly healed in the same way as her brother Paul when she went again to pray before the relics. The people were overjoyed, and continued their shouts till Augustine had to pause; and when they were a little silent, he concluded with a thanksgiving.

THE VISION OF ST. AUGUSTINE.

St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, near Carthage, who died 430, and whose magnificent tomb in the cathedral of Pavia is rich as a work of art, had in the course of his studies, while writing discourses on the Trinity, a dream or vision, which he thus related: "I was wandering along the seash.o.r.e lost in meditation. Suddenly I beheld a child, who, having dug a hole in the sand, appeared to be bringing water from the sea to fill it. I inquired of the child what was the object of this task, and it replied, 'I intend to empty into this hole all the waters of the great deep.'

'Impossible!' I exclaimed. 'Not more impossible,' replied the child, 'than for you, O Augustine, to explain the mystery on which you are now meditating.'" This incident is also related of another great preacher (see _ante_, p. 108). St. Augustine is often in mediaeval pictures represented as standing arrayed in his episcopal robes on the seash.o.r.e, gazing with astonishment on an infant Christ, who holds a bowl, a cup, and a ladle.

Murillo has a great picture on this subject. St. Augustine admitted with shame that when a boy he had robbed an orchard, and that the multiplication table was detestable to him.

ST. AUGUSTINE'S FAITH IN DREAMS.

St. Augustine's faith in dreams was ill.u.s.trated by him in a letter to a friend, who was speculating about future life. He said there was a beloved physician at Carthage named Gennadius, who, though an earnest benefactor of the poor, had doubts about the future life. One night Gennadius dreamt that a n.o.ble-looking youth came to him and said, "Follow me." He followed, and was led to a city in which he heard delicious music of hymns and psalms, and the youth explained that this was the singing of the blessed and the holy. When he awoke and found it was a dream, he attached no importance to it. But on another night the same youth came again, and asked, "Do you remember me?" "Yes," said Gennadius, "I saw you in my dream, and you took me to hear the songs of the blessed." "Are you dreaming now?" "Yes." "Where is your body at this moment?" "In my bed."

"Your eyes, then, are closed and bound in sleep?" "Yes." "How is it, then, that you see me?" Gennadius could give no answer, and the angel said, "Just as you see me without the eyes of the flesh, so it will be when all your senses are removed by death. There shall still be life in you and a faculty to perceive. Take care that henceforth you have no doubts about the life to come." St. Austin adds: "You may say that this was a dream, and any one may think what he likes about it. Nevertheless, there are some dreams which have a Divine significance."

ST. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA (A.D. 444).

A famous champion of orthodoxy was St. Cyril of Alexandria, who flourished in 444. He spent five years of his youth in the monasteries of Nitria, and became an ardent student of theology, and his uncle, the Archbishop Theophilus, recalled him to take office in the church. He soon became a popular preacher, having a comely person and a sonorous voice, and his friends stationed themselves in convenient places in the church to applaud him and bring out all his merits. He soon succeeded to the patriarchate, which gave him civil as well as ecclesiastical powers. He had no patience with heretics, and not only interdicted the Moravians from performing public worship, but confiscated their holy vessels. His virulent rage against the Jews had no bounds, and without warning or authority he led a fanatic mob early one morning and attacked their synagogues and demolished them, rewarded his followers with the plunder, and expelled the ancient people from the city. He insisted on paying the highest honours to a monk who, like an a.s.sa.s.sin, had wounded the prefect. He also took umbrage at Hypatia, a young and beautiful woman, who taught philosophy, and who was said to take the part of the prefect against Cyril. One day it was said Cyril's fanatical followers seized this lady, stripped and butchered her, and burnt her body in the church, thereby leaving an indelible stain on his character. He also was indefatigable in persecuting Nestorius, an alleged heretic.

SOME NOTIONS OF THE FATHERS.

Some of the notions to which the Fathers clung were these: That Christ would return and reign with the saints in Jerusalem in the flesh for a thousand years; that the angels had bodies and appet.i.tes; that Christ's body was not sensitive to the stripes and torments inflicted; that after death all should pa.s.s a fiery trial before the final judgment day; that G.o.d's Providence was confined only to men as rational creatures, but had nothing to do with the beasts of the field, with bugs and flies and worms; that marriage was in any circ.u.mstances a degrading inst.i.tution, but a second marriage was accursed; that infants which die before baptism cannot be saved; that the baptism of heretics was invalid and null; that an oath was utterly unlawful for Christians to take; that our Saviour lived fifty years, and was not crucified at the age of thirty-three.

CHAPTER VIII.

_THE MONKS AND THEIR WAYS._