September VIII

The Nativity Of The Blessed Virgin

The birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary announced joy and the near approach of salvation to the lost world: therefore is this festival celebrated by the Church with praise and thanksgiving. It was a mystery of sanctity, and distinguished by singular privileges. Mary was brought forth into the world, not like other children of Adam, infected with the loathsome contagion of sin, but pure, holy, beautiful and glorious, adorned with all the most precious graces which became her who was chosen to be the mother of God. She appeared indeed in the weak state of our mortality; but in the eyes of heaven she already transcended the highest seraph in purity, brightness, and the richest ornaments of grace. I am black, but beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem.¹ The spouse says to her much more emphatically than to other souls sanctified by his choices, graces: As the lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters.² Thou art all fair, and there is not a spot in thee.³ Man was no sooner fallen in Paradise through the woman seduced by the infernal spirit, but God promised another woman whose seed should crush that serpent’s head. I will put enmities, said he to the serpent, between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.⁴ This curse is evidently to be understood of the devil who seduced Eve, and with implacable malice sought the destruction of her posterity. It is not the real serpent that is here meant; the sense would be too low; and why should the serpent, which was not in fault, be so treated, and the true offender the devil, who had either taken the figure of the crafty serpent, or concealed himself in that reptile, escape all punishment? The Hebrew original expresses the latter part of this prophecy as follows: It (i. e. her seed) shall crush thy head.⁵ In the birth of the Virgin Mary was the accomplishment of this solemn prediction begun.

To understand the great present that in her God bestowed on the world, we must consider her transcendant dignity, and the singular privileges by which she was distinguished above all other pure creatures. Her dignity is expressed by the evangelist when he says, That of her was born Jesus, who is called the Christ.⁶ From this text alone is that article of the Catholic faith sufficiently evinced, that she is truly Mother of God. It is clear this is not to be understood as if she could be in any sense mother of the Divinity, the very thought whereof would imply contradiction and blasphemy, but by reason that she conceived and brought forth that Blessed Man who subsisting by the second divine person of the adorable Trinity, is consequently the natural, not the adoptive Son of God, which was the Semi-Nestorian error broached by Felix and Elipandus. In the Incarnation the human nature of Christ was assumed by, and hypostatically, that is, intimately and substantially, united to the person of God the Son, so that the actions done by this nature, are the actions of that Divine Person, whose assumed or appropriated nature this is. Hence we truly say with St. Paul, that we are redeemed by the blood of a God, and with the Church, that God was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered and died on the cross; all which he did in that human nature which he had wonderfully taken upon him.

Nestorius, a man ignorant in ecclesiastical learning, but vain, opinionated, and presumptuous to a degree of extravagance, introduced a new heresy, teaching that there are in Christ two persons no less than two natures, the divine and human united; not intrinsically, but only morally, by the divinity dwelling in the humanity of Christ as in its temple. Thus the heresiarch destroyed the incarnation, held two Christs, the one God, and the other man, and denied the Blessed Virgin to be the mother of God, saying she was mother of the man Christ, whom he distinguished from the Christ who is God. The constant faith of the Catholic Church teaches, on the contrary, that in Christ the divine and human nature subsist both by the same divine person, that Christ is both truly God and truly man, and that the Virgin Mary is the Mother of God by having brought forth him who is God, though he derived from her only his assumed nature of man. The errors of Nestorius were condemned in the general council of Ephesus in 431, and from the ancient tradition of the Church, the title of the Mother of God was confirmed to the Virgin Mary. Socrates and St. Cyril of Alexandria, prove that this epithet* was given her by the Church from primitive tradition; and it occurs in the writings of the fathers who flourished before that time, as in the letter of St. Dionysius of Alexandria to Paul of Samosata,⁷ in the Alexandrian manuscript of the Bible, which, according to Grabe,⁸ was written before the year 390, &c. So notorious and ordinary was this appellation, that, as St. Cyril of Alexandria testifies, Julian the Apostate reproached the Christians that they never ceased calling Mary Mother of God:^† and so clearly was Nestorius convicted in this point, as to be obliged to confess this title, though he never departed from his heretical tenets.

The dignity of mother of God is the highest to which any mere creature is capable of being raised.^‡ What closer alliance could any pure creature have with the Creator of all things? What name could be more noble, what prerogative more singular, or more wonderful? He who was born of the Father from all eternity, the only-begotten and consubstantial Son, Maker and Lord of all things, is born in time, and receives a being in his nature of man from Mary. “Listen and attend, O man,” cries out St. Anselm,⁹ “and be transported in an ecstasy of astonishment, contemplating this prodigy. The infinite God had one only-begotten co-eternal Son: yet he would not suffer him to remain only his own, but would also have him to be made the only son of Mary.” And St. Bernard says;¹⁰ “Choose which you will most admire, the most beneficent condescension of the Son, or the sublime dignity of the Mother. On each side it is a subject of wonder and astonishment that a God should obey a woman, is a humility beyond example, and that a woman commands a God, is a preeminence without a rival.” The first, which is the humiliation of him who is infinite in itself can bear no comparison with the other; but the astonishing exaltation of Mary transcends what we could have imagined any creature capable of. No creature can be raised to what is infinite: yet the object or term of this dignity of Mary is infinite, and the dignity has a nearer and closer relation to that object than could have been imagined possible by creatures, had not omnipotence made it real.¹¹ To this transcendent dignity all graces and privileges, how great and singular soever, seem in some measure due. We admire her sanctity, her privileged virginity, all the graces with which she was adorned, and the crown with which she is exalted in glory above the cherubims; but our astonishment ceases when we reflect that she is the Mother of God. In this is everything great and good that can suit a mere human creature, naturally comprised.

To take a review of some other singular privileges of this glorious creature, we must further consider that she is both a mother and a spotless virgin. This is the wonderful prerogative of Mary alone; a privilege and honor reserved to her, which shall not be given to any other, says St. Bernard. The ancient prophets spoke of it as the distinguishing mark of the Mother of the Messiah, and the world’s Redeemer, and frequently call the Christ Jehovah or the true God, as Dr. Waterland demonstrates by many passages. This was the miraculous token of the assured deliverance of mankind by the long-expected Saviour, which God himself was pleased to give to the incredulous king Achaz, doubtful and anxious about his present deliverance from his temporal enemies. The Lord himself shall give you a sign, said Isaias: Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.¹² This must evidently be understood of the Messiah, to whom alone many qualities and epithets in this and the following chapter can agree, though a son of the prophet mentioned afterward was also a present type of the king’s temporal deliverance. The title of Virgin must here mean one who remained such when a mother; for this circumstance is mentioned as a stupendous miracle.* Jeremy also, contemplating this mystery in spirit,¹³ expressed his astonishment at this prodigy unheard of on earth, that a woman should encompass in her womb a man, the great Redeemer of the world.

The perpetual virginity of the Mother of God has been denied by several heretics. Ebion and Cesinthus had the insolence to advance that she had other children before Jesus: but this impious error is condemned by all who receive the holy gospels, by which it is manifest that Jesus is the first-born. In the fourth age Helvidius, and soon after him Jovinian, pretended she had other children after Christ. Jovinian, and among modern Protestants, Beza, Albertin, and Basnage,¹⁴ will not allow her the title of Virgin in the birth of Christ. Against these errors the Catholic Church has always inviolably maintained that she was a virgin before, in, and after his birth; whence she is styled ever Virgin. This article is defended in all its points by St. Jerom,¹⁵ St. Epiphanius,¹⁶ and other fathers. St. Jerom shows that the __EXPRESSION__ of the evangelist, that Joseph knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born,¹⁷ no ways intimates that he knew her afterward, as no one will infer that because God says: I am till you grow old, he should then cease to be, &c. The same father proves, that first-born in the sacred writings means the first son, whether any other children followed or no; and that those who were called the brothers of our Lord according to the Hebrew phrase, were only cousins-german, sons of another Mary, called of Alphæus and of Cleopnas, sister to the Blessed Virgin. He confirms the belief of her perpetual virginity from the testimony of St. Ignatius, St. Polycarp, St. Irenæus, St. Justin, &c. St. Epiphanius further observes, that no one ever named Mary without adding the title of virgin; and that had she had other children, Jesus would not have recommended her on the cross to St. John, &c. The fathers apply to her many emblems and types of the old law and the prophets expressive of this prerogative, calling her the Eastern Gate of the Sanctuary shown to Ezechiel, through which only our Lord passed,¹⁸ the bush which Moses saw burning without being consumed, Gideon’s fleece continuing dry whilst the earth all round it was wet, &c. Her virginity was not only a miraculous privilege, but also a voluntary virtue, she having, by an early vow, consecrated her chastity to God, as the fathers infer from her answer to the angel.¹⁹ Such a privileged mother became the Son of God. The earth, defiled by the abominations of impurity, was loaded with the curses of God, who said; My spirit shall not remain in man for ever, because he is flesh.²⁰ But God choosing Mary to take himself flesh of, prepared her for that dignity by her spotless virginity, and on account of that virtue said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.²¹ It is by imitating her perfect purity according to our state, that we shall recommend ourselves to our heavenly spouse, who is the lover of chaste souls, and is called by St. Gregory Nazianzen, the virgin by excellence, and the first of virgins. In the example and patronage of Mary we have a powerful succor against the opposite most abominable and destroying vice. We can only be victorious in its most dangerous conflicts by arming ourselves with her sincere humility, perfect distrust in ourselves, constant spirit of prayer and flight of the shadow of danger, and with the mortification of our own will, and of our senses and flesh.

The Virgin Mary was the most perfect model of all other virtues. St. Ambrose, in the beginning of his second book, On Virginity, exhorts virgins in particular to make her life the rule of their conduct: “Let the life and virginity of Mary,” says he, “be set before you as in a looking-glass, in which is seen the pattern of chastity and virtue. The first spur to imitation is the nobility of the master. What more noble than the Mother of God!—she was a virgin in body and mind, whose candor was incapable of deceit or disguise; humble in heart; grave in words; wise in her resolutions. She spoke seldom and little; read assiduously, and placed her confidence, not in inconstant riches, but in the prayers of the poor. Being always employed with fervor, she would have no other witness of her heart but God alone, to whom she referred herself, and all things she did or possessed. She injured no one, was beneficent to all, honored her superiors, envied not equals, shunned vainglory, followed reason, ardently loved virtue. Her looks were sweet, her discourse mild, her behavior modest. Her actions had nothing unbecoming, her gait nothing of levity, her voice nothing of overbearing assurance. Her exterior was all so well regulated that in her body was seen a picture of her mind, and an accomplished model of all virtues. Her charity knew no bounds; temperate in her diet, she prolonged her fasts several days, and the most ordinary meats were her choice, not to please the taste, but to support nature. The moments which we pass in sleep, were to her a time for the sweetest exercises of devotion. It was not her custom to go out of doors, except to the temple, and this always in the company of her relations,” &c. The humble and perfect virtue of Mary raised in St. Joseph the highest opinion of her sanctity, as appeared when he saw her with child. “This is a testimony of the sanctity of Mary,” says St. Jerom,²² “that Joseph, knowing her chastity, and admiring what had happened, suppresses in silence a mystery which he did not understand.” Another ancient writer improves the same remark crying out:²³ “O inestimable commendation of Mary! Joseph rather believed her virtue than her womb, and grace rather than nature. He thought it more possible that Mary should have conceived by miracle without a man, than that she should have sinned.” Yet this sanctity of Mary, which was a subject of admiration to the highest heavenly spirits, consisted chiefly in ordinary actions, and in the purity of heart and the fervor with which she performed them. All her glory is from within!²⁴ From her we learn that our spiritual perfection is to be sought in our own state, and depends very much upon the manner in which we perform our ordinary actions. True virtue loves to do all things in silence, and with as little show and noise as may be; it studies to avoid whatever would recommend it to the eyes of men, desiring to have no other witness but him who is its rewarder, and whose glory alone it seeks. A virtue which wants a trumpet to proclaim it, or which affects only public, singular, or extraordinary actions, is to be suspected of subtle pride, vanity, and self-love.

To study these lessons in the life of Mary, to praise God for the graces which he has conferred upon her, and the blessings which through her he has bestowed on the world, and to recommend our necessities to so powerful an advocate, we celebrate festivals in her honor. This of her nativity has been kept in the Church with great solemnity above a thousand years. The Roman Order mentions the homilies and litany which were appointed by pope Sergius in 688 to be read upon it; and a procession is ordered to be made on this day from St. Adrian’s church to the Liberian basilic or St. Mary Major.²⁵ In the Sacramentary of St. Gregory the Great, published by Dom. Menard, particular collects or prayers are prescribed for the mass, procession, and matins on the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with a special preface for the mass.²⁶ A mass with particular collects for this festival occurs in the old Roman Sacramentary or Missal, published by cardinal Thomasius, which is judged by the learned to be the same that was used by pope Leo the Great, and some of his predecessors.²⁷ This feast is mentioned by St. Ildefonsus, in the seventh century.²⁸ The Greeks (as appears from the edict of the emperor Emmanuel Comnenus), the Copts in Egypt, and the other Christian Churches in the East, keep with great solemnity the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin.* St. Peter Damian pathetically exhorts all the faithful to celebrate it with great devotion.²⁹

We celebrate the anniversaries of the birth-days of earthly princes, who on those occasions dispense freely their favors and liberalities. How ought we to rejoice in that of the Virgin Mary, presenting to God the best homage of our praises and thanksgiving for the great mercies he has shown in her, and employing her mediation with her Son in our behalf! We shall doubtless experience the particular effects of her compassion and goodness on a day observed by the whole Church with so great devotion in her honor. Christ will not reject the supplications of his mother, whom he was pleased to obey whilst on earth. Her love, care, and tenderness for him, and the sorrows which she felt for his sake in the state of his mortality: those breasts which gave him suck, those hands which served him, must move him to hear her; the titles and qualities which she bears, the charity and graces with which she is adorned, and the crown of glory with which she is honored, must incline him readily to receive her recommendations and petitions.

St. Adrian, M.

This saint was an officer in the Roman army, who, having persecuted the Christians in the reign of Maximian Galerius, was so moved by their constancy and patience, that he embraced their faith, and suffered many torments and a glorious martyrdom for the same at Nicomedia, about the year 306, in the tenth or last general persecution. His relics were conveyed to Constantinople, thence to Rome, afterward into Flanders, where they were deposited in the Benedictin abbey of Decline, dedicated in honor of St. Peter, in the time of the first abbot Severald. Baldwin VI., earl of Flanders, surnamed of Mons, because he married the heiress of that county, bought of a rich lord, named Gerard, the village of Hendelghem, in which stood a famous chapel of our Lady. The count founded there in 1088, the town now called Geersbergen or Gerard’s-mount, on which, by a famous charter, he bestowed great privileges. Besides many pious donations made to that place, he removed thither this abbey of St. Peter, which has since taken the name of St. Adrian, whose relics, which it possesses, have been rendered famous by many miracles. Geersberg, called in French Grammont, stands upon the Dender in Flanders, near the borders of Brabant and Hainault, St. Adrian is commemorated in the Martyrologies which bear the name of St. Jerom, and in the Roman, on the 4th of March, and chiefly on the 8th of September, which was the day of the translation of his relics to Rome, where a very ancient church bears his name. See on the translation of his relics to the abbey of Geersberg, Gramay’s Antiquitates Gerardi-montii, p. 40. Sanderus in Flandria Illustrata, &c. Stilting, p. 231.

St. Sidronius, M.

He was crowned at Rome in the persecution of Aurelian; his principal festival is kept on the 11th of July. Baldwin IV., surnamed of Lille and the Pious, founded the collegiate churches of canons at Harlebeck, near Courtray, at Aire, and at Lille, in which last he was buried. His widow, Adela, after his death in 1067, went to Rome, received the religious veil from the hands of pope Alexander II., and, bringing back with her the relics of St. Sidronius, enriched with them the Benedictin nunnery of Meessene, two leagues from Ipres, which she had founded, and in which she died. See Miræi, Annales Belgici, p. 609. Adela, the foundress, is honored among the saints in this famous monastery, on the 8th of January. See Gramaye, p. 182. Lubin in Martyr. Rom.

SS. Eusebius, Nestabulus, Zeno, And Nestor, Martyrs

In the reign of Julian the Apostate, Eusebius, Nestabulus, and Zeno, three zealous Christian brothers at Gaza, were seized by the pagans in their houses, where they had concealed themselves: they were carried to prison, and inhumanly scourged. Afterward the idolators, who were assembled in the amphitheatre at the public shows, began loudly to demand the punishment of the sacrilegious criminals, as they called the confessors. By these cries the assembly soon became a tumult; and the people worked themselves into such a ferment that they ran in a fury to the prison, which they forced, and haling out the three brothers, began to drag them, sometimes on their bellies, sometimes on their backs, bruising them against the pavement, and striking them with clubs, stones, or anything that came in their way. The very women, quitting their work, ran the points of their spindles into them, and the cooks took the kettles from off the fire, poured the scalding water upon them, and pierced them with their spits. After the martyrs were thus mangled, and their skulls so broken that the ground was smeared with their brains, they were dragged out of the city to the place where the beasts were thrown that died of themselves. Here the people lighted a fire, burned the bodies, and mingled the bones that remained with those of camels and asses, that it might not be easy for the Christians to distinguish them. This cruelty only enhanced the triumph of the martyrs before God, who watches over the precious remains of his elect, to raise them again to glory. With these three brothers there was taken a young man named Nestor, who suffered imprisonment and scourging as they had done; but as the furious rioters were dragging him through the street, some persons took compassion on him on account of his great beauty and comeliness, and drew him out of the gate. He died of his wounds, within three days, in the house of Zeno, a cousin of the three martyrs, who himself was obliged to fly, and, being taken, was publicly whipped. See Theodoret, Hist. l. 3, c. 7, and Sozomen, l. 5, c. 9.

Saint Corbinian, Bishop of Frisingen, C.

He was a native of France, being born at Chatre, on the road to Orleans, and he lived a recluse fourteen years in a cell which he built in his youth, near a chapel in the same place. The fame of his sanctity, which was increased by the reputation of several miracles, and the prudence of the advice which he gave in spiritual matters to those who resorted to him, rendered his name famous over the whole country, and he admitted several fervent persons to form themselves into a religious community under his discipline. The distraction which this gave him made him think of seeking some new solitude in which he might live in his former obscurity; and his devotion to St. Peter determined him to go to Rome, and there choose a cell near the church of the prince of the apostles. The pope, whose blessing he asked, becoming acquainted with his abilities, told him he ought not to live for himself alone, whilst many nations, ripe for the harvest, were perishing for want of strenuous laborers, and ordaining him bishop, gave him a commission to preach the gospel. Corbinian was affrighted at such a language, but being taught to obey, lest he should resist the voice of God, returned first to his own country, and, by his preaching, produced great fruit among the people. In a second journey to Rome he converted many idolators in Bavaria, as he passed through that country. Pope Gregory II. sent him back from Rome into that abandoned vineyard, commanding him to make it the field of his labors. Corbinian did so, and having much increased the number of the Christians, fixed his episcopal see at Frisingen, in Upper Bavaria. Though indefatigable in his apostolic functions, he was careful not to overlay himself with more business than he could bear, lest he should forget what he owed to his own soul. He always performed the divine office with great leisure, and reserved to himself every day set hours for holy meditations, in older to recruit and improve the spiritual vigor of his soul, and to cast up his accounts before God, gathering constantly resolution of more vigilance in all his actions. Grimoald, the duke of Bavaria, who, though a Christian, was a stranger to the principles and spirit of that holy religion, had incestuously taken to wife Biltrude, his brother’s relict. The saint boldly reproved them, but found them deaf to his remonstrances, and suffered many persecutions from them, especially from the princess, who once hired assassins to murder him. They both perished miserably in a short time. After their death, St. Corbinian, who had been obliged to conceal himself for some time, returned to Frisingen, and continued his labors till his happy death, which fell out in 730. His name occurs in the Roman Martyrology. See his life, with an account of many miracles wrought by him, compiled by Aribo, his third successor in the see of Frisingen, thirty years after the saint’s death, extant in Surius, Mabillon, Acta Bened. t. 3, p. 500; and The History of Frisingen, published in folio, in the year 1724. See also Bulteau, Hist. Monast de l’Occid. t. 2, Suysken the Bollandist, p. 261.

St. Disen, Or Disibode, B. C.

This saint was a holy Irish monk, who, having in his youth grafted learning upon sanctity, illustrated not only his own island, but also France and part of Germany. By preaching he had taught many souls to walk in the narrow paths of Christian perfection in his native country, when he travelled into France about the year 652. His zealous exhortations, enforced by the weight of his example, produced wonderful fruit in all places which were blessed with his presence. Sermons infected with vanity, studied eloquence, or a worldly spirit, lose their attractive force; but sincere humility and a perfect spirit of piety, gave to the words of our saint a secret energy which opened to him the hearts of those to whom he spoke, and made the pure maxims of the gospel to sink deep into their souls. The example of his meekness, patience, and charity, softened the most hardened. St. Disibode founded the great monastery, called from him Disenberg, at present a collegiate church of canons in the diocess of Mentz; and, on account of the extraordinary success of his apostolic labors, was himself ordained a regionary bishop without any fixed see. He died about the year 700. See in Surius the history of his life and miracles, written by St. Hildegardis, abbess of Mount St. Robert, or Rupert, at Bingen, in the Lower Palatinate on the Rhine, about the year 1170. Also Solier, p. 581.

The Festival of the Holy Name of the Virgin Mary

on sunday within the octave of her nativity

This festival was appointed by pope Innocent XI., that on it the faithful may be called upon in a particular manner to recommend to God, through the intercession of the B. Virgin, the necessities of his Church, and to return him thanks for his gracious protection and numberless mercies. What gave occasion to the institution of this feast was a solemn thanksgiving for the relief of Vienna, when it was besieged by the Turks in 1683.* If we desire to deprecate the divine anger, justly provoked by our sins, with our prayers we must join the tears of sincere compunction, and a perfect conversion of our manners. This is the first grace we must always beg of God, that he would bring us to the dispositions of condign penance. Our supplications for the divine mercies, and our thanksgivings for benefits received will only thus be rendered acceptable. By no other means can we deserve the blessing of God, or be recommended to it by the patronage of his holy mother. To the invocation of Jesus it is a pious and wholesome practice to join our application to the Virgin Mary, that, through her intercession, we may more easily and more abundantly obtain the effects of our petitions. In this sense devout souls pronounce, with great affection and confidence, the holy names of Jesus and Mary.

¹ Cant. 1:4.

² Cant. 2:2.

³ Cant. 4:7.

⁴ Gen. 3:15

⁵ See Houbigand, t. 1. p. 159 Also A. Lap. ib and Bp. Sherlock, on Prephecy.

⁶ Matt. 1:16

* Θεοτόκος Deipara

⁷ Conc. t. 1, p. 853.

⁸ Grabe Proleg. In. 70

^† Θεοτόκον δὲ ὑμεῖς οὐ πὲνσεσθε Μαριαν καλοῦντες, St. Cyr. Alex. l. 8, contra Julian

^‡ The words mere and pure creature are used to except the sacred humanity of Christ, which though created, is by the hypostatical union, raised above the class of all other created beings

⁹ St. Anselm. Monol

¹⁰ Hom. 1, super Missus est. See also St. Bonaventure, Spec. B. Virginis, c. 8

¹¹ See St. Thomas Acquinas, l. p. q. 25, a 6, ad 4.

¹² Isa. 7:14, Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 3, n. 105, l. 5, Libello, 7, n. 1.

* See Abbadie, t. 2, also the dissertation on the prophecy prefixed to the new French Commentary or Isaiah, t. 8, and chiefly Houbigand (t. 4, p. 5), who sets the literal sense of the prophecy in a clear light and enforces this genuine authentic proof of the perpetual. virginity of the Mother of God

¹³ Jer. 31:22.

¹⁴ See Basnage, Annal. t. 1, p. 113.

¹⁵ L. Contra Helvid. &c.

¹⁶ Hær. 78 See on each part Nat. Alex. Hist. Eccles Witasse and Tournely, Tr de Incarn. &c.

¹⁷ Matt. 1:25.

¹⁸ Ezech. 44:2.

¹⁹ St. Jerom. 1 adv Helvid. S. Ambr. l. 2, in Luc. p. 14, 15, S. Austin, &c.

²⁰ Gen. 6.

²¹ Luke 1:35.

²² S. Hier. in c. 1, Matt.

²³ Op. imp in Matt c. 1, apud S. Chrysost.

²⁴ Ps. 44:14.

²⁵ Liber Pontificalls in Vitâ Sergii I. apud Thomassin, Tr. des Fêtes, l. 2, c. 20, et Card. Lambertini, part. 2, de Festis B. M. Virg. c. 135.

²⁶ P. 128.

²⁷ L. 2, p. 172.

²⁸ S. Ildefons. l. de Perpetuâ Virginit. B. M. Virg. t. 12, Bibl. Patr. p. 566.

* On the history of this festival see Florentinius and F Fronto, each in their notes on the old calendars, which they published; Martenne l. de Antiq. Eccles. disciplina in div. Officiis, c. 34, n. 1. Tillemont, note 4, sur la Vie de la Ste. Vierge; Baillet, Hist. de cette Fête; Pagius in Breviar. Gestorum Rom. Pontif. in Vitâ Innoc. IV. n. 18, Thomassin Tr. des Fêtes, l. 2, ch. 20, and principally Card. Prosper Lambertini. Part. 2. De Festis B. M. Virg. p. 301. cap. 131–136. Schmidius objects (Prolus. Marian.) that the feast of the B. Virgin’s Nativity is not mentioned in the Capitulars of Charlemagne; but it was certainly celebrated in Italy long before that time. Thomassin did not find the feast of the Nativity of the B. V. mentioned by any authors before Fulbert of Chartres in the year 1000; bat it is expressed on the 8th of September in the famous MS. calendar, kept in the treasury of the cathedral of Florence, written in 813. See F. Leonard Ximenes, Del Gnomene Fiorentino, at Florence in 1757. In France it is spoken of by Walter, Bp. of Or leans, in 871, cap. 18. Conc. Labb. t. 8, p. 648.

²⁹ S. Pet. Dam. Serm. 2 et 3, de Nativ. B. M. Virg.

* The Turks had formerly laid siege to Vienna, under Solyman the Magnificent, in 1529, in the reign of Charles V. But after losing sixty thousand men, and lying a month before the place, without making any considerable advances against it, they raised the siege. (See Surius in Commentariis sui temporis, anno 1529.) The danger was much more formidable when those infidels made a second attempt upon this bulwark of Germany. In the reign of the emperor Leopold. Great part of Hungary having taken up arms against that prince, the revolted cities were reduced to his obedience, and the ringleaders, the counts Nadasti and Serini, with Christopher Frangipani, were beheaded in 1671. Count Serini had in view to make himself sovereign of Hungary, and his son-in-law prince Ragotzi of Transylvania. The flame of this rebellion was only covered, not extinguished, by these executions: It soon broke out again, and Emeric, count Tekeli, who had married Ragotzi’s daughter, at the head of thirty thousand good troops, carried all before him; and the better to stand his ground, invited the Turks into Hungary, Cara Mustapha being then Grand Vizier under Sultan Mahomet IV. The opportunity was embraced by the infidels; and on the 2d of January, 1683, the fatal horse-tails, the usual ensigns of an ensuing war, were seen upon the gates of the seraglio at Adrianople, and the whole Ottoman empire was in motion, to carry fire and sword into the bosom of the German empire.

The vizier with great expedition marched through Hungary at the head of a mighty army, meeting with no opposition till he came to Raab or Javarin, a small strong town in Lower Hungary, on his road toward Vienna. This place he despised, and leaving it behind him, in the month of July, came within sight of the capital of Austria. At the view of the fire kindled in the camp of the Tartars on both sides of the Danube, the emperor, in the utmost consternation, yielding to the earnest entreaties of his generals, quitted Vienna with his empress, who was six months gone with child, and retreated with the greatest precipitation, without carrying with him either furniture, money, or jewels. The count narrowly escaped falling into the hands of the Tartars; the emperor retired first to Lintz, and finding himself not safe there, fled with equal precipitation to Passaw. In this flight the empress and her ladies were obliged to pass a whole night in a forest, where nothing but a truss of straw could be procured, and this not without difficulty, to lay her majesty upon. Tekeli joined the Turkish army with forty thousand men, and was master of Buda, and almost all Hungary.

The vizier, with one hundred and fifty thousand Turks (besides Hungarians, Transylvanians, and Tartars), sat down before Vienna, and began to open the trenches on the 14th of July. His army took up an incredible tract of ground; his own quarter was upon the little rising hills which surround the palace: in it, a display of immense riches in gold and jewels made the most splendid show amidst all the terrors of war. The infidels burnt the suburbs, with the palace called the Favorite, and the houses of the nobility in the suburb of Leopoldstadt. The fortifications of the city were at that time very weak in many places, the counterscarp was in a sad condition. The place where the attack was made, was flanked by two small bastions, and fortified by a ravelin which covered the curtain. The rampart lay close to the houses, and if the outworks and first posts had been carried, it would have been impossible for the city to have held out much longer. There was in it good store of provisions and ammunition, with skilful engineers to manage the artillery: the garrison was joined by a great number of citizens, who seemed resolved either to save their country or to perish in its ruins. The count of Staremberg, the governor, supported the drooping spirits of those that seemed to despond, and by his courage, address, and indefatigable industry, held out till succor arrived. This, however, he could not have done, had not the vizier been slow in his attacks, probably for fear of taking the city by assault, that he might preserve the plunder. All his mines were countermined; not one of them succeeded; a battery of seventy pieces of cannon was not able, in six weeks’ time, to break down one single pan of the ravelin. The duke of Lorrain, the emperor’s general, came out of Hungary with thirty thousand men; but could not attempt to relieve the besieged. The elector of Saxony joined him with ten thousand men, and the emperor implored the succors of all the Christian princes. Pope Innocent XI., and John Sobieski, king of Poland, had entered into a league the year before to support him against the common enemy. Vienna, indeed, is the key not only of Germany, but also of Italy and Poland, and a great bulwark of Christendom.

Upon the first news of the siege, Sobieski put himself In readiness to march to the relief of the place. The name of the Poles was at that time terrible to the Turks. Sigismund III., the pious and zealous king of Poland, who lost the crown of Sweden for the sake of his religion, defeated in 1611, on the banks of the Niester, an army of two hundred and ninety-two thousand Turks, commanded by the young sultan Osman in person, having killed, in different engagements, sixty thousand of their men, and twenty-five thousand in one battle. John Sobieski, whilst he was grand-marshal of the crown under king Michael, vanquished the Turks near the strong city of Kaminieck, and in several other places on the frontiers of Poland, commanded by several famous Bashaws, and by Coproli himself, so famous for his magnanimity, and for his great victories over the Christians in other parts. Being for his great merit chosen king of Poland in 1673, he, the following year, with small armies, gave the Turks so great overthrows near Leopold, Choczim, and in other places, that the vizier Coproli represented to the sultan the necessity of granting him all the conditions he required, telling him that Poland was invincible so long as the arm and fortune of Sobieski fought for it. The emperor had refused to send him succors in these wars, into which Poland had chiefly been drawn by supporting the interest of the house of Austria against the infidels, and their allies in Transylvania. King John had also received from him several affronts. Yet, on this occasion, he thought of nothing but what he owed to an ally, to all Christendom, and to God himself; and, with all possible expedition, marched towards Austria at the head of twenty-four thousand chosen men. He joined the duke of Lorrain near Ollerbrun, crossed the Danube at Tala, led his army through the narrow passes which the enemy might easily have guarded, and seized upon the mountains near Vienna, and on the castle of Claremberg, which commands the whole country. The Christian army encamped, on the 11th of September, on the tops of these mountains, and rested that whole day, that they might be fitter for action. This interval was chiefly employed in exercises of devotion.

On the 12th, early in the morning, king John, with the duke of Lorrain, heard mass in St. Leopold’s chapel, at which the king served himself, holding his arms stretched out in the form of a cross all the time, except when it was necessary to employ them in ministering to the priest. He received the holy communion, and after mass the blessing which the priest gave to him and to the whole army. Then rising from his knees, he said aloud: “Let us now march to the enemy with an entire confidence in the protection of heaven, under the assured patronage of the Blessed Virgin.” The body of the army was commanded by the electors of Bavaria and Saxony, and prince Waldec; the right wing by the king of Poland, and the left by Charles, duke of Lorrain. In this order they made a descent upon the Turks, whom they attacked on three sides. In the absence of Tekeli, whom the vizier had sent into Hungary. The different posts seized by the infidels were covered with inundations; but, notwithstanding this advantage, they were driven from them, and, by noon, Sobieski was master of all the higher ground, and prepared to fall upon the quarters of the grand vizier.

Mustapha, all this while, making a jest of the assault, was drinking coffee in his tent, with his two sons, and the cham of Tartary. He contented himself with sending a body of troops to the engagement on the side of Claremberg, and declined giving any assistance to his horse, though attacked by the whole imperial army. Whilst his troops were driven from hill to hill, he kept about him one hundred and fifty thousand men to be, as it were, spectators of the combat, and waited in a state of insensibility, as if it ha been to deliver into the hands of Sobieski the immense wealth he had brought with him from Turkey and the plunder he had gathered in his march. A mistaken confidence had blinded him, and concealed his danger from him; but as soon as he saw the standards of Sobieski so near him, he passed from one extreme of presumption to another of terror and consternation. His courage forsook him, and he had no strength left but to fly. With him the whole Turkish army fled in the utmost disorder. The Germans first entered the camp, they being nearest to it. The king reached it by six in the evening, and before night there was not a Turk to be seen. The conquerors found immense riches. Sobieski wrote to his queen, that the grand vizier had made him his sole executor. The great standard that was found in the grand vizier’s tent, made of the hair of a sea-horse, wrought with a needle, and embroidered with flowers and Arabic figures, the emperor caused afterward to be hung up in the great church at Vienna. He sent to Rome, as a present to pope Innocent XI., the standard of Mahomet, which was erected in the middle of the camp, near the grand vizier’s tent. It was of gold brocade upon a red ground, with a rim of silver and green, and a border ornamented with Arabic letters. The Turks left behind them all their artillery, consisting of one hundred and fourscore pieces of heavy ordnance. This great victory is said to have cost the Christians no more than six hundred men.

The grand vizier owed his ruin to his senseless confidence, by which he neglected to guard the passes of Claremberg, vigorously to press the siege, to behave with vigilance and address in the engagement, or to conquer Javarin before he attacked Vienna, which omission was a step contrary to all the known rules of the art of war. But this was a special effect of a merciful providence, which also inspired the Christians with wonderful courage and prudence, and protected the city from many imminent dangers, especially from the following fatal accident. The stately and rich church of the Scots in Vienna was consumed by fire, and the flames reached the arsenal in which the powder and ammunition were laid up. Had this magazine been blown up, a breach had been made in the ramparts, and the city would have fallen a prey to the furious enemy. But the flame stopped on a sudden of itself, and the citizens had time enough to remove the powder and ammunition. This happened on the feast of the Assumption of our Lady, whose patronage the faithful most earnestly implored in this time of distress, in imitation of St. Pius V. before the battle of Lepanto.

Sobieski, after his victory, upon his entrance into Vienna, went directly and presented himself before the altar, to return thanks to God, and joined in the Te Deum that was sung, with his countenance fixed upon the ground, and with the most lively __EXPRESSION__s of humility, gratitude, and devotion. In the streets, whilst the people were busied in proclaiming his praises, and looking upon him with astonishment, the king attributed the whole success of his arms to God. The emperor returned into his capital on the 14th day of the same month, and assisted at a second Te Deum; but, by his haughty behavior towards his deliverer, seemed to think it beneath him to acknowledge so great an obligation. However he afterward excused himself by a letter to the young prince James Sobieski, who attended his father, saying that the remembrance of his past dangers, and the sight of the prince to whom he owed his preservation, had made at once such an impression upon him, as to render him in a manner insensible. Sobieski had too much greatness of soul to take notice of vain ceremonies, or punctilios of courts, and with his Poles pursued the Ottoman army. He came up with them near Gran, at the fort and bridge of Barkham upon the Danube, but being overpowered by numbers, was repulsed with some loss. The Turks, thinking he had been slain in this engagement, took courage, and prepared themselves to destroy his whole army; but two days after, on the 11th of October, the king fell upon them with such courage, and in so good order, that they were entirely routed, and lost on that day twelve thousand men. Sobieski wrested some places out of the hands of the infidels in Hungary, beat forty thousand Turks and Tartars near Filgrotin, and returned to Warsaw crowned with laurels. In 1686, he led a victorious army through Moldavia, and many other countries subject to the Turks, over whom he gained several advantages; and though Cantemir, the perfidious Hospodar, contrary to his treaty, sided with the infidels, the king was everywhere successful, and conducted his army safe home through deserts, rocks, woods, narrow lanes, and over part of the Krapack mountains, with so much skill and order, as to outdo the famous retreat of the ten thousand Greeks from Persia. Yet this great king was treated with ingratitude both by the emperor and his own subjects. He died of a dropsy in the year 1696, of his age seventy-two. The victories of Sobieski over the Turks saved Christendom. The house of Austria have from that time gained great advantages over them by the bravery and conduct of several renowned generals, namely, Charles, duke of Lorrain, Maximillan, duke of Bavaria, prince Louis of Baden, and prince Eugene of Savoy. The Turks yielded to the emperor Leopold the greatest part of Hungary by the peace of Carlowitz in 1698. See Abbé Des Fontaines, Mr. Savage, and F Barre, Hist. d’Allemagne, t. 10; Vienna obsessa, &c.

 Butler, A. (1903). The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints (Vol. 3, pp. 618–627). New York: P. J. Kenedy.