ALL states furnish abundant means for attaining to sanctity and
Christian perfection, and it is only, owing to our sloth and tepidity
that we neglect to make use of them. This saint could boast of no
worldly advantages either by birth or fortune.[1] Her parents maintained
their family by hard labor in a village near Milan, and were both very
pious; her father never sold a horse, or any thing else he dealt in,
without being more careful to acquaint the purchaser with all that was
secretly faulty in it, than to recommend its good qualities. His narrow
circumstances prevented his giving his daughter any schooling, so that
she never learned to read; but his own, and his devout wife's example,
and fervent though simple instructions, filled her tender heart from the
cradle with lively sentiments of virtue. The pious {136} maid from her
infancy applied herself to continual prayer, was very attentive to the
instructions given in the catechism; and the uninterrupted consideration
of the holy mysteries, and the important truths of religion, engrossed
her whole soul to themselves. She was, notwithstanding, of all others,
the most diligent and indefatigable in labor; and so obedient to her
parents and masters, even in the smallest trifles, so humble and
submissive to her equals, that she seemed to have no will of her own.
Her food was coarse and very sparing, and her drink the same which the
poorer sort of people used in that country, water, except sometimes
whey, or a little milk. At her work she continually conversed in her
heart with God; insomuch that in company she seemed deaf to their
discourses, mirth, and music. When she was weeding, reaping, or at any
other labor in the fields, she strove to work at a distance from her
companions, to entertain herself the more freely with her heavenly
spouse. The rest admired her love of solitude, and on coming to her,
always found her countenance cheerful, yet often bathed in tears, which
they sometimes perceived to flow in great abundance; though they did not
know the source to be devotion: so carefully did Veronica conceal what
passed in her soul between her and God.
Through a divine call to a religious and conventual state of life, she
conceived a great desire to become a nun, in the poor, austere, and
edifying convent of St. Martha, of the order of St. Austin in Milan. To
qualify herself for this state, being busied the whole day at work, she
sat up at night to learn to read and write, which the want of an
instructor made a great fatigue to her. One day being in great anxiety
about her learning, the Mother of God, to whom she had always
recommended herself, in a comfortable vision bade her banish that
anxiety; for it was enough if she knew three letters: The first, purity
of the affections, by placing her whole heart on God alone, loving no
creature, but in him and for him; the second, never to murmur, or be
impatient at the sins, or any behavior of others, but to bear them with
interior peace and patience, and humbly to pray for them; the third, to
set apart some time every day to meditate on the passion of Christ.
After three years' preparation, she was admitted to the religious habit
in St. Martha's. Her life was entirely uniform, perfect, and fervent in
every action, no other than a living copy of her rule, which consisted
in the practice of evangelical perfection reduced to certain holy
exercises. Every moment of her life she studied to accomplish it to the
least tittle, and was no less exact in obeying the order or direction of
any superior's will. When she could not obtain leave to watch in the
church so long as she desired, by readily complying, she deserved to
hear from Christ, that obedience was a sacrifice the most dear to him,
who, to obey his Father's will, came down from heaven, _becoming
obedient even unto death_.[2]
She lay three years under a lingering illness, all which time she would
never be exempted from any duty of the house, or part of her work, or
make use of the least indulgence, though she had leave; her answer
always was, "I must work while I can, while I have time." It was her
delight to help and serve every one. She always sought with admirable
humility the last place, and the greatest drudgery. It was her desire to
live always on bread and water. Her silence was a sign of her
recollection and continual prayer, in which her gift of abundant and
almost continual tears was most wonderful. She nourished them by
constant meditation on her own miseries, on the love of God, the joys of
heaven, and the sacred passion of Christ. She always spoke of her own
sinful life, as she called it, though it was most innocent, with the
most feeling sentiments of compunction. She was favored by God with many
extraordinary visits and {137} comforts. By moving exhortations to
virtue, she softened and converted several obdurate sinners. She died at
the hour which she had foretold, in the year 1497, and the fifty-second
of her age. Her sanctity was confirmed by miracles. Pope Leo X., by a
bull in 1517, permitted her to be honored in her monastery in the same
manner as if she had been beatified according to the usual form. The
bull may be seen in Bollandus.[3] Her name is inserted on this day in
the Roman Martyrology, published by Benedict XIV., in the year 1749; but
on the 28th of this month, in that of the Austin friars, approved by the
same pope.
* * * * *
Christian perfection consists very much in the performance of our
ordinary actions, and the particular duties of our respective stations.
God, as the good father and great master of the family of the world,
allots to every one his proper place and office in it; and it is in this
variety of states by which it subsists; and in their mutual dependence
upon each other, that its good order and beauty consist. It is the most
holy and wise appointment of providence and the order of nature, that
the different stations in the world be filled. Kings and subjects, rich
and poor, reciprocally depend upon each other; and it is the command of
God that every one perform well the part which is assigned him. It is,
then, by the constant attendance on all the duties of his state, that a
person is to be sanctified. By this all his ordinary actions will be
agreeable sacrifices to God, and his whole life a continued chain of
good works. It is not only in great actions, or by fits and starts, but
in all that we do, and in every moment, that we are bound to live to
God. The regulation of this point is of essential importance in a
virtuous life, that every action may be performed with regularity,
exactitude in all its circumstances, and the utmost fervor, and by the
most pure motive, referred solely to divine honor, in union with the
most holy actions and infinite merits of Christ. Hence St. Hilary
says,[4] "When the just man performs all his actions, with a pure and
simple view to the divine honor and glory, as the apostle admonishes us,[5]
his whole life becomes an uninterrupted prayer; and as he passes his
days and nights in the accomplishment of the divine will, it is true to
say, that the whole course of a holy life is a constant meditation on
the law of God." Nevertheless this axiom, that the best devotion is the
constant practice of a person's ordinary duties, is abused by some, to
excuse a life of dissipation. Every one is bound to live to himself in
the first place, and to reserve leisure for frequent exercises of
devotion; and it is only by a spirit of perfect self-denial, humility,
compunction, and prayer, and by an assiduous attention of the soul to
God, that our exterior ordinary actions will be animated by the motives
of divine faith and charity, and the spirit of true piety nourished in
our breasts; in this consists the secret of a Christian life in all
states.
Footnotes:
1. The print of the holy face of our Saviour on a linen cloth, is kept
in Saint Peter's church at Rome, with singular veneration. It is
mentioned in an ancient ceremonial of that church, dedicated to
Celestin II. in 1143, published by Mabillon, (Museum Ital. t 2 p.
122;) also in Matthew of Westminster, Flores Hist. under Innocent
III. who died in 1216; and in a Bull of Nicholas IV. in 1290. It was
called Veronica, or true image of our Lord's face, from Vera and
Iconica, a word used by St. Gregory of Tours. (Vit. Patr. c, 12.)
for an image, from the Greek word Icon. Some moderns imagine that it
served at the burial of out Lord; others say, that a devout woman
wiped his face with it, when he was fainting under the load of his
cross, going to mount Calvary. In some particular missals, as in
that of Mentz in 1493, among the votive masses, is one "de Sancta
Veronica sei vultu Domini," in the same manner as there is a mass,
"On the cross." Such devotions are directed to honor our Lord, with
a remembrance of this relic, memorial, or pledge. From this office
of the Veronica is taken an Anthem and Prayer which are said in some
private churches, as a commemoration of the holy face of Lucca,
which is a very ancient and miraculous crucifix, in the chapel of
the Holy Cross, in the cathedral dedicated to St. Martin at Lucca. A
copy of the true Veronica is kept in the Cistercian nunnery at
Montreuil, a present of Urban IV. to this house, his sister being a
nun there. See his letter to them in Chiffleter, "de Linteis
sepulchralibus Domini." This letter was dated in 1249, when the
author was archdeacon and chaplain to Innocent IV. Some private
writers and churches have given the name of St. Veronica to the
devout woman who is said to have presented this linen cloth to our
divine Redeemer; but without sufficient warrant. See Rapebroch Matt.
t. 7, p. 356, n. 126, and Chatelain. Notes on the Martyr, on Jan.
13, pp. 201, 222.
2. Phil. ii. 8.
3. T. 1, p. 889.
4. S. Hilar. in Ps. i. p. 20.
5. 1 Cor. x. 31.