January XIII

St. Veronica, of Milan

From her life, in Bollandus, t. 1, p. 890.

A. D. 1497.

All states furnish abundant means for attaining to sanctity and Christian perfection, and it is only owing to our sloth and tepidity that we neglect to make use of them. This saint could boast of no worldly advantages either by birth or fortune.* Her parents maintained their family by hard labor in a village near Milan, and were both very pious: her father never sold a horse, or any thing else he dealt in, without being more careful to acquaint the purchaser with all that was secretly faulty in it, than to recommend its good qualities. His narrow circumstances prevented his giving his daughter any schooling, so that she never learned to read; but his own, and his devout wife’s example, and fervent though simple instructions, filled her tender heart from the cradle with lively sentiments of virtue. The pious maid from her infancy applied herself to continual prayer, was very attentive to the instructions given in the catechism; and the uninterrupted consideration of the holy mysteries, and the important truths of religion, engrossed her whole soul to themselves. She was, notwithstanding, of all others, the most diligent and indefatigable in labor; and so obedient to her parents and masters, even in the smallest trifles, so humble and submissive to her equals, that she seemed to have no will of her own. Her food was coarse and very sparing, and her drink the same which the poorer sort of people used in that country, water, except sometimes whey, or a little milk. At her work she continually conversed in her heart with God; insomuch that in company she seemed deaf to their discourses, mirth, and music. When she was weeding, reaping, or at any other labor in the fields, she strove to work at a distance from her companions, to entertain herself the more freely with her heavenly spouse. The rest admired her love of solitude, and on coming to her, always found her countenance cheerful, yet often bathed in tears, which they sometimes perceived to flow in great abundance; though they did not know the source to be devotion: so carefully did Veronica conceal what passed in her soul between her and God.

Through a divine call to a religions and conventual state of life, she conceived a great desire to become a nun, in the poor, austere, and edifying convent of St. Martha, of the order of St. Austin in Milan. To qualify herself for this state, being busied the whole day at work, she sat up at night to learn to read and write, which the want of an instructor made a great fatigue to her. One day being in great anxiety about her learning, the Mother of God, to whom she had always recommended herself, in a comfortable vision bade her banish that anxiety; for it was enough if she knew three letters: The first, purity of the affections, by placing her whole heart on God alone, loving no creature but in him and for him; the second, never to murmur, or be impatient at the sins, or any behavior of others, but to bear them with interior peace and patience, and humbly to pray for them; the third, to set apart some time every day to meditate on the passion of Christ. After three years’ preparation, she was admitted to the religious habit in St. Martha’s. Her life was entirely uniform, perfect, and fervent in every action, no other than a living copy of her rule, which consisted in the practice of evangelical perfection reduced to certain holy exercises. Every moment of her life she studied to accomplish it to the least tittle, and was no less exact in obeying the order or direction of any superior’s will. When she could not obtain leave to watch in the church so long as she desired, by readily complying, she deserved to hear from Christ, that obedience was a sacrifice the most dear to him, who, to obey his Father’s will, came down from heaven, becoming obedient even unto death.¹

She lay three years under a lingering illness, all which time she would never be exempted from any duty of the house, or part of her work, or make use of the least indulgence, though she had leave; her answer always was, “I must work while I can, while I have time.” It was her delight to help and serve every one. She always sought with admirable humility the last place, and the greatest drudgery. It was her desire to live always on bread and water. Her silence was a sign of her recollection and continual prayer, in which her gift of abundant and almost continual tears was most wonderful. She nourished them by constant meditation on her own miseries, on the love of God, the joys of heaven, and the sacred passion of Christ. She always spoke of her own sinful life, as she called it, though it was most innocent, with the most feeling sentiments of compunction She was favored by God with many extraordinary visits and comforts. By moving exhortations to virtue, she softened and converted several obdurate sinners. She died at the hour which she had foretold, in the year 1497, and the fifty-second of her age. Her sanctity was confirmed by miracles. Pope Leo X., by a bull in 1517, permitted her to be honored in her monastery in the same manner as if she had been beatified according to the usual form. The bull may be seen in Bollandus.² Her name is inserted on this day in the Roman Martyrology, published by Benedict XIV., in the year 1719; but on the 28th of this month, in that of the Austin friars, approved by the same pope.

Christian perfection consists very much in the performance of our ordinary actions, and the particular duties of our respective stations. God, as the good father and great master of the family of the world, allots to every one his proper place and office in it; and it is in this variety of states by which it subsists; and in their mutual dependence upon each other, that its good order and beauty consist. It is the most holy and wise appointment of providence and the order of nature, that the different stations in the world be filled. Kings and subjects, rich and poor, reciprocally depend upon each other; and it is the command of God that every one perform well the part which is assigned him. It is, then, by the constant attendance on all the duties of his state, that a person is to be sanctified. By this all his ordinary actions will be agreeable sacrifices to God, and his whole life a continued chain of good works. It is not only in great actions, or by fits and starts, but in all that we do, and in every moment, that we are bound to live to God. The regulation of this point is of essential importance in a virtuous life, that every action may be performed with regularity, exactitude in all its circumstances, and the utmost fervor, and by the most pure motive, referred solely to divine honor, in union with the most holy actions and infinite merits of Christ. Hence St. Hilary says,³ “When the just man performs all his actions, with a pure and simple view to the divine honor and glory, as the apostle admonishes us,⁴ his whole life becomes an uninterrupted prayer; and as he passes his days and nights in the accomplishment of the divine will, it is true to say, that the whole course of a holy life is a constant meditation on the law of God.” Nevertheless this axiom, that the best devotion is the constant practice of a person’s ordinary duties, is abused by some, to excuse a life of dissipation. Every one is bound to live to himself in the first place, and to reserve leisure for frequent exercises of devotion; and it is only by a spirit of perfect self-denial, humility, compunction, and prayer, and by an assiduous attention of the soul to God, that our exterior ordinary actions will be animated by the motives of divine faith and charity, and the spirit of true piety nourished in our breasts; in this consists the secret of a Christian life in all states.

St. Kentigern, Bishop of Glasco, C.

in ancient british, kyndeyrn; surnamed mungho, or munghl.

This eminent saint of the ancient church of North Britain, was of royal blood among the Picts, or original inhabitants of that country, and born about the year 516. He was placed very young under the discipline of St. Servanus, bishop and abbot of Culros, a monastery, situated upon the frith which divides Lothian from Fife. By this holy prelate he was trained up in the perfect spirit of Christian meekness and piety. For his innocence and great virtues he was beloved by his master, and all who were acquainted with that religious family, above all his fellow-disciples, for which reason he was called Munghu, or Mungho, which in the language of that country signified “one dearly beloved;” and this is the name which the Scots usually give him to this day. When he was grown up, by the direction of St. Servanus, he retired to a place called Glasghu, where he led a solitary life in great abstinence, till the clergy and people earnestly demanded him for their bishop. He was consecrated by an Irish bishop, invited over for that purpose, and fixed his see at Glasghu, or Glasco, where he assembled a numerous company of religious brethren, who formed their rule of life upon the model of the primitive Christians at Jerusalem. The saint’s diocess was of vast extent, reaching from sea to sea, and being wild and uncultivated, afforded continual exercise for his zeal and patience; he travelled always on foot, sparing no pains to spread the light of the gospel among the unbelievers, of whom he converted and baptized great numbers. The Pelagian heresy having taken deep root among the Christians in those parts, he so vigorously opposed that fatal, growing evil, as entirely to banish that hydra out of the church of the Picts. Besides the recital of the whole Psalter, he performed every day several other exercises of devotion; lived in a constant union of his soul with God, and by perpetual abstinence, rigorous fasts, and other extraordinary austerities, he made his whole life an uninterrupted course of penance. Every Lent he retired from the sight and conversation of men, into some desert, to hold a close communication with God in solitude. As both in his virtues and labors he imitated the apostles, so God was pleased to authorize his preaching, by conferring on him an apostolic grace of the miraculous powers. Out of his monks and disciples, he sent many missionaries to preach the faith in the north of Scotland, in the isles of Orkney, in Norway, and Iceland.

The form of government among the Straith-Cluid Britons and the Cumbrians, the latter inhabiting the country from the Picts’ wall, to the Ribble in Lancashire, was in part aristocratical; for many petty lords or princes enjoyed so great authority in their respective territories, as often to wage war among themselves: yet they all obeyed one monarch, who usually resided at Alcluyd, or Dunbritton. Besides the feuds and quarrels of particular chieftains and their clans, there happened about that time several revolutions in the monarchy. We learn from the book entitled the Triades, that when St. Kentigern was made bishop of Glasco, Gurthmel Wledig was king of the North Britons, and contemporary with Arthur. He was succeeded by Rydderch, surnamed Hael, i. e. The Liberal, who vanquished his enemies and rivals in war, especially by the great victory of Arderyth, in 577.¹ He was a religious and deserving prince, and his magnificence, generosity, and other virtues, are extolled by the ancient author of the Triades, by Merlin, Taliessin, the old laws of the Britons, and the authors of the lives of St. Kentigern and St. Asaph. This prince, however, was afterwards obliged by rebellious subjects, under Morcant Mawr, and Aeddon, surnamed Uraydog, or The Treacherous, to fly into Ireland. The impious Morcant (as he is styled in the fragment of St. Asaph’s life, extant in Coch-Asaph) usurped the throne of the Straith-Cluid Britons; but the Cumbrians, who dwelt on the south side of the wall, were protected by Urien, lord of Rheged, a nobleman who had lived at the court of king Arthur, and whose great qualities are celebrated by the pens of Lhowarch-Hen, (his cousin-german,) Taliessin, and the author of the Triades. In the beginning of the usurpation of Morcant Mawr, St. Kentigern was obliged to fly into Wales, where he stayed some time with St. David, at Menevia till Cathwallain, (uncle to king Maelgun Gwynedh,*) a religious prince of par of Denbighshire, bestowed on him the land at the meeting of the rivers Elwy and Cluid, on which he built a famous monastery and school, called from the river Elwy, Llan-Elwy, or absolutely Elgwy, where a great number of disciples and scholars soon put themselves under his direction. St. Kentigern was here when St. David died, in 546, or rather in 544, when the first of March fell on a Tuesday.² After the death of the usurper Morcant, Rydderch returned from Ireland, and recovered his crown, and St. Kentigern, leaving his school to the care of St. Asaph, (whose name the town, which was raised at Elgwy, bears to this day,) went back to Glasco, taking with him several hundreds of his scholars; their number having probably been much increased after the death of Daniel, bishop of Bangor, which happened between the years 542 and 545. The return of St. Kentigern to his see, is generally placed about the year 560, nor can it be placed later, since in 565 he had a conference with St. Columbo, when that holy man came over to Scotland, in order to convert the northern Picts, to whom St. Kentigern had already sent missionaries.³ Wharton therefore justly places the residence of St. Kentigern in Wales, from the year 543 to 560.⁴ King Rydderch powerfully seconded the zeal of our saint in all his undertakings, being his constant friend and protector; as were the two princes who afterward succeeded him, Guallauc, (who seems to have been his son,) and Morcant Mwynfawn, (who was certainly his brother.) The valor of Rydderch, and these two successors, which is highly commended by an ancient author in Nennius, and other British historians, was the bulwark of their dominions against the inroads of the Saxons. St. Kentigern employed his zeal all this time, with wonderful success, in correcting abuses, reforming the manners of his flock, and propagating the faith; was favored with a wonderful gift of miracles, and died in 601, aged eighty-five years. His tomb, in his titular church at Glasco, was famous for miracles, and his name was always most illustrious in the Scottish calendars. See his ancient life, Leland de scriptor. Usher, Ant. c. 15. Hector Boetius, Leslie, &c.

This is also the Octave of the Epiphany.^† The principal object of the devotion of the church on this day is the baptism of our Saviour by St. John in the Jordan. We learn from the great council of Oxford, in 1222,⁵ that it was then kept a holyday of the third class; on which all were obliged to hear mass, though they might work afterwards. In France and Germany all servile work was forbidden on it, by the capitulars of Lewis le Débonnaire.⁶ The emperor Theodosius II. forbids all civil courts and transactions during eight days before the festival of the Epiphany, and as many after it.

* The print of the holy face of our Saviour on a linen cloth, is kept in Saint Peter’s church at Rome with singular veneration. It is mentioned in an ancient ceremonial of that church, dedicated to Celestin II. In 1143, published by Mabillon, (Museum Ital. t. 2, p. 122;) also in Matthew of Westminster, Flores Hist. under Innocent III, who died in 1216; and in a Bull of Nicholas IV. in 1290. It was called Veronica, or true image of our Lord’s face, from Vera and Iconica, a word used by St. Gregory of Tours, (Vit. Patr. c. 12.) for an image, from the Greek word Icon. Some moderns Imagine that it served at the burial of our Lord; others say, that a devout woman wiped his face with it, when he was fainting under the load of his cross, going to mount Calvary. In some particular missals, as in that of Mentz in 1493, among the votive masses, is one “de Sancta Veronica seu vultu Domini,” in the same manner as there is a mass, “On the cross.” Such devotions are directed to honor our Lord, with a remembrance of this relic, memorial, or pledge. From this office of the Veronica is taken an Anthem and Prayer which are said in some private churches, as a commemoration of the holy face of Lucca, which is a very ancient and miraculous crucifix, in the chapel of the Holy Cross, in the cathedral dedicated to St. Martin at Lucca. A copy of the true Veronica is kept in the Cistercian nunnery at Montreuil, a present of Urban IV. to this house, his sister being a nun there. See his letter to them in Chifflet, “de Linteis sepulchralibus Domini.” This letter was dated in 1249, when the author was archdeacon and chaplain to Innocent IV. Some private writers and churches have given the name of St. Veronica to the devout woman, who is said to have presented this linen cloth to our divine Redeemer; but without sufficient warrant. See Papebroch Maij, t. 7. p. 356, n. 126, and Chatelain, Notes on the Martyr. on Jan. 13. pp. 201, 222.

¹ Phil. 2:8.

² T. 1, p. 889.

³ S. Hilar in Ps. 1. p. 20.

⁴ 1 Cor. 10:31.

¹ Vaughan’s Dissert, on the British Chron. Carte, t. l. p. 211.

* See Notes on St. Gildas and St. David.

² Usher, Ant. Brit. c. 14.

³ Vit. S. Kentigerni. Usher, Antiqu. c. 15, p. 358.

⁴ Wharton de Episcopis Asaphensibus, pp. 300, 302.

^† The church prolongs more solemn festivals during eight days, with a daily continuation of the sacred office proper to each such festival. This term is called its octave, and the eighth day is called the octave-day.

⁵ Can. 8.

⁶ L. 2, de feriis.

 Butler, A., The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints (New York 1903) I, 135-139.