Little Lives of the Great Saints

O'Kane Murray Rev. Fr. John

Description

A great Lives of the Saints containing 5 to 30 pages on 33 of the most famous Saints of the Church, from the beginnings thru the 18th c. Covers the Blessed Mother, St. Joseph, St. John the Baptist, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Christopher, St. Cecilia; plus St. Agnes, St. Basil the Great, St. Monica, St. Jerome, St. Patrick, St. Bridget, St. Bernard, St. Elizabeth, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Francis de Sales, St. Alphonsus Liguori, etc. Impr. 495 pgs,

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian theology
• Catholic Church
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: TAN Books
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781505104417
• Langue: English

Extrait

Little Lives of the Great Saints
John O'Kane Murray, M.A., M.D.
Originally published in 1880 by P. J. Kenedy & Sons, New York, New York.
Reprinted in 1977 by Marian Publications, South Bend, Indiana.
Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 82-50593
ISBN: 0-89555-190-X
TAN Books Charlotte, North Carolina www.TANBooks.com
1985
Prayer
Before Reading
C OME, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love.
℣. Send forth Thy spirit and they shall be created.
℟. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
Let Us Pray.
O God, Who didst instruct the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things and ever to rejoice in His consolation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Indulgence of five years. Plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions, if the prayer has been recited daily for a month .
Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, 287 .
THE ANGELIC SALUTATION
__
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, JESUS. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. A MEN
•
Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Pray For Us
PREFACE.

T HIS little volume contains thirty-one Lives arranged in the order of time. It begins with the Most Blessed Virgin, and ends with Saint Alphonsus Liguori. It is a month of Great Saints.
Each Life will be found short enough, I believe, to read at a sitting. Each is complete in itself. It has been my earnest endeavor to make every point as plain and interesting as possible by means of abundant notes—literary, historical, theological, descriptive, and geographical.
We live in a busy, enquiring age. But there is little leisure and less inclination for the perusal of large books. I have kept this fact in mind, and I venture to hope that no reader will feel weary over any portion of the Little Lives .
Biography has become very popular, and justly so. In no field of literature can wisdom and entertainment be gleaned more pleasantly than in reading the lives of truly illustrious men and women. But far above all the other children of Adam are the great Saints of the Catholic Church, in whose bright and virtuous careers we behold redeemed humanity soaring to the pinnacle of immortal glory.
In the preparation of this simple work, I have consulted none but the most approved and trustworthy sources of information. I have used no doubtful material. I am especially indebted to the writings of Ratisbonne, Montalembert, Butler, Baunard, Orsini, Camus, Gueranger, De Ligny, Jocelin, Vaughan, Weninger, Ormsby, Thébaud, Vetromile and many others.
I return my warm thanks to the learned and venerable Father A. J. Thébaud, S. J., of New York, for aid and light on several obscure points; and to the Rev. Father Maurice Ronayne, S. J., of the College of St. Francis Xavier, New York, who has been so kind and courteous as to read the advance sheets, and to give me suggestions and his valuable opinion of the work.
And now if there is one wish I would like to record here it is, that the Little Lives may fall into the hands of many young people, and that the perusal of it may increase their love of virtue, and their faith in the Catholic Church—the Guardian of Truth, and the Mother of the Great Saints.
J OHN O'K ANE M URRAY.
B ROOKLYN, N. Y.
January , 1880
CONTENTS

Preface
Most Blessed Virgin Mary
Saint Joseph
Saint John the Baptist
Saint James the Great
Saint Peter
Saint Paul
Saint John the Evangelist
Saint Cecilia
Saint Christopher
Saint Lawrence
Saint Agnes
Saint Basil the Great
Saint Monica
Saint Jerome
Saint Augustine
Saint Patrick
Saint Bridget
Saint Columbkille
Saint Gregory the Great
Saint Bede
Saint Bernard
Saint Lawrence O'Toole
Saint Elizabeth
Saint Louis
Saint Thomas Aquinas
Saint Catherine of Genoa
Saint Francis Xavier
Saint Teresa
Saint Aloysius Gonzaga
Saint Francis de Sales
Saint Vincent de Paul
Saint Alphonsus Liguori
LITTLE LIVES
OF
THE GREAT SAINTS.

THE MOST BLESSED VIRGIN MARY,
MOTHER OF GOD AND QUEEN OF SAINTS AND ANGELS

"Ave Maria! Thou whose name,
All but adoring love may claim."
"Bright Mother of our Maker, hail!
Thou Virgin ever blest,
The Ocean's Star by which we sail
And gain the port of rest!"
I T brings us back to the dawn of ages. It is the saddest event recounted in history. Tears cluster around the very words. Our first parents fell, and were driven out of the lovely garden of Paradise. 4 True happiness departed for other spheres. Sin came. The beauty of the world was blighted, but the human race was not left hopeless. The serpent, in time, would be crushed; and a woman, it was promised, would repair the evil done by woman. 5
This much we learn in the third chapter of that Sacred Book which goes back to the beginning, and fails not to carry us with mysterious grandeur to the consummation of ages.
But in the meantime long centuries rolled by. The Deluge nearly swept mankind out of existence. Great empires arose, flourished, and decayed. The world was far from becoming better. God was almost forgotten; but at length, unseen, the glorious light of the bright day of promise began to dawn on this sin-dimmed earth.
At Nazareth, 6 a city of Galilee, 7 there lived a good, humble man of the race of David, named Joachim. His wife was Anne. They had walked in the ways of virtue, but heaven had not blessed them with children.
The goodness of Joachim and Anne, however, was not left unrewarded. Twenty years passed away, and on the 8th of September a wonderful child was sent to cheer their old age. The promised Virgin, who was to repair the primitive fault, was born; and she came into the world clothed with inexpressible purity and beauty. On the ninth day, according to custom, the Babe Immaculate 8 received the name of M ARY . 9
"And assuredly," says St. Bernard, "the Mother of God could not have a name more appropriate, or more expressive of her high dignity. Mary is in fact, that fair and luminous star which shines over the vast and stormy sea of this world."
"Mary, sweet name revered above, And oh, how dear below! In it are hope and holy love, And blessings from it flow!"
The child's understanding, like the day in some favored regions, had scarcely a dawn. It shone out clearly from her earliest years. Her precocious virtue and the wisdom of her words, at a period of life when other children still enjoy but a purely physical existence, made the parents judge that the time of separation was come; and when Joachim had offered to the Lord, for the third time since the birth of his daughter, the first-fruits of his small inheritance, the husband and wife, grateful and resigned, set out for Jerusalem, in order to deposit within the sacred precincts of the Temple the treasure which they had received from the Holy One of Israel.
The ancient capital of Judea 10 was soon reached, and for the first time Mary passed through its ponderous gates and beheld its frowning battlements. The pious parents presented their child in the great Temple 11 of the Lord of Hosts. She was received by the priest with the usual ceremonies, and then placed among the consecrated virgins, who occupied a portion of the sacred edifice set apart especially for themselves. 12
Mary spent the best years of her young life in the Temple. It was the precious time of preparation. The future Virgin-Mother was well educated, but in those days domestic duties were wisely looked upon as important branches of education. She arose daily with the lark, thought of the holy presence of God, and dressed herself with the greatest modesty.
"Her toilet," writes the Abbé Orsini, "was extremely simple, and occupied but little time. She wore neither bracelets of pearl, nor chains of gold inlaid with silver, nor purple tunics, such as were worn by the daughters of the princes of her race. A robe of celestial blue, a white tunic, confined at the waist by a cincture with flowing ends, a long veil, simply but gracefully arranged so as completely to cover the face when necessary—these, with a kind of shoe corresponding to the robe, composed the oriental costume of Mary."
Each day had its hours for the exercises of religion. The voice of prayer and the hymn of praise were wafted aloft from the pure lips of the young Virgin.
We are told that Mary was somewhat above the middle stature. Her lovely face was the mirror of her most pure and beautiful soul, and her person was physical perfection itself. She was the most exquisite work of nature. St. Denis the Areopagite, who saw the Blessed Virgin, assures us that she was of dazzling beauty. 13
She excelled in embroidery and all the accomplishments of her time. She had a perfect understanding of Holy Scripture. But of her physical, mental, and moral gifts this heavenly Girl made no parade. She spoke little, and always to the purpose. Virtue and good sense regulated her thoughts, words, and actions.
Thus Mary passed silently along the way of life like some fair star gliding through the silver-lined clouds. Thanks to her Immaculate Conception, she possessed a sweet and natural inclination to virtue; and her shining deeds were like the wreath of snow which silently falls on the mountain-top, adding purity to purity and whiteness to whiteness, till it rears itself into a shining cone which attracts the rays of the sun and dazzles the eye of man.
The Blessed Mary had spent nine years in the retirement of the Temple, when the first dark cloud obscured her young life. Joachim, her beloved father, fell dangerously ill; and she came home just in time to pray at his bedside and to receive his last blessing. 14 But still another affliction was at hand. A short time after, St. Anne blessed her dear daughter and died in peace. Mary was now an orphan, but she bore her sorrow in silence and patience.
It is the opinio