(A.D. 1242.)
[Roman and Benedictine Martyrology, those of Menardus, Ferrarius,
&c. Authority:--An old contemporary life, falsely attributed to
Atto, B. of Pistoria.]
Verdiana was the child of poor, though well-born parents; and her
knowledge of the sufferings of the poor from her own experience in
early years made her ever full of pity for those in need. At twelve
years old she was noted for her beautiful and modest countenance, and
humble deportment. A wealthy relation, a count, took her into his
house, and made her wait upon his wife. Her strict probity and
scrupulous discharge of her duties so gained the confidence of her
master and mistress, that they entrusted to her the entire management
of their house. One day that there was a famine raging in the diocese
of Florence, and the poor were in extreme distress, the girl saw some
miserable wretches dying from exhaustion at the door. Her master had a
vessel of beans, and she hastily emptied the box, and fed the starving
wretches with them. This would have been an act of questionable
morality, were it not for the extremity of the case, when, to save
life, an act is justified which would have been unjust were there no
such an imperious necessity. Her master had, in the meantime, sold the
beans, and he shortly after returned with the money. He went to the
vessel, to send it to the purchaser, but found it empty. "Then," says
the contemporary writer, "he began to shout and storm against the
servants, and make such a to-do as to cause great scandal in the house
and among the neighbours. Now when all the house was turned
topsy-turvy about these beans, and was in an uproar, the lord's
hand-maiden, with great confidence, betook herself to prayer, and
spent the night in supplication. And on the morrow, the vessel was
found full of beans as before. Then the master was called, and she
bade him abstain for the future from such violence, for Christ who had
received the beans had returned them."
By the kindness of the Count, her relative, she was enabled to make a
pilgrimage to S. James, of Compostella, in company with a pious lady.
On her return, she resolved to adopt the life of a recluse, and after
long preparation, and a visit to Rome, where she spent three years,
she obtained the desire of her heart, and received the veil from the
hands of a canon of the Church of Castel Fiorentino, her native place,
and bearing the Cross, preceded and followed by all the clergy and
people, she was conducted to her cell, and, having been admitted into
it, the door was walled up. In this cell she spent many years,
conversing with those who visited her, and receiving her food through
a window, through which, also, the priest communicated her. Two large
snakes crept in at this window, one day, and thenceforth took up their
abode with her. She received these fellow-comrades with great
repugnance, but overcame it, and fed them from her own store of
provisions. They would glide forth when no one was near, but never
failed to return for the night, and when she took her meals. On one
occasion they were injured by some peasants who pursued them with
sticks and stones. Verdiana healed them, nevertheless the rustics
attacked them again, killed one, and drove the other away, so that it
never returned to the cell of the recluse.
When the holy woman felt that the hour of her release approached, she
made her last confession and received the Blessed Sacrament through
her window, and then closing it opened her psalter, and began to
recite the penitential psalms. Next morning the people finding the
window closed, and receiving no answer to their taps, broke into the
cell, and found her dead, kneeling with eyes and hands upraised to
heaven, and the psalter before her open at the psalm _Miserere mihi_,
"Have mercy upon me, O God! after Thy great goodness; and according to
the multitude of Thy mercies, do away mine offences."
[1] Vincent of Beauvais, and other late writers, say that the name of
God was found after his death written in gold letters on his heart;
but this is only one instance of the way in which legends have been
coined to explain titles, the spiritual significance of which was not
considered sufficiently wondrous for the vulgar.
[2] Lib. vi. c. 8.
[3] De Bel. Jud. vii. 3.
[4] As S. Ephraem related the incident several times to his monks, and
they wrote it down from what he had related, there exist several
versions of the story slightly differing from one another.
[5] Hist. Eccl. lib. iii. c. 16.
[6] Moreover it contradicts the positive statements of more reliable
authors, that Bridget was the legitimate daughter of Brotseach, the
wife of Dubtach.
[7] But this legend is given very differently in another Life, and
Cogitosus and the first and fourth Lives do not say anything about it.
[8] As near as can be ascertained; see Lanigan, Eccl. Hist. of
Ireland, vol. 1, p. 455.
[Illustration: Tomb of Joshua. _From the Greek Menology._]
February 2.
The Purification of S. Mary.
S. CORNELIUS, _the Centurion, B. of Cæsarea, 1st cent._
S. FLOSCULUS, _B. of Orleans, circ._ A.D. 500.
S. LAURENCE, _Abp. of Canterbury_, A.D. 619.
S. ADALBALD, _C. in Belgium and Aquitaine_, A.D. 652.
S. ADELOGA, _V. Abss. at Kitzingen, 8th cent._
SS. MARTYRS, _of Ebbecksdorf_, A.D. 880.
B. PETER CAMBIAN, _O. S.D., M. in Piedmont_, A.D. 1365.
THE PURIFICATION OF S. MARY, OR THE
PRESENTATION OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE.
The purification is a double feast, partly in memory of the B.
Virgin's purification, this being the fortieth day after the birth of
her Son, which she observed according to the Law (Leviticus xii. 4),
though there was no need for such a ceremony, she having contracted no
defilement through her childbearing. Partly also in memory of Our
Lord's presentation in the temple, which the Gospel for the day
commemorates.
The Old Law commanded, that a woman having conceived by a man, if she
brought forth a male child, should remain forty days retired in her
house, as unclean; at the end of which she should go to the temple to
be purified, and offer a lamb and a turtle dove; but, if she were
poor, a pair of turtle doves or pigeons, desiring the priest to pray
to God for her. This law the Blessed Virgin accomplished (Luke ii. 12)
with the exercise of admirable virtues; especially did she exhibit her
obedience, although she knew that she was not obliged to keep the law,
yet, inasmuch as her Son had consented to be circumcised, though He
needed it not, so did she stoop to fulfil the law, lest she should
offend others. She also exhibited her humility, in being willing to be
treated as one unclean, and as one that stood in need of being
purified, as if she had not been immaculate. Among the Greeks, the
festival goes by the name of _Hypapante_, which denotes the meeting of
our Lord by Symeon and Anna, in the temple; in commemoration of which
occurrence it was first made a festival in the Church by the emperor
Justinian I., A.D. 542. The emperor is said to have instituted it on
occasion of an earthquake, which destroyed half the city of
Pompeiopolis, and of other calamities. It was considered in the Greek
Church as one of the feasts belonging to her Lord (Despotikaì
Heortaì). The name of the Purification was given to it in the 9th
century by the Roman pontiffs. In the Greek Church the prelude of this
festival, which retains its first name, Hypapante, is "My soul doth
magnify the Lord, for He hath regarded the lowliness of his
hand-maiden;" and a festival of Symeon and Anna is observed on the
following day.
[Illustration: PURIFICATION OF S. MARY THE VIRGIN.
From the Great Missal. Feb. 2.]
In the Western Church it has usually been called "Candlemas Day," from
the custom of lighting up churches with tapers and lamps in
remembrance of our Saviour having been this day declared by Symeon to
be "a light to lighten the Gentiles." Processions were used with a
similar object, of which S. Bernard gives the following
description:--"We go in procession, two by two, carrying candles in
our hands, which are lighted not at a common fire, but a fire first
blessed in the church by a bishop. They that go out first return last;
and in the way we sing, 'Great is the glory of the Lord.' We go two by
two in commendation of charity and a social life; for so our Saviour
sent out his disciples. We carry light in our hands: first, to signify
that our light should shine before men; secondly, this we do on this
day, especially, in memory of the Wise Virgins (of whom this blessed
Virgin is the chief) that went to meet their Lord with their lamps lit
and burning. And from this usage and the many lights set up in the
church this day, it is called Candelaria, or Candlemas. Because our
works should be all done in the holy fire of charity, therefore the
candles are lit with holy fire. They that go out first return last, to
teach humility, 'in humility preferring one another.' Because God
loveth a cheerful giver, therefore we sing in the way. The procession
itself is to teach us that we should not stand idle in the way of
life, but proceed from virtue to virtue, not looking back to that
which is behind, but reaching forward to that which is before."
The Purification is a common subject of representation in Christian
art, both Eastern and Western. From the evident unsuitableness of the
mystery of the Circumcision to actual representation, it is not
usually depicted in works of art, and the Presentation in the Temple
has been generally selected, with better taste, for this purpose. The
prophecy of Symeon, "Yea, a sword shall pierce through Thine own soul
also," made to the blessed Virgin, is the first of her seven sorrows.
The Christian rite of "The Churching of Women" is a perpetuation of
the ancient ceremony required by the Mosaic Law. How long a particular
office has been used in the Christian Church, for the thanksgiving and
benediction of woman after child-birth, it would be difficult to say;
but it is probably most ancient, since we find that all the Western
rituals, and those of the patriarchate of Constantinople, contain such
an office. The Greeks appoint three prayers for the mother on the
first day of the child's birth. On the eighth day, the nurse brings
the child to church, and prayer is made for him before the entrance to
the nave. On the fortieth day, the mother and the future sponsor at
the child's baptism bring the child. After an introductory service of
the usual kind, the mother, holding the child, bows her head; the
priest crosses the child, and touching his head, says, "Let us pray
unto the Lord; O Lord God Almighty, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who didst create by Thy word all creatures, rational and
irrational, who didst bring into being all things out of nothing; we
beseech and entreat Thee, purify from all sin and pollution this Thy
handmaid, whom by Thy will, Thou hast preserved and permitted to enter
into Thy holy Church; that she may be deemed worthy to partake,
without condemnation, of Thy holy mysteries." (If the child has not
survived, the prayer ends here; if it be alive, the priest continues),
"And bless the child born of her. Increase, sanctify, direct, teach,
guide him; for Thou hast brought him to the birth and hast shown him
the light of this world; that so he may be deemed worthy of the mental
light at the time that Thou hast ordained, and be numbered among Thy
holy flock: through Thy only begotten Son, with whom Thou art blessed,
together with Thy all-holy, good, life-giving Spirit, now, always, and
for ever and ever."
Other prayers referring to the mother of the child follow. Allusion is
made to the presentation of Christ, in the Temple. The child is taken
in the priest's arms to various parts of the church as an introduction
to the sanctuary. A boy is taken to the altar; a girl only to the
central door of the screen. There is a separate form in case of
miscarriage.
[Illustration: THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. After Fra Angelico. Feb. 2.]