has withstood oppressors, heresiarchs and mobs clamoring for blood; the indefectible vigor with which she overcomes and survives her foes, whether they be from within or from without; the solemn splendor of her rites and ceremonies; the majestic cathedrals that lift the cross above the noise and tumult of cities into the pure air of heaven; the monastic piles with which she has crowned a thousand hills, with the music of whose bells and sacred chants she has filled and consecrated a thousand vales,—not when I remember all this does my heart thrill with the deepest emotion, but when I turn my thoughts to that innumerable army of virgins, angels of innocence and purity, who in every age and in many lands lead the life of solitude and contemplation, of simplicity and benignity; who, though clothed in austere garb, bear brave and cheerful hearts, aglow with love, while they minister to the sick, the abandoned, the fallen, whether crushed by the weight of sin or that of solitary age and poverty; who nourish and form the religious spirit in childhood, making it reverent, devout and chaste; who offer ceaseless prayers to heaven and give to the world the highest examples of what Christ would have His followers become; working without a thought of what men may say of them, telling their good deeds not even to God.
To repeat what elsewhere I have said of this army of Catholic virgins, they are but the living forms of patience and service, of humility and love. What matter where their cradles stood, amid what scenes they grew, what arms held them or what lips kissed their infant brows? They came from God, they ministered to human suffering and sorrow, they returned to God. This is the sum of their life's story; this is all they cared to know of themselves; this is all we need know of them. But though they would hide themselves, the divine beauty and power of their lives cannot be hidden. They are permanently interesting, as whoever makes the supreme act of perfect self-sacrifice is interesting. To the thoughtless and the frivolous such an existence may seem dull and monotonous, as a superficial view leads us to think that to live is to change. But when we look deeper we find that life is a continuous triumph over that which changes. As in God it is immutable, so
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