and is nearly always unmistakable. He may be distinguished by his
habit, which is grey or dark brown, girded by a hempen cord. He bears
the stigmata in his hands and feet and is often portrayed in the act
of opening his tunic to display the wound in his side. The stigmata
distinguishes him from all other saints wearing the same habit.
Sometimes he has the crucifix and the skull. The lamb and the lily are
also given him as symbols of meekness and purity. When St. Francis and
St. Dominick are pictured together the crucifix is given to the former
and the lily to St. Dominick.
=St. Clara.= _Ital._ Santa Chiara. _Fr._ Sainte Claire.
St. Clara was born in Assisi of noble parents, who desired her to
marry; but, inspired by the example of St. Francis, she fled to him
for counsel, and he advised her to renounce the world. She took refuge
in the convent of San Paolo, whither her kinsmen pursued her, and in
vain tried to drag her away. Soon after, her younger sister, Agnes, and
other ladies of high rank joined her, and finally her mother, and thus
was formed the Order of “Poor Clares,” Franciscan nuns, who followed
the Rule of St. Francis, in all its austerity. A lifelong friendship
existed between St. Clara and St. Francis, and he invariably turned to
her for consolation in those periods of despondency which afflicted his
soul.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA.—SCHOOL OF GIOTTO
(Basilica of S. Antonio, Padua.)]
At one time, when the Saracens attacked the convent of San Damiano, and
the nuns were filled with terror and despair, St. Clara, who had been
bed-ridden, arose, took from the altar the pyx containing the Host,
placed it on the threshold, and kneeling began to sing, “Thou hast
rebuked the heathen,” etc., whereupon the barbarians, panic-stricken,
fled. The fame of this miracle spread, so that people came from far and
wide to obtain the prayers and intercession of Clara. The pope himself
visited her, and solemnly confirmed the Rule of her order. At the age
of sixty, she expired in a kind of trance in which she heard angels’
voices calling her. She was canonised in 1256.
When she carries the palm it is not as martyr, but is the palm of
victory over suffering. She bears the lily, and is distinguished from
other saints with the same emblem by her grey habit and the cord of St.
Francis. In devotional pictures she is young and beautiful. She wears
the habit of her order—the grey tunic, the knotted girdle, and the
black veil. Her peculiar attribute is the pyx, containing the Host, in
allusion to the miraculous deliverance from the Saracens.
=St. Anthony of Padua.= _Lat._ Sanctus Antonius Thaumaturgus. _Spa._
San Antonio de Padua. _Ital._ Sant’ Antonio di Padova, Il Santo.
St. Anthony was completely imbued with the spirit of St. Francis, and
his popularity in religious art is nearly as great. He was a Portuguese
by birth, and having entered the Franciscan Order, went to Morocco as
a missionary, but became very ill there, and was obliged to return to
Europe. Contrary winds drove him to the coast of Italy, and he came to
Assisi when St. Francis was holding the first General Chapter of his
Order.
St. Anthony’s learning and ability made him of great value to St.
Francis as a coadjutor, and for some time he taught divinity in the
universities of Paris, Toulouse, Bologna, and Padua, but finally gave
up teaching altogether to become a preacher to the people. Owing to his
persuasive eloquence and skill in argument, crowds came to hear him
wherever he went, and his followers have ascribed many miracles to him,
before and after his death. He died in his thirty-sixth year, and the
next year was canonised by Pope Gregory IX., and the magnificent church
at Padua was begun in his honour.
In art he is a young man with a mild, melancholy countenance, without
beard, and wearing the habit and cord of St. Francis. His usual
attributes are the lily and the crucifix—the lily sometimes twined
around the crucifix. In pictures of the Siena school he holds in his
hand a flame of fire, symbol of his ardent piety. He is often pictured
as caressing the Infant Christ, who is seen standing on his book, or
he holds Him in his arms. It is related that at one time as he was
explaining to his hearers the mystery of the Incarnation the form of
the Infant Christ descended and stood upon his book. This is called the
“Vision of St. Anthony of Padua,” and is often represented in art.
The legend of the mule is one of the most popular miracles of St.
Anthony and is a frequent subject for pictures painted for the
Franciscan churches. Bovadilla, a heretic, doubting the real presence
in the sacrament, demanded of St. Anthony a miracle in proof of this
favourite dogma of the Church. St. Anthony saw Bovadilla’s mule, and
commanded it to fall on its knees as he carried the Host in procession.
The mule obeyed instantly, and in spite of its master’s efforts to
tempt it aside by a sieve full of oats, remained kneeling until the
Sacred Host had passed.
=St. Bonaventura=, called the _Seraphic Doctor_, is regarded as one
of the greatest lights of the Roman Catholic Church. He was born in
Tuscany, and was so ill when an infant that his life was despaired
of. His mother took him to St. Francis and begged him to intercede
with his prayers for the life of her child. When St. Francis saw him
he exclaimed, _O buona ventura!_ and the mother, in gratitude for his
recovery, dedicated him to God by the name of Bonaventura.
He entered the Franciscan Order and completed his theological studies
in Paris. There he was greatly honoured by Louis IX. (Saint Louis) and
in a few years became known as one of the greatest writers and teachers
in the Church. He faithfully practised all the precepts of his order
and his humility was such that he hardly dared present himself to
receive the sacrament, feeling himself unworthy; so, in the legends,
angels are represented bringing it to him.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
ST. BONAVENTURA.—A. BRONZINO
(Academy, Florence.)]
In 1256 he was made General of the Franciscan Order and restored the
harmony which had previously been threatened by factional dissensions.
He declined the archbishopric of York, but later Gregory X. made
him Cardinal and Bishop of Albano. When the two nuncios of the pope
brought him the cardinal’s hat they found him in the garden of a little
Franciscan convent near Florence, washing the plate from which he had
just dined. He told them to hang the hat on the bough of a tree until
he could take it in his hands. Hence in pictures of this saint the
cardinal’s hat is often seen hanging on a branch of a tree. He died at
the age of fifty-three and was buried in the Franciscan Church at
Lyons, and was canonised by Sixtus IV. in 1462. During the wars of the
League, the Huguenots broke into his shrine and threw his ashes into
the river Saône.
According to a Spanish legend, having left his _Life of St. Francis_
unfinished when he died, he returned to earth for three days and
completed it.
In devotional pictures, sometimes he wears the cope over the grey habit
of his order, with the mitre on his head, as Bishop of Albano, and the
cardinal’s hat at his feet, or on the branch of a tree. Sometimes he
wears only the Franciscan habit, and carries the sacramental cup in
his hand, or it is borne by an angel. Occasionally he is attired in
the crimson robes and hat of a cardinal, with a book in his hand, the
symbol of his great learning.
=St. Louis of France.= _Lat._ Sanctus Ludovicus Rex. _Ital._ San Luigi,
Rè di Francia.
Louis IX. was born at Poissy in 1215. He was the son of Louis VIII. and
Blanche of Castile—the Louis and Blanche who figure in Shakespeare’s
_King John_. Gibbon says of St. Louis that he united the virtues of a
king, a hero, and a man. Voltaire said of him, _Il n’est guère donné
a l’homme de pousser la vertu plus loin._ He had the most intense
veneration for relics, and when Baldwin II. approached him for aid,
he at once granted him “succors in men and money” in exchange for the
“holy crown of thorns.” Louis, barefoot and bareheaded, brought this
precious relic himself from Sens to Paris; and having obtained also a
small piece of the true cross, he built for these treasures the chapel
since called _La Sainte Chapelle_ (Paris).
In 1247, after a dangerous illness, he sent for the Archbishop of Paris
and asked for the cross of a crusader, and, in spite of the grief and
remonstrances of friends, as soon as his health permitted he sailed
for Egypt with an army of fifty thousand men, including the flower of
the French nobility. Most of his followers perished, and Louis was
taken prisoner. His belief in the goodness of his cause never wavered,
however. When ransomed he spent three years in Palestine, and then
returned to France, where he reigned sixteen years and then, never
having laid aside the cross, he started on a second crusade, landing
in Africa. His troops, affected by the climate, perished miserably;
and Louis died in his tent, lying upon ashes, and wearing the garb of
a penitent. He was canonised by Boniface VIII. in 1297, twenty-seven
years after his death. Part of his body was carried by Charles of Anjou
to Palermo, and placed in the church of Monreale; the rest was placed
in a shrine at St. Denis, which was destroyed in the first French
revolution.
Pictures of St. Louis are found in Franciscan churches, the Franciscans
claiming that he put on the habit of the “Third Order of Penitence”
before starting on his first crusade, and that he died in the habit and
cord of St. Francis.
The proper attribute of St. Louis is the crown of thorns, which he
holds in one hand, his sword in the other, and the royal crown and
sceptre at his feet. When painted in the grey habit and cord of the
Franciscans, he wears the crown of royalty.
=St. Louis of Toulouse.= _Ital._ San Ludovico Vescovo.
Louis of Anjou was the nephew of St. Louis, King of France, and son of
Charles of Anjou, King of Naples and Sicily. When Louis was fourteen,
his father was taken prisoner by the King of Aragon, and was obliged
to deliver up his three sons as hostages. Louis spent several years in
captivity, and the hardships he endured broke his gentle spirit, and,
on regaining his freedom in 1294, he resigned all his rights to the
kingdom of Naples to his brother Robert, and entered the Order of St.
Francis. Soon afterwards he was made Bishop of Toulouse and set out for
his new office barefooted, and dressed as a friar. Although his life
there was short, he endeared himself to his people by his gentleness
and charity. Two years later he died, in his twenty-fourth year, in
his father’s castle in Provence, where he had gone on a charitable
mission. He was canonised in 1317 by Pope John XXII., and his remains
are enshrined at Valencia.
In art he is represented as young, beardless, and of gentle face,
wearing the episcopal robes over the Franciscan habit. The fleur-de-lys
is embroidered on his cope, or on some part of his dress. The crown he
resigned is at his feet. He wears the mitre as bishop, or carries it in
his hand, or it is borne by an angel.
=St. Bernardino of Siena.= This saint was born of a noble Sienese
family, and from his youth upward was distinguished for his personal
beauty and grace, united to such intelligence and purity of character,
that his presence alone sufficed to restrain and hush the most vulgar
of tongue. At seventeen, he entered a confraternity that cared for the
poor and the sick, and when a pestilence broke out in Siena, he and
twelve other young men took entire charge of the plague hospital for
four months. He escaped the contagion, but his health was never strong
afterwards.
He entered the Franciscan Order at twenty-three, and became one of
their most celebrated preachers. His influence for good was unbounded,
and his hearers, even the hardest sinners, were melted to tears.
Thieves made restitution; gamblers threw away their cards; enemies
became reconciled, and women cast their jewels at his feet. Wherever
he went he preached peace, and when preaching he held in his hand a
tablet on which was the name of Jesus in a circle of golden rays.[10] A
manufacturer of cards and dice complained to Bernardino that since his
preaching his business had been ruined. The saint advised him to make
these tablets instead, and sell them to the people; which he did, and
the desire for them became so general that he realised a fortune. St.
Bernardino is said to have founded the _Monte-di-Pietà_, for lending
money on small pledges to the very poor. These institutions are still
called in France _Monts-de-Piété_. He was founder of a reformed Order
of Franciscans, called in Italy _Osservanti_ because they _observed_
the Rule of St. Francis, went barefoot, and professed absolute poverty.
He refused three bishoprics, and died at Aquila in the Abruzzi, where
his remains are enshrined in the church of San Francesco. He was
canonised by Pope Nicholas V. in 1450, and is venerated throughout all
of Italy.
In devotional figures his peculiar attribute is the tablet, with I. H.
S. encircled with rays, which he holds in his hand. Another attribute
is the _Monte-di-Pietà_, a little green hill of three mounds, and
on the top a cross or standard, on which is the figure of the dead
Saviour—usually called in Italy a _Pietà_. Sometimes three mitres, in
allusion to the three bishoprics, he refused.
=St. Dominick.= _Lat._ Sanctus Dominicus. _Ital._ San Domenico. _Spa._
San Domingo. _Fr._ Saint Dominique.
This saint was the founder of the Order of Dominicans or Preaching
Friars, and was a Castilian of an illustrious family. Before he was
born his mother dreamed that she had given birth to a black and white
dog holding a lighted torch in its mouth. At his baptism a star
descended from heaven and settled on his brow. These were interpreted
as signs that he would be a light to the world and he early showed his
ascetic and saintly nature.
He studied theology at Valencia and became a canon of St. Augustine
while still very young. When about thirty, he went to France on a
political mission with the Bishop of Osma, and passed through the land
of the Albigenses. Their heresies were so shocking to Dominick that he
felt that his vocation lay in forming an order of preachers for the
conversion of heretics. He went to Rome in 1207 and obtained permission
from the pope to preach in the Vaudois to the Albigenses. Here miracles
aided him. A writing of Dominick’s, defending the Catholic faith,
thrice cast into the fire, is said to have thrice leaped out uninjured,
while a writing of the heretics was instantly consumed. This converted
many.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
ST. DOMINICK. DETAIL FROM THE CRUCIFIXION.—FRA ANGELICO
(San Marco, Florence.)]
A fierce religious war broke out about this time against the
Albigenses. How far Dominick took part in this is hotly disputed. For
several centuries public opinion considered him the founder of the
Inquisition, and it was believed that he directed the persecutions from
the beginning. His defenders, however, assert that he was filled with
horror at the barbarities committed in the name of Christ. St. Dominick
instituted the rosary, which was received with enthusiasm and made
more converts than all his orthodoxy. He founded many convents in the
principal cities of Europe, preaching wherever he went. Bologna became
the chief Dominican centre, and here St. Dominick died in 1221, worn
out by his labours. He was canonised in 1233 by Gregory IX.
The devotional figures of St. Dominick represent him in his habit—the
white tunic, white scapulary, and long black cloak with a hood. In
one hand a book, in the other a lily. A star is on his forehead, or
just above his head. The dog with a flaming torch in its mouth is his
peculiar attribute, but in pictures is often omitted.
=St. Peter Martyr.= St. Peter the Dominican. _Fr._ Saint Pierre le
Dominican, Martyr. _Ital._ San Pietro or San Pier Martire.
He was born at Verona in 1205. His parents belonged to the heretical
sect of the _Cathari_, but sent Peter to a Catholic school, and
St. Dominick persuaded him to take the Dominican habit at the age
of fifteen. He became an eminent preacher and was noted for his
intolerance and cruelty to the heretics with whom he had formerly been
associated. Pope Honorius III. made him Inquisitor General. He was
not loved in his lifetime even by his own brotherhood, and his harsh
persecutions made him universally detested. Finally two noblemen, who
had suffered at his hands, hired assassins to waylay him in a wood
through which he and a lay brother must pass on their way from Como to
Milan. Peter was struck down by a blow from an axe. Then the ruffians
pursued his attendant, and stabbed him. Returning, they found that
Peter had risen to his knees and was reciting the Apostles’ Creed; or,
as others say, was writing it on the ground with his blood. He had just
finished the word _Credo_ when they rushed on him, and pierced him
through with a sword. He was canonised in 1253 and is one of the most
popular saints in Italy.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
ST. PETER MARTYR.—FRA ANGELICO
(San Marco, Florence.)]
In devotional art, he wears the Dominican habit, carries the crucifix
as preacher, and the palm as martyr, which, if not in his hand, is at
his feet. His peculiar attribute is the gash in his head, with blood
trickling from it, or the axe or sabre stuck into his head.
=St. Thomas Aquinas.= _Ital._ San Tomaso di Aquino, Dottore Angelico.
St. Thomas Aquinas, called the “Angelic Doctor,” ranks with the
Four Great Doctors of the Western Church. He was born at Belcastro
in 1226. He was of noble lineage, his father being Count of Aquino,
and connected both by descent and marriage with several of the royal
families of Europe. Thomas was sent to the Benedictines at Mt. Cassino,
where he showed himself so precocious that when ten years of age his
masters declared they could teach him no more. The splendour of his
father’s home filled him with humility, rather than pride. He was
gentle, thoughtful, and silent, and from childhood was remarkable for
the sweetness of his temper.
After a few years, he was sent to the new University of Naples, where
he was noted for his devotion to study and the singular purity of his
life. At seventeen he received the habit of the Dominican Order. His
relatives were violently opposed to this, and seized and imprisoned
him in a tower of his father’s castle, allowing no one to see him but
his two sisters. After many months, aided by one of his sisters, whom
he had converted, he made his escape and returned to the convent,
where he took his final vows. The modesty with which he concealed his
profound learning gave him the nickname of _Bos_, the ox. Later he
studied in Cologne and his master exclaimed one day, when his brilliant
answers had astonished them all, “This dumb ox shall give such a bellow
in learning as all the world shall hear.” His reputation steadily
increased until he was acknowledged the greatest theological writer and
teacher of his age. His works are still held as authority and of great
value. He died in his fiftieth year and was canonised in 1323.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS.—FRA ANGELICO
(San Marco, Florence.)]
He is represented in the Dominican habit, often writing, with the
dove, emblem of inspiration, hovering about him. His attributes are a
book, or books; the pen, or ink-horn; the sacramental cup, on account
of his having composed the Office of the Sacrament, still in use; on
his breast a sun, and sometimes a human eye within it to express his
far-seeing wisdom.
=St. Catherine of Siena.= _Lat._ Sancta Catherina Senese. _Ital._ Santa
Caterina di Siena.
Volumes have been filled in chronicling the deeds and visions of this
remarkable saint, known at Siena as “la Santa.” She was born in Siena
in 1347. Her father, Giovanni Benincasa, was a dyer by trade. Catherine
was the youngest and most beloved of all the children and was fair and
gay and graceful, but (unlike other children), visionary, solitary, and
strange. She had heard of Catherine of Alexandria and prayed that she
also might become the bride of Christ, and at eight years of age she
took secret vows of perpetual chastity.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA.—VANNI
(Church of San Domenico, Siena.)]
As she grew up her vigils and penances and love of solitude seemed
nonsensical to her parents, who desired her to marry. Angered by her
refusal, they treated her harshly, putting all sorts of menial duties
upon her, until her father, entering her chamber one day, found her
kneeling in prayer, and resting on her head was a snow-white dove. He
now saw that she was protected by the Holy Spirit, and believing in
her vocation he allowed her to go her own way. She was received in the
convent of St. Dominick as a penitent of the Third Order, but never
became a professed nun. She vowed herself to silence for three years,
practised all sorts of self-denials, going to the convent church every
day, where she had wonderful visions. Her charity to the poor was
boundless. She nursed the sick, no matter how repulsive the disease,
and converted by her eloquence so many wicked persons and unbelievers
that her fame spread through all of Italy.
When the Florentines were excommunicated by Pope Gregory VI. they
chose Catherine of Siena for their ambassador and mediator. She went
to Avignon, where the pope then resided, and displayed such discretion
and wisdom that the pope left it to her to decide the terms of peace.
It was by her influence and persuasions that the pope was induced
to return to Rome, and once more make the seat of government in the
Lateran. After the death of Gregory, in the Great Schism that followed,
she took the part of Urban VI., who appointed her his ambassador to
the court of Joanna II. of Naples. But in the midst of this her health
failed, and she died at thirty-three, worn out with fasting, labour,
and suffering.
It is related that while praying before a crucifix at Pisa she fell
into a trance and received the stigmata, which miracle she tried to
conceal, but it was known by many. Others assert it was not impressed
visibly on her body, but on her soul.
She would often pray for a new heart, and once, it is related, our
Saviour appeared to her in a vision, took her heart from her bosom and
replaced it with His own, and there remained a wound or scar on her
left side from that time. Her letters and writings are principally upon
devotional subjects, written in very pure Italian.
In art St. Catherine is distinguished by the Dominican habit and the
stigmata. She usually bears the lily. A book in her hand alludes to her
writings.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] “Dæmonology in all its multiplied forms was now an established part
of the Christian creed.” Milman’s _History of Christianity_, vol. iii.,
p. 299.
[10] See Appendix.
XX.—THE MONASTIC ORDERS
Mrs. Jameson says: “There is a Latin distich which well expressed the
different localities and sites affected by the chief Monastic Orders:
Bernardus valles, colles Benedictus, amabat,
Oppida Franciscus, magnas Ignatius urbes;
(Bernard loved valleys, Benedict the hills,
Francis, towns; Ignatius, great cities);
and we shall find almost uniformly the chief foundations of the
Benedictines on hills or mountains, those of the Cistercians in fertile
valleys by running streams, those of the Franciscans in provincial
towns, and those of the Jesuits in capital cities” (_Legends of the
Monastic Orders_).
The =Benedictines=, founded by St. Benedict and distinguished by a
habit entirely black. This order embraces the following branches of
reformed Benedictines:
The _Camaldolesi_, founded by St. Romualdo; habit, black.
The _Vallombrosans_, founded by St. John Gualberto; habit, pale ash
colour, or light grey.
The _Carthusians_, founded by St. Bruno; habit, white, sandalled feet,
and shaven heads.
The _Cistercians_, white habit, a long loose robe with very wide
sleeves, and a hood or cowl.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
A VALLOMBROSAN MONK.—PERUGINO
(Academy, Florence.)]
The _Olivetani_, founded by St. Bernard dei Tolomei; habit, white.
The _Oratorians_, founded by St. Philip Neri; habit, black.
The word Abbey (_Ital._ Badia, Abbazia, _Fr._ Abbaye) belongs
especially to the foundations of this order.