The Lives of the Saints, Volume 01 (of 16): JanuaryBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
The Lives of the Saints, Volume 01 (of 16): January
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Christian saints
"Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world, said Christ," he wrote
back to them, "and as for me and my ass, we are coming into Westphalia
to be weighed one against the other." Nor was S. Norbert long in coming;
he rode upon his ass to the door of Kappenberg; but there was no further
danger, Count Frederick of Arnsberg was dead.
Before he died, Gotfried visited the cradle of his order, Prémontré, the
home of S. Norbert. On his way back, next year, he sickened, and died at
Elstadt.
B. VERONICA, V. OF MILAN.
(A.D. 1497.)
[Beatified by Pope Leo X. Her life and revelations were written by
Brother Isidore of Isolani, O.S.D., from the account given him by
those who had known her well; among others from the notes of
Benedetta, and the recital of Thaddaea, two sisters, who had been
intimately acquainted with Veronica. This account was printed in
1518, at Milan.]
Veronica was the daughter of a pious peasant at Binasco, a small village
between Milan and Pavia. Her father was noted for his integrity, and
when he sold a horse he always mentioned its defects to the purchaser.
Veronica was employed in the fields weeding, as the parents were too
poor to send her to the school. Veronica desired earnestly to become a
sister in the convent of S. Martha, at Milan, but her mother assured her
that it was impossible to join a religious community without a knowledge
of letters. Accordingly, every night Veronica laboured, by the light of
her little oil lamp, at her alphabet and spelling book; but she made
little progress. One night, as she lay with her hands spread out on the
table, and her head bowed, disheartened at the difficulty of her task,
the Blessed Virgin appeared to her in a robe of dazzling blue, like the
summer sky. "My child," said the gentle Mother, "trouble thyself not
with this scholarship, the only learning thou needst is comprised in
three letters, white, black, and red. This white letter is purity of
soul and body; this black letter is simplicity, contentedness with what
God sends you, and freedom from taking offence; this red letter is
meditation on the passion of my dear Son. Let these three branches of
learning be mastered, and all the other letters come of themselves."
Veronica, some years later, entered the convent of S. Martha, as a lay
sister, and her duties were to beg for the society, as her ignorance of
reading and Latin disqualified her from chanting the choir offices with
the full sisters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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