ed not the truth of the holy birth of the Blessed Virgin. And any one who did believe it would answer him by saying, that with God all things are possible. But indeed the whole letter is directed as much against the institution of a new feast in honour of the Immaculate Conception, as against the belief itself. His objections chiefly rest on the silence of the highest ecclesiastical authority regarding it. But even since the Latin Church appointed a festival in its honour, which was not till after S. Bernard's time, the services in which it is annually celebrated have not defined the opinion which the faithful must necessarily hold regarding it. Thus the collect in the office of this day in the modern Parisian Breviary is framed in a general way: "O God, who for the honour of our Lord Jesus Christ didst preserve His Blessed Mother the Virgin Mary from every stain of sin, grant we beseech Thee, that we, honouring her most pure conception, may by Thy grace be made clean from all sin, through the same." And the collects in the Roman and Sarum offices are still more general. Churchmen who may feel it strange to hear so much made of the Blessed Mary and her history, will do well to remember, that if a mysterious virtue could go out of the very hem of the Lord's robe, and so purifying as to heal the infirmity of her who drew near to Him in faith, how much more mysterious an influence may have passed upon her of whose substance He condescended to be made man, inasmuch as she was permitted to approach nearer to His Divinity than any other creature. And in what deep love and humility she received Him let her words to the angel at the Annunciation, and the deeds of her life, testify. All the honour that we can pay to her can add nothing to the dignity of the title of reverence by which the whole Church salutes her,Mother of God. And all redounds to the glory and exaltation of her Divine Son. If she was preserved from all stain of sin, it was no less by an act of His grace, than if she had been cleansed from it as Christians ordinarily are. As a daughter of Eve she was by nature inclined to sin, if His good Spirit had not made her perfectly holy, and preserved her so1. And is it unreasonable to believe that she was indeed so miraculously kept from the stain of sin, when we reflect how carefully, if I may so say, God provided for the building of His temple at Jerusalem; how jealous He was lest any thing impure should come near it; and how He refused even the holy David, "the man after His own heart," when he would have assisted, because he was stained with the blood shed in just wars? And when it was built, what purifications and consecrating ceremonies did He command, in honour of the place where His glory should appear. But if I may reverently compare with that temple of stone the more precious temple of the Lord's body, where His Divinity is eternally enshrined, how much greater purity may He have required in her who was admitted to be the only fellow-worker with Himself. And not finding that purity in her naturally, may He not have bestowed it upon her by doing that for her which He does not for any other, because none other has been admitted to the same nearness to Himself? And those who cannot receive the higher mystery 1 See Wordsworth's Eccl. Sonnets, part ii. xxi. which this day commemorates, may yet in the feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin, celebrate the joyful dawning of the bright day of mercy, which had its full consummation in the life of her Divine Son. A bishop of Nicomedia, writing in the seventh century, mentions this feast as of ancient date in the Eastern Church; but its observance was not enforced in it till the middle of the twelfth century. It seems not to have become universal in the Western Church till the fifteenth century. It is supposed by some to have been introduced into Britain by S. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, about the year 1150; but this is very doubtful. It was observed in England in ancient days with singular devotion. And its place in the modern kalendar is a proof that it must have retained a strong hold on the pious affections of the English; for among the many festivals which were finally abolished in the seventeenth century, some of which are of less doubtful origin, it is remarkable that neither the feast of the Conception nor of the Nativity of the Blessed Mary was included. They both stand in the kalendar at this day, silent witnesses against the cold indifference of modern churchmen to the honour of one whom God was graciously pleased to honour. "How worthily is she honoured of men," says bishop Hall, "whom the angel proclaimed beloved of God! O Blessed Mary! he cannot bless thee, he cannot honour thee too much, that deifies thee not. That which the angel said of thee thou hast prophesied of thyself; we believe the angel and thee. All generations shall call thee Blessed, by the Fruit of whose womb all generations are blessed." As the sun o'er misty shrouds, DECEMBER 13. S. Lucy, Virgin and Martyr. 304. Her S. Lucy was the daughter of a noble and wealthy family in Syracuse, in the island of Sicily. father died during her infancy; and she was brought up in the faith of Christ by her mother, Eutychia. While she was still very young, S. Lucy, without the knowledge of her mother, dedicated herself to Christ by a vow of perpetual celibacy. Accordingly, when she was asked in marriage by a noble pagan youth of Syracuse, Eutychia seems to have used her influence with her daughter in his favour; though this must be considered strange conduct in a Christian mother. S. Lucy succeeded in evading his suit for a time, without revealing her private vow. Her mother soon after was afflicted with a grievous malady, and was persuaded by her daughter to visit Catana, where the remains of the virgin martyr S. Agatha were buried. They offered up their prayers at her tomb; and God was pleased to grant them a gracious answer by restoring Eutychia to health. S. Lucy then told her mother of the vow she had taken, who, out of gratitude to God for his mercy to herself, did not oppose her daughter's pious resolution. On their return home to Syracuse, the holy virgin sold her jewels and goods for the use of the poor, and began openly to profess her solemn dedication to Christ. When the young nobleman who had asked her in marriage heard this, his love was changed into hatred, and he immediately accused her, before the governor Paschasius, of being a Christian. The persecution under Dioclesian and Maximin was then raging with great fury. When S. Lucy was called before the tribunal of the governor, she was exhorted and entreated to deny Christ; and when all arguments had failed, was condemned to be exposed to public infamy; but God in a marvellous way interfered for her protection. Paschasius was furious at being thus foiled by a weak woman, and gave orders that she should be tortured by fire. But while her body was torn with red-hot pincers, the soul of the martyr still maintained her invincible constancy; and the strength of her Lord triumphed in her weakness. She was remanded to prison, where she soon after yielded up her spirit, about the year 304. Her body remained at Syracuse for many years; and was afterwards carried to Italy, and thence to Metz, by command of the Emperor, Otho I. It is there exposed to veneration in the church of S. Vincent. Some of her relics were carried to Constantinople, and afterwards to Venice. She is sometimes represented with her |