the water, and they were finally beheaded ten miles out of the city on the Aurelian Way. Their bodies were buried by a matron named Plautilla, on her estate, and were afterwards translated into Rome, where they now repose in the Basilica of Constantine near the baptistery.

postea in Urbem translata, in Basilica Constantiniana prope Baptisterium condita

sunt.

"Praise the Lord, ye children, praise the Name of "the Lord: who maketh the barren woman to dwell "in a house, the joyful mother of children." Such is the opening chant of this morning's Mass. But say, O blessed ones! was your admirable mother barren who gave seven martyrs to the earth? Fecundity according to this world counts for nothing before God; this is not the fruitfulness intended by that blessing which fell from the lips of the Lord when in the beginning he made man to his own image. "Increase and multiply" was spoken to a holy one, a son of God, bidding him propagate a divine offspring. As the first creation, so was all future birth. to be man, in communicating his own existence to others, was to transmit to them at the same time the life of their Father in heaven; the natural and the supernatural life were to be as inseparable as a building and its foundation; nature without grace would be but a frame without a picture. All too soon did sin destroy the harmony of the divine plan; nature violently separated from grace could produce only sons of wrath. Yet God was too rich in mercy to abandon the design of his immense love; and having in the first instance created us to be his children, he would now re-create us as such in his Word made Flesh. Reduced to a shadow of what it would have been, the union of Adam and Eve, unable to give birth straightway to sons of God, was

dismantled of that glory beside which the sublime privileges of the Angels would have paled: nevertheless it was still the figure of the great mystery of Christ and the Church. Sterile according to God and doomed to the death she had brought upon her race, it was only by participation in the merits of the second Eve, that the first could be called the mother of the living. Great honour indeed was still to be hers, and she would be able in part to repair her fall, but on condition of yielding to the rights of the Bride of the second Adam. Far better than Pharao's daughter rescuing Moses and confiding him to Jochabed, could the Church say to every mother on receiving her babe from the waters: "Take "this child and nurse him for me." And every Christian mother, anxious to correspond to the Church's trust in her and proud of being able to realize God's primitive intentions, might well repeat with regard to this second child-birth, those words uttered by a superhuman love: My little children, of whom I am in labour again, until Christ be formed in you. Shame upon her that would forget the sublime destiny of her child to be a son of God! A far less crime would it be, were she, through negligence or by design, to stifle in him by an education exclusively directed to the senses, that intelligence which distinguishes man from the animals subjected to his power. For the attainment of man's true end, the supernatural life is more necessary than the life of reason; for a mother to make no account of it, and to suffer the divine germ to perish after being planted in the infant's soul at its new birth from the sacred font, would be to do unto death the frail being that owed its existence to her.

1 Gal, iv. 19.

Far otherwise, O martyrs, did your illustrious mother understand her mission! Hence, though her memory is honoured on the day when four months after you she quitted this earth, yet this present feast is the chief monument of her glory. She, more than yourselves, is celebrated in the readings and chants of the Holy Sacrifice and in the lessons of the Night Office. And why is this? Because, says St. Gregory, being already the handmaid of Christ by faith, she has to-day become His mother, according to our Lord's own word, by giving him a new birth in each of her seven sons. After having made such a complete holocaust of you to your heavenly Father, what will her own martyrdom be, but the long-desired close of her widowhood, the happy hour which will reunite her in glory to you who are doubly her sons? Henceforward, then, on this day which was to her the day of suffering, but not of reward; when after passing seven times over through tortures and death, she had yet to remain in banishment, it is but just that her children should rise and make over to her, as of right, the honours of the triumph. Henceforth, though still an exile, she is clothed with purple, dyed not twice, but seven times; the richest daughters of Eve own that she has surpassed them all in the fruitfulness of martyrdom; her own works praise her in the assembly of the saints. On this day, O sons and mother, and ye two noble sisters who share in their glory, listen to our prayers, protect the Church, and make the whole world heedful of the teaching conveyed by your beautiful example!

JULY 11.

SAINT PIUS I.,

POPE AND MARTYR.

A HOLY Pope of the second century, the first of the nine hitherto graced with the name of Pius, rejoices us to-day with his mild and gentle light. Although Christian society was in a precarious condition under the edicts of persecution, which even the best of the pagan emperors never abrogated, our Saint profited by the comparative peace enjoyed by the Church under Antoninus Pius, to strengthen the foundations of the mysterious tower raised by the divine Shepherd to the honour of the Lord God. He ordained by his supreme authority that, notwithstanding the contrary custom observed in certain places, the feast of Easter should be celebrated on a Sunday throughout the entire Church. The importance of this measure and its effects upon the whole Church will be brought before us on the feast of St. Victor, who succeeded Pius at the close of the century.

2

The ancient legend of St. Pius I., which has lately been altered, made mention of the decree, attributed in the Corpus juris to our Pontiff, concerning those who should carelessly let fall any portion of the Precious Blood of our Lord. The prescriptions are

2

1 HERMON. Pastor. Cap. Si per negligentiam, 27, Dist. II de Consecratione.