earthly days is as twilight compared with the day which will ere long dawn upon us-the day of the Son of man—for which the Church is ever watching; when "the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, when the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound'." "At evening time there shall be light,”- A voice not loud, but thrilling clear, And follow Me, no darkness fear, Nor waning eve, nor changing year, The light of Life is theirs : pure Light of Life divine !" Lyra Apostolica, p. 74. FEBRUARY 5. S. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr. 251. THE honour of being the birth-place of S. Agatha is claimed by Catania and Palermo, in Sicily. The probabilities in favour of either are nearly equally divided, though there seems to be a slight superiority 1 Isaiah xxx. 26. in the claims of Catania. It certainly was the scene of her martyrdom, which took place during the persecution of Decius in 251, as all her Acts testify. She was the daughter of an illustrious and wealthy house in Sicily, and was famed for her beauty and her gentle and amiable manners. But her love was consecrated to God from her very earliest youth. Quintianus, the Consular of Sicily, as the governor was then called, admired her exceedingly, and the holy virgin retired to Palermo to avoid his importunities. As it often happened in those days of heathen cruelty, his love was turned into hatred when he discovered that she was a Christian. She was seized and brought to Catania; and all the way thither she could only weep and pray to the Lord to strengthen her for the conflict which awaited her. Every means was tried during the space of a month to prevail on her to forget her vow; but she was supported by continual prayer, and at last came off victorious from this lingering martyrdom. She was privately examined before Quintian as to her faith, and confessed Christ with undaunted firmness, declaring the service of the Lord Jesus to be the highest nobility, and the truest freedom. She was then sent to prison, to which she went joyfully, recommending herself to God, and entreating His aid. The day after, she was tortured on the rack, and suffered with calmness and constancy. When her breasts were cut off, she mildly reproached the inhuman Quintian with the remembrance of his own infancy, and with the tenderness of his mother. She was then led back to prison, and all sustenance and medical aid were denied her; but on the following night she saw in a vision the Prince of the Apostles enter her cell, and in the name of his blessed Master he cured her wounds. This vision is commemorated in a preface in the Missal of Milan attributed to S. Ambrose. In four days after, Agatha was again tortured, and on being remanded once more to prison, she raised her hands and eyes towards heaven, and thanked her Lord for having given her strength to endure every torment, and for having taken from her all love of the world, and of this passing life. And she prayed that, if it might be, He would now take her to Himself to enjoy His abundant mercy. Her prayer was heard, and she sweetly fell asleep in the Lord. The people buried her with great honour. Quintian no sooner heard of her death than he hastened to confiscate her goods. But the anger of Almighty God followed him, and he was drowned in crossing a river. "Of the love of the heavenly life," says S. Gregory, "Solomon well says, Love is strong as death. For as death destroys the body, so the desire of eternal life kills the love of earthly things. For not even that saint whose birth-day we this day celebrate could have died in her body for her Lord unless she had first died in mind to all earthly desires. For her soul being raised up to the height of virtue, despised tortures and contemned every reward. She stood before armed kings and governors, stronger than the striker, higher than the judge. What shall we, rude and enervated as we are, say when we see maidens going to the heavenly kingdom through the sword; we whom anger overcomes, whom pride puffs up, whom ambition disturbs, and luxury pollutes. If we cannot attain that celestial kingdom through the war of persecutions, let this be our shame, that we will not follow God through peace. For to none of us does He say at this day, Die for Me; but only, Kill in thee all forbidden desires. We, then, who will not in peace subdue the desires of the flesh, how shall we be able in war to conquer the flesh itself for the Lord's sake?" Many miracles are said to have been performed at the tomb, and by the relics of S. Agatha. Tillemont says that the most difficult to doubt are those which are related by Maurice bishop of Catania in the twelfth century. The saint is recorded to have appeared twice in visions—once to S. Lucy, and again to S. Digna, a holy virgin of Cordova, to whom she foretold her approaching martyrdom in 853. This is reported by S. Eulogus, who lived at the same time. The feast of S. Agatha is observed on the 5th of February, in all parts of the Catholic Church. Her name occurs in the canon of the Mass of the Latin Church; the first of five virgin saints enumerated in Nobis quoque peccatoribus. Her Acts are at best but of doubtful authority. Her remains were transported to Constantinople in 1040, by the Greek commander who drove the Saracens out of Sicily. They were restored to Catania in 1127. Some martyrologies mention this translation on the 17th of August. About the year 500 Symmachus, Bishop of Rome, built a church in her honour, near that city. It remained till the middle of the eleventh century, and is now in ruins. There is a cemetery called by her name near its site. There was also a church in her honour in Constantinople. 66 Virginity is a life of Angels," says bishop Jeremy Taylor', "the enamel of the soul, the huge advantage of religion, the great opportunity for the retirements of devotion; and being empty of cares, it is full of prayers; being unmingled with the world, it is apt to converse with God; and by not feeling the warmth of a too forward and indulgent nature, flames out with holy fires, till it be burning like the cherubim, and the most ecstasied order of holy and unpolluted spirits. . . And therefore it is more excellent than the married life in that degree in which it hath greater religion, and a greater mortification, a less satisfaction of natural desires, and a greater fulness of the spiritual; and just so is it to expect that little coronet or special reward which God hath prepared, extraordinary and besides the great crown of all faithful souls, for those who follow the Virgin Lamb for ever." This is the doctrine of S. Paul, and after him of all the fathers and saints of the Catholic Church. And in ages past its blessed fruits have been the glorious abbeys and monasteries which covered the face of Christendom, beneath whose mouldering ruins the dust of countless numbers of holy men and women now awaits a joyful resurrection. "Every one," saith the Saviour, "who hath forsaken houses, and brethren, and sisters, and father, and mother, and wife, and children, and lands, for my sake, shall 1 Holy Living, chap. ii. sect. 3. |