catacombs to plant the standard of the cross on the capitol, and the labarum on the ruins of Jerusalem, the victory is due to St. Helen more than to Constantine. Anthusa, Nonna and Monica gave to the Church St. Chrysostom, St. Gregory of Nazianzen, St. Augustine. Macrina and Scholastica stand as noblest allies by the side of their brothers, St. Basil and St. Benedict, the founders and lawgivers of monasticism. At Tolbiac Clovis invokes the God of Clotilda, and a woman led the Franks to the foot of the cross.
Throughout the Middle Age, from Queen Blanche, the mother of St. Louis; and the Countess Mathilda, the strong helper of Gregory VII; and St. Clare, the friend of St. Francis of Assisi, to St. Catherine of Siena, who brings the Pope back to Rome after an exile of seventy years; to Joan of Arc, who delivers France from its foreign tyrants; and to Isabella of Castile, who sends Columbus to discover the New World, what a great and beneficent rôle woman plays in the history of religion and civilization! Looking to Mary as their model, whether mothers, wives or consecrated virgins,—to Mary whom none have invoked in vain, whom none have served and not been made thereby lowly-minded and chaste,—they founded the home, converted nations, upheld empires, taught in universities and inspired the enthusiasm which created the Christian chivalry dedicated to the honor of womanhood and to the defense of all that is helpless; springing like a fair flower from the double root of chastity and love to sweeten the air and fill the world with high thoughts and aims.
The world, indeed, was still full of darkness and violence, as even to-day it is full of greed and lust; but the regenerative principle had been planted in innumerable hearts, and a beginning of the transformation of woman's life had been made. She has been enrolled in the brotherhood of the race; her soul is as precious, her life as sacred, her rights as inviolable, as man's. As a person her origin and destiny are the same as his; as a member of the family, founded on monogamy, her office is the highest and holiest, and the Church stands by her side to protect her against the tyranny of man's more brutal nature by defending, with her great and mysterious power, the sanctity and indissolubility of the marriage tie.
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