282 AN'GELS TIDE. 



OCT. 8. St. Buidgkt of Sweden, widow, a.d. 1373'. 

 St. Tliais the penitent. 

 St. Pelagia the penitent. 

 St. Keyne, virgin. 



Obs. St. Bricleet was daughter of fiiri,'er, a prince of the royal hlood of 

 Sweden. In ol>rdience to her father, wlien she was only sixteen vears of aire, 

 slie married Ulplio prime of Nericiii in Sweden, who was liiiiiself only 

 eighteen. Tliis pious cmple passed the first year of their marriage in_ conti- 

 nence. They afterwards had ei!!ht children, "who were all favoured with the 

 Messinu'S of divine giace. lllpho died in tlieyear 1344, in the odour of sanc- 

 tity. Bridget heing hy his death entirely at liberty, divided her husband's 

 estates among her chi'dren, and from that day seemed to forget what she had 

 heen in the world. She bniit the monastery of Wastein, in which she placed 

 six nnns, and m a separate enclosure friars to the number of thirteen priests, 

 in honour of the twelve Apostles and St. Paul, four deacons representing the 

 four doctors of the churih, and eight lay brothers. After spending two years 

 in her monastery, St. Bridget went to Itomc, from thence made a |iilgriniage 

 to visit the holy places in Paiestine. Beinif returned .safe to Home, she lived 

 there a year, and her sou , being released from its prison of clay, took its 

 fligtit, says the sa red historian, to that kingdom after which she liad always 

 sighed, on tlie'J3d of July, X.'.T-i, being seventy one yearsold. 



St. Bridget was also called Brightana liride. 



St. Thais was a beautiful Aegyptiau leinale, wlio was early converted to 

 (Miiistianily, I'ur aftervvanis led a proHi;;atc life as a courtezan. She was re- 

 claimed, however, again hy advancing age and suhseiju-nt reflection, and died 

 a penitent about the middle of the fourth aae of the church. 



St. Pelaeia was an actiC'S at Antioch, and was converted by the preaching 

 of St. Nonnus, afterwards Bishop of Heliopolis, who, in the middle of his 

 discourse delivered to the cliurch of St. .Inlian, pointed to Pelania, dressed in 

 all her jewels and comeiiian tinsel, and exclaimed, "The AIniisjiiiy in his 

 goodness will shew mercy even to this woman, the work of bis hands." She 

 tieard, felt the force of'his observation, and liecame penitent. This saint is 

 celebrated today in the Homaii, Greek, and Muscovite calendars, but an old 

 Neapolitan marble tablet inscribes her name under S. See TlieopJuints C/iro-n. 

 anno 432. 



St. Keyne was daughter to Braghan Prince of South Wales, who left tiis 

 name to Brecknockshire. The inhabitants of South \\'ales called her by dis- 

 tinction The Viigin. Shedwelt continually in an obscure wood in somersei- 

 shire, where according to tradition she turned many serpents into stones, still 

 to be found in a very odd serpentine shape in that country. 



From the lives of the holy penitents Si. Thais and St. Pelatiia, recorded to- 

 day, we learn that no sinner, not even abandoned profliuates and aiiulteresses, 

 need despair, if, after their example and the more illustrious one of St. Mag- 

 dalen, their repentance and confession be sincere, and their reformation effec- 

 tual. How great therefore the advantages of the Catholic confession and ab- 

 solution, as a balm, says Milner, of the wouilIkI sjiirit, and an assurance of the 

 forgiveness of Heaven ! This holy sacrament, calculated to fit human frail- 

 ties, removes from the iieniteni, alter the commission of some slight and per- 

 haps the first sin, that abhorrent despair ol anendinent and forgiveness which 

 plunges so many heretics deeper and deeper into crime, till the greatest guilt 

 and most ignominious ends are often their portion. Forapi'oof of which we 

 need only look at the numerous unfortunate women of infamous character 

 with which all great Protestant and commercial capitals swarm, and who live 

 a life of desponding and thoughtless impenitence, and die like pestilential ani- 

 mals, the victims of drunkenness and other ads of intemperance, resorted to 

 to smother their evil consciences , but who in ('atholie countries would (at 

 least a large portion of ihem,) be restored by thi^ holy sacrament to society, 

 and save their immortal souls. 



Sweet Maudlin Arbillaca aggeratuin fl. 



