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Certamina tua angelorum exercitus admiratur, princeps militiæ; et rex angelorum admiratione perculsus, tuam concupivit pulchritudinem, martyr; ideo dignatus est te regno suo in æternum consociare.

Dominum tuum imitatus, martyr, libens et sponte tua ad certamina temetipsum tradidisti; et victoriam reportans, Ecclesiæ Christi custos effici meruisti; illam semper defensione tua et protectione custodiens.

Ut martyr invictus, ut præmia ferens, ut insuperabilis fidei propugnator, nunc esto turris inconcussa pro celebrantibus te, sapiens Georgi, illos undique tuis supplicationibus protegens.

Corona radiante redimitus, et regio diademate et sceptro decoratus, et veste purpurea tuo sanguine rubicunda indutus, beate martyr, nunc in cœlis regnas cum rege angelicarum virtutum.

Venite omnes, festive splendidam, gloriosam resurrectionem Domini hymnis celebrantes; iterum etiam splendidam festive celebremus memoriam Georgii martyris; et illum vernis coronemus floribus, ut invictum athletam; ut ejus precibus tribulationum simul et peccatorum liberationem accipere mereamur.

The angelic host is in admiration at thy combat, O thou Prince of Warriors! The very King of Angels, struck with admiration, desired thy beauty, O martyr !-therefore did he deign to make thee his companion for ever in his kingdom.

Imitating thy Lord, O Martyr, thou cheerfully and willingly deliveredst thyself up to the battle. Thou didst gain the victory, and didst merit to become the guardian of the Church of Christ, which thou unceasingly defendest and protectest.

As the invincible Martyr,as the prize-bearing victor,-as the unconquerable defender of the faith,-be now an impregnable tower to them that celebrate thy praise, O wise George! and protect them from all dangers by thy intercession.

brilliant

Decked with a crown, beautified with a royal diadem and sceptre, and clad in a purple robe reddened with thy blood, thou, O happy Martyr, now reignest in heaven with the King of the angelic hosts.

Come, all ye people, let us celebrate in festive song the bright and glorious Resurrection of the Lord; let us also festively celebrate the bright memory of George the Martyr: let us crown him, as the invincible soldier, with the flowers of Spring; that by his prayers, we may deserve to be freed from tribulation and sin.

Spring is come; let us exult with joy the Resurrection of Christ hath shone upon us; let us rejoice in gladness: the Feast of the prize-bearing Martyr George hath appeared, gladdening the Faithful with its brightness; come, then, let us, who love his Feast, celebrate it with our spiritual canticles. For, like a brave Soldier, George stood with manly courage before the tyrants, and covered them with confusion, being an imitator of the Passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ. He had no pity on the clayey vessel of his body, but wholly transformed it by delivering it to torments, as brass is melted by fire. Thus, then, let us cry out unto him: Oprize-bearing Martyr! beseech God that he save our souls.

Ver advenit nobis, gaudio exsultemus; resurrectio Christi illuxit nobis, lætabundi gaudeamus; memoria martyris Georgii præmia ferentis, fideles suo splendore lætificans apparuit; ideo omnes festivitatis amantes, venite, illam mysticis celebremus canticis. Ipse enim Georgius, velut fortis miles, contra tyrannos virilem ostendit fortitudinem; et illos confusione perfudit, imitator factus passionis Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi. Pro vase corporis lutoso non est misericordia commotus; sed illud in tormentis velut æneum fundens, penitus transformavit. Illi ergo clamemus : Martyr præmia ferens, Deum deprecare ut salvet animas nostras.

Thou, O George, art the glorious type of a Christian Soldier. Whilst serving under an earthly Monarch, thou didst not forget thy duty to the King of heaven. Thou didst shed thy blood for the faith of Christ; and he, in return, appointed thee Protector of Christian Armies. Be their defender in battle, and bless with victory them that fight in a just cause. Protect them under the shadow of thy standard; cover them with thy shield; make them the terror of their enemies. Our Lord is the God of Hosts; and he frequently uses War as the instrument of his designs, both of justice and mercy. They alone win true victory, who have heaven on their side; and these, when on the battle-field, seem to the world to be doing the work of man, whereas it is the work of God they are furthering. Hence are they more gene

rous, because more religious, than other men. The sacrifices they have to make, and the dangers they have to face, teach them unselfishness. What wonder, then, that Soldiers have given so many Martyrs to the Church!

But there is another warfare, in which we Christians are all enlisted, and of which St. Paul speaks, when he says: Labour as a good Soldier of Christ; for no man is crowned save he that striveth lawfully. That we have thus to strive and fight during our life, the same Apostle assures us of it in these words: Take unto you the Armour of God, that ye may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the Breastplate of justice, and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. In all things taking the Shield of Faith, wherewith ye may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the Helmet of the hope of salvation, and the Sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. We, then, are Soldiers, as thou wast, O holy Martyr! Before ascending into heaven, our divine Leader wishes to review his troops; do thou present us to him. He has loaded us with honours, notwithstanding our past disloyalties; we must, henceforth, prove ourselves worthy of our position. In the Paschal Communion which we have received, we have a pledge of victory; how can we ever be so base, as to permit ourselves to be conquered? Watch over us, O sainted Warrior! Let thy prayers and example encourage us to fight against the dragon of hell. He dreads the Armour we wear; for it is Jesus himself that prepared it for us, and tempered it in his own precious Blood: oh! that, like thee, we may present it to him whole and entire, when he calls us to our eternal rest.

1 II. Tim. ii. 5.

2 Eph. vi. 13, 17.

There was a time, when the whole Christian world loved and honoured thy memory with enthusiastic joy but now, alas ! this devotion has grown cold, and thy Feast passes by unnoticed by thousands. O holy Martyr! avenge this ingratitude, by imitating thy divine King, who maketh his sun to rise upon both good and bad;-take pity on this world, perverted as it is by false doctrines, and tormented at this very time by the most terrible scourges. Have compassion on thy dear England, which has been seduced by the Dragon of hell, and by him made the instrument for effecting his plots against the Lord and his Christ. Take up thy Spear, as of old; give the Monster battle, and emancipate the Isle of Saints from his slavish yoke. Heaven and earth join in this great prayer;-in the name of our Risen Jesus, aid thine own, and once devoted people, to a glorious resurrection!

APRIL 24.

SAINT FIDELIS OF SIGMARINGEN,

MARTYR.

OUR Risen Lord would have around him a bright phalanx of Martyrs. Its privileged members belong to the different centuries of the Church's existence. Its ranks open to-day to give welcome to a brave combatant, who won his palm, not in a contest with paganism, as those did whose feasts we have thus far kept, but in defending his mother, the Church, against her own rebellious children. They were heretics that slew this day's Martyr, and the century that was honoured with his triumph was the seventeenth.

Fidelis was worthy of his beautiful name. Neither difficulty nor menace could make him fail in his duty. During his whole life, he had but the glory and service of his divine Lord in view: and when the time came for him to face the fatal danger, he did so, calmly but fearlessly, as behoved a disciple of that Jesus who went forth to meet his enemies. Honour, then, be to-day to the brave son of St. Francis! truly is he worthy of his seraphic Patriarch, who confronted the Saracens, and was a Martyr in desire!

Protestantism was established and rooted by the shedding of torrents of blood; and yet Protestants count it as a great crime, that, here and there, the children of the true Church made an armed resistance against them. The heresy of the 16th century was the cruel and untiring persecutor of men, whose only crime was their adhesion to the old Faith,—the Faith

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