Curiosities of Christian History Part 25

ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA (A.D. 1520).

Ignatius was born in 1491 in his father's castle of Loyola, the family being ancient and n.o.ble. He was the youngest of eight sons, and was spirited and keen-witted from his earliest years. One day, after he had vowed to be a monk, he gave away his rich clothes to a beggar, who was then accused of larceny, but released after the donor followed to explain the gift; while Ignatius gloried in his freedom from the livery of sin, and indulged in the self-imposed austerities of his order. Being wounded in both legs at the siege of Pampeluna, he was long confined to his couch; and it was in seeking for amus.e.m.e.nt from romances that he was supplied with the Lives of the Saints, which first struck the new chord in his heart; and he vowed that he would devote his life to the service of Jesus and the Virgin. He transferred the habits of military obedience to the order he founded, and called it the Company of Jesus. He had nine a.s.sociates closely connected with him, of whom Xavier and Faber were two.

His head and face showed an imperious temper; and his visions, penances, and miracles soon attracted attention far and wide. Ignatius was general of his society about fifteen years, and died in 1556, aged sixty-five. He lived to see his society flourishing in every country. His body was buried in the church of the Virgin in Rome, and in 1587 removed to the church of Jesus under the altar, being the most magnificent church in the world next to the Vatican, and called the church of St. Ignatius, where is a statue of gold and silver and diamonds. He was beatified in 1609 and canonised in 1622.

ST. VINCENT DE PAUL, THE PHILANTHROPIST (A.D. 1600).

St. Vincent was born in 1576, and in his time originated many useful philanthropic inst.i.tutions. In his youth he was taken by pirates and carried off to slavery, and kept as a slave for two years. When afterwards a domestic chaplain to a benevolent countess, he had to visit and distribute alms, and he set to work to organise a system of relief in some respects resembling a modern poor law. He divided a town into districts, and set inspectors to weed out the tramps and beggars and arrange lists of the really necessitous. He also devised a system of home missions for preaching the Gospel to the poor. In Paris a large building of the name of St. Lazare was dedicated to the service of candidates for holy orders, and he introduced method into the inst.i.tution for training all the recruits who came, and to this was added soon a seminary for training young clergymen. In course of his works of charity he met with Madame le Gras, a lady of good family and devoted to good works, and they founded in 1633 the inst.i.tution known as a new Society of Sisters of Charity, which grew rapidly into favour, and soon twenty-eight houses were established in different districts. The rest of France and Poland followed the example.

Their chief care were the sick, poor, widows, orphans, wounded soldiers, and hospital patients. They soon added to their flock the foundlings and convicts. These Sisters of Charity or Grey Sisters underwent a five years'

training. He also inst.i.tuted a kindred order, called the Company of Ladies of Charity, with like objects. It is said that in one year these ladies converted or reclaimed seven hundred and sixty heretics. The number of foundlings taken care of averaged about three hundred and four each year, and the Congregation of St. Vincent Sisters are said to take charge of such poor children in Paris. Many other inst.i.tutions were originated by this apostle of charity. He died in 1660 in his armchair, as the Fathers of the Mission were saying matins, having reached his eighty-fifth year.

St. Vincent de Paul, the apostle of compa.s.sion, thus showed a genius for his work, and also founded the hospital of La Madeleine for penitent girls. He became a friend of Richelieu, and was summoned from his attendance on the galley slaves to the deathbed of Louis XIII. He was called the Father of the Poor. In some of the sacred pictures he is shown with a newborn infant in his arms and a Sister of Mercy at his side.

MISTAKES OF MEDIaeVAL MISSIONARIES.

It is related by Pasquier, on the authority of Joinville, born in 1220, and the biographer of St. Louis IX. of France, that when Louis was in the island of Cyprus, he there received from the Cham of the Tartars an emba.s.sy, informing him of the Cham's conversion to Christianity. On this intelligence, the zealous monarch, full of joy, despatched preachers to attempt the conversion of the other Tartars. These preachers incessantly in their sermons repeated that the Pope was the Vicar of G.o.d on earth, whereupon it occurred to the Cham that he should send amba.s.sadors to the Pope to pay him filial obedience. The preachers, hearing of this design, thereupon began to fear that if the amba.s.sadors should go to Rome, and there witness the disorders that reigned among Christians, they would on their return recommend their master to continue in his errors, and resolved to dissuade the Cham from carrying out any such enterprise.

A FRIAR STARTLING THE BENCH OF JUDGES.

In Venice, one day in 1552, when the tribunal of Quaranthia, consisting of the Doge and senators, sat to try causes of life and death, a hermit or friar suddenly called out with a terrific voice, "To h.e.l.l shall go all who do not administer true justice--to h.e.l.l the mighty who oppress the poor--to h.e.l.l the judges who shed the blood of the innocent!" After the first emotions of surprise, the intruder was recognised to be a Capuchin friar who had been a well-known preacher in Venice, and not only admonished sinners, but spent his days in works of mercy. He had no habitation, but slept at nights under the portico of St. Mark or of the Rialto, or under the campanile of the church of St. Moses, and was often seen at early dawn before the church doors in prayer. The Doge was annoyed at this unseemly interruption, and was about to order his expulsion, but an ill.u.s.trious senator named Sebastian Venerius interposed, and thus addressed his brother judges: "Most serene prince and conscript fathers, we are const.i.tuted judges in this republic; and what ought to be more desired by us in our administration of justice than that we should be admonished of our duty by celestial messengers? This is a most serious judgment we are engaged in, for another sentence can be corrected; but that which deprives men of life is immutable. These words of the holy man recall to our minds how important and perilous is the office which we discharge. Though we all hold in horror a wilful violation of justice, yet our judgment may sometimes sleep. And now if G.o.d should have sent this man as an angel to awaken us from sleep, ought he to be driven out and his admonition rejected, because we judge the man who conveys it to be mean, estimating his mind from the habit he wears? Far be such scorn from us who boast to be disciples of the humble Fisherman!" This address made such an impression on the a.s.sembly that the friar was allowed ever after to repeat his imprecations.

MENDICANT FRIARS AND SCHOOLMEN.

The mendicant friars under St. Francis and St. Dominic early forced their way into the chairs of the chief universities of Europe. Alexander Hales went first into Paris, then Oxford, giving a great impulse to the higher studies. The Dominicans produced Thomas Aquinas, the prince of schoolmen, who was born in 1228. The Franciscans also claimed Alexander Hales, Bonaventura, and Duns Scotus. These rival schoolmen divided the allegiance of the leading intellects of their time.

FRIARS BURNING SENSELESS ORNAMENTS (A.D. 1429).

It is related that in 1429, when Brother Richard, a Franciscan, returned from Jerusalem, he delivered so stirring a sermon that the people of Paris kindled hundreds of fires, in which men burned card and billiard tables, and the women their extravagant and gaudy ornaments. So at the preaching of Friar Jerome at Florence, the friars during the carnival incited a numerous flock of children to go round in all districts and in a spirit of humility and devotion beg people to deliver up all the profane books and pictures that were kept by them. These were freely given; and the devout women yielded humbly to these innocent preachers, suffered themselves to be despoiled of their dearest personal ornaments, and of everything that was used to give them a fict.i.tious beauty. On the last day of the carnival, after having heard Ma.s.s, clothed in white, carrying on their heads garlands of olive, and red crosses in their hands, the children made a procession, singing psalms to the Piazzo dei Signori, where a pyramidal scaffold had been erected, upon which these instruments of pleasure and profane luxury were deposited. The children mounted the rostrum, and after having sung spiritual hymns the four deputies came down with lighted torches and set fire to the pile, and watched it as it was consumed amidst voices of joy and the sound of trumpets. Another saint of the Franciscan order, named Bernardine of Sienna, born in 1380, undertook a reform which was styled of the strict observance, and was the means of founding five hundred convents in Italy. He was a most famous preacher, and shone in his denunciations of the then prevailing weaknesses, which were the vices of gaming and divination and magic. His power over his contemporaries was supreme as a reconciler of long-standing enmities. He distinguished himself by collecting on the Capitoline Hill an immense a.s.semblage of pictures, musical instruments, implements of gaming, false hair, and extravagant female dresses, of which he made an enormous bonfire. This saint was said to work miracles, but at last was charged with heresy and idolatry, on account of his using an ornament which he invented as a help to devotion. The Pope p.r.o.nounced against this ornament, and the saint dutifully gave it up. He died in 1444, and at the jubilee in 1450 was canonised at the instance of Pope Nicolas V.

AN ELOQUENT FRIAR ON THE FASHIONABLE VICES.

John Capistran, a Franciscan friar of the fifteenth century, was noted for his eloquence. At Nuremberg, where he went to preach in 1452, he caused a pulpit to be set up in the middle of the great square, and there preached for some days in so forcible a manner against vice that he led the inhabitants to make a pile of their cards and dice, and afterwards set fire to them; which being done, he exhorted them to take up arms against the Turks. The year after, he went to Breslau, in Silesia, and there inveighed strongly against cards and dice; and commanding a pile to be made of them all, he set fire to it. But the power of his eloquence was not confined to inanimate things; for exerting his eloquence in a most intolerant manner against the Jews, he caused a great number of these people to be burnt in all parts of Silesia, upon pretence of their behaving with irreverence towards the consecrated bread.

A MONK DENOUNCING FEMALE HEAD-DRESSES.

Thomas Conecte, a Carmelite monk, born in Brittany in 1434, was the greatest preacher of his time. When in Flanders, he drew vast crowds and discoursed vehemently on the vices of the clergy, the luxury and extravagance of women's head-dresses, which were of prodigious height, called hennins. These were high and broad horns an ell long, having on each side ears so large that they could not get through doors. The preacher not only denounced these, but gave presents to little children to cry and hoot at them, and even throw stones at the wearers. The ladies at last durst not appear, except in disguise, to listen to Brother Thomas's fervent appeals. For a time the excess was reduced; but when he left the country the head-dresses were put on again, with still higher toppings than before, as if to redeem the lost time. As Paradin relates: "After Thomas's departure the ladies lifted their horns again, and did like the snails, which, when they hear any noise, pull in their horns, but when the noise is over suddenly lift them higher than before." Wherever Thomas went his zeal against the senseless ornaments and crying vices of the day led to many superfluous clothes, tables, dice, cards, and frivolities being burned. He pa.s.sed triumphantly from the Netherlands to Italy, exciting great attention and awakening no small jealousy. At last the Pope was moved to put him on his trial, when he was found guilty of the dangerous heresy of denouncing the vices of the clergy and the gluttony of the monks. He met an appropriate fate by refusing to retract, and then by being burnt, as being far too advanced a reformer for his times.

SAVONAROLA, THE MARTYRED PREACHER (A.D. 1498).

Savonarola at an early age chose the study of theology for a profession, and devoted himself to the Holy Scriptures, and at the age of twenty-two was greatly impressed by the preaching of a friar. He became member of a Dominican convent at Bologna. He was removed to Florence, then became friar, and saw great need of reform in the lax and worldly ways of the monks. He soon developed great gifts as a preacher, and had a rapt and impa.s.sioned style of oratory; and his early study of the Apocalypse led him into mystical language, which heightened the effect. His denunciations of the current vices made him a formidable censor, and even gave him political influence, and excited enmities. Like some of his near contemporaries, his influence over the ardent youths caused them at the carnival of 1497 to go the round of the city and collect all the rich and extravagant dresses, pictures, musical instruments, books of sorcery, and false hair into a large pile; and then, amid singing of hymns, sounding of bells and trumpets, the heap was fired amid great enthusiasm. His attacks on the vices of the period led the Pope to excommunicate him. But his preaching was a constant attraction and kept up the excitement. Shorthand writers took the sermons down, printed and dispersed them all over Italy.

Once he was challenged by a bitter enemy to walk through a burning pile forty yards long, in order to test which of two opposing doctrines was true; and he felt bound to accept the challenge, though ultimately this mode of trial was prohibited by the magistrates. He was, like other advanced reformers, charged with heresy, tortured, and ultimately sentenced to be burnt alive, after being degraded. The sentence was carried out in 1498, and his ashes were thrown into the river, under the idle notion that his name and influence would perish. Some have denounced him as a fanatic, and others as a reformer too far advanced for his age, though Luther was only a few years his junior. In Germany also three noted reformers appeared between 1450 and 1489--namely, John of Goch, John of Wesel, and John Wessel, whose teaching tended towards Lutheranism, then in the bud and soon about to flower.

CHAPTER X.

_FAMOUS MONKS AND MONASTERIES._

A MONK WITH A GENIUS FOR MONKERY (A.D. 400).

a.r.s.enius the Great was a famous monk, born about 354, and had been early in life made tutor to the sons of the Emperor Theodosius; but finding it an unsatisfactory post, retired at the age of forty, resolving to cleanse his soul and fly from the society of men. He went to Egypt; and being anxious to be taken in as a monk, applied to John Colobus (the Dwarfish), who invited him to a meal to test his suitability. a.r.s.enius was kept standing while the others sat. John then flung a biscuit to him, which a.r.s.enius ate in a kneeling posture. "He will make a monk," said John; and he was admitted forthwith. a.r.s.enius soon afterwards went to Scetis, and lived as a hermit. A senator once left him a legacy; but the hermit rejected it, saying, "I was dead before him." Two monks once called on a.r.s.enius, and were received with absolute silence; they waited on another famous monk, called Moses, who received them with cordial welcome. The visitors were perplexed at two great men acting so dissimilarly; but the doubt was solved by another monk, who one day saw in a vision two boats on the Nile. One boat contained a.r.s.enius, with the Spirit of G.o.d; the other boat contained Moses, fed with honey by angels. a.r.s.enius was often rude to his visitors. One was a high-born Roman lady, who requested to be remembered in his prayers; but the monk brusquely told her that he hoped he might be able to forget her. She complained of this to Theophilus, who told her she was but a woman, and the old man would pray for her soul notwithstanding. a.r.s.enius once took a thievish monk into his cell to cure him, but found it impossible. He used often to say that he had been sorry for having spoken, but never for having been silent. When his end drew near, he was seen to weep, which made the other monks ask, "Are _you_ then, father, afraid?" "Truly," said a.r.s.enius, "the fear that is with me in this hour has been with me ever since I became a monk."

ST. NINIAN, THE SCOTTISH SAINT (A.D. 400).

St. Ninian was a Briton, born about 360, of Christian parents, and of a grave and earnest disposition. After much searching of the Scriptures, he went to Rome in order to know more of the truth. When arrived there, he wept over the relics of the Apostles, and the Pope received him graciously. After spending some years there, it was made clear to the Pope that Western Britain was much in need of Christian enlightenment, and Ninian was consecrated a bishop, and sent there as the first bishop of his nation. On his way he visited the famous St. Martin of Tours, the demolisher of Pagan temples. The two saints were mutually pleased and edified. They were described as two cherubims, from the intimate understanding and mutual light displayed by them. Ninian, on returning to Scotland, erected a church at Whithorn, in Galloway, and he was anxious to imitate what he had seen at Tours, and begged the loan of masons from that place, and the church was dedicated to St. Martin. Ninian became there a great preacher and evangelist, and the miracles he performed spread his fame everywhere. If he read the Psalter in the open air, the shower would avoid touching him and his book. If thieves tried to steal his cattle, an angel drove them away. One of Ninian's scholars, being afraid of a whipping, fled to the seash.o.r.e, but took care to steal his master's pastoral staff; and this staff, after the youth had prayed, guided his boat in safety, and was both rudder and mast and sail by turns. The saint converted the Picts far and near, and was succeeded by St. Mungo and St.

Columba. His relics also were said to continue to work miracles long after he was dead.

ST. MUNGO, AN EAST LOTHIAN SAINT (A.D. 580).

While St. Serva.n.u.s, an early bishop of the Scots, was settled at Culross, near Loch Leven, one Kentigern, who had been born about 514, under mysterious circ.u.mstances, at a seaport in East Lothian, was taken to the bishop by the shepherds, and said to be a child of promise. On seeing the child, Serva.n.u.s smiled welcome, carefully instructed him, and gave him the name of Mun Cu or Mungdu (the Gaelic words for "Dear one"), since named Mungo. The boy soon began to work miracles by restoring birds and dead bodies to life. This gift excited the jealousy of the other pupils, and caused Mungo to flee. He went to Dumfries, and thereafter settled at Glasgow. The King and clergy soon afterwards elected him as bishop, an office then vacant. He lived on bread and b.u.t.ter and cheese, abstaining from flesh and wine. He was clothed in a rough hair shirt, and slept every night in a stone trough, which was in shape like a coffin, strewed with ashes, and a stone for a pillow. Every morning he went and stood in the neighbouring stream up to the neck, however cold it might be, till he had chanted the Psalter, after which he came out clean and pure as a dove washed in milk. He had the gift of silence, and spoke seldom, yet weightily. He could scarcely help working miracles. One day he went to plough, but had no oxen at hand; and a wolf and deer pa.s.sing that way, he hailed them, and they both came and quietly entered under the yoke. After he had given away all his corn to the poor, he would sow the land with sand, and great crops grew up. One day he asked the King to supply him with corn, but met with an indignant refusal, whereon the river Clyde rose and swept away the King's barn, and floated the contents up the Molendinar burn, and they landed near the saint's dwelling. The King in a pa.s.sion once lifted his foot to strike the saint, and the foot became gangrened, and the King died soon after. The saint went seven journeys to Rome, where he was highly valued. The Queen once lost a ring, which had been thrown into the Clyde, and she applied to St. Mungo, who caused a salmon to be caught which had swallowed the ring. He died at the age of one hundred and eighty-five, full of years, and in the odour of sanct.i.ty.

A MONK CURED OF ABSENTING HIMSELF FROM PRAYERS (A.D. 540).

It is related in the Life of St. Benedict, born in 480, who founded the famous monasteries for monks, that in one of these monasteries there was a certain monk, who could not endure to abide with the brethren during the time of prayer, but the moment they knelt down went out, and with a wandering mind betook himself to things purely transitory and worldly. And this being told to the man of G.o.d, and admonition proving unavailing, Benedict visited the monastery; and when the psalms were ended, and the brethren knelt down to pray, he saw a little black boy drawing the monk referred to out of the church. And pointing it out to the superior, and the latter not being able to see the boy, "Let us pray," said Benedict, "that you may." And after two days Maurus, a pupil of Benedict, saw him; but still the superior could not. And on the third day, after prayer, Benedict found the monk standing outside the door; and striking him with his staff in reproof of the blindness of his heart, from that day forth he was no more troubled by that black boy, but stayed out the prayers patiently with his brethren.

THE DEATH OF ST. BENEDICT (A.D. 543).

St. Benedict, the patriarch of the Western monks and founder of the Benedictine order, died in 543, and his biographers and contemporaries thus described his death: "Shortly before the decease of St. Benedict, standing at the window by night and praying to G.o.d, suddenly he perceived a great light, and (as he thereafter declared) the whole world was brought together before his eyes, collected as under a single ray of the sun. For his spirit being dilated and rapt into G.o.d, he saw without difficulty everything that is beneath G.o.d. And at the hour of his death there appeared unto two of the brethren, then absent and apart from each other, the self-same vision; for they saw a path stretching from his cell up to heaven, strewed with robes of silk and with numberless lamps, burning all along it, ascending towards the east. And, behold, a man of majestic mien and in seemly attire stood over against them, and asked whose that path was. And they confessing that they knew not, he answered, 'This is the path through which Benedict, the beloved of G.o.d, is ascending to heaven.'

And thereby they knew of his decease."

ST. COLUMBA OF IONA (A.D. 597).

Columba, who had first an Irish name, was born about 518 at Gartan, in Donegal, of good family. After his ordination he entered the monastery of Glasnevin, near Dublin. He soon after founded the monasteries of Derry and of Durrow. He determined to be a missionary, after engaging in some family feuds and being tired of fighting. About 563 he left Ireland, then called Scotia, and, accompanied by twelve disciples, took to the sea in a wicker wherry covered with hides, leaving the result to Providence. They first landed at Colonsay, then crossed to Iona. Two savage kings having fought a battle, the successful one gave him the island to settle in. He made an early visit to the Pictish King; and though at first rudely treated, he made a conquest and obtained speedy honours. He soon became known also as a worker of miracles. One day the inhabitants were much alarmed at the visits of a sea monster that lived in the river Ness and roared terribly; the saint raised his hand, and making the sign of the cross in the air, called on the brute to desist, and, strange to say, it vanished amid the breathless amazement of the crowds that were watching it. The saint and his followers settled in the island of Iona, and lived somewhat in the fashion of a monastery, but they acted as missionaries. One day a stranger visited Iona in disguise; and joining Columba in celebrating the Eucharist, the latter suddenly looking the stranger in the face as he stood at the altar, said, "Christ bless thee, brother, consecrate alone, for I know thou art a bishop." On hearing this the stranger wondered exceedingly at the second sight of the saint, and all the bystanders gave glory to G.o.d for the honour done by the visit of a bishop, a personage then unknown in that quarter. Columba died in 597 as he was praying at the altar, and the other monks saw the church filled with a strange light, for the saint was leaving an example of piety to all future ages.

ST. COLUMBA PUNISHING A SAVAGE CHIEF (A.D. 520).

It is related by Ad.a.m.nan, the biographer of St. Columba, that in the early days, when Columba was in deacon's orders, going about in Leinster along with his tutor Gemman, a brutal chief was pursuing a young girl who fled before him on the level plain. As she chanced to notice the aged Gemman as he sat reading, she ran straight towards him. The old man being alarmed at this spectacle, called to Columba, who was reading at some distance, to help him in defending the girl. But the brutal chief on coming up to them, without taking the least notice of their presence, in his rage stabbed the child as she was hiding herself under their cloaks, and leaving her dead at their feet, turned to go back. At this the old man, turning to Columba, said, "How long, O holy youth, shall G.o.d the just Judge allow this horrid crime and this contempt of our faith to go unpunished?" Then the saint at once p.r.o.nounced this sentence: "Mark well, that at the very instant, when the soul of this young innocent ascends to heaven, shall the soul of the murderer descend into h.e.l.l." Scarcely had Columba spoken the word, when the murderer of innocent blood, like Ananias before Peter, fell down dead on the spot. The news of this awful retribution soon spread through the land; it made the name of the holy deacon a praise and protection to the innocent, and a sure avenger of every brutal oppression on the part of those savage chiefs who then ruled the land.

DEATH OF ST. COLUMBA IN IONA (A.D. 597).

The biographer of St. Columba of Iona, who died in 597, aged seventy-seven, after thirty-four years' missionary work, says that on feeling the hand of death he was at his own request carried out of doors in a car to visit the working brethren, and then he warned them of his early departure, and blessed them and the island and its inhabitants. On the following Sat.u.r.day, he told the friends that that would be the last day of his life. He begged them to take him out, that he might bless the barn and the crops of corn which were the supplies of their food. On going back to the monastery, the old white pack-horse, that used to carry the milk-pails, strange to say, came up to the saint, laid its head on his bosom, and uttered plaintive cries, like a human being, also shedding tears. The attendant began to drive away the beast; but the saint forbade him, saying, "Let it alone; let it pour out its bitter grief. Lo, thou who hast a rational soul canst know nothing of my departure--only expect what I have just told you; but to this brute beast, devoid of reason, the Creator Himself hath evidently in some way made it known that its master is going to leave it." And saying this, he blessed the poor work-horse, which turned away from him in sadness. The saint then ascended a hillock overhanging the monastery, and stood musing and looking round, and said that, small as that place was, it would be held in after-times in great honour by kings and foreign rulers and saints of other Churches. On returning to the monastery, he sat in his cell and transcribed part of the thirty-third Psalm. The rest of the night he lay on the bare ground, with a stone for his pillow. He discoursed to the brethren on the blessing of peace, harmony, and charity among themselves. When the bell rang at midnight, he rose quickly and knelt before the altar, and a heavenly light was noticed to surround him; and the brethren knew that his soul was departing; and after signifying to them his holy benediction, he breathed his last. The matin hymns being then finished, his sacred body was carried, the brethren chanting psalms; and being wrapped in fine clean linen, was buried after three days and nights. A violent storm had been raging for these days, preventing any person crossing the sound; but after the burial the storm ceased, and all was calm.

THE MONK COLUMBAN (A.D. 615).