October II

The Feast of The Holy Angel-guardians

Amongst the adorable dispensations of the divine mercy in favor of men, it is not the least, that he has been pleased to establish a communion of spiritual commerce between us on earth and his holy angels, whose companions we hope one day to be in the kingdom of his glory. This communion is entertained on our side by the religious veneration with which we honor them as God’s faithful, holy, and glorious ministering spirits, and beg their charitable succor and intercession with God; on their side by their solitude and prayers for us, and the many good offices they do us. The providence of God, always infinitely wise, infinitely holy, and infinitely gracious, vouchsafes to employ superior created beings in the execution of his will in various dispensations towards other inferior creatures. According to St. Thomas, when he created the angels, he enlightened the lowest amongst them by those that are supreme in those glorious orders of spirits. It is clear, in the holy scriptures, that those blessed spirits which we call angels (as much as to say God’s messengers) receive this very name from their office, in being employed by him in frequently executing his commissions in our favor and defence. That he does this on many occasions, both general and particular, has been abundantly shown elsewhere from the testimony of the holy scriptures.¹ One of the most merciful appointments of God relating to this economy established by him between the blessed angels and men, is, that he commissions chosen high spirits to be particular guardians to each of us. In this providence are displayed the infinite majesty, wisdom, and power of God, and the excess of his goodness towards his creatures; also a deep foundation is laid of the greatest charity and the highest mutual joy in each other between the angels and the elect for all eternity in their happy society of heaven.

That particular angels are appointed and commanded by God to guard and watch over each particular person among his servants, that is, all the just, or such as are in the state of grace, is an article of the Catholic faith, of which no ecclesiastical writer within the pale of the church, in any age, ever entertained the least doubt. That every man, even among sinners and infidels, has a guardian angel, is the doctrine of the most eminent among the fathers, and so strongly supported by the most sacred authority, that is seems not to be called in question, especially as to all the faithful. The psalmist assures us,² He hath given his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. And in another place,³ The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear him, and he shall deliver them. The patriarch Jacob prayed his good angel to bless his two grandsons, Ephraim and Manasses;⁴ The angel that delivereth me from all evils bless these boys. Judith said,⁵ His angel hath been my keeper, both going hence, and abiding there, and returning from thence. Christ deters us from scandalizing any of his little ones, because their angels always behold the face of God, who, with zeal and indignation, will demand vengeance of God against any by whose malice precious souls, which were their wards, have perished.⁶ Upon which passage St. Hilary writes:⁷ “It is dangerous to lespise one whose cries and prayers are carried up to the eternal and invisible God by the gracious ministry of angels.” So certain and general was the belief of a guardian angel being assigned to every one by God, that when St. Peter was miraculously delivered out of prison, the disciples, who, upon his coming to them, could not at first believe it to be him, said, It is his angel.⁸ That St. Michael was the protector of the Jewish nation, or of the people of God, and that countries or collective bodies of men have, at least several, their tutelar angels, is clear from holy scripture.⁹ So unanimous and so express is the doctrine of the fathers, in asserting and illustrating this article of the Catholic faith concerning guardian angels, that it would require a volume to copy their testimonies. The devils, with implacable envy and malice, study to compass our eternal ruin, both by stratagems and open assaults.* God is pleased to oppose to their efforts his good angels, by making them our defenders. If Almighty God permits the devils various ways to assail and tempt us, and, both by wiles and open violence, to endeavor to draw us into eternal ruin, will he not allow his good angels to exert their zeal for his honor, and their charity for us I No sooner had Lucifer and his adherents set up the standard of their revolt from God, but St. Michael and all the good angels entered upon a war against them, and, executing the sentence which God passed upon them, expelled them out of their blessed abodes. Man being created to fill up the places of these apostates, Lucifer, with his associates, is permitted by God to spread his snares, and exert the efforts of his malice against us, that in these trials we may give proof of our fidelity, and may purchase, by victories and triumphs, that bliss for which we are created. Satan thus effects the ruin of innumerable souls, and the Holy Ghost gives us this warning: The devil is come down unto you, having great wrath.¹⁰ And such is his arrogance, that he trusteth that Jordan, that is, the whole race of mankind, may flow into his mouth, and be swallowed up by him.

The good angels, out of the same zeal with which they continue their war against these wicked spirits, come to our relief, according to the order established by divine providence. And God, out of his infinite tenderness and compassion for us, commands his highest spirits to watch over and to guard us. O my God! what is man that you should take such care of him, and give him for his governors the sublime princes of your heavenly court, the assistants of your throne! What am I but a worm of the earth, a slave to it, and to this body of filth, sin, and corruption? Must an angel, a creature so noble, so pure and holy, attend on me? “O wonderful condescension! O excess of goodness and love!” cries out St. Bernard.¹¹ “He hath given his angels charge over thee.¹² Who is he that hath given this charge? To whom, and of whom hath he given this order? And what is its import? Let us seriously consider and weigh every part of this mystery? Who is he that hath given this charge? The Lord of angels, whom they obey. The supreme majesty of God hath laid a command upon the angels, and his own angels; those sublime, those happy spirits, who approach so near his divine majesty, his own domestics; and it is the care of thee that by this sacred command he hath intrusted to them. What art thou? Is not man rottenness, corruption, and the pasture of worms? But what dost thou think he hath commanded them concerning thee? That they guard thee; that they keep thee in all thy ways. Nor do they loiter; they even bear thee up in their hands, as it were, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” Shall we not praise such a goodness? We are also to consider the watchful attention of these blessed spirits over us. They most readily and most carefully execute every order of God, and embrace his will in every thing with the utmost ardor, and with their whole strength. With what diligence then do they watch over us, who are committed to them by the strict charge and appointment of God himself!¹³

A second motive or inducement which exceedingly endears us to their piotection, is their compassion and charity for us. They consider that we are shortly to be their companions in eternal bliss, and are at present by grace and the divine adoption their brethren, their dear fellow-members in God, dear to him who is their God and our God, and precious in his sight, being purchased by him at the infinite price of his incarnation, passion, and death. They, on the other side, see the miseries of sin into which we are fallen, the dangers which surround us, and the infinite evils under which we groan. Their compassion is the more tender, as their charity is the more perfect and more pure, and as they are seated nearer to the infinite source or fountain of charity. They see the snares which the devils lay to entrap us, and they remember the cause of God, and the sacred war in which they are engaged against those his enemies. They therefore earnestly exert themselves in defeating their projects, and in protecting us: “For they love their fellow-citizens, by whom they long to see their breaches and ruins repaired,” as the devout author of the Soliloquies of the Soul, among the works of St. Austin,¹⁴ and with him Hugh of St. Victor write. “Therefore they watch over and guard us with great care and diligence in all places, and at all hours, assisting us, providing for our necessities with solicitude; they in tervene between us and thee, O Lord, conveying to thee our sighs and groans, and bringing down to us the desired blessing of thy graces. They walk with us in all our ways; they go in and out with us, attentively observing how we converse with piety in the midst of a perverse generation; with what ardor we seek thy kingdom and its justice, and with what fear and awe we serve thee. They assist us in our labors, they protect us in our rest, they encourage us in battle, they crown us in victories, they rejoice in us when we rejoice in thee, and they compassionately attend us when we suffer or are afflicted for thee. Great is their care of us, and great are the effects of their charity for us. They love him whom thou lovest; they guard him whom thou beholdest with tenderness; but they forsake those from whom thou withdrawest thyself, and they hate them that work iniquity, because they are hateful to thee. If we fall from good, we give joy to the devils, and rob the angels of theirs. When we do well, we afford a triumph to the angels, and we vanquish and contristate the devils. Make us, O Father, always to bring joy to your holy spirits. Rehearsing these your benefits, I praise and thank you. You had bestowed on us whatever is contained within the circumference of the heavens; and, as if all this was little, you would add what is above the heavens, giving us your angels to serve us, ministering spirits for them who receive the inheritance of salvation. May all your angels praise you, may all your works glorify you, and all your saints bless you forever! How high is the honor by which you have so greatly exalted and enriched us!”

St. Bernard¹⁵ observes, that we owe to our guardian-angel “great reverence, devotion, and confidence; reverence,” says he, “for his presence, devotion for his charity, and confidence in his watchfulness. Penetrated with awe, walk always with circumspection, remembering the presence of angels to whom you are given in charge in all your ways. In every apartment, in every closet, in every corner, pay a respect to your angel. Dare you do before him what you durst not commit if I saw you?” In another place, he thus urges the same motive:¹⁶—“Consider with how great respect, awe, and modesty, we ought to behave in the sight of the angels, lest we offend their holy eyes, and render ourselves unworthy of their company. We to us if they who could chase away our enemy be offended by our negligence, and deprive us of their visit. We must shun what grieves them, and practise that which gives them delight, as temperance, chastity, voluntary poverty, prayer with fervor and tears. Above all things, the angels of peace expect in us unity and peace. Should not they be most delighted with that in us which represents the form of their own holy city, that they may admire a new Jerusalem, or heaven on earth? On the contrary, nothing so much provokes them as scandals and dissensions, if they discern any in us.” St. Basil enlarges upon the same argument to recommend to virgins the strictest modesty in all places. “Let the virgin, when she is alone,” says he,¹⁷ “feat and respect, first, herself and her own conscience; then her guardian-angel, who is always with her; Their angels always see the face of my Father.¹⁸ A man ought not to contemn the face of the angel to whose care his soul is intrusted, especially a virgin, whose paranymph he is appointed, and the guardian of her fidelity to her spouse. Above all, she must respect her spouse himself, who is always with her, and together with him the Father and the Holy Ghost; not to mention the infinite multitudes of the angels, and the blessed souls of the holy fathers; for though they are not visible to our carnal eyes, they behold us with their incorporeal sight. If the virgin fears the eye of others, much more must she the sight of these who are so holy and excellent, and so much greater than any men. She dreads particularly the eyes of the multitude; now, it being impossible she should escape the observation of this so great and holy a multitude, she will be careful never to do any thing unbecoming her state.”

We must not only respect, but gratefully and devoutly love and honor our tutelar spirit. He is a faithful guardian, a true friend, a watchful shepherd, and a powerful protector. He is a high spirit of heaven, and a courtier of the immortal king of glory; yet his tender charity, goodness, and compassion move him, through the divine appointment, to employ his whole power in guarding and defending us. He often protects our bodies, as the devils have sometimes power to hurt them. But what does not he do for our souls? He instructs, encourages, secretly exhorts, and reproves us; he defends us against our enemy, often discovers his stratagems, averts many dangers, and comforts and supports us in our trials, and in the terrible hour of our death. He invisibly performs for us the offices which that angel who led the Jews into the promised land, did for them; and which Raphael performed to the younger Toby, in his journey to Rages: for he is our good and sure guide through the dangers of this life to eternal glory. What return shall we make by gratitude, confidence, respect, and obedience to this our faithful Raphael our good angel! what praise and thanks do not we owe to God for so inestimable a benefit! Toby, reflecting on the great favors he had received from the angel Raphael, his faithful conductor, said to his father, “What shall we give him? or what can be worthy of his benefits? He conducted me, and brought me safe again; he received the money for me, he caused me to have my wife, and he chased from her the evil spirit; he gave joy to her parents, myself he delivered from being devoured by the fish; thee also he hath made to see the light of heaven, and we are filled with all good things through him. What can we give him sufficient for these things?”¹⁹ That holy family seeing the immense goodness and condescension of God in the benefits conferred upon them by his angel, “falling prostrate on their faces for three hours, blessed God.”²⁰ Ought not we to imitate their gratitude? “In God,” says St. Bernard,²¹ “let us affectionately love the angels, these glorious spirits which are to be one day our companions in glory, and co-heirs; and are at present appointed our tutors and guardians by our Father. Let us be devout; let us be grateful to such protectors; let us love them; let us honor them as much as we are able,” &c.

We likewise ought to place a confidence in the protection of our good angel. St. Bernard writes in the same place as follows: “Though we are so weak, and our condition so low, and though so long and dangerous a way lies before us, what can we fear under so great guardians? As often as any tribulation or violent temptation assails you, implore your guardian, your guide, your assistant in tribulation, and in all times of need.” To deserve his protection, we must, above all things, fly sin. Even venial sin troubles him. “As smoke chases away bees, and stench doves, so the ordure of sin driveth away the angel, the keeper of life,” says St. Basil.²² Impurity is a vice particularly abominable to holy spirits; and sins of scandal make the angels of the little ones whom we scandalize demand vengeance against us. God says, “Behold I will send my angel, who shall go before thee, and keep thee in thy journey, and bring thee into the place that I have prepared. Respectfully observe him, and hear his voice, and do not think him one to be contemned: for he will not forgive when thou hast sinned, and my name is in him. Bui if thou wilt hear his voice, and do all that I shall speak, I will be an enemy to thy enemies, and will afflict them that afflict thee: and my angel shall go before thee, and shall bring thee into the place which I have prepared.”²³

St. Thomas, Bishop of Hereford, C.

Our island once saw the happy days when prayer and contemplation were the delight even of courts, the camp, and the shop; when Christian humility and true poverty of spirit sat on the thrones of kings, chastity flourished in palaces, and princes had no other interest of state but the glory of God, no other ambition than to dilate the kingdom, nor any greater happiness than to espouse their daughters to Christ crucified, in the rigors of solitude and severe penance. The beauty of this holy vineyard in the church excited the envy of the devil, who, like a furious wild boar, sought to lay it waste. Tepidity in the divine service and sloth opened him the door; pride, ambition, luxury, and the love of the world and of pleasure soon gained ground, and miserably changed the face of this paradise. Wars, oppression, and desolation were the scourges by which God in his mercy sought to bring back an ungrateful people to their duty before he cast them off. He still raised up many holy pastors and patterns of virtue, who labored by word and example to stem the tide of iniquity. Among these shone most eminently St. Thomas Cantelupe, some time high-chancellor of England, and bishop of Hereford. He was most nobly born, being eldest son to William lord Cantelupe, one of the greatest generals that England ever produced; who, by the total overthrow of the barons and of the French, fixed the crown on the head of king Henry III., and was lord high steward of the kingdom, which dignity, on account of the exorbitance of its power, has been since suppressed, and is now only exercised occasionally in the trials of peers. The Cantelupes were Normans, who came over with the Conqueror, and received from him great estates and honors, which they exceedingly increased, becoming, by marriages, heirs of the Strongbows, and marshals earls of Pembroke, of the Fitz-Walters earls of Hereford, and of the Breuses lords of Abergavenny. The mother of our saint was Melicenta, countess-dowager of Evreux and Gloucester, daughter of Hugh lord of Gournay, allied to the royal families of England and France. Thomas was born in Lancashire; his parents had three other sons, and as many daughters, all younger than him, who were honorably married in the world. The father’s office obliged him to reside chiefly at court to attend the king. This was a dangerous place for the education of children; which being sensible of, he was most watchful to banish all incentives of vanity from their sight, and to remove the least whisper of false pleasures from their ears; thus, in the very seat of danger and vice, he formed a school of virtue and penance. When his son Thomas was capable of learning, he placed him under the care of his near kinsman, Walter Cantelupe, bishop of Hereford, and afterwards under that of Robert Kilwarby, a learned Dominican, archbishop of Canterbury, afterwards cardinal and bishop of Porto, and founder of the Black Friars in London. This experienced tutor found no obstacle or opposition to his instructions in the heart of his pupil, who, while a child, began daily to recite the breviary, besides hearing mass and other devotions, which he performed with wonderful fervor. He studied his philosophy at Paris; during which time he happened to take a prop of a vine out of another man’s vineyard to hold up his window; of which action be conceived so great a remorse, that he condemned himself for it to seven years’ rigorous penance.

Thomas resolving to consecrate himself to God in an ecclesiastical state, learned at Orleans the civil law, which is a necessary foundation to the canon law. He visited certain friends at the general council at Lyons, and there became acquainted with the most eminent pastors and theologians of the church, by whose conversation he much improved himself. Pope Innocent IV. nominated him his chaplain; notwithstanding which, he returned to England, to pursue the study of the canon law. He proceeded doctor in laws at Oxford, and was soon after chosen chancellor of that famous university; in which office he shone in such a bright light, that king Henry shortly after appointed him high-chancellor of the kingdom. His prudence, courage, indefatigable application, scrupulous justice, and abhorrence of human respects, or the least present which could be offered him even in the most indirect manner, completed the character of an accomplished magistrate. The earl of Gloucester, Roger lord Clifford, Peter Corbet, and the king himself, experienced his inflexibility. He procured the banishment of the obstinate Jews, because by their usuries, extortions, and counterfeit base coin, they were a public nuisance to the state. St. Thomas never ceased to solicit king Henry for leave to resign his office, but in vain. However, he obtained it of his son Edward I., upon his accession to the throne; yet on condition that he should remain in his privy council; which he did till his death. The saint was then fifty-four years old; yet retired to Oxford, making books and his devotions his only pleasure. He took the degree of doctor of divinity in the church of the Dominicans, with whom he had studied, on which occasion Robert Kilwarby, his old friend and director, then archbishop of Canterbury, did not fear endangering the saint’s humility, by declaring in his public oration, on the vesperial or eve of his promotion to the degree of doctor, that the candidate had lived without reproach, and had never forfeited his baptismal innocence. In 1274 he was called by pope Gregory X. to the second general council of Lyons, assembled for the union of the Greeks, &c. In 1275 he was canonically chosen bishop of Hereford by the chapter of that church, and all his opposition having been fruitless, consecrated in Christ Church in Canterbury.*

Our saint was sensible how great a supply of virtues was necessary to qualify him worthily to discharge the duties of his exalted station in the church, and redoubled his fervor in the practice of all the means of acquiring this high perfection. A sovereign contempt of the world made him relish the sweetness of holy retirement, in which, and in the functions of his ministry, he placed all his delight. God was to him all in all; and he maintained his heart in perpetual union with him by prayer and holy meditation. He subdued his flesh with severe fasting, watching, and a rough hair-shirt which he wore till his death, notwithstanding the colics and other violent pains and sicknesses with which he was afflicted many years for the exercise of his patience. His zeal for the church seemed to have no bounds; and such was his charity, that he seemed born only for the relief of his neighbor, both spiritual and temporal. He usually called the poor his brethren, and treated them as such both at table and with his purse. No reviling language or ill-treatment could ever provoke him to anger; his enemies he always treated with respect and tenderness, and would never bear the least word which might seem to reflect on them or any others. No one could more scrupulously shun the very shadow of detraction. He defended the lands and privileges of his church with undaunted resolution, as appeared in his suits against Gilbert de Clare, the king’s son-in-law, the powerful earl of Gloucester, against Llewellin prince of Wales, Roger lord Clifford, and his primate, John Peckham, archbishop of Canterbury. That metropolitan had laid certain injunctions on the bishops subject to his jurisdiction, which were an encroachment on their rights, but no historian has recorded in what they consisted. St. Thomas, though threescore years of age, was pitched upon by his brethren to undertake a journey to Rome, to lay their grievances before pope Nicholas IV. The fame of his sanctity alone sufficed to procure him a most favorable reception. After a successful dispatch of his business, he made haste homewards, finding certain distempers with which he was afflicted to increase upon him. His love of concealment has hid from us the great proofs of virtue and wisdom which he gave in this journey, which are only mentioned in general terms, but are inregistered in heaven, with the additional lustre of his humility. His sickness stopped him on his road at Montefiascone in Tuscany. He received the last sacraments with incredible cheerfulness and devotion, and made the sufferings and death of his Redeemer the constant subject of his pious and fervent prayer, in which he calmly gave up the ghost, in the sixty-third year of his age, on the 25th of August in 1282. He was buried six days after, in the church of the monastery of St. Severus near Old Florence, and his funeral oration was spoken by a cardinal. His bones, separated from the flesh, were, with his head and heart, soon after carried to Hereford, and enshrined with great honor in the chapel of our Lady, in his cathedral. Edmund, earl of Cornwall, son of Richard, king of the Romans, who had been the greatest admirer of his sanctity during his life, procured his head, and deposited it in a costly shrine in a monastery which he founded in his honor at Ash-bridge in Buckinghamshire. In 1287 his remains at Hereford were translated with great pomp in the presence of king Edward III., and laid in a marble tomb by the east wall of the north cross-isle in the same cathedral. Innumerable manifest miracles were wrought through his merits, of which several authentic relations were recorded, some of which may be seen in Surius, others in Capgrave. In the original acts of his canonization, preserved in the Vatican library, is found an account of four hundred and twenty-nine miracles, approved by the bishops and others, deputed by his holiness’s commissioners for that purpose, and by four public notaries. These brought on his canonization, which was performed by pope John XXII. in 1310, perhaps on the 2d of October, on which day his principal festival was observed. The late author of his life ascribes the sudden ceasing of a raging pestilence at Hereford, a little before he wrote, to the intercession of this saint, implored by a private procession. Dr. Brown-Willis thinks his festival was kept at Hereford on the 9th of October, because the great fair is held there on that day, and was established in his honor; but it was on the octave-day of his festival, that the procession of the chapter, &c., was made with great pomp. The monument of St. Thomas still remains in the cathedral at Hereford; but the inscription is torn off. See the acts of his canonization, the accurate Nicholas Trevet, ad an. 1282, Mat. Paris, Capgrave, Harpsfield, his modern life collected by R. S. S. J., 1674, and Dr. Brown-Willis’s Antiquities of Hereford. His short life MS. in the king’s library in the British Museum, viii. c. vi. 20. Suysken the Bollandist, p. 539 to 705.

St. Leodegarius, Bishop, M.

called in french leger

St. Leodegarius was born about the year 616, being of the first quality among the French. His parents brought him very young to the court of king Clotaire II., (son of Fredegonda,) who reigned first in Neustria; but in the year 614, the thirty-first of his reign, having taken Sigebert prisoner, and put to death his mother Brunehault, became king of all France, in the same manner that his grandfather Clotaire had been. This prince kept the young nobleman but a short time at court before he sent him to Dido, his uncle by the mother’s side, bishop of Poitiers, who appointed a priest of great learning to instruct him in literature, and some years after took him into his own palace to finish his education himself. Leodegarius made great progress in learning, but much greater in the science of the saints. To walk in the presence of God, and to be perfect, are things inseparable, according to the testimony of God himself.¹ It was by this constant union of his heart with God, joined with the practice of self-denial and humility, that Leodegarius attained in his youth the perfection of the saints. In consideration of his extraordinary abilities and merit, his uncle dispensed with the canons, and ordained him deacon when he was only twenty years old, and soon after made him archdeacon, and intrusted him with the government of his whole diocese. Leodegarius was tall, handsome, prudent, eloquent, and generally beloved. The monastery of St. Maxentius,* in the diocese of Poitiers, having lost its abbot, Leodegarius was obliged by his uncle to take upon him the government of that great abbey, which he held six years with great reputation of prudence and sanctity; and he was a considerable benefactor to this monastery.

Clovis II., king of Neustria and Burgundy, dying in 656, left three sons, Clotaire, Childeric, and Theodoric, all under age. Clotaire III. was proclaimed king, and his mother St. Bathildes, foundress of the two great abbeys of Corbie and Chelles, was regent, being assisted in the government by Erchinoald, mayor of the palace, and the holy bishops St. Eligius, St. Owen, and St. Leodegarius. The fame of this last having reached the court while he governed his abbey in Poitou, he was called to the palace by Clotaire III. and St. Bathildes, and in 659 nominated bishop of Autun. That see had been vacant two years, while the diocese was miserably torn asunder by opposite factions, not without effusion of blood. The presence of Leodegarius quieted all disturbances, and reconciled the parties. He took care to relieve all the poor, instructed his clergy, frequently preached to his people, and adorned the churches, beautifying them with gildings and rich plate. He repaired the baptistery of his cathedral with great magnificence, caused the relics of St. Symphorian to be brought back thither, and repaired the walls of the city. In a diocesan synod which he held at Autun in 670,² he enacted many canons for the reformation of manners, of which some only have reached us which chiefly regard the monastic order. He says, that if the monks were all what they ought to be, their prayers would preserve the world from public calamities. By these ordinances they are enjoined to observe the canons and the rules of St. Bennet; to labor in common, and to exercise hospitality; are forbid to have property in any thing, and to go into cities, unless upon the business of the monastery; and in this case are commanded to have a letter from their abbot directed to the archdeacon.

The saint had sat ten years when king Clotaire III. died in 669. Upon this news he posted to court, where one part of the lords declared for Childeric who then reigned in Austrasia with great prudence; but Ebroin procured Theodoric to be proclaimed king, and made himself mayor of his palace. But so odious was the tyranny of this minister, that the contrary party soon after prevailing, Childeric was acknowledged king, who had put Ebroin to death if St. Leodegarius and some other bishops had not interceded that his life might be spared. He was shorn a monk at Luxeu, and Theodoric at St. Denis’s. Childeric II. governed well as long as he listened to the advice of St. Leodegarius, who had so great a share in public affairs in the beginning of this reign, that in some writings he is styled mayor of the palace. The king being young and violent, at length abandoned himself to his pleasures, and married his uncle’s daughter. St. Leodegarius admonished him first in secret, and finding this without effect, reproved him publicly. Wulfoade, who was for some time mayor of the palace, attempted to render the saint’s fidelity suspected, and several courtiers incensed the king against him, so that he was banished to Luxeu, where Ebroin made him a promise of constant friendship. Childeric having caused a nobleman called Bodilo to be publicly scourged, was slain by him at the head of a conspiracy of his nobility, with his queen, and son Dagobert, and infant, in 673. Theodoric, his brother, leaving Neustria, and Dagobert, son of Sigebert II., being recalled from Ireland, whither he had been banished, and acknowledged king of Austrasia, St. Leodegarius was restored to his see, and received at Autun with the greatest honor and rejoicings. Ebroin left Luxeu, and being provoked that Leudesius was made mayor of the palace, under pretence of a conference, murdered him and setting up a pretended son of Clotaire III., under the name of Clovis, for king, sent an army into Burgundy, which marched first to Autun. St. Leodegarius would not fly, but distributed his plate and other moveables among the poor, and made his will, by which he gave certain estates to his church.* He then ordered a fast of three days, and a general procession, in which the cross, and the relics of the saints were carried round about the walls At every one of the gates the good bishop prostrated himself, and besought God with tears, that if he called him to martyrdom, his flock might not suffer any thing. He then called all the people together into the church and asked pardon of all those whom he might have offended by too great severity. When the enemy came up, the people shut their gates, and made a stout defence all that day. But St. Leodegarius said to them, “Fight no longer. If it is on my account they are come, I am ready to give them satisfaction. Let us send one of our brethren to know what they demand.” The army was commanded by Vaimer, duke of Champagne, who had with him Diddon, formerly bishop of Challons upon the Saone, who had been canonically deposed for his crimes. Diddon answered the citizens of Autun, that they would storm the town unless Leodegarius was delivered up to them; and they all took an oath of allegiance to Clovis, for he swore to them that Theodoric was dead. Leodegarius publicly declared he would rather suffer death than fail in his fidelity to his prince. The enemy continuing to press upon the city with fire and sword, he took leave of all the brethren; and having first received the holy communion, marched boldly out of the town, and offered himself to his enemies, who having seized on his person, pulled out his eyes. This he endured without suffering his hands to be tied, or venting the least groan, singing psalms all the while. The citizens made their submission, that they might not be all carried away captives. Vaimer carried St. Leodegarius to his own house in Champagne, while his army proceeded to Lyons, intending to take that city, and seize upon St. Genesius, the archbishop; but the inhabitants defended that great city so well, that they were obliged to retire, and St. Genesius died in peace on the 1st of November, 677, being succeeded by St. Lambert, who had been elected abbot of Fontenelle upon the death of St. Vandrille.

Ebroin, who had marched into Neustria, sent an older that Leodegarius should be led into a wood, and there left to perish with hunger, and that it should be published that he was drowned. When he was almost starved, Vaimer took pity of him, and brought him to his house. He was so moved by his discourse that he returned him the money he had taken from the church of Autun, which St. Leodegarius sent thither to be distributed among the poor. Ebroin growing jealous of Vaimer’s power, contrived him to be ordained, some time after, bishop of Troyes, and soon after caused him to be tormented and hanged. Diddon was also banished by him, and afterwards put to death. St. Leodegarius was dragged through a marshy ground, and very rough roads, where the soles of his feet were cut with sharp stones; his tongue was maimed, and his lips cut off; after which he was delivered into the hands of count Varinguius, to be kept by him in safe custody. This count honored him as a martyr, took him into his own country, and placed him in the monastery of Fescan, or Fecamp, in Normandy, founded by himself. The saint remained there two years, and, his wounds being healed, he continued to speak, as it was thought, miraculously. He instructed the nuns, offered every day the holy sacrifice, and prayed almost without ceasing. Ebroin, having usurped by violence the dignity of mayor of the palace to Theodoric, and being absolute master in Neustria and Burgundy, pretended a desire to revenge the death of king Childeric, and falsely accused St. Leodegarius and his brother Gairin of having concurred to it. They were brought before the king and the lords, and Ebroin loaded them with reproaches. St. Leodegarius told him he would soon lose that dignity which he had usurped. The two brothers were separated, and Gairin was tied to a post, and stoned to death. During his execution he repeated these words: “Lord Jesus Christ, who camest not only to call the just, but sinners, receive the soul of thy servant, to whom thou hast granted a death like that of the martyrs.” Thus he continued in prayer till he expired. St. Leodegarius could not be condemned till he had been deposed in a synod. In the mean time he wrote a consolatory letter to his mother Sigrades, who was then become a nun in the monastery of our Lady at Soissons. In it be congratulates with her upon her happy retreat from the world, comforts her for the death of his brother Gairin, saying that ought not to be a subject of grief to them which was an occasion of joy and triumph to the angels; he speaks of himself with surprising constancy and courage, and fearing lest she might be tempted to harbor any sentiment of resentment against their unjust persecutors, speaks of the forgiveness of enemies with a tenderness and charity altogether heavenly. He tells her, that since Christ set the divine example by praying on the cross for his murderers, it must be easy for us to love our enemies and persecutors. This letter is the effusion of a heart burning with charity, and overflowing with the deepest sentiments of all Christian virtues. The style is truly worthy a great martyr upon the point of consummating his sacrifice to God, and speaks a language which penetrates the heart with its holy unction. Though there is in it no other art than that which charity naturally produced, it is written with spirit, and shows that we have reason to regret the loss of the sermons which he preached to his people during the ten years that he governed his church in peace.

At length Ebroin caused St. Leodegarius to be brought to the palace, where he had assembled a small number of bishops whom he had gained, that he might be deposed by their sentence, though they could not constitute a legal synod, to which a canonical convocation, by letter or sanction of the metropolitan or primate, is required within the limits of his jurisdiction. The saint was pressed to own himself privy to the death of Childeric; but he constantly denied it, calling God to witness that he was innocent. Those that were present rent his tunic from top to bottom, which was intended for a mark of his deposition. Then he was delivered into the hands of Chrodobert, count of the palace, to be put to death. Ebroin, fearing lest he should be honored as a martyr, ordered him to be led into a wood, and there executed, and buried in some deep pit, and the place covered in such a manner that it could never be known. Chrodobert was so moved with the exhortations and holy deportment of the martyr, that he could not bear to see him put to death; but ordered four officers to execute the sentence. The count’s wife wept bitterly; but the saint comforted her; and assured her that God would bless her for her charity if she took care of his interment. The four executioners carried him into a forest, where, not being able to find a pit, they at length stopped, and three of them fell at his feet, begging him to forgive them. He prayed for them, and afterwards, when he said he was ready, the fourth cut off his head. The wife of count Chrodobert caused the saint to be interred in a small oratory, at a place called Sarcin, in Artois; but, three years after, his body was removed to the monastery of St. Maxentius, in Poitou; for a contention arising between St. Vindician, bishop of Arras, and the bishops of Autun and Poitiers, which should possess his relics, by drawing three billets laid on an altar, they fell to the share of the last. He was martyred, in 678, in the forest of Iveline, now called St. Leger’s Wood, in the diocese of Arras, near the borders of that of Cambray. Many miracles were wrought at the tomb of this saint, and a great number of churches were built in his honor. Few saints are more reverenced in many parts of France than this martyr.* See the life of St. Leodegarius, compiled by an anonymous monk of St. Symphorian’s, at Autun, who had been an eyewitness to many of the saint’s actions, and written very soon after the translation of his relics. Also the life of this saint, written in a more elegant style, but with some mistakes and omissions, by Ursinus, a monk at Poitiers, some time later. Both these lives are published by Du Chesne, Historiæ Francorum coetanei, t. 4. p. 600. 625. and Mabillon, Actâ Bened. t. 2. Both these authors recount many miracles wrought at the translation of this saint’s relics &c. A third life of St. Leodegarius, written by a monk of Morlach, in Austrasia, in the eighth or ninth century, adds little that is material to the two former, except an account of a succession of miracles down to the eighth age. See likewise Bulteau, Hist. de l’Ord. de S. Ben. l., 3, c. 32, t. 1, p. 561; Bie, the Bollandist, p. 355 to 491; Griffet, Mélanges Historiques, t. 1, p. 167.*

¹ See on the two festivals of St. Michael, May 8, and Sept. 29; also Instruction Pastorale de M. Jean Joseph de la Bastiè, Evêque de S. Malo, Sur les Saints Anges, ann. 1758.

² Ps. 90:11.

³ Ps. 33:8.

⁴ Gen. 48:16.

⁵ Judith 13:20. See Exod. 23:20.

⁶ Matt. 18:10.

⁷ S. Hilar. in Matt 17.

⁸ Acts 11:15.

⁹ Dan. 11:1, 12:1, &c.

* The existence of evil spirits is manifest from experience, and from natural arguments drawn from the operations in demoniacs, from some examples among the heathenish oracles, and from various other effects. Mr. Seed, in his discourse On the Nature and Being of Evil Spirits, and many other Protestant theologians of note, insist much upon this proof, that many have experienced dreams and temptations of such an extraordinary nature, and concerning subjects of which before they had no knowledge, and of which their imagination could not by itself have produced any species or images, that the Ideas or effects must be excited by some external spirit, who by their nature must be an evil one. This argument is not only allowed, but strongly urged by several famous deists for the belief of evil spirits. But it is from the divine revelation that we learn the origin and qualities of these invisible enemies. By this we are iInformed that the devils fell from a state of justice and sanctity, in which they were created, by their own malice and sin: and that their crime was pride, to which, enamored of their own perfections, they consented in thought, and which is called the beginning of all sin. (Ecclus. 10:15.) The prince of the apostate angels is sometimes called Lucifer. Some theologians and interpreters have thought that he was chief of all the angelical choirs, and that he was meant under the figure of Behmoth, who is called, according to the Seventy and Vulgate, the beginning of the ways of God. (Job 40:14.) Dazzled with his own exalted state and beauty, he said within himself: I will be like to the Most High. (Isai. 14:12.) His heart was puffed up with his beauty, and in it he lost his wisdom, (Ezek. 28:17.) For, according to several learned fathers, Isaias compares the haughtiness of the king of Babylon, and Ezekiel that of the king of Tyre, to the pride of Lucifer, which they thence take occasion to describe. The apostate angel was followed in his revolt or sin by a great part of the heavenly host who were in a moment hurled down from their seats, and condemned to hell, (2 Pet 2:4; Jude 6.) While some were immediately confined to those dungeons, others are left more at large till the day of judgment: and in the mean time their torments seem less grievous, (Matt. 8:29, 31, &c. See Petavius, Tr. de Angelis.)

These fiends are called the princes of darkness, of the air, and of the world, (Ephes. 2:1, 2, 6:12; Matt. 12:22; Luke 9:1.) They differ in their ranks in a kind of hierarchy, and some are worse than others, (Matt. 12:24; Ephes. 6:12, &c.) Their prince is called Belial, that is, the evil one; or rather, (according to St. Jerom’s interpretation of the word, 3 Kings 21:13,) the Rebel. Also Satan, or the Enemy, and Beelzebub, from the chief idol of the Accaronites. The rage, malice, and envy of the devils against man, their enmity to all good, are implacable; and their natural subtilety and strength are exceeding great, as appears from the perfection of their being, which is purely spiritual, and from examples where God suffered them more remarkably to exert their power. They hurried the swine into the lake, killed the seven first husbands of Sara, have slain armies in one night, have often disturbed nature and stirred op tempests, which struck whole provinces with terror, and ravaged the whole world. Satan makes his attacks upon men by putting on all shapes; sometimes by craft, or by snares and stratagems, as the old serpent; sometimes by disguises transforming himself into an angel of light, and assuming the air of piety; sometimes by open assaults and violence, as the roaring lion, and noonday devil. What did be not do against holy Job? There is no power on earth which can be compared with him, (Job 41:24.) But he is restrained and confined by God’s command, nor can he spread his snares, or tempt men but by that divine permission; for which he sometimes obtains a special leave, as in the cases of Job. (chap. 1.) and St. Peter, (Luke 22:31, 32.) The devils watch to entice men to sin, (1 Pet. 5:8; Ephes. 6:16, &c.) We have examples of this in the temptations of Eve. Achab. &c. They are sometimes suffered to deceive false prophets, and wicked men, (3 Kings 22:21.) They accuse men before the judgment seat of God, (Zach. 3:1, 2, &c.)

The devils are sometimes permitted by God to exert their natural power and strength on natural agents by moving second causes, in producing distempers in human bodies, raising storms, and causing other physical evils in the world; as appears from such effects being sometimes ascribed in the holy scriptures to these wicked spirits. (See Calmet, Disc. sur les Mauvais Anges.) Before Satan was bound, or his power curbed by the triumph of Christ over him, and the spreading of the happy light and influence of the gospel throughout the world, the empire which the devils exercised on earth was much greater than since that time. But it is most certain that the devils are sometimes permitted by God to continue in some degree the mischievous influence of their malice against men various ways, against which the church has instituted, and always practised exorcisms and blessings. With regard to effects of magic and possessions of devils, though prayer and the other arms of piety and religion are to be always employed against our invisible enemies; yet such extraordinary effects are not to be easily supposed superstition, credulity, and imposture are to be guarded against, and natural distempers, such as certain species of madness, extraordinary palsies, epilepsies, or the like, are not to be construed into effects of enchantments or possessions; which are not to be presumed upon ridiculous compacts and signs, (such as are mentioned in many popular pretended examples related by Dalrio, &c.,) nor upon vulgar prejudices and notions of the manner in which such things are done, but must be made apparent by circumstances which are preternatural, or beyond the ordinary course of nature. By clear proofs it is manifest that God sometimes permits corporeal possessions (in which the devil seizes on some of the corporal organs or senses in a human body) and obsessions, (in which he represents certain images as present to the eyes or imagination with in invincible obstinacy;) and that these have been more or less frequent in different times and places. This is confirmed by the testimony and experience of all ages, and of all nations, even to the remotest Indies, as John Clerc observes, (Bibl. Universelle, t. 15. c. 4.) Such facts both the Old and New Testament manifestly evince. (See Laurence Clarke in his Life of Christ, against Wootston, p. 474, and the Dissert, on the obsessions and possessions of devils, prefixed to the Gospels in the new Latin and French Bible, with dissertations, t. 10, p 590.) Further proofs of the reality of demoniacs art served for a particular disquisition.

¹⁰ Apoc. 12:12.

¹¹ Serm. 12, in Ps. 90 p. 862.

¹² Ps. 90:11.

¹³ Ps. 90:11.

¹⁴ Cap. 27, Op. S. Aug. t. 6, Append. p. 86, ed. Ben.

¹⁵ Serm. 12, in Ps. 90.

¹⁶ Serm. 1. in festo S. Michael, n. 5.

¹⁷ L. de Verâ Virginit. n. 740.

¹⁸ Matt. 18:10.

¹⁹ Tob. 12:21.

²⁰ Tob. 12:22.

²¹ In Ps. 90.

²² Hom. in Ps. 33.

²³ Exod. 23:20, &c.

* From him the bishops of Hereford have always borne the arms of the Cantelupes, three leopard’s heads jeasant; and three fleurs-de-lis. Or.

¹ Gen. 17:1.

* See his life on the 26th of June; also Mabillon, Act. Ben. t. 1, p. 578, and St. Gregory of Tours. Hist. l. 1, c. 37.

² Conc. t. 6, p. 536.

* This will is extant in Cointe’s Annals, ad an. 666. See Mabil Annal. l. 16, n. 36, &c.

* As for the tyrant Ebroin, he seemed to grow every day more and more jealous and furious. Dagobert II. gained ground in Austrasia, and, about the year 676, quite routed the pretended Clovis, whom Ebroin had set up to dispute that crown with him. Dagobert II. was assassinated in 678, by whose death Theodoric expected to become king of Austrasia, and the whole French monarchy; but the inhabitants of Austrasia, dreading to fall under the tyranny of Ebroin, chose Pepin and Martin dukes of their country, and had for some time no king, though Theodoric took the title. (See Mem. de l’Acad. des Belles Lettres, t. 6.) Ebroin was himself assassinated in 688, and was succeeded by four short-lived mayors of the palace in Neustria and Burgundy. Duke Pepin of Heristal, or Herstal, (grandson of Pepin, surnamed the Old, and father of Charles Martel, and grandfather of Pepin the Short, king of France,) was attacked by Theodoric III., but defeated him, and that prince saw himself reduced to the necessity of constituting him mayor of the palace for the whole French monarchy in 690, a little before his death. King Theodoric III. was buried in the abbey of St. Vedast, at Arras, which he had munificently endowed.

* Baronius and many others follow the mistakes of Ursin, and falsely make St. Leodegarius mayor of the palace.

 Butler, A., The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints (New York 1903) IV, 23-36.