LUKE TIDE. 289 



OCT. 15. St. Teresa, virgin, a.d. 1582. 

 St. Tecla, virgin and abbess. 

 St. Hospicius, anchoret, 580. 



Obs. St. Teresa has left behind her a memorial of her own life, renoivned 

 for its accuracy, the style of humility in which it is written, and the nnme- 

 rous rules which it contains for living a holy life. Baillet says that the Life 

 of St. Teresa holds the first place among book> of the kind, after the Confes- 

 sions of St. Augustine. It contains the most perfect maxims of humility, 

 selfdenial, prayer, and an interior life. St. Teresa was born at Aorla in Old 

 Castile, March 28, 1516. Her father was Alphonsus Sanchez of Cepeda, her 

 mother was Beatrice AhuuMda. St. Teresa, when only twelve years old, is 

 said to have been so struck with the thoughts of eternity, that she absolutely 

 disdained to set lier affections on phenomena which were in relation to time. 

 She despised this world and its uncertain, vain, and fluctuating pleasures, and 

 devoted her whole soul to the service of Almighty God. She and her little 

 brother Kodrigo used, when reading the lives ot the saints and holy mar- 

 tyrs, to exclaim, " For ever, for ever, for ever;>' "What ! for ever they shall 

 see God?" She was often heard to exclaim to herself wlieu alone, "0 eter- 

 nity!" For compared with the everlasting boon of heavenly joys, the allure- 

 ments of tills World to her devote and philosophic mind became vain and 

 valueless. Wliat the early saints meant by dying to the world is hardly un- 

 derstood by the luxurious and pampered inhabitant of the fickle and sensual 

 age in which our lot is cast; but all may gain some idea of it by a perusal of 

 the lives, austerities, and martyrdoms t:,i the saints. St. Teresa was the 

 foundress ot the Reformed Order of Barefooted Carmelites, and died in 1582. 

 A soul, as some of the saints have said, penetrated with the fire of divine love, 

 is like wax melted with heat, which, losing its earthly and visible form, be- 

 comes r.u ethereal fume, and mounts to heaven. 



St. Tecla was a holy nun at Winiburn in Dorsetshire, afterwards made 

 abbess of Kitzingen in Germany, near Wurtzburg, about the time that St. 

 Lioba was made abbess of Bischofsheim, and other abbesses, appointed in or. 

 der to preside over the new converts, and bring up young ladies to practices of 

 virtue and religion. 



Sweet Sultan Centaiirea Moschata still fl. 



This plant is chiefly admired for its scent, but is not without 

 beauty of appearance. 



The following hymn is composed for today by one of the Christian poets, 

 and being used in the holy othce will be found in the Breviary •- 



Haec est dies, qua candidae 

 Instar Columbae, Coelitum 

 Ad sacra templa spiritus 

 .Se traiistulitTeresiae. 

 Sponsique voces audiit 

 Veni soior de vertice 

 Carmeli, ad Agui nuptius, 

 Veni ad coronum gloriae 

 Te sponse Jcsn Virginum 

 l^eaii adorent Ordiiics 

 Et nuptiali cantico 

 Laudent per omue saeculum. 



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