So long as Jesus judged the Blessed Virgin Mary's visible presence on the earth to be necessary for the consolidation of his Church, so long did John enjoy the immense happiness of being permitted to treat her as his most beloved Mother.
The enemy of mankind, foreseeing a formidable adversary in St. Hilarion, waged a terrible war against him. But no trouble could disturb the serenity attained by that simple, holy soul.
St. Peter of Alcantara's manly fervor equaled that of past ages. But without going barefoot like him, or doing such sharp penance, there are very many ways in which we can practice contempt of the world.
St. Luke completed his work by writing, in the same correct style as his Gospel, the history of the first days of Christianity, of the introduction of the Gentiles into the Church, and of the great labors of their own Apostle Paul.
God amply repaid the homage thus rendered to His sacred word: Jerome hoped to obtain by his toil the cure of his moral sickness; he moreover attained the lofty holiness that we now admire in him.
St. Wenceslas recalls to us the entrance into the Church of a warlike nation, the Czechs, the most indomitable of the Slavonic tribes, which had penetrated into the very midst of Germany.
He who sought to ruin thee is now, O virgin Justina, thy trophy of victory; and for thee, O Cyprian, the path of crime turned aside in to the way of salvation.
The Order of Mercy was founded as it were in the very face of the Moors, and it was called the royal, military, and religious Order of our Lady of Mercy for the redemption of captives.