THE LILY OF THE SAINTS 229 



It was not till the eighteenth century that 

 Cipriani and Bartolozzi, both members of the 

 English Royal Academy, could design and en- 

 grave a heathen goddess, who, with one hand 

 caressing a peacock, held in the other the 

 traditional symbol of virginal innocence. 



Lilies are proper to all virgin saints. 



' Liliis Sponsus recubat, rosisque; 

 Tu, tuo semper bene fida Sponso 

 Et rosas Martyr simil et dedisti 

 Lilia Virgo.' 



But some carry them as a special distinction. 



Among them Saint Catharine of Siena comes 

 first. She was still merely one of the many 

 children of a working tanner of Siena, her 

 sanctity unrecognized, when she was sent a 

 dream from Heaven. In her dream she saw 

 Saint Dominic, who held in one hand a lily 

 which, like the burning bush of Moses, burned 

 but was not consumed. With his other hand 

 he offered her the black and white habit of 

 the Dominican Tertiaries. Saint Catharine re- 

 garded the dream as a definite call and later 

 joined the third Order of Saint Dominic. She 

 was a woman not only of most saintly life but 



