[Illustration: St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr. Published by Benziger Brothers, New York, Cincinnati and St. Louis.] [Illustration: F A B I O L A OR The Church OF The Catacombs, By Cardinal Wiseman.] FABIOLA; OR, THE CHURCH OF THE CATACOMBS, _By His Eminence Cardinal Wiseman._ HÆC, SUB ALTARI SITA SEMPITERNO, LAPSIBUS NOSTRIS VENIAM PRECATUR TURBA, QUAM SERVAT PROCERUM CREATRIX PURPUREORUM. _Prudentius._ HERE, BENEATH THE ETERNAL ALTAR, LIES THAT THRONG OF ILLUSTRIOUS MARTYRS, WHO ASK PARDON FOR OUR SINS, AND OVER WHOM THE CITY THAT GAVE THEM BIRTH WATCHES. A Historical Picture OF THE SUFFERINGS OF THE EARLY CHURCH IN PAGAN ROME, ILLUSTRATING THE Glories of the Christian Martyrs as exemplified in the lives of The fair young Virgin, St. Agnes; the heroic Soldier, St. Sebastian; the devoted Youth, St. Pancratius; etc., etc. ILLUSTRATED EDITION. _WITH A PREFACE BY_ REV. RICHARD BRENNAN, LL.D., Pastor of St. Rose of Lima’s Church, New York. NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, AND ST. LOUIS: BENZIGER BROTHERS, PRINTERS TO THE HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE. 1886. COPYRIGHT, 1885, BY BENZIGER BROTHERS. Electrotyped by SMITH & McDOUGAL, New York. PREFACE TO THE ILLUSTRATED EDITION. The late Cardinal Wiseman’s admirable story, “Fabiola,” has been read for the last thirty years in many lands and many tongues. At this late day, to say that it has been everywhere productive of inestimable good to Christian souls, would be the utterance of the merest truism. But while its salutary influence has been felt far and wide, it seems to have been fraught with special blessings most peculiarly adapted to the religious circumstances of our own land; where, thirty years ago, when the work made its first appearance among us, the condition of the Church was not altogether dissimilar from that of the early Church in pagan Rome at the date of the story.