336 



ADVENT. 



DEC. I. St. Eligius or Eloy, bishop and confessor, 

 A.D. 659. 



Obs. St. Elii,'ius was born at Catalat about the year .ISS. His parents 

 brouirbt liim up from bis infancy in tlip fear of God; liis heart was full of sin- 

 cerity, anil bis temper sweet and oblii,Mn{(. The sees of Noyon and Tournay 

 beini vacant, .St. Eiii;ius was reqnired to talse upon bini tbiil arduous charge 

 in 640. After havini; governed bis floci\ nineteen years and a balf, lie was fa- 

 vonred with tbe foresijcbt of bis deatli, whicb happened on the 1st of Decem- 

 ber, in ftil), beinif seventy years and some montbsold. 



St. Eligius is called not onlv Klov but Lov, and is vulf;arly regarded as the 

 patron ot blacksmitbs. In "The World of Wonders," written for the vile pur- 

 pose of calumniating Christianity, pane 308, we find, When 8t. Eloy, tbe saint 

 for .smitbs, doib baiiimerbis iroiis, is be not instead of god Vulcan? And is 

 not St. Catherine commonly painted with a wbeele, as they were wont to paint 

 Fortune? 



The above were harmless abuses of the religious character and spirit of those 

 eai'Iy ages, but they have been made use of by some writers to strengthen tbe 

 false charge of idolatry brou'/bt against the Catholic religion. That there is a 

 tendency in tbe human mind to form images emblematical of any occult 

 powers on which we rely cannot be doubted ; "and the Christian religion being 

 in its ceremonious part adapted to tbe failings of tinman nature, it was wise, 

 when the true religion was established at Kome, to substitute images of real 

 saints and emblems of historical facts for the figures of Pallas, Juno, Jupiter, 

 and other figures of the powers of tbe elements. "As our whole connexion with 

 tbe world is by means of our senses and bodily organs, so our communication 

 with Heaven while here must of necessity be by means of sensibie signs and of 

 feelings which exist by the intervention of tbe bodily powers. Hence the total 

 fallacy of tbe spirilnalisni of many sects becomes manifest. Images are forci- 

 ble mementoes, and those who object to their presence in churches niisiht as 

 well object also to pictures. It would be insulting common sense to suppose, 

 as calumniators of religion assert, that tbe Catholic worshipped either the 

 molten image or the coloured canvass, while history shews that these things 

 were only regarded as memorials. An ornamented cathedral may seem ab- 

 surd to a DuT:cb Calvinist; but to the classic antiquary and pious Catholic 

 every decoration of a buildiu? is legible as a monumental document. The 

 lofty spire of tbe church points, as a learned architect expresses it, to that 

 Heaven to whicb we are to aspire. The Cock on tbe vane is an emblem of cleri- 

 cal vigilance ; for the bird of dawning sounds the early clarion ta call us to 

 prayer. The bells, too, of cathedrals and churches bad suitable inscriptions, 

 as Adeste Ftdcles, Convoco Sa)w/os. Tbe windows painted with sacred sub- 

 jects bring into our minds the most important events of religious history; the 

 very make of a cathedral, the sublime form of its architecture, the mixed 

 voices and music of the choristers, all conjoin to cause a sentiment of venera- 

 tion, and become a source of excitement to the cardinal virtues, which re- 

 minds one of the words of the prophet, " Fen the verii stone criclh out vf the 

 mall." 



But, though in Christian countries the images and emblems of the real 

 ■Saints, who now are enjoying the blessings of Heaven, were substituted lor the 

 above described mythological images emblematical of tbe elementary powers, 

 they should never be confoiuided w'itli them, an error into whicb Milton fell in 

 his poetical works, and which makes many persons suspect his belief in Chris- 

 tianity. But Milton, by being unfortunately educated among puritans, lost 

 the respect for Christian truth, and the beauty of the Catholic ritual and doc- 

 trine, that he otherwise would have hadj and, by receiving an education exclu- 

 sively classical, he became almo-t insensible to the distinction between clas- 

 sical emblems and Christian truths : otherwise he could never have mixed Our 

 Saviour and the Saints and Angels w ith tbe false gods of antitiuity, as he has 

 done throughout his works. He possessed, however, by nature a noble mind, 

 and at times a Catholic elevation of sentiment and sraiideur of imagerv. 



Dark Stapelia Stapelia pulla fl. 



