Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/479

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ST. LUCEJA 4dS by the want of an English-speaking assistant. The whole community had been praying that help might be granted, and it seemed to them that this Irish sister had been sent in answer to their prayers; but when they proposed that she should stay with them she rejected the idea with horror. Her heart, JhiU of the joy of returning to Europe, revolted more strongly than oyer at everything Chinese, and when they argued the matter with her, she became quite angry. She went with some of the sisters to see the new church of Notre Dame des Victories. When they had said some prayers there, Louise remained kneeling before the cross while the others went to look at the out- side. When they returned they saw that she had been weeping, but she turned to them with a joyful face and manner, exclaiming, '* I am not going home!" She ran to find Sister Azais and declared her wish to remain in China. A little later when Azais said, "Au revoir," Louise answered, "That will not be in this world. You will return, but we shall all bo gone." She wrote to the Father General thanking him very heartily for his permission to return to France, but saying that the Blessed Virgin had told her to remain for the rest of her life with the poor Chinese. Li the hospital, the school, the dispensary, by the bedside of poor cholera-stricken natives, there was no more enthusiastic worker than Louise. She was always humbling herself with the consideration that, while her companions served the Chinese willingly, she still suffered from repugnance to this duty. In a general massacre of foreigners all the sisters at the Mission House — ten in number, including Louise — were murdered by a mob. Some of the bodies were impaled and exhibited, others were torn in pieces, some of which were eaten by the people ; the remainder burnt, so that when afterwards an attempt was made to collect the relics and bury them, only part of the bodies could be found. Lady Herbert, First Martyrs of the Holy Childhood, The names and history of the other nine sisters and the two missioners, are given in the book with many interesting details, including a letter from a Scotch Presbyterian sailor, who was nursed by Sister Louise in the hospital up to the day of the massacre^ and who vainly tried to persuade her to seek safety at the English Consulate. It has frequently been asserted that the canonization of ^ouise O'Sullivan is imminent. St. Loumaze, Neomadia. St Louvece, Lubetia. St. Lubetia Electa, or LouvfecB, Feb. 7, honoured at Orleans as Liobette, Feb. 4. Servant of Helen, Empress. Possibly same as Libania and Libiana. AA.SS.; Prseter, St. Lubove. (See Faith, Hope, and Charity.) St. Luca or Lucy, June 1, V. M. with Aucega. St. Lucania, March 10. Mentioned in Bede's Martyrology. Henschenius considers it is a miste^e for Lucianus, a martyr. AA.SS., Prseter. St. Lucee, Lucegia or Luceja. St. Lucegia, May 18, M. Possibly same as Lucentia. AA,SS. Perhaps same as Luceja. St. Luceja (l) or Lucy (B.M.), June 25, V.M. c. 301, a nun, was carried away from the neighbourhood of Home by Aucega, a barbarian king who took her to his own country. She told him to beware of doing her any harm as she was the wife of a King far greater than he-, and able to take instant vengeance for any wrong done to her. He asked contemptuously who could prevent his doing what ho chose in his own domin- ions. She answered that she was devoted to the Almighty Lord Jesus Christ The king was afraid when he heard she was a Christian, and from that moment treated her with the greatest respect, and gave her suitable apartments that no one dared to enter except the women who were to wait upon her. Whenever he was going to war he used to ask her to pray for him that her Qod might give him the victory over his enemies. As long as Lucy remained with Aucega everything prospered with him. When she had been tibiere twenty years, the Lord appeared to her in a dream and bade her return to her own country, and