November 3rd - Within the Octave of All Saints

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November 3rd

Saint Martin de Porres, Dominican Coadjutor Brother
(1579-1639)

Saint Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru in 1579, during the days when Spanish noblemen and many adventurers were still in the land, fascinated by the lure of the gold and silver which abounded there. He was the natural son of one of these and a young Indian woman. It was not long before his dark complexion caused his father to be ashamed of him and his mother, and to abandon them. Later the father would regret his too rapid decision, and take Martin under his protection.

The young boy often heard himself referred to as a half-breed, and all his life long, his profound humility saw in himself only the magnanimity of God amid the inadequacy of his origins. When his mother could not support him and his sister, Martin was confided to a primary school for two years, then placed with a surgeon to learn the medical arts. This caused him great joy, though he was only ten years old, for he could exercise charity to his neighbor while earning his living. Already he was spending hours of the night in prayer, a practice which increased rather than diminished as he grew older. Until his death he would flagellate himself three times every night, for his own failings and for the conversion of pagans and sinners.

He asked for admission to the Dominican Convent of the Rosary in Lima and was received first as a tertiary. When he was 24, he was given the habit of a Coadjutor Brother and assigned to the infirmary of that convent, where he would remain in service until his death at the age of sixty. His superiors saw in him the virtues necessary to exercise unfailing patience in this difficult role, and he never disappointed them. On the contrary, it was not long before miracles began to happen, and Saint Martin was working also with the sick outside his convent, often bringing them healing with only a simple glass of water. He begged for alms to procure for them necessities the Convent could not provide, and Providence always supplied what he sought.

One day an aged beggar, covered with ulcers and almost naked, stretched out his hand, and Saint Martin, seeing the Divine Mendicant in him, took him to his own bed, paying no heed to the fact that he was not perfectly neat and clean. One of his brethren, considering he had gone too far in his charity, reproved him. Saint Martin replied: Compassion, my dear Brother, is preferable to cleanliness. Reflect that with a little soap I can easily clean my bed covers, but even with a torrent of tears I would never wash from my soul the stain that my harshness toward the unfortunate would create.

When an epidemic struck Lima, there were in this single convent of the Rosary sixty religious who were sick, many of them novices in a distant and locked section of the convent, separated from the professed. Saint Martin is known to have passed through the locked doors to care for them, a phenomenon which was observed in the residence more than once. The professed, too, saw him suddenly beside them without the doors having been opened; and these facts were duly verified by the surprised Superiors. Martin continued to transport the sick to the convent until the provincial Superior, alarmed by the contagion threatening the religious, forbid him to continue to do so. His sister, who lived in the country, offered her house to lodge those whom the residence of the religious could not hold. One day he found on the street a poor Indian, bleeding to death from a dagger wound, and took him to his own room until he could transport him to his sister's hospice. The Superior, when he heard of this, reprimanded his subject for disobedience. He was extremely edified by his reply: Forgive my error, and please instruct me, for I did not know that the precept of obedience took precedence over that of charity. In effect, there are situations where charity must prevail; and instruction is very necessary. The Superior gave him liberty thereafter to follow his inspirations in the exercise of mercy.

In normal times Saint Martin succeeded with his alms to feed 160 poor persons every day, and distributed a remarkable sum of money every week to the indigent — the latter phenomenon hard to explain by ordinary calculations. To Saint Martin the city of Lima owed a famous residence founded for orphans and abandoned children, where they were formed in piety for a creative Christian life. This lay Brother had always wanted to be a missionary, but never left his native city; yet even during his lifetime he was seen elsewhere, in regions as far distant as Africa, China, Algeria, Japan. An African slave who had been in irons said he had known Martin when he came to relieve and console many like himself, telling them of heaven. When later the same slave saw him in Peru, he was very happy to meet him again and asked him if he had had a good voyage; only later did he learn that Saint Martin had never left Lima. A merchant from Lima was in Mexico and fell ill; he said aloud: Oh, Brother Martin, if only you were here to care for me..! and immediately saw him enter his room. And again, this man did not know until later that he had never been in Mexico.

When he died in 1639, Saint Martin was known to the entire city of Lima; word of his miracles had made him known as a Saint to every resident of the region. After his death, the miracles and graces received when he was invoked multiplied in such profusion that his body was exhumed after 25 years and found intact, and exhaling a fine fragrance. Letters to Rome pleaded for his beatification; the decree affirming the heroism of his virtues was issued in 1763 by Clement XIII; Gregory XVI beatified him in 1836, and in 1962 Pope John XXIII canonized him. The poor and the sick will never fail to find in him a friend having great power over the Heart of God.

Saint Malachy O'More
Primate of Armagh, Ireland
(† 1148)

Born in the late eleventh century of a princely family, in the archiepiscopal city of Armagh, Saint Malachy was raised in the fear and love of God. He seemed to have the virtues of maturity hidden under the appearances of childhood. Praises did not inflate him, and reproaches did not sadden him. He had a horror of idleness, and a command from his preceptors was always like a law for him. He would often separate from his companions to converse in prayer with God. When he was still a young man, he made himself the disciple of a holy hermit who had established a little cell near the cathedral church of Armagh. The archbishop of Armagh made him a deacon of his church, and when at the age of twenty-five he was ordained a priest, commanded him to preach the Gospel and catechize his people. He uprooted vices and corrected abuses, and the archdiocese derived great profit from his ministry.

An episode from the life of Saint Malachy teaches us several truths concerning purgatory. He had a sister who was very worldly, and whom he found indifferent to his efforts to lead her to reflect on the reason for her existence and her last ends. He learned one day that she had died after having manifested regret for her sins, and he offered a Mass for her soul; but he did not think of continuing this practice. After thirty days he heard in a dream that she was standing outside the church and had not eaten for one month. He began again to pray for her, and then in a dream beheld her clothed in a black robe, near the door of the church but unable to enter. He continued his suffrages, and on a third occasion saw her in a robe which was more or less white, having entered the church but unable to approach the altar. The last time he saw her she was within the church, clothed in white and near the altar, in the company of the just. We learn from this how serious our indifference and lack of love for God are; that our prayers are efficacious in relieving our dear ones; and that it is ordinarily a little at a time that souls are delivered from the bonds of their sins and negligence.

Saint Malachy brought about several miracles, and manifested great devotion and zeal in the reconstruction and re-establishment of a monastery whose nine hundred religious had been massacred by pirates; these facts led to his being consecrated Bishop of Connor, a small see whose inhabitants were Christian in name but pagan in practice. The venerable pastor taught the people with patience and warned them with gentleness. He endured many insults and outrages, but finally the hardened hearts were softened and began to listen to his voice and instructions. He remained in this see until a hostile king and his army decimated the city of Connor. At that time, the Archbishop of Armagh was nearing death and named him to succeed him in this metropolitan see, overriding his humility and protestations of insufficient virtue and competence.

Again he had a great deal to suffer in the exercise of his new charge. The see of Armagh, by a longstanding abuse, had been held somewhat like a throne by one single family, and it required on the part of the Saint no little tact and firmness to calm the dissensions caused by his election. Ecclesiastical discipline had been forgotten, and depraved morals everywhere had virtually annihilated faith and piety. The good bishop who had named Saint Malachy had labored to correct the abuses, and hoped his virtuous successor might better succeed in the same post. Nonetheless, two years passed before Malachy could even enter into the city as its archbishop; troops were levied against his entry by the pretender to the same title. Saint Malachy had accepted the office on the condition that he assume the charge only after the death or flight of the false bishop, for he did not want to cause a war and the death of those whose salvation he desired to procure. The pretender and his cousin, with several others of the same lineage, were struck down soon afterwards by the hand of God, and their exemplary chastisements gave great credit to the Saint, and enabled him to make ordinances to countermand the disorders. He divided the diocese and left the larger portion, that of Connor, to a colleague, a very holy man worthy of the charge. He retired to the other part, the new see of Down. There he convoked synods, renewed ancient ordinances and made appropriate ones; everywhere he intimidated sinners and implanted religion and piety.

We must not neglect to mention the famous prophecy of Saint Malachy, in which he assigns to every Pope of the future a motto describing each pontificate, from his own day until the last Pope he mentions, whom he calls Petrus Romanus — Peter the Roman. After the motto attributed to the present Vicar of Jesus Christ (in the year 2000), De Labore Solis, only one, De Gloria Olivae — From the glory of the Olive Tree — separates us from Peter II. The prophecy, which begins with Celestine II (1143-1144), was discovered in 1590 and includes one hundred and eleven mottos. Many a motto has been shown to have a striking exactitude in the description of its subject and his pontificate. Many interpreters have labored to prove the prophecy's accuracy.

Saint Malachy twice made a pilgrimage to Rome to consult Christ's Vicar, the first time returning as a Papal Legate for all of Ireland, amid the joy of his people. The second time, however, he was bound for a happier home; he was taken ill in France at the monastery of Clairvaux, where his great friend and biographer, Saint Bernard, was Abbot. He died there in the monastery where he would gladly have lived, at the age of fifty-four, on the 2nd of November, 1148. Saint Bernard, in his Life of Saint Malachy, narrates many of his miracles, one of which he himself brought about, when he touched the paralyzed arm of a young boy to that of the mortal remains of the bishop, while he was laid out in his coffin at Clairvaux. It was instantly cured.

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November 3 – Third Day Within the Octave of All Saints

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

Had we Angels’ eyes, we should see the earth as a vast field sown with seed for the resurrection. The death of Abel opened the first furrow, and ever since, the sowing has gone on unceasingly the wide world over. This land of labor and of suffering, what treasures it already holds laid up in its bosom! And what a harvest for heaven, when the Sun of Justice, suddenly darting forth his rays, shall cause to spring up as suddenly from the soil the elect ears ripe for glory! No wonder that the Church herself blesses and superintends the laying of the precious grain in the earth.

But the Church is not content to be always sowing. sometimes, as though impatient of delay, she raises from the ground the chosen seed she had sown therein. Her infallible discernment preserves her from error; and, disengaging from the soil the immortal germ, she forestalls the glory of the future. She encloses the treasure in gold or precious stuffs, carries it in triumph, invites the multitudes to come and reverence it; or she raises new temples to the name of the blessed one, and assigns him the highest honor of reposing under the Altar, whereon she offers to God the tremendous Sacrifice.

“Let your charity understand,” explains St. Augustine: “it is not to Stephen we raise an altar in this place; but of Stephen’s relics we make an altar to God. God loves these altars; and if you ask the reason: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. In obedience to God the invisible soul has quitted its visible dwelling. But God preserves this dwelling; he is glorified by the honor we pay to this lifeless flesh; and, clothing it with the might of his divinity, he gives it the power of working miracles.” Hence the origin of pilgrimages to the shrines of the Saints.

“Christian people,” says St. Gregory of Nyssa, “wherefore are you assembled here? A tomb has no attractions; nay, the sight of its contents inspires horror. Yet, see what eagerness to approach this sepulcher! So great an object of desire is it, that a little of the dust from around it is esteemed a gift of great price. As to beholding the remains it conceals, that is a rare favor, and an enviable one, as those can testify who enjoy the privilege: they embrace the holy body as though it were yet alive, they press their lips and their eyes upon it, shedding tears of love and devotion. What emperor ever received such an honor?”

“Emperors!” rejoins St. John Chrysostom; “as the porters at their gates, such have they become with regard to poor fishers. The son of the great Constantine deemed he could not pay a higher honor to his father, than to procure him a place of sepulcher in the porch of the fisherman of Galilee.” And again, concluding his commentary on St. Paul’s admirable Epistle to the Romans, the golden-mouthed Doctor exclaims: “And now, who will grant me to prostrate myself at Paul’s sepulcher, to contemplate the ashes of that body which, suffering for us, filled up what was wanting of the sufferings of Christ? The dust of that mouth, which spoke boldly before kings, and, showing what Paul was, revealed the Lord of Paul? The dust of that heart, truly the heart of the world, more lofty than the heavens, more vast than the universe, as much as the heart of Christ as of Paul, and wherein might be read the book of grace, graven by the Holy Spirit? Oh! that I might see the remains of the hands, which wrote those Epistles; of the eyes, which were struck with blindness and recovered their sight for our salvation; of the feet which traversed the whole earth! Yes; I would fain contemplate the tomb where repose these instruments of justice and of light, these members of Christ, this temple of the Holy Ghost. O venerable body, which, together with that of Peter, protects Rome more securely than all ramparts!”

In spite of such teachings as these, the heretics of the sixteenth century profaned the tombs of the Saints, under pretext of bringing us back to the doctrine of our forefathers. In contradiction to these strange reformers, the Council of Trent expressed the unanimous testimony of Tradition in the following definition, which sets forth the theological reasons of the honor paid by the Church to the relics of Saints:

“Veneration ought to be shown by the faithful to the bodies of the Martyrs and other Saints, who live with Jesus Christ. For they were his living members and the temples of the Holy Ghost; he will raise them up again to eternal life and glory; and through them God grants many blessings to mankind. Therefore, those who say that the relics of the Saints are not worthy of veneration, that it is useless for the faithful to honor them, that it is vain to visit the memorials or monuments of the Saints in order to obtain their aid, are absolutely to be condemned; and, as they have already been long ago condemned, the Church now condemns them once more.”

Considering the unequal distribution of relics throughout the world, Rome has not fixed one universal feast for the essentially local cultus of these precious remains. She leaves the particular churches free to consult their own convenience, reserving it to herself to bless and sanction the choice of each.

Mass of the Holy Relics.—As the feast of the holy Relics is in many places celebrated on the Sunday within the Octave of All Saints’, we here give the Mass and Vespers most commonly used. The liturgical formulæ are, however, not less variable than the date of the feast.

The Introit, borrowed from the thirty-third Psalm, tells us of God’s solicitude for his own, in death as in life. Whatever may become of the just, under trial and persecution, their bones shall be gathered together again on the last day, at the voice of the Son of Man.

Introit
Multæ tribulationes justorum, et de his omnibus liberavit eos Dominus: Dominus custodit omnia ossa eorum: unum ex his non conteretur.
Ps. Benedicam Dominum in omni tempore: semper laus ejus in ore meo. Gloria Patri. Multæ.

Many were the afflictions of the just, and out of all these the Lord delivered them: the Lord keepeth all their bones, not one of them shall be broken.
Ps. I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall be ever in my mouth. Glory be to the Father. Many were.


The miracles wrought by these dry bones prove, says St. Augustine, that they are not really dead. Let our faith in the future resurrection be thereby increased; and let us pray with the Church in her Collect, that we too, at the appointed time, may partake in the glory of which their wonder-working power is the pledge.

Collect
Auge in nobis, Domine, resurrectionis fidem, qui in Sanctorum tuorum reliquiis mirabilia operaris: et fac nos immortalis gloriæ participes, cujus in eorum cineribus pignora veneramur. Per Dominum.

Increase within us, O Lord, the faith of the resurrection, thou who workest wonders in the relics of thy Saints: and make us partakers of immortal glory, of which we venerate the pledges in their ashes. Through.

Then are commemorated the occurring Sunday and the Octave of All Saints, by their respective Collects.

Epistle
Lesson from the Book of Wisdom. Eccli. xliv.

These were men of mercy, whose godly deeds have not failed: Good things continue with their seed, Their posterity are a holy inheritance, and their seed hath stood in the covenants. And their children for their sakes remain for ever: their seed and their glory shall not be forsaken. Their bodies are buried in peace, and their name liveth unto generation and generation. Let the people shew forth their wisdom, and the church declare their praise.
Our ancestors looked upon holy relics as their greatest riches, the treasure by excellence of their cities. Dew of heaven and fatness of the earth, the blessings of this world and of the next, seemed to distil from the bodies of the Saints. Their presence was a check to hostile armies, as well as to the legions of hell; it guarded morals, fostered faith, and encouraged prayer in the heart of cities, to which they attracted as great crowds as now flock to our centers of pleasure. And with what vigilance was cherished the blessed deposit, the loss whereof would have been considered the greatest of public calamities!

“I have here, my brethren,” says Cardinal Pie, “to unfold to you a marvelous design of the God whom Scripture calls wonderful in his Saints. The Lord Jesus, who said to his disciples: Go ye and teach, euntes ergo docete, frequently takes pleasure in sending them forth again after their death; and he makes use of their apostolate from beyond the tomb, to carry the blessings of greace to other nations, besides those whom they evangelized in life. I have appointed you, he said, that you should go and should bring forth fruit: Posui vos ut eatis et fructum afferatis. In obedience to this command, the Saints, even after having reached the blessed term of their mortal pilgrimage, consent to become wayfarers once more. Had I leisure to recount to you all the posthumous wanderings of our illustrious pontiffs and thaumaturgi, for instance the repeated journeys of our own Hilary and Martin during more than ten centuries, I should, though captivating your attention by narratives full of interest, run the risk of wearying you by the length of my discourse.”


The Gradual and its Verse, taken from the Psalms, extol the future glory feebly imaged by that which here surrounds the blessed on their couches of honor.

Gradual
Exsultabunt Sancti in gloria: lætabuntur in cubilibus suis.
℣. Cantate Domino canticum novum: laus ejus in Ecclesia Sanctorum. Alleluia, alleluia.
℣. Justi epulentur, et exsultent in conspectu Dei: et delectentur in lætitia. Alleluia.

The Saints shall rejoice in glory: they shall be joyful in their beds.
℣. Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle: let his praise be in the church of the Saints. Alleluia, alleluia.
℣. Let the just feast and rejoice before God, and be delighted with gladness. Alleluia.

Gospel
Sequel of the holy Gospel according to St. Luke. Ch. vi.

At that time, Jesus coming down from the mountain stood in a plain place, and the company of his disciples, and a very great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and the sea coast both of Tyre and Sidon, Who were come to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases. And they that were troubled with unclean spirits, were cured. And all the multitude sought to touch him, for virtue went out from him, and healed all. And he, lifting up his eyes on his disciples, said: Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for you shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for you shall laugh. Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’ s sake. Be glad in that day and rejoice; for behold, your reward is great in heaven.
Amen, Amen, I say to you, he that believeth in me, the works that I do he also shall do, and greater than these shall he do! Our Lord was speaking of his Saints and disciples, who would believe in him so fully as to place their earthly happiness in poverty, hunger, mourning, and persecution. His words was to be accomplished in them during life; but frequently it was to be still more manifested after death, in the power retained by their relics of driving away demons, healing all diseases, and obtaining every grace. It is not only from the narrow province of Judæa, but from the coasts of the entire world, that multitudes now flock to hear the saints in the silent eloquence of their tombs, and to experience the virtue that goes out from them.

St. Paulinus of Nola thus speaks in his poems: “God, in his goodness, has willed that the Saints should be distributed among the nations, so that their aid might never be wanting to us weak mortals. If he has given the principal cities to the greatest Saints for their residence, the grace with which they are endowed for our sake is not confined to the places where their entire bodies rest; where there are but small portions, there is the same power, and God thus gives testimony to their credit in heaven. From the holy deposit the sacred ashes are scattered abroad, and become the seeds of life; let but the least drop be taken from the spring, and it is itself a source producing rivers of grace and of love.”


Let us, then, honor our Lord in his Saints; for it is from him, as the Offertory tells us, that all their power originates.

Offertory
Mirabilis Deus in sanctis suis: Deus Israël ipse dabit virtutem et fortitudinem plebi suæ, benedictus Deus. Alleluia.

God is wonderful in his Saints: the God of Israel is he who will give power and strength to his people: blessed be God. Alleluia.

“Who ever adored the Martyrs, or mistook a man for God?” asked St. Jerome, in his defense of the homage paid to sacred relics. And the Church shows, in her Secret, that the cultus of these venerable ashes is rendered to the Saints themselves; while the Saints’ own power is but a power of intercession before the Father of the divine Victim who wrought our salvation.

Secret
Imploramus, Domine, clementiam tuam: ut Santorum tuorum, quorum Reliquias veneramur, suffragantibus meritis, hostia quam offerimus nostrorum sit expioatio delictorum. Per Dominum.

We implore thy mercy, O Lord, that by the suffrage of the merits of thy Saints, whose relics we venerate, the sacrifice which we offer may be the expiation of our sins. Through our Lord.

Then follow the Commemorations as above.


He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood, said the Man-God, I will raise him up in the last day. Holy Communion, which places in our bodies the germ of a glorious immortality, justifies the object of this feast, and explains its joy.

Communion
Gaudete justi in Domino: rectos decet collaudatio.
Rejoice in the Lord ye just: praise becometh the upright.


How could we better conclude our prayers of today, than by expressing our desire of living eternally with the blessed, who have been gladdening us with the presence of their holy relics! This the Church does in the Postcommunion.

Then the Commemorations as before; and at the end of the Mass, the Gospel of the Sunday is read, instead of that of St. John.

Postcommunion
Multiplica super nos, quæsumus Domine, per hæc Sancta quæ sumpsimus, misericordiam tuam: ut sicut in tuorum solemnitate Sanctorum, quorum Reliquias colimus, pia devotione lætamur, ita eorum perpetua societate, te largiente, fruamur. Per Dominum.

Multiply thy mercy upon us, we beseech thee O Lord, by these holy mysteries which we have received, that as we rejoice with pious devotion in the solemnity of thy Saints, whose relics we venerate, so, by thy bounty, we may enjoy their eternal fellowship. Through our Lord.

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November 3 – St Hubert, Bishop and Confessor

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

Rome, wishing to admit as few interruptions as possible into the present great Octave, gives but a brief notice of St. Hubert in the Martyrology. It is fitting that we should imitate her reserve. Were we, however to omit all mention of him, Christian hunters, so faithful in proclaiming their glorious Patron, would not forgive us. It is right also to satisfy popular piety, and the gratitude of numberless clients saved from hydrophobia, and led to the feet of the Saint by a tradition of a thousand years’ standing. A few words suffice to recount his life.

After the mysterious stag had revealed Christ to him, he became, from a hunter of wild animals, a hunter of souls; and merited to be called the Apostle of Ardenne, whose forests had often echoed to the baying of his hounds. He became the disciple and successor of St. Lambert; and transferring from Maestricht both the relics of the holy Martyr-Bishop and the Episcopal See, he raised Liege from an obscure village to a great town. His blessed death took place on May 30th, 727; and on November 3rd, 743, his precious remains were taken up for the first time, which led to the celebration of his feast on this day. In the following century, the Abbey of Andain was put in possession of the sacred deposit; and took from him the name of St. Hubert, as did likewise the town which sprang up around and soon became a center for pilgrimages. Two orders of knighthood were established in honour of St. Hubert; the first perished with the fall of the Bourbons its last chiefs; the other still exists, and the kings of Bavaria are its Grand-Masters.

ANTIPHONS

Hail, glory of Confessors; hail, companion of Angels: give us present joy, which may become eternal bliss: by thy prayer, well-pleasing to God, save the healthy, heal the sick.

℣. The Lord hath led the just man through righteous ways.

℟. And shewn him the kingdom of God.

(Proper Office of the Abbey of St. Scholastica of Juvigny-les-Dames, where a tooth of St. Hubert was kept.)

PRAYER

Be propitious, we beseech O Lord, to us thy servants, through the glorious merits of St. Hubert thy Confessor and Bishop, that by his loving intercession we may ever be protected from all adversities. Through our Lord.

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November 3rd - Saint Winifred of Wales Virgin and Martyr

Her father, whose name was Thevith, was very rich, and one of the prime nobility in the country, being son to Eluith, the chief magistrate, and second man in the kingdom of North Wales, next to the king. Her virtuous parents desired above all things to breed her up in the fear of God, and to preserve her soul untainted amidst the corrupt air of the world. About that time Saint Beuno, Benno, or Benow, a holy priest and monk, who is said to have been uncle to our saint by the mother, having founded certain religious houses in other places, came and settled in that neighborhood. Thevith rejoiced at his arrival, gave him a spot of ground free from all burden or tribute, to build a church on, and recommended his daughter to be instructed by him in Christian piety. When the holy priest preached to the people, Wenefride was placed at his feet, and her tender soul eagerly imbibed his heavenly doctrine, and was wonderfully affected with the area truths which he delivered, or rather which God addressed to her by his mouth. The love of the sovereign and infinite good growing daily in her heart, her affections were quite weaned from all the clings of this world; and it was her earnest desire to consecrate her virginity by vow to God, and, instead of an earthly bridegroom, to choose Jesus Christ for her spouse. Her parents readily gave their consent, shedding tears of Joy, and thanking God for her holy resolution. She first made a private vow of virginity in the hands of Saint Beuno; and some time after received the religious veil from him, with certain other pious virgins, in whose company she served God in a small nunnery which her father had built for her, under the direction of Saint Beuno, near Holy-Well. After this, Saint Beuno returned to the first monastery which he had built at Clunnock, or Clynog Vaur, about forty miles distant, and there soon after slept in our Lord. His tomb was famous there in the thirteenth century. Leland mentions, that Saint Beuno founded Clunnock Vaur, a monastery of white monks, in a place given him by Guithin uncle to one of the princes of North-Wales. His name occurs in the English Martyrology.

After the death of Saint Beuno, Saint Wenefride left Holy-Well, and after putting herself for a short time under the direction of Saint Deifer, entered the nunnery of Gutherin in Denbighshire, under the direction of a very holy abbot called Elerius, who governed there a double monastery. After the death of the abbess Theonia, Saint Wenefride was chosen to succeed her. Leland speaks of Saint Elerius as follows: "Elenus was anciently, and is at present in esteem among the Welsh. I guess that he studied at the banks of the Elivi where now Saint Asaph's stands. He afterwards retired in the deserts. It is most certain that he built a monastery in the vale of Cluide, which was double, and very numerous of both sexes. Among these was the most noble virgin Guenvrede, who had been educated by Beuno, and who suffered death, having her head cut off by the furious Caradoc." Leland mentions not the stupendous miracles which Robert of Salop and others relate on that occasion, though in the abstract of her life inserted in an appendix to the fourth volume of the last edition of Leland's Itinerary, she is said to have been raised to life by the prayers of Saint Beuno. In all monuments and calendars she is styled a martyr: all the accounts we have of her agree that Caradoc, or Cradoc, son of Alain, prince of that country, being violently fallen in love with her, gave so far way to his brutish passion, that finding it impossible to extort her consent to marry him, or gratify his desires, in his rage he one day pursued her, and cut off her head, as she was flying from him to take refuge in the church which Saint Beuno had built at Holy Well. Robert of Shrewsbury and some others add, that Cradoc was swallowed up by the earth upon the spot; secondly, that in the place where the head fell, the wonderful well which is seen there sprang up, with pebble stones and large parts of the rock in the bottom stained with red streaks, and with moss growing on the sides under the water, which renders a sweet fragrant smell; and thirdly, that the martyr was raised to life by the prayers of Saint Beuno, and bore ever after the mark of her martyrdom by a red circle on her skin about her neck. If these authors, who lived a long time after these transactions, were by some of their guides led into any mistakes in any of these circumstances, neither the sanctity of the martyr nor the devotion of the place can be hereby made liable to censure. Saint Wenefride died on the 22nd of June, as the old panegyric preached on her festival, mentioned in the notes, and several of her lives testify: the most ancient life of this saint, in the Cottonian manuscript, places her death, or rather her burial at Guthurin on the 24th of June. The words are: "The place where she lived with the holy virgins was called Guthurin, where sleeping, on the eighth before the calends of July, she was buried, and rests in the Lord." Her festival was removed to the 3rd of November, probably on account of some translation; and, in 1391, Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, with his clergy in convocation assembled, ordered her festival to be kept on that day throughout his province with an office of nine lessors, which is inserted in the Sarum Breviary. The time when this saint lived is not mentioned in any of her lives: most, with Alford and Cressy, think it was about the close of the seventh century. Her relics were translated from Guthurin to Shrewsbury in the year 1138, and deposited with great honor in the church of the Benedictine abbey which had been founded there, without the walls, in 1083, by Roger earl of Montgomery. Herbert, abbot of that house, procured the consent of the diocesan, the bishop of Bangor, (for the bishopric of Saint Asaph's, in which Guthurin is situated, was only restored in 1143,) and caused the translation to be performed with great solemnity, as is related by Robert, then prior of that house, (probably the same who was made bishop of Bangor in 1210,) who mentions some miraculous cures performed on that occasion to which he was eyewitness. The shrine of this saint was plundered at the dissolution of monasteries.

Several miracles were wrought through the intercession of this saint at Guthurin, Shrewsbury, and especially Holy-Well. To instance some examples: Sir Roger Bodenham, knight of the Bath, after he was abandoned by the ablest physicians and the most famous colleges of that faculty, was cured of a terrible leprosy by bathing in this miraculous fountain, in 1606, upon which he became himself a Catholic, and gave an ample certificate of his wonderful cure, signed by many others. Mrs. Jane Wakeman of Sussex, in 1630, brought to the last extremity by a terrible ulcerated breast, was perfectly healed in one night by bathing thrice in that well, as she and her husband attested. A poor widow of Kidderminster in Worcestershire, had been long lame and bedridden, when she sent a single penny to Holy-Well to be given to the first poor body the person should meet with there; and at the very time it was given at the Holy-Well, the patient arose in perfect health at Kidderminster. This fact was examined and juridically attested by Mr. James Bridges, who was afterwards sheriff of Worcester, in 1651. Mrs. Mary Newman had been reduced to a skeleton, and to such a decrepit state and lameness that for eighteen years she had not been able to point or set her foot on the ground. She tried all helps in England, France, and Portugal; but in vain. At last she was perfectly cured in the very well while she was bathing herself the fifth time. Roger Whetstone, a Quaker near Bromsgrove, by bathing at Holy-Well was cured of an inveterate lameness and palsy, by which he was converted to the Catholic faith. Innumerable such instances might be collected. Cardinal Baronius expresses his astonishment at the wonderful cures which the pious bishop of Saint Asaph's, the pope's vicegerent for the episcopal functions at Rome, related to him as an eyewitness. See Saint Wenefride's life, written by Robert prior of Shrewsbury, translated into English with frequent abridgments, and some few additions from other authors, (but not without some mistakes,) first by F. Alford, whose true name was Griffith, afterwards by J. F., both Jesuits; and printed in 1635, and again with some alterations and additional late miracles by F. Metcalf, S. J., in 1712. Lluydh, in his catalogue of Welsh manuscripts, mentions two lives of Saint Wenefride in that language, one in the hands of Humphrey, then bishop of Hereford, the other in the college of Jesus, Oxon.