Our 
 
 Familiar Devotions 
 
 By 
 
 SHIRLEY C. HUGHSON, O. H. C. 
 
 Contents 
 
 I. The Lord’s Prayer. 
 
 II. The Gloria Patri. 
 
 III. The Te Deum. 
 
 IV. The Gloria in Excelsis. 
 
 V. The Anima Christi. 
 
 VI. The Veni Creator. 
 
 VII. The Divine Praises. 
 
 VIII. The Angelus. 
 
 IX. The Christmas Crib. 
 
 X. The Stations of the Cross. 
 
 West Park, N. Y. 
 HOLY CROSS PRESS 
 1923 
 
 Price 40 Cent* 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 https://archive.org/details/ourfamiliardevotOOhugh 
 
Familiar Devotions 
 
 By 
 
 Shirley C. Hughson, O. H. C. 
 
 West Park, N. Y. 
 HOLY CROSS PRESS 
 1923 
 

 
NOTE. 
 
 The following devotional and historical sketches are 
 intended as an aid to the better understanding of vari¬ 
 ous forms of prayer and praise which are in common 
 use amongst devout Christian folk. Most of them 
 were first published in The Holy Cross Magazine, and 
 the all too kindly appreciation of their value as ex¬ 
 pressed by certain critics emboldens the author to 
 put them into this more permanent form, with the 
 hope that at least a few souls may thereby be stimu¬ 
 lated to love and serve our Lord to better purpose. 
 
 S. C. H. 
 
 Holy Cross, 
 
 Michaelmas, 1923. 
 
THE LORD’S PRAYER 
 
 UR Father, who art in Heaven, 
 Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy king¬ 
 dom come. Thy will be done on 
 earth, As it is in Heaven. Give us this 
 day our daily bread. And forgive us our 
 trespasses, as we forgive those who tres¬ 
 pass against us. And lead us not into 
 temptation; But deliver us from evil. 
 Amen. 
 
 2 
 
Our Familiar Devotions 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE LORD’S PRAYER. 
 
 CONSIDERING that the author of the 
 Lord’s Prayer is no other than Incar¬ 
 nate God Himself, it can be no source 
 of wonder that in every age since our 
 Lord’s Ascension into Heaven, it has been re¬ 
 garded by all Christians as the first and great¬ 
 est of Christian devotions. 
 
 The Lord’s Prayer is twice recorded in the 
 Gospels. It occurs in the Sermon on the 
 Mount, prefaced by the words, “After this 
 manner, therefore, pray ye.” In this instance, 
 it is given to His disciples as a model of 
 prayer. All prayer, in order to be acceptable 
 with God, must be made in the spirit of this 
 perfect prayer. 
 
 The second occasion is recorded by St. 
 Luke. He tells us in his eleventh chapter 
 that our Lord was praying in a certain place, 
 and that when He concluded His prayers, 
 one of His disciples,—the identity of this 
 
disciple is not revealed,—said to Him, “Lord, 
 teach us to pray.” In response to this re¬ 
 quest, He gave them this greatest of all forms 
 and patterns of prayer. 
 
 On the latter occasion, it was given to the 
 Twelve Apostles. The disciples mentioned by 
 St. Matthew in his account of the Sermon on 
 the Mount, were part of the general company 
 of disciples who followed Him, and not neces¬ 
 sarily the Twelve, as, at that time, the latter 
 had not received their special call to the aposto- 
 late. (See St. Luke 6:13-16). 
 
 It is not unlikely that our Lord taught this 
 prayer to many groups of persons on many oc¬ 
 casions. It presented the great principle of 
 Christian prayer, and He was almost sure to 
 have repeated it many times in his continual 
 work of teaching. 
 
 The Lord’s Prayer is divided into three parts. 
 First, the address to the heavenly Father. Sec¬ 
 ond, the three petitions for the exaltation of 
 God and His kingdom; and third, four peti¬ 
 tions covering all the temporal and spiritual needs 
 of man. 
 
 Rev. Vernon Staley in his book The Catholic 
 Religion , gives an analysis of the seven petitions 
 of the Lord’s Prayer in a form which is well 
 worth remembering. 
 
 4 
 
God's Glory. 
 
 Man’s Needs. 
 
 We pray for: 
 
 1. Reverence. 
 
 2. Loyalty. 
 
 3. Obedience. 
 
 We pray for: 
 
 4. Food. 
 
 5- Forgiveness. 
 
 6. Guidance. 
 
 7. Deliverance. 
 
 This division is the natural one. The 
 Prayer begins with the simple, but sublime 
 words, Our Father, Who art in Heaven ,— an ad¬ 
 dress which no Jew under the Old Testament 
 dispensation would have dared to have offered 
 to God. The right to claim God as Our Father 
 came only through the Incarnation. When 
 God, the eternal Son, became our brother-Man 
 then His Father became our Father through 
 a new relationship which could not have existed 
 before. 
 
 And this address not only taught, as had 
 never been taught before, the Fatherhood of 
 God, but it gave a new and startling revela¬ 
 tion of the brotherhood of man. From the 
 address on through the last petition, the plural 
 form is used. I cannot call upon Him save in 
 words which refer directly to the family of 
 God. I can ask nothing for myself without 
 making a prayer for all my brethren of the hu¬ 
 man race. It is always our, never my. 
 
 There has long been a question as to the force 
 of the words On earth as it is in Heaven. Do 
 
they qualify only the petition, Thy will be done, 
 or all of the preceding petitions ? The text of the 
 Gospel gives no clue, but some of the best devo¬ 
 tional authorities insist that it should be under¬ 
 stood as governing all that goes before; that the 
 petitions are: Hallowed be Thy Name on earth as 
 it is in Heaven; Thy kingdom come on earth as it 
 is in Heaven; Thy will be done on earth as it 
 is in Heaven. 
 
 Whatever may have been the original inten¬ 
 tion, certainly this understanding of the force 
 of the phrase gives the Prayer a great richness 
 and significance; and, in any case, such a devo¬ 
 tional accommodation of the language is entirely 
 legitimate. 
 
 Having first prayed for the increase of the 
 divine honour, we go on to pray for the things we 
 need. A similar question to that which we have 
 mentioned above, has been raised regarding the 
 Doxology, For Thine is the Kingdom, etc which 
 concludes our liturgical form of the Prayer. Is 
 it intended only as a general Doxology, or should 
 it be taken as qualifying each particular petition? 
 
 Again, the text of the Prayer affords no help. 
 In fact, there is a possibility that this Doxology is 
 of late origin, and was not a part of the original 
 Prayer. But what has been said of the other 
 question is true in regard to this. Devotionally, 
 it is an enrichment to recite each petition in con- 
 
 6 
 
nection with the Doxology; as, for example, Hal¬ 
 lowed be Thy Name,—for Thine is the Kingdom, 
 and the power and the glory, forever and ever. 
 Amen. And so on with every other petition. 
 
 Apparently, from the beginning, the Church 
 has interpreted our Lord's words, “When ye pray, 
 say," as a command. In every primitive Euchar¬ 
 istic Office, with the one exception of the ancient 
 Roman Liturgy, the Lord's Prayer followed im¬ 
 mediately after the prayer of consecration be¬ 
 fore the Communion. So invariable was this 
 custom, and so ancient, that St. Jerome, who wrote 
 about A.D. 400 attributes it to the personal com¬ 
 mand of our Lord Himself; and some of the 
 ancient authors erroneously regarded its use as 
 necessary for the consecration of the bread and 
 wine. It was so intimately associated with the 
 consecration of the Eucharist, however, that Pope 
 Leo VI, in the ninth century, forbade it to be 
 used in blessing ordinary food in grace said at 
 meals. 
 
 In practically every ancient Liturgy, the Lord’s 
 Prayer was introduced by a preface. Some of 
 these were of great dignity and beauty. The one 
 in the ancient Liturgy of Jerusalem, known as that 
 of St. James, is as follows: “And deign that we, 
 O merciful Lord, with boldness, uncondemned, 
 with a pure heart, a contrite soul, with counte¬ 
 nance unashamed, and with sanctified lips, may 
 
 7 
 
dare to call upon Thee, the holy God, the Father 
 in the Heavens, and to say: Our Father/'’ etc. 
 
 Through the centuries, the method of publicly 
 reciting the Lord’s Prayer varied with various 
 times and places. In the western Church, the 
 priest for the most part, said the Prayer alone, 
 or only with certain responses on the part of the 
 people; while in the eastern Church it was said 
 all together, as is our present custom except at 
 the beginning of the Liturgy. 
 
 The 1 Mozarabic Liturgy provided a litany-like 
 use of it, which must have been impressive, and 
 must also have contributed greatly to the reality 
 of the petitions. At the end of each of the first 
 three petitions, the minister paused, and the people 
 responded with an Amen. After Give us this 
 day our daily bread, the congregation responded, 
 "‘For Thou art God.” The two petitions follow¬ 
 ing this were responded to with Amen, and after 
 Lead us not into temptation , the people concluded 
 the Prayer with, But deliver us from evil. 
 
 The Revised Version translates the last sentence, 
 Deliver us from the Evil One. This rendering is 
 based on very ancient authority, and it is unfor¬ 
 tunate that it has not been adopted in our Prayer 
 Book. In most of the old Liturgies the Lord’s 
 Prayer is not only preceded by a preface, as 
 noted above, but the last two petitions are ex¬ 
 panded into a further prayer, which is called the 
 
 8 
 
Embolis. In the old Liturgy of Jerusalem the 
 embolis makes it clear that the evil from which 
 we pray to be delivered is none other than the 
 personal power of Satan. It reads “And lead 
 us not into temptation, O Lord, the Lord of 
 Hosts, who knowest our infirmity; but deliver us 
 from the evil one and his works, and from every 
 assault and wile of his, for the sake of Thy Holy 
 Name, which is called upon our lowliness/’ 
 
 Since the Lord’s Prayer is the all-inclusive 
 prayer, comprehending every possible honour 
 to God, and petitioning for every possible hu¬ 
 man need, it is customary to use it as a general 
 act of praise and intercession. 
 
 For example, when one says it as an act of 
 intercession for the conversion of a certain soul 
 the first three petitions become a prayer that 
 by this conversion God’s Name may be hal¬ 
 lowed amongst men; that His Kingdom may 
 come into the heart of him for whom we are 
 praying; and that this soul may do the divine 
 will as it is done in Heaven. 
 
 In the last four petitions, we pray that its 
 every need, spiritual and temporal, may be 
 filled; that it may forgive and be forgiven; and 
 that, protected from fatal temptation, it may 
 be delivered from all evil. 
 
 The petitions may be used singly, or in 
 groups, as the need or devotion of each soul 
 
 9 
 
may suggest. This has been the custom 
 amongst devout folk from time immemorial. 
 
 A touching memory from the life of the 
 great Archbishop Gray of Capetown illustrates 
 the strength and consolation that the servants 
 of God have ever been able to gain from the 
 use of this great devotion. At a time when 
 he was enduring persecution for the faith, with 
 apparently everything against him, and his 
 Church rent in twain, on a lonely journey 
 across the veldt, hundreds of miles from home, 
 he wrote in his diary, “I find infinite comfort 
 in repeating the first three petitions of the 
 Lord’s Prayer.” 
 
 Many admirable books have been published 
 explaining the petitions of the Our Father, and 
 there is not room in this brief treatise to give 
 more than a brief suggestion of what this all- 
 comprehensive praver means when offered to 
 God. 
 
 Our Father zvho art in Heaven. 
 
 There is not one of the forty-nine prayers 
 which appear in the Old Testament in which God 
 is addressed as “Our Father.” As we have al¬ 
 ready thought, when the Eternal Son became Man 
 He made himself our Brother, and by so doing 
 worked a radical change in the relation of all 
 men to his Father. This throws a great light on 
 the meaning of the Incarnation. 
 
 10 
 
In a still more wonderful and enduring way do 
 we by Baptism into the Body of Christ become His 
 brethren. He is one with His Father, and if 
 we are one with Him, we are united to the very 
 Being of God, caught up into the bosom of the 
 Holy Trinity. 
 
 Hallowed be Thy Name . 
 
 Every loving and Christ-like thought, word, or 
 deed, however insignificant men may count it, is 
 a hallowing and glorifying of the Father’s Name. 
 This petition is a prayer that we may indeed let 
 our light shine in such a manner before men that 
 they, seeing our works, and the good savour of 
 our lives, may take upon themselves the same 
 heavenly service, and so honour our Father. 
 
 Thy Kingdom Come. 
 
 Having instructed the disciples to pray for 
 the hallowing of God’s Name, our Lord next 
 commands them to pray for that which will bring 
 to pass the final and perfect hallowing of the di¬ 
 vine Name. Let the rule and kingdom of Christ 
 be firmly established in all hearts, and it would 
 not be possible but that His name would be hon¬ 
 oured everywhere. On the other hand, every sin, 
 great or small, is a contending against the coming 
 of the kingdom. 
 
 How our hearts should glow at the thought 
 that, weak and even wilful sinners as we too often 
 are, our Father yet condescends to give us, 
 
 11 
 
through our prayers and labours, a part in the 
 raising of the walls of “the Kingdom that must 
 be built,” making us co-workers with Himself 
 in the creation of “the Kingdom which shall have 
 no end.” It was said that St. Teresa could never 
 repeat these words in the Nicene Creed without 
 tears. 
 
 Thy zvill be done on earth as it is in Heaven. 
 
 This is a prayer that all men may do the will 
 of God even as it is done by the angels and 
 saints in Heaven. It is a serious matter to offer 
 this petition with pretended earnestness, and then 
 not make daily a strenuous effort to do what con¬ 
 science tells us is our Father’s will. We may not 
 always succeed, and failure does not necessarily 
 mean hypocrisy, but to say this prayer is to pledge 
 ourselves to try perseveringly, and to accept such 
 helps from Him, sacramental and otherwise, as 
 will ensure our success in the end. 
 
 Give ns this day our daily bread. 
 
 We here ask God to give us all things needful 
 for both body and soul,—spiritual as well as ma¬ 
 terial sustenance, and blessing. The word Give 
 expresses our dependence on Him. Nor do we 
 specify what our needs are. Knowing His loving 
 fatherly care for us, we leave Him to judge what 
 is best for us. 
 
 12 
 
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who 
 
 trespass against us. 
 
 This is the petition to which a condition is at¬ 
 tached. Without forgiveness of our sins, there 
 is no hope; and we are taught to ask God to for¬ 
 give us only in the same manner and degree that 
 we forgive those who offend us. Charity towards 
 all is therefore necessary in order to keep this 
 prayer from being a mockery of God, and a con¬ 
 demnation of ourselves. In using it we are ask¬ 
 ing God not to forgive us unless we forgive 
 others. 
 
 Lead us not into temptation. 
 
 This is not a prayer for deliverance from all 
 temptation, but only from such as we are not 
 able to bear. Temptation is the divinely ap¬ 
 pointed mode of our ordinary Christian warfare, 
 and there can be no crown without a victory, and 
 victory is impossible unless there is a battle. This 
 is a petition that in our particular spiritual diffi¬ 
 culties He will fulfill His promise, and not allow 
 us to be tempted above that we are able. 
 
 But deliver us from evil. 
 
 This petition is to be considered in close con¬ 
 nection with the preceding one. Some commen¬ 
 tators take the two sentences as constituting a 
 single petition in which we pray not to be lead into 
 that kind of temptation which will bring upon us 
 that evil which will hurt the soul. 
 
 IS 
 
THE GLORIA PATRI 
 
 G LORY be to the Father, an'! to the 
 Son, and to the Holy Ghost: As it 
 was in the beginning is now, and ever 
 shall be, world without end. Amen. 
 
 14 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE GLORIA PATRI. 
 
 ITHOUT doubt next to the Lord’s 
 Prayer, the Gloria Patri is the most 
 universal devotion of the Christian 
 Church, and one might safely say the most im¬ 
 portant. There is no office of the Church, nor 
 has there been since primitive days, in which 
 in some form this devotion does not occur. 
 
 In the Divine Office it is repeated again and 
 again. No psalm is said without it; it is 
 placed at the beginning of the Prayer Book Of¬ 
 fices ; it finds a like place in the Litany, and 
 in the Eucharist the proclamation of the Gos¬ 
 pel is preceded by a shortened form of the 
 Gloria, which the people use as an exclamation 
 of praise before that divine Word is read. 
 
 No one knows when the Gloria Patri began 
 to be used, or who composed it. Its form 
 varied slightly through the earlier ages of the 
 Church, but when the great Arian heresy arose 
 in the fourth century, the Church seized upon 
 it as her declaration in all her devotions, of the 
 truth that the Eternal Son of God was in all 
 things equal to the Father. 
 
 15 
 
It was in those dark days when men's hearts 
 were failing them for fear, and had such a 
 thing been possible, it seemed that the gates 
 of hell were prevailing against the Church, that 
 she took refuge in this doxology, and 
 ordered it to be used everywhere as a protesta¬ 
 tion of her faith in the Triune God. 
 
 Until the fourth century the forms of the 
 Gloria varied. In some parts of the Church 
 it was said, “Glory be to the Father by the 
 Son,” and in others, “Glory be to the Father 
 in the Son.” The great St. Basil who died in 
 379 was accused of introducing a novelty when 
 he used the form as we have it at the present 
 day. 
 
 In defense, however, he declared that all 
 three forms were ancient, and were to be 
 used in the Catholic sense. He also affirmed 
 that his own practice was the same as that of 
 St- Clement of Rome, St. Irenaeus, Origen, St. 
 Gregory Thaumaturgus, and others of the 
 more ancient Fathers. If he was correct, this 
 takes the present form of the Gloria Patri back 
 to the days of St. Paul, for it was this same 
 Clement whose name the Apostle declares in 
 the Epistle to the Philippians, to be written “in 
 the book of life.” 
 
 It was the second part of the Gloria Patri, 
 however, that was introduced especially to bul- 
 
 16 
 
wark the Catholic Religion against the Arians, 
 who held that our Lord was not of the same 
 substance with the Father, and that there was 
 a time when He did not exist. 
 
 Just when the second clause was first added, 
 we do not know. It was first enjoined by 
 Church authority (so far as is known) at the 
 Council of Vaison, a town of Avignon in 
 France, in 529. This Council decreed the use 
 of the words, “As it was in the beginning, is 
 now, and ever shall be, world without end/' 
 that is to say, that the relation of the three Per¬ 
 sons of the Godhead was eternal. 
 
 The question was early raised, however, as 
 to what was the subject of the verb was. It is 
 now popularly taken that the word Glory is the 
 subject; that is, that the glory to be accorded 
 the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, is the 
 same now as it was in the beginning, and will 
 be the same through all the ages of eternity. 
 
 But the Latin word erat (for the Gloria was 
 originally written in Latin) can be translated either 
 He was or it was, and there is good authority 
 for thinking that originally the Son was meant 
 to be the subject of the verb. That is, “As He, 
 the Son, was in the beginning, (the reference here 
 is to this same expression in St. John i. i), He 
 is now and He ever shall be, world without end.’’ 
 
 As this section of the Gloria was adopted for 
 
 17 
 
the purpose of setting forth the Faith concerning 
 the position of God the Son in the Godhead, this 
 would seem to be the right interpretation. 
 
 This view is supported by the fact that during 
 the middle ages there were some versions of the 
 Gloria Patri in use in the vernacular on the Con¬ 
 tinent which so translated it. For example, there 
 was an old German form, “Als er im Anfang,” 
 “As He was in the beginning.’’ This form would 
 make the Gloria an undoubted denial of the Arian 
 heresy, which could not be said of the other 
 forms. 
 
 The present use of the Gloria in the Church 
 services was a slow growth. When the Gallic 
 monk Cassian went to Egypt in 390, he found the 
 desert Fathers using the then form of the Gloria 
 at the end of all psalms, and St. Benedict who 
 died about 542 , ordered it in his Holy Rule to 
 be so used. 
 
 The Gloria has also from time immemorial been 
 used as a devotion of praise by itself. In the 
 middle ages it was used by preachers at the end 
 of their sermons, and in some countries, especially 
 in parts of Germany, the people make the sign of 
 the cross on repeating the first half, regarding it 
 as a declaration of their Faith, a kind of Creed 
 in miniature. 
 
 It finds a place in nearly all the great Catholic 
 Litanies. It is an essential part of the Rosary, be- 
 
 18 
 
ing said at the end of each decade, and occurs 
 at the opening of nearly all the Breviary Offices, 
 and at many other places in them. The Church 
 and her children never grow weary of repeating 
 with filial love and devotion this great act of glory 
 to God. 
 
 The Gloria being a joyful doxology, it is, by 
 Catholic custom, omitted during the last three 
 days of Holy Week, and is also omitted from cer¬ 
 tain private devotions made by the priest at the 
 altar from Passion Sunday until Easter. It is 
 omitted at the end of the psalms in the Office of 
 the Dead, in the latter case the Requiem Aeter- 
 11am,—-“Grant them, O I.o/d, eternal rest, and let 
 perpetual light shine upon them,”—being used 
 in its stead. 
 
 In all ages since its use began, the Gloria Patri 
 has been constantly on the lips of the Faithful 
 as an act of devotion to God with various inten¬ 
 tions. It is used as an act of special praise in 
 thanksgiving to God for particular mercies; as an 
 act of reparation for dishonours done Him by sin ; 
 and the love of pious souls has made it the 
 basis of devotions as numberless as the blessings 
 for which men are called upon to thank and praise 
 God. 
 
 One stimulating instance of how it may be 
 used is found in Dr. Neale’s Commentary on 
 the Psalms. Every psalm is concluded with cer- 
 
 19 
 
tain devotions, among them being the Gloria 
 Patri with sentences inserted, setting forth spe¬ 
 cial points from the psalm which suggest praise 
 and thanksgiving. For example, the Commen¬ 
 tary on Psalm 23 ends: 
 
 “And therefore: Glory be to the Father, who 
 anoints our head with oil; and to the Son, the 
 Shepherd of His people; and to the Holy Ghost, 
 who provides for us that inebriating chalice which 
 is so excellent. As it was in the beginning, is 
 now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen .” 
 
 In some such way, each one of us, as the Spirit 
 may suggest to him, can use this great devotion of 
 the Church as a vehicle for our praise and love 
 to God. As we come and go about the daily 
 routine of our duty, in the house, the shop, the 
 office, on the street or in the fields,—wherever we 
 are, whatever w r e are doing, let us make it a song 
 in the heart, this ancient doxology to Father, Son, 
 and Holy Ghost. God has said, “he that giveth 
 Me thanks and praise honoureth Me.” So here in 
 this simple devotion lies our constant opportunity 
 of giving honour to our Creator, our Redeemer, 
 our Sanctifier. 
 
 There could be no more profitable spiritual ex¬ 
 ercise than for each one of us to make out for 
 himself a multifold scheme of praise and thanks¬ 
 giving, covering all our relations in life, touching 
 our duties and privileges, our blessings, temporal 
 
 20 
 
and spiritual and all based on the Gloria. Let 
 each one try it. Make a little private book of de¬ 
 votions on this plan, and the blessings of God will 
 be multiplied upon us past numbering and with 
 ever increasing abundance. 
 
 Glory be to the Father, who hath loved us 
 with an everlasting love; and to the Son, who 
 hath visited and redeemed His people; and to 
 the Holy Ghost, who teacheth us the deep things 
 of God, guiding our feet into the way of peace. 
 As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall 
 be, world without end. Amen. 
 
 21 
 
TE DEUM LAUDAMUS 
 
 \X7E praise Thee, O God: we acknowledge Thee to be 
 the Lord. 
 
 All the earth doth worship Thee: the Father everlaat- 
 ing. 
 
 To Thee all angels cry aloud: the Heavens and all the 
 Powers therein. 
 
 To thee Cherubim and Seraphim: continually do cry, 
 
 Holy, Holy, Holy: Lord God of Sabaoth; 
 
 Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty: of thy 
 glory. 
 
 The glorious company of the Apostles: praise thee. 
 
 The goodly fellowship of the Prophets: praise thee. 
 
 The noble army of Martyrs: praise thee. 
 
 The holy Church throughout all the world: doth 
 acknowledge thee; 
 
 The Father: of an infinite Majesty; 
 
 Thine adorable, true: and only Son; 
 
 Also the Holy Ghost: the Comforter. 
 
 Thou art the King of Glory: O Christ. 
 
 Thou art the everlasting Son: of the Father 
 
 When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man: thou 
 didst humble thyself to be born of a Virgin. 
 
 When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death: 
 thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers. 
 
 Thou sittest at the right hand of God: in the glory 
 of the Father. 
 
 We believe that thou shalt come: to be our Judge. 
 
 We therefore pray thee, help thy servants: whom thou 
 hast redeemed with thy precious Blood. 
 
 Make them to be numbered with thy Saints: in glory 
 everlasting. 
 
 O Lord, save thy people: and bless thine heritage. 
 
 Govern them: and lift them up for ever. 
 
 Day by day: we magnify thee; 
 
 And we worship thy Name: ever, world without end. 
 
 Vouchsafe, O Lord: to keep us this day without sin. 
 
 O Lord, have mercy upon us: have mercy upon us. 
 
 O Lord, let thy mercy be upon us: as our trust is in 
 thee. 
 
 O Lord, in thee have I trusted: let me never be con¬ 
 founded. 
 
 22 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE TE DEUM. 
 
 O sing a Te Deum,—these words have 
 become a proverb in the language of 
 almost every country in Christendom. 
 As a matter of fact, in our time one does not 
 commonly hear Te Deuins sung as special acts 
 of joy and thanksgiving to God for blessing 
 and deliverance, but the proverbial saying tes¬ 
 tifies to the instinct of Christian people every¬ 
 where to find in this great, ancient hymn, the 
 best expression of gratitude to God for His 
 manifold mercies. 
 
 In the Mattins Office of the Sarum Breviary 
 the Te Deum appears under the title, “The Song 
 of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine.” This 
 title reflects what was the universal belief in 
 the middle ages concerning this hymn. Even 
 as late as the seventeenth century, Bishop 
 Cosin, who had so much to do with the final 
 revision of the Book of Common Prayer, pro¬ 
 posed to retain the title, “The Hymn of St. Am¬ 
 brose.” 
 
 The belief that obtained through many un¬ 
 critical centuries, was that on the occasion of 
 
 23 
 
the baptism of Augustine at Easter 385, these 
 two servants of God, as the regenerating waters 
 were poured upon the head of Augustine, broke 
 forth antiphonally, and by an inspiration of the 
 Holy Ghost composed this hymn which 
 through all the succeeding ages has been the 
 Church’s great act of praise throughout the 
 western world. 
 
 No one any longer accepts this legend. St. 
 Augustine in his Confessions gives an account 
 of his baptism, and had it been true, he would 
 almost certainly have made some reference to 
 it. Nor is the story heard of until the eighth 
 century, more than three hundred years after 
 St. Augustine’s death. 
 
 Not only would these silences show it highly 
 improbable, but it seems fairly certain that at 
 least some parts of the Te Deum ante-dated St. 
 Ambrose and St. Augustine by more than a 
 century. In a work entitled De Mortalitate, 
 written by St. Cyprian of Carthage in 252 there 
 occurs a passage almost identical with the 
 seventh, eighth and ninth verses of the hymn, 
 —“the glorious company of the Apostles praise 
 Thee,’’ etc. 
 
 This possible reference to the Te Deum (if 
 it be such), is the earliest that has been found 
 in Christian literature. The question here 
 is whether the words of St. Cyprian were later 
 
 24 
 
on incorporated into the hymn; or whether St. 
 Cyprian was quoting a hymn well known in 
 his time. The latter would seem to be the 
 more natural conclusion, although it is accepted 
 bv no means by all of the authorities. 
 
 Some ancient writers ascribe the authorship 
 of the Te Deum to St. Hilary of Poictiers (A. 
 D. 355), and others to St. Nicetas of Remesi- 
 ana (about A. D. 500). The late Bishop John 
 Wordsworth of Salisbury, a man of vast learn¬ 
 ing in this field, thinks a “very plausible" case 
 has been made out for Nicetas, and Bishop 
 Frere, of Truro, perhaps the greatest living 
 liturgical scholar in England, definitely accept 
 this claim. St. Nicetas was a Bishop in Da¬ 
 cia, which was the region now comprised in 
 Transylvania, Moldavia, Wallachia, and other 
 parts of Hungary. The acceptance of his claim 
 is based, however, on much conjecture, and not 
 a few scholars reject it. 
 
 In no event is it to be supposed that any one 
 man wrote the Te Deum. It is a compila¬ 
 tion. The authorities are agreed that the first 
 ten verses go back to very remote times, and 
 Dr. Swainson in his article in The Dictionary of 
 Christian Antiquities, says it is closely connected 
 with the Eucharistic hymn in the ancient liturgy 
 of Jerusalem. 
 
 He also calls attention to the interesting cir- 
 
 25 
 
cumstance that although no Greek copy of the Te 
 Deum has ever been found, important portions of 
 it are from Greek and Oriental Christian sources. 
 Not only are the first ten verses Greek in origin, 
 but the three which follow them, and which are 
 supposed to have been added somewhat later as 
 a doxology to the Holy Trinity, are taken from 
 an Alexandrine morning hymn, as are also verses 
 
 24, 25, and 26. This old Greek hymn is translated 
 in full in Blunt’s Annotated Book of Common 
 Prayer. 
 
 Verses 14 to 21 constitute a complete hymn to 
 Christ as God. Verses 22 and 23 are from 
 Psalm 28. 10; verse 26 is from Psalm 123. 3, and 
 the last two verses are based upon Psalm 22. 5 and 
 
 25. 1. 
 
 While there have been some later variations of 
 a slight nature in the Te Deum, it would seem to 
 have reached substantially its present form by the 
 sixth century, and to have been generally known 
 and used through the western Church. St. 
 Caesarius of Arles was the first to refer to it 
 by its present title. He mentions it in his Rule 
 for monks, which he wrote in 502 at Lerins, an 
 island off the Mediterranean coast of Gaul. The 
 Rule of St. Benedict, who died in 542, also men¬ 
 tions it, and references to it are common after 
 the beginning of the sixth century. 
 
 Translations of the Te Deum in England go 
 
 26 
 
back to the eighth century, when the first Anglo- 
 Saxon version, so far as is known, was made. 
 Many others were made during the centuries 
 which followed. The one we use at present is 
 substantially the same as appeared in the Primer 
 of 1546, although no one knows who trans¬ 
 lated it. Bishop Wordsworth thinks Cranmer 
 was responsible for it, but in any case, while 
 beautiful in the flow of the rhythm, it is in¬ 
 accurate. 
 
 For example, the very first sentence is not a 
 translation of the Latin at all. Te Deurn lauda- 
 mus cannot be rendered, “We praise Thee, O 
 God,” but should be, “We praise Thee Who art 
 God.” This expression has led many to think 
 that the first ten verses are a hymn to Christ, and 
 there is much to be said for this contention. If 
 this be true, the opening words would stand as 
 a declaration of the Deity of our Lord which 
 was denied by so many of the heresies of the 
 early centuries. 
 
 Our .American version of the hymn contains a 
 most unhappy and wholly indefensible change. 
 From the earliest ages, the Te Deum has declared 
 that when in the fulness of time God the Son 
 came to redeem mankind, He “did not abhor the 
 Virgin’s womb.” Our version changed this to 
 read, “Thou didst humble Thyself to be born of 
 a Virgin.” 
 
 27 
 
Not only from a literary standpoint was this 
 change ridiculous, but historically, and perhaps 
 doctrinally, it cannot be justified. The reference 
 in the Te Deum is to the act of the Incarnation. 
 The American Book shifts it to the birth of our 
 Lord; and in so doing gives a grave suggestion 
 of a fundamental error. It was not on His birth¬ 
 day that our Lord began His mighty work of re¬ 
 demption, but at the moment of His conception 
 in His mother’s womb. The change comes near 
 expressing a form of Nestorianism. 
 
 For at least fourteen centuries the Te Deum 
 has been sung in the Morning Office of the 
 Church, as it is now in Morning Prayer. The 
 Sarum direction, in common with the use of the 
 Church everywhere else, forbade its use in Ad¬ 
 vent and Lent, on most vigils and on Ember 
 Days. This was because, being a hymn of joy, 
 it was not suited for penitential seasons. 
 
 It was also sung on occasions of public rejoic¬ 
 ing and thanksgiving, like the election of a Bis¬ 
 hop, the coronation of a King, or on occasions 
 of deliverance in battle. This last named use 
 of it is appointed in the American Prayer Book 
 for thanksgiving after a victory at sea. 
 
 When used in this way, the Te Deum is re¬ 
 garded as a special service or solemnity by it¬ 
 self, although it may follow the Mass, or some 
 other Service, in which case the vestments are 
 
 2S 
 
not changed. Where it does not follow some 
 other service, the liturgical colour is white, un¬ 
 less it be in connection with some great feast 
 like Whitsunday, when the colour for the day is 
 used. 
 
 According to the ancient ritual, it is customary 
 to bow the head in the Te Deum at the words, 
 “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and at, “Thou didst not 
 abhor the Virgin’s womb.” In the latter in¬ 
 stance, it is intended as an act of veneration of 
 the Mystery of the Incarnation. Since the Ameri¬ 
 can Prayer Book has eliminated the reference to 
 the Incarnation, this act would be without point 
 when our version of the hymn is used. 
 
 The bowing at the Thrice-Holy is an act of 
 joining the angels in their worship when we use 
 their celestial hymn, as described in Isaiah 6. 2 - 3 , 
 and Rev. 4. 8. The rule is also to kneel at the 
 verse, “We therefore pray Thee.” 
 
 The Te Deum has suffered much at the hands 
 of pious rhymesters. With few exceptions the 
 metrical versions are monuments of lamentable lit¬ 
 erary and devotional taste. The least objection¬ 
 able perhaps are those of Dryden and Charles 
 Wesley. Whatever merit there may be in any of 
 them is generally in proportion to the distance 
 they wander from the original thought of the Te 
 Deum. 
 
 It is interesting that while the Eastern Church 
 
 29 
 
does not officially know the Te Deum, during re¬ 
 cent times it has become in translations into the 
 vernacular a popular devotion throughout Rus¬ 
 sia under the title of The Hymn of St. Ambrose. 
 
 Whatever may be its origin and development, or 
 however it may have been used or abused, this 
 “most famous non-biblical hymn of the Western 
 Church,” as Bishop Wordsworth calls it, as we 
 have it today, offers to the faithful an expression 
 of praise to the Holy Trinity splendid in its ele¬ 
 mental simplicity of thought and language. 
 
 Throughout its varied structure it maintains its 
 character as a hymn in such a manner as to 
 show the authors of its component parts, as well 
 as the compilers of the present form, to have been 
 possessed of a devotional genius which came near 
 to supernatural inspiration. 
 
 Even the greatest of the poets have never been 
 able to strike a note that could awaken a response 
 in the universal heart. Homer and Milton do 
 not appeal to the literary instinct of the China¬ 
 man, and the Chinese epics seem grotesque and 
 out of proportion to western taste. The divinely 
 inspired psalms and canticles alone appeal to 
 all, and the Te Deum is the only hymn, not 
 drawn from the Sacred Scriptures, that has 
 made a like place for itself in Christ’an 
 hymnody. The Gloria in Excelsis might be 
 mentioned in the same category, but its posi- 
 
 30 
 
tion is readily accounted for by the fact that 
 so large a part of it is taken literally from 
 Holy Scripture. 
 
 31 
 
GLORIA IN EXCELSIS 
 
 C ’ LORY be to God on high, and on 
 l earth peace, good will towards men. 
 We praise thee, we bless thee, we wor¬ 
 ship thee, we glorify thee, we give thanks 
 to thee for thy great g!ory, O Lord God, 
 heavenly King, God the Father Almighty. 
 
 O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus 
 Christ; O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son 
 of the Father, that takest away the sins 
 of the world, have mercy upon us. Thou 
 that takest away the sins of the world, 
 have mercy upon us. Thou that takest 
 away the sins of the world, receive our 
 prayer. Thou that sittest at the right 
 hand of God the Father, have mercy upon 
 us. 
 
 For thou only art holy; thou only art 
 the Lord; thou only, O Christ, with the 
 Holy Ghost, art most high in the glory 
 of God the Father. Amen. 
 
 32 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE GLORIA IN EXCELSIS. 
 
 URING the early centuries of Chris¬ 
 tianity “private psalms/’ as they 
 were called, were common in Christian 
 worsmp. Little by little, however, the con¬ 
 sciousness of the Church realized that God 
 could be the better praised in the words in¬ 
 spired by the Holy Ghost for that purpose in 
 the Sacred Scriptures. Only three of these 
 psalms remain to us today, the Te Deum, the 
 Gloria in Excelsis, and the so-called Creed of 
 St. Athanasius. 
 
 Adrian Fortescue speaking of the first two, 
 says, “The extraordinary beauty of these is a 
 witness to the splendour of that outburst of 
 lyric poetry among Christians during the time 
 of persecution”; and Canon Newbolt speaks of 
 the Gloria in Excelsis as the “hymn begun by 
 the angels in the sky, and finished by the 
 Church on earth.” 
 
 The Gloria in Excelsis had its origin in the 
 Greek Church. The same Alexandrian morn¬ 
 ing hymn which, as we have seen, contributed 
 much to the Te Deum, contains, with some ver- 
 
 33 
 
bal differences, the whole of the Gloria in Ex- 
 celsis as we use it today. This hymn is used 
 at the present time in the east in the daily 
 morning, and sometimes evening, Office. 
 
 The Gloria in Excelsis is also contained in 
 Book VII. of the Apostolical Constitutions 
 which was compiled about 350 . 
 
 The first use of the Gloria in Excelsis in the 
 Mass seems to have arisen with the insertion 
 into some of the primitive liturgies of the hymn 
 sung by the angels on the night of our Lord’s 
 birth, as recorded in St. Luke 2 . 14 . It has 
 been pointed out that undoubtedly it was so 
 employed to foreshadow the coming of the 
 same Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. (See 
 Scudamore, Notitia Eucharistica, p. 691.) 
 
 In the East this verse is found in numerous 
 liturgies. In the old Spanish Mozarabic rite, 
 it was said except in Advent, Lent and on week¬ 
 days, which is the present universal western rule. 
 
 Gradually the song of the angels was expanded 
 until certainly by the fourth century, it had as¬ 
 sumed substantially its present form. How much 
 earlier it was completed, it is not possible to say, 
 but it might well be two or three centuries earlier. 
 This is the judgment of Bishop Gibson of Glou¬ 
 cester, whose article on the Gloria in Excelsis in 
 The Church Quarterly Review for October, 1885, 
 is regarded as of final authority. If his judg~ 
 
 3 4 
 
ment be correct, the hymn might go back to the 
 days of the personal disciples of the Apostles. 
 
 In the early Roman Church it was at first in¬ 
 troduced only in the Christmas Mass. When 
 this was done is not known, but it was certainly 
 very early. Bishop Gibson is inclined to credit 
 the old tradition that Telesphorus, who was 
 Bishop of Rome about A. D. 130, ordered the 
 words of St. Luke 2. 14 to be sung in the Mass. 
 
 In the year 104 Pliny the Younger, one of the 
 most enlightened men of his time, was governor 
 of Pontus and Bithynia, under the equally just 
 and enlightened Emperor Trajan. In reporting 
 to the Emperor the status of the Christians in his 
 provinces, he describes their custom of meeting 
 together before sunrise “to sing a hymn to Christ 
 as God.” There is no way of proving the matter, 
 but many scholars have thought it likely that this 
 hymn to which Pliny refers was one of the earliest 
 forms of the Gloria in Excelsis. 
 
 The suggestion is at least interesting, and it 
 ties up with another, that a phrase in the re¬ 
 cently discovered Apology of Aristides,—“Every 
 morning, at every hour, they praise and glorify 
 God for His goodness towards them,”—relates to 
 the words of the Gloria in Excelsis, “We praise 
 Thee, we glorify Thee, we give thanks to Thee for 
 Thy great glory.” The date of the Apology is 
 somewhere about the year 130 * 
 
 *Cabrol. Liturgical Prayer, Its History and Spirit, p. 102. 
 
 35 
 
Symmachus, who was Bishop of Rome in 498, 
 ordered the full hymn to be sung on Sundays and 
 on the feasts of martyrs, but, according to the 
 Roman use, it could only be said by a Bishop, 
 except on Easter when a priest w T as permitted to 
 use it. It was not until the twelfth century that 
 the restriction on its use by priests w r as removed. 
 The Rule of St. Caesarius, who was contempo¬ 
 rary with St. Symmachus, ordered it to be sung 
 at Matins on Sundays. Apparently it was not 
 said by the people until later centuries. 
 
 The words immediately following the passage 
 from the Gospel, seem to be derived from the lit¬ 
 urgies of St. Basil and St. Chrysostom. They have 
 the words, “We hymn Thee, we bless Thee, we 
 give thanks to Thee, O Lord; and pray to Thee, 
 our God.” This was sung by the choir between 
 the words of Institution and the Invocation of 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The repetition of the w r ords, “Thou that takest 
 away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us,” 
 involves a curious bit of history. It does not be¬ 
 long to any ancient form, and first appeared in 
 the English Prayer Book in 1552 which, as will 
 be recalled, was prepared under the influence of 
 foreign protestant sectarianism. It is said that 
 all the English priests having been accustomed to 
 the three-fold “That taketh away the sins of the 
 world” in the Agnus Dei which they said at their 
 
 36 
 
communion, this repetition was placed in the 
 hymn that was to follow the Communion to make 
 amends for the omission of the Agnus Dei, 
 Whether this be true or not, the clause was a new 
 thing in the hymn, and might well be omitted in 
 order to bring it into conformity to the more 
 ancient use. 
 
 The expression, “For Thou only art holy/’ etc., 
 is taken from the response in the ancient liturgies 
 to the proclamation of the priest, “Holy things 
 for the holy.” In many of the liturgies the 
 people responded, as, for example, in the rite of 
 St. Chrysostom: “One holy, one Lord, Jesus 
 Christ, to the glory of God the Father.” The ex¬ 
 pression “in the glory of God the Father,” is, of 
 course, a quotation from Phil. 2. n. 
 
 The Gloria in Excelsis is a hymn of praise to 
 the Holy Trinity, the divine Persons being men¬ 
 tioned in their proper order. The reference to 
 the Holy Ghost is very brief, and some have 
 thought that it was a late afterthought. It does 
 not appear in the earlier versions such as that 
 found in the Apostolical Constitutions. It will be 
 remembered, however, that it was not until the 
 fifth century that direct devotions to the IToly 
 Ghost were used, and by that time the Gloria in 
 Excelsis w r as practically complete as we have it 
 now. 
 
 There were many ancient Irish manuscripts 
 
 37 
 
of the hymn, and in that country it was used in 
 the evening as well as in the morning. The 
 American Prayer Book as revised in 1892 pro¬ 
 vided a like evening use as optional, but it has 
 practically never been followed. The instinct 
 of the Western Church for sixteen hundred years 
 reserves it for use at the Eucharist as a hymn 
 of joyful praise, it being omitted, or a more ap¬ 
 propriate selection substituted for it, in peni¬ 
 tential seasons. 
 
 The Gloria in Excelsis is known in the east 
 as the “Great Doxology” to distinguish it from 
 the Gloria Patri, which is called the “Lesser Dox- 
 ology.” It has never like the Te Deum been 
 used as a form of thanksgiving on special occa¬ 
 sions, but for many centuries it has been em¬ 
 ployed as a theme of devotional meditation, and 
 been subjected to much mystical interpretation. 
 
 Much has been made, for instance, in a very 
 helpful way, of the sequence of the verbs, “We 
 praise Thee, we bless Thee, we worship Thee, we 
 glorify Thee,” showing how they represent the 
 steps in the ascent of the soul in its service of 
 God; and Canon Newbolt makes a beautiful 
 comment on the culmination of this passage, say¬ 
 ing, “There are few words so expressive of the 
 abandon of praise as these, which, forgetting all 
 our needs, and all our blessings, empty themselves 
 out in sheer thanksgiving to God for being what 
 
 38 
 
He is: ‘We give thanks to Thee for Thy great 
 glory.’ ” 
 
 
 
ANIMA CHRISTI 
 
 S OUL of Christ, sanctify me! 
 
 Body of Christ, save me! 
 
 Blood of Christ, inebriate me! 
 
 Water from the sid » cf Christ wash me! 
 Passion of Christ, strengthen me! 
 
 O Good Jesu, hear me! 
 
 Within Thy wounds hide me! 
 
 Suffer me not to be separated from Thee! 
 From the malicious enemy defend me! 
 
 In the hour of my death, call me! 
 
 And bid me come to Thee, 
 
 That with Thy saints I may praise Thee, 
 For ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 40 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE ANIMA CHRISTI. 
 
 BOUT six hundred years aeo there ap¬ 
 peared almost simultaneously in the de¬ 
 votional literature of many parts of the 
 Christian world a short Latin prayer, beginning 
 with the words Anima Christi,—Soul of Christ. 
 From these opening words the devotion took the 
 title by which it has since been known, just as the 
 Magnificat and Te Deum, and other familiar devo¬ 
 tions, take their name from the opening words of 
 their Latin version. 
 
 Where the Anima Christi came from no one 
 knows. It seems to have been first heard of in 
 Italy in 1330, when it was especially recommended 
 to the use of the Faithful by the Pope of that 
 time. 
 
 Mr. James Mearns, the well known English 
 hvmnologist, discovered it in an old manuscript 
 in the British Museum which is of the date of 
 1370. It is also found carved on one of the gates 
 of the Alcazar in Seville, which would indicate 
 that it was known in Spain in the days of Don 
 Pedro the Cruel who died in 1369. There is also 
 in the library of Avignon in France an old prayer 
 
 41 
 
book which belonged to Cardinal Peter de Lux¬ 
 embourg, who died in 1387, which contains this 
 prayer. 
 
 These dates are important because in many 
 books of devotion in our day, the prayer is 
 credited to St. Ignatius of Loyola, who was not 
 born until 1491. This mistake was brought 
 about by his frequent use of it in his famous 
 Spiritual Exercises. But the fact that in the 
 first edition of this book he did not print it in full 
 but took it for granted that everyone would be 
 familiar with it, shows that in his day it had 
 a wide currency. Even at the present time, it 
 is not infrequently entitled “A Prayer of St. Ig¬ 
 natius,” although it can be his prayer only in the 
 sense that he used it habitually and recom¬ 
 mended its constant use to his disciples. The 
 Roman Breviary includes the Anima Christi 
 among the authorized and indulgenced prayers 
 to be said by the priest after celebrating Mass. 
 Until 1913 the caption in some authorized edi¬ 
 tions described it as ‘“Aspirations of St. Ignatius,” 
 but this was eliminated in the revision of the 
 Breviary under the late Pope Pius X. 
 
 There are a few variants and paraphrases of 
 the Anima Christi, but the English form which 
 is almost universal is the following: 
 
 Soul of Christ, sanctify me. 
 
 Body of Christ, save me. 
 
 42 
 
Blood of Christ, inebriate me. 
 
 Water from the side of Christ, wash me. 
 Passion of Christ, strengthen me. 
 
 O Good Jesu, hear me. 
 
 Within Thy wounds hide me. 
 
 Suffer me not to be separated from Thee. 
 From the malicious enemy defend me. 
 
 In the hour of my death, call me, 
 
 And bid me come to Thee: 
 
 That with Thy Saints I may praise Thee 
 Forever and ever. Amen. 
 
 The standard Latin version, of which this is a 
 translation, is as follows: 
 
 Anima Christi, sanctifica me. 
 
 Corpus Christi, salva me. 
 
 Sanguis Christi, inebria me. 
 
 Aqua lateris Christi, lava me. 
 
 Passio Christi, comforta me. 
 
 O bone Jesu, exaudi me. 
 
 Intra tua vulnera absconde me. 
 
 Ne permittas me separari a te. 
 
 Ab hoste maligno defende me. 
 
 In hora mortis meae voca me, 
 
 Et jube me venire ad te: 
 
 Ut cum Sanctis tuis laudem te, 
 
 In saecula saeculorum. Amen. 
 
 We have seen that this devotion was popular 
 in the pre-Reformation period. After the Refor- 
 
 43 
 
mation it seems to have dropped out of use 
 amongst Anglicans for three hundred years, 
 although on the Continent its use in metrical ver¬ 
 sions among the Reformed Churches was never 
 abandoned. 
 
 John Wesley in 1741 brought out a version be¬ 
 ginning, “Jesus, thy soul renew mine own”; and 
 there was also a version in an English Moravian 
 hymn-book published in 1742. 
 
 None of these, however, had any popularity. 
 Its real devotional use began with the Oxford 
 Movement. It is difficult to say who first be¬ 
 gan the restoration of its actual use amongst us. 
 It begins to appear in Anglican books of devo¬ 
 tion late in the earlier half of the nineteenth cen¬ 
 tury. Dr. Pusey, always foremost in such work 
 for the help of souls, was the first, so far as the 
 present writer can learn, to publish it for Angli¬ 
 can Catholics, which he did in 1845 i n his redac¬ 
 tion of Horst’s Paradise of the Christian Soul. 
 It is there included very fitly in the “Prayers and 
 Sentences to be said by the Bedside of the Dy¬ 
 ing.” 
 
 Robert Brett also included it in his Church¬ 
 man s Guide to Faith and Piety in 1862, but its 
 great popularity is doubtless chiefly due to its 
 publication in The Treasury of Devotion in 1867. 
 It is there printed in a prominent manner, occu¬ 
 pying an entire page, so as to make it typographic- 
 
 44 
 
ally one of the most conspicuous features of the 
 book. At the present day, it is included in prac¬ 
 tically every book of prayers that makes any pre¬ 
 tension to be Catholic. 
 
 The Anima Christi is a devotion to the Sacred 
 Humanity of our Lord. This Humanity is the 
 instrument created by God for the redemption 
 of mankind, and is so joined to His Divinity that 
 the latter cannot be worshipped in Christ with¬ 
 out at the same time the former being worship¬ 
 ped. 
 
 The Church, therefore, has ever encouraged 
 devotion to our Lord’s Humanity, and in the 
 Anima Christi there is practically the same appeal 
 that we make in our worship of the Blessed Sac¬ 
 rament. There we adore His Body and Blood 
 which was crucified, dead and buried; and which 
 is now risen, ascended, and glorified at the Fath¬ 
 er’s right hand. Here in virtue of the same Sa¬ 
 cred Humanity, and of the Passion which He 
 endured in His Body, we call upon Him to sanc¬ 
 tify us, to save us, to embue us with the ex¬ 
 hilarating power of the Precious Blood, to wash 
 us from every sin, to strengthen us to meet every 
 demand the Spirit may make upon us; and so to 
 protect us here that in the hour of death we may 
 be counted worthy to be called to a place in the 
 company of His Saints and Angels. 
 
 45 
 
THE VENI CREATOR 
 
 C OME, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire, 
 And lighten with celestial fire. 
 
 Thou the anointing Spirit art, 
 
 Who dost thy sevenfold gifts impart 
 Thy blessed unction from above, 
 
 Is comfort, life, and fire of love. 
 Enable with perpetual light 
 The dulness of our blinded sight. 
 Anoint and cheer our soiled face 
 With the abundance of thy grace. 
 
 Keep far our foes, give peace at home; 
 Where thou art guide, no ill can come. 
 Teach us to know the Father, Son, 
 
 And thee, of both, to be but One; 
 
 That, through the ages all along, 
 
 This may be our endless song: 
 
 Praise to thy eternal merit, 
 
 Father, Son and Hoiy Spirit. 
 
 Bishop Cosin's Version. 
 
 46 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE VENI CREATOR. 
 
 HE great hymn to the Holy Ghost, 
 “Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,” 
 which is commonly designated by its 
 Latin title, Veni Creator, is declared by the dis¬ 
 tinguished liturgist, Dr. Frere, to be “the most 
 famous of hymns.” 
 
 One is startled at first at so sweeping a 
 statement, but a few moments’ consideration 
 shows the justification of this verdict. From 
 about the year 1000 it has been used in all the 
 Churches of the west; and the manuscripts of 
 it in every part of Europe are well nigh num¬ 
 berless, some of them being of much earlier 
 date. It is the one hymn which for just short 
 of one thousand years, has found an official 
 place in the liturgical services of the Church 
 of every nation of western Christendom. 
 
 It is the only Latin hymn which in transla¬ 
 tion is included in the authorized Prayer Book 
 of the Anglican Church. Its use as an invo¬ 
 cation of the Holy Ghost on solemn occasions 
 such as the election and consecration of Bis¬ 
 hops, the ordination of priests, the dedication of 
 
 47 
 
churches, and the meetings of Church Councils, 
 is universal; in addition to wh’ch it is the ordi¬ 
 nary invocation of the Spirit on such occa¬ 
 sions as retreats, etc., while its private use in 
 connection with meditations and other personal 
 devotions, has endeared it to all Christians who 
 look for the guidance of the Holy Ghost in the 
 exercise of their spiritual life. 
 
 The question naturally arises, Whence comes 
 this great hymn whch holy men of so many 
 races and tongues, through so many ages, have 
 found to afford the highest and purest expression 
 of their spiritual aspiration? The question has 
 been asked for many centuries, and there is no 
 likelihood that it will ever find an answer. The 
 widest labour of research, and the most profound 
 study, have been devoted to its solution, but to 
 no avail. 
 
 For a long time, the Veni Creator was popu¬ 
 larly supposed to have been composed by the Em¬ 
 peror Charlemagne, but as Dr. Julian, the great 
 hymnologist, remarks, this is a legend which 
 falls to pieces as soon as it is examined. It had 
 its origin with Ekkehard, a monk of St. Gall, the 
 famous Swiss monastery. About the year 1220 
 he wrote a life of Blessed Notker the Stam¬ 
 merer, who was a holy religious of St. Gall about 
 880, and who is perhaps best known to us as 
 the reputed (though falsely so) author of the 
 
 48 
 
antiphon in the Burial Office which begins, “In 
 the midst of life we are in death.” Notker 
 left a gracious memory behind him, the frag¬ 
 rance of which rejoiced his brethren for many 
 centuries after he had been gathered to his fath¬ 
 ers. 
 
 Ekkehard's story is so full of sweetness that 
 it is worth reproducing, even if it did lay the foun¬ 
 dation of a wholly false legend regarding the 
 Veni Creator. He says : 
 
 “It is told of the blessed man Notker that 
 one day when he went through the dormitory 
 he hearkened, for there was a mill hard by, 
 whose wheel revolving slowly for want of water, 
 and groaning, seemed to give forth sounds like 
 unto words. And the man of God, hearing, 
 straightway was in the Spirit, and produced the 
 most beautiful hymn, and gave utterance to the 
 honey-sweet melody from the same kind Spirit 
 which possessed him,—I mean the Sequence on 
 the Holy Spirit Sancti Spiritus ad sit nobis gratia. 
 And when he had completed it, he sent it to the 
 Emperor Charles the Great, who was then prob¬ 
 ably staying at Aachen. And the same Christian 
 Emperor sent back to him by the messenger that 
 with which the same Spirit had inspired him, 
 namely, the hymn, Veni Creator Spiritus.” 
 
 The story has so sweet a charm that for cen¬ 
 turies it was accepted as authentic, and even in 
 
 49 
 
our time in not a few collections the great Charles 
 is named as the author of the hymn. The diffi¬ 
 culty is that the Emperor died some twenty-six 
 years before Notker was born, and since Ekke- 
 hard is the only authority for the imperial author¬ 
 ship, the whole legend falls to pieces. 
 
 The Veni Creator has also been assigned to 
 Pope Gregory the Great, and to St. Ambrose, but 
 such attributions of authorship are manifestly ab¬ 
 surd. Rabanus Maurus, who was Abbot of Fulda 
 and Archbishop of Mayence in Germany in 
 the ninth century, and a pupil of the English Al- 
 cuin, has been thought by some excellent author¬ 
 ities to be its author. He was perhaps the most 
 learned man of his time, and much has been 
 made of the fact that one chapter of his great 
 work De Universo reads as though it might be a 
 prose paraphrase of the Veni Creator. But 
 Archbishop Trench has disposed of this argu¬ 
 ment by showing that the hymn parallels just as 
 closely certain passages in the writings of St. 
 Augustine of Hippo. 
 
 A better case can doubtless be made out for 
 Rabanus than for almost any other possible au¬ 
 thor. He was quite capable of composing it, as 
 we know from the poems of high excellence 
 which are undoubtedly his. He lived in a time 
 when there was much controversy concerning 
 the Holy Spirit, being in his early prime when 
 
 50 
 
in 809 Charlemagne called the Council of Aix-la- 
 Chapelle to re-promulgate the Church’s ancient 
 teaching concerning the procession of the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 But as it has been suggested above, it is safe to 
 say that the authorship is involved in such ob¬ 
 scurity that it is hopeless to come to any conclu¬ 
 sion about it. This is the judgment of the best 
 authorities. 
 
 The hymn in early mediaeval times was used 
 at Vespers, but a little later we find it appointed 
 for Terce, a most appropriate use as it was at this 
 third hour that the Holy Ghost descended upon 
 the Apostles at Pentecost. In the Divine Office 
 it is now used at both Vespers and Terce but only 
 in Whitsuntide. 
 
 So deeply has this great hymn appealed to the 
 devotional sense of English-speaking Church¬ 
 men that no less than fifty-one translations of it 
 are extant. The one most commonly used, and 
 which stands at the beginning of this chapter, is 
 by Bishop John Cosin, of Durham. The poet 
 Dryden also made a translation of it which may 
 be found in his works, and Tate and Brady made 
 two translations, both of which, like most of their 
 poetical lucubrations, have fallen into happy ob¬ 
 livion. Bishop Doane of New Jersey made also 
 two translations as far back as 1824, but neither 
 have passed into popular use. 
 
 51 
 
The longer version which appears in the Ordi¬ 
 nation and Consecration service of the Prayer 
 Book, beginning,— 
 
 “Come, Holy Ghost, eternal God, 
 
 Proceeding from above, 
 
 Both from the Father and the Son, 
 
 The God of peace and love,” 
 
 is by an unknown translator. It was in part 
 printed in the first English Prayer Book, (1549), 
 and would seem to be the first translation made 
 into the English tongue. It is one of the wordiest 
 translations ever made, rendering twenty-four 
 lines of terse Latin into sixty-four English lines 
 of weak and pompous verse which wander very 
 far from the original. 
 
 There is another translation which Arch¬ 
 bishop Parker included in his compilation en¬ 
 titled The Whole Psalter, and which some author¬ 
 ities think to be older than the verbose version in 
 the Book of 1549. It is of the same length as the 
 latter, but many of the stanzas are much more 
 forceful and terse. It begins, 
 
 “Come Holy Ghost: eternal God, 
 
 Which doost from God proceede, 
 
 The Father fyrst: and eke the Sonne, 
 
 One God as we do reade. 
 
 Oh, visit thou: our minds and hearts, 
 
 Thy heavenly grace inspire: 
 
 That we in truth: and godliness, 
 
 May set our whole desire.” 
 
 52 
 
The verbosity of the two previous versions 
 may have stimulated Bishop Cosin to make his 
 translation, which is a faithful reflection of the 
 tone of the original Latin, although like his 
 predecessors, he leaves much to be desired 
 when it comes to rendering the meaning of the 
 Latin lines. 
 
 By far the most exact English reproduction of 
 the thought and meaning of the hymn that the 
 present writer has seen, is to be found in Samuel 
 W. Duffield’s The Latin Hymn-Writers and their 
 Hymns. It is worth while to reproduce it 
 parallel to the original. The translation is pre¬ 
 sumably by Mr. Duffield, although no statement 
 is made to that effect in his book. It is to be 
 regretted that he did not preserve the metre of 
 the Latin verses : 
 
 Veni, Creator Spiritus, 
 Mentes tuorum visita, 
 
 Ini pie superna gratia 
 
 Quae tu creasti pectora. 
 
 Qui Paraclitus diceris 
 
 Donum Dei altissimi, 
 
 Foils vivus, ignis, cliaritas, 
 
 ICt spiritalis unctio. 
 
 Tu septifonnis munere 
 
 Dextrae Dei tu digitus, 
 
 Tu rite protnissum Patris, 
 
 Sermone ditans guttura. 
 
 O Holy Ghost, Creator, come 1 
 
 Thy people's mind pervade 
 
 And fill with Thy supernal 
 grace 
 
 The souls which Thou hast 
 made. 
 
 Thou who art called the Para¬ 
 clete, 
 
 The gift of God most high; 
 
 Thon living fount and fire and 
 love 
 
 Our spirit’s pure ally ; 
 
 Thou sevenfold Giver of all 
 good; 
 
 Finger of God’s right hand ; 
 
 Thou promise of the Father, 
 rich 
 
 In words for every land. 
 
 53 
 
Accende lumen sensibus 
 Infunde amorem cordibus, 
 Infirma nostri corporis 
 
 Virtute firmans perpetim 
 
 Hostem repellas longius, 
 Pacenique dones protinus, 
 
 Ductore sic te praevio 
 
 Vitemus omne noxium. 
 
 Per te scianius da Patrem 
 
 Noscamus atque Filium, 
 Te utriusque Spiritum 
 
 Credamus omni tempore. 
 
 Kindle our senses to a flame. 
 
 And fill our hearts with love, 
 
 And through our bodies’ weak¬ 
 ness, still 
 
 Pour valour from above. 
 
 Drive further off our enemy, 
 
 And straightway give us 
 peace, 
 
 That with Thyself as such a 
 guide, 
 
 We may from evil cease. 
 
 Through Thee may we the Fa¬ 
 ther know, 
 
 And thus confess the Son; 
 
 For Thee (from both the Holy 
 Ghost), 
 
 We praise while time shall run. 
 
 As a hymn for the Ordination Service, the Veni 
 Creator goes back to the eleventh century, and 
 the method of singing it, the Bishop and choir 
 alternating the lines or verses, has very ancient 
 authority. 
 
 According to the old rubrics, the first verse was 
 sung kneeling, as an act of adoration of the Third 
 Person of the ever-blessed Trinity. 
 
 This posture is a survival of the ancient mode 
 of rendering it, which required that it be accom¬ 
 panied with all the adjuncts of ritual glory,— 
 lights, incense, the ringing of bells, and splendour 
 of vestments, quite like the rendition of a solemn 
 Te Deum, or as the Gloria in Excelsis is sung at 
 the midnight Mass of Christmas. 
 
 It is a great pity that the later ages have denied 
 to this hymn the place as a liturgical devotion 
 
 54 
 
which it enjoyed in past centuries, and it is to 
 be desired that the ancient custom of rendering 
 the Veni Creator as an act of worship in honour 
 of the Holy Ghost be revived amongst us. We 
 have long since reclaimed our solemn litanies and 
 Te Deums. We have learned how to render 
 our petitions in times of trouble and peril; and 
 there is no want of glad thanksgiving in our ser¬ 
 vices ; but nowhere in our public corporate de¬ 
 votions have we a service of praise, honour, and 
 petition to Him who is “the Lord, and giver of 
 
 55 
 
THE DIVINE PRAISES 
 
 B lessed Be God. 
 
 Blessed be his holy Name. 
 
 Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and 
 true man. 
 
 Blessed be the Name of Jesus. 
 
 Blessed be his most sacred Heart. 
 Blessed be Jesus Christ in the most 
 holy Sacrament of the Altar. 
 
 Blessed be the Holy Ghost, the Com¬ 
 forter. 
 
 Blessed be the Mother of God, Mary 
 most holy. 
 
 Elessed be the name of Mary, Virgin 
 and Mother. 
 
 Blessed be God in his angels and in his 
 saints. 
 
 56 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE DIVINE PRAISES. 
 
 VERYONE who reads this is familiar 
 with the “Divine Praises,” which we are 
 accustomed to hear recited by priest and 
 people at the end of Benediction of the Blessed 
 Sacrament, and on other occasions of special 
 devotion. 
 
 How and when this beautiful form of praise 
 originated is not known. So far as research has 
 been made, it is first heard of in 1797, when a 
 certain Father Louis Felici, a Jesuit, lived in the 
 city of Rome, and devoted himself to promoting 
 pious confraternities, and editing small books 
 of prayers for the faithful. 
 
 Those who are familiar with the history of the 
 ups and downs of the Jesuit Society will recall 
 that twenty-four years before, in 1773, Pope Cle¬ 
 ment XIV had suppressed the Society of Jesus 
 and that for nearly forty-one years it was pro¬ 
 hibited by papal decree from exercising its minis¬ 
 try throughout the greater part of Europe, in¬ 
 cluding, of course, Italy and the Papal dominions. 
 Individual members, however, were allowed to 
 minister to souls without hindrance, and Father 
 
 57 
 
Felici seems to have been one of those who, while 
 waiting with patience for better days, employed 
 his time helping such souls as he could reach. 
 
 From the little that is known of him, Father 
 Felici must have been an interesting personality. 
 From descriptions which have come down to us 
 of his work, one pictures him as an active little 
 man, somewhat fussy withal, but with a great 
 love for souls, and with an indefatigable genius 
 for pursuing in gentle and loving, though very 
 insistent fashion the souls he had set out to 
 win and train for the Kingdom of God. 
 
 Deprived by the suppression of his Society, of 
 the normal exercise of his ministry, he devoted 
 himself to teaching groups here and there, as 
 they would listen to him, the more intensive life 
 of prayer. 
 
 He organized a confraternity for sailors, into 
 which he gathered many of this rough element. 
 One can imagine him full of it, talking to every¬ 
 one about it; in short, “promoting” it in somewhat 
 the same fashion as Father Stanton did his post¬ 
 man’s league in London a hundred years later. 
 
 Italian seamen seem to have been past-masters 
 in blasphemy, and the good Father doubtless 
 set forth the Divine Praises, having in mind the 
 reparation due to God for this common sin of 
 the sailor lads he loved, and for whom he did 
 so much. 
 
 58 
 
But there seems to be no evidence that Father 
 Felici was the author of the Divine Praises. It 
 is not an uncommon occurrence that the prop- 
 pagator of a popular devotion is supposed to be 
 its originator. We have seen that the same mistake 
 was made regarding St. Ignatius Loyola and the 
 Anima Christi. For a long time he was supposed 
 to be its author, and probably the majority of 
 those who use it, even now, labour under that im¬ 
 pression. But it has been quite clearly proved 
 that he only took it as he found it already in use, 
 and incorporated it in The Spiritual Exercises . 
 
 Wherever it may have originated the Divine 
 Praises, like most such devotions, has had a 
 gradual development. The prayer, as at present 
 authorized in the Roman Church, contains at least 
 two clauses which did not find place in the earlier 
 forms. The words, “Blessed be her Immaculate 
 Conception/’ did not appear until five years after 
 the promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate 
 Conception of St. Mary by Pius IX in 1854 
 declared acceptance of this pious opinion neces¬ 
 sary to salvation. 
 
 The inclusion of this clause does not appeal .to 
 the logical and literary sense of the best Roman 
 Catholic liturgical scholars. Dr. Adrian For- 
 tesque criticises it as “strange, after blessing per¬ 
 sons, to bless an abstract concept.” 
 
 The last addition,—“Blessed be His Most Sa- 
 
 59 
 
cred Heart,” was not formally authorized until 
 1897, although it had long before been in popu¬ 
 lar use. 
 
 The use of the Divine Praises amongst our¬ 
 selves very likely began with its inclusion in 
 Father Arthur H. Stanton’s Catholic Prayers. 
 
 It is a wholesome sign showing an absence 
 of any mere imitative dependence on Roman 
 sources, that there has been a distinct Anglican 
 development of its form. Devout Roman 
 Catholics are now asking for the insertion of 
 an ascription of praise to the Holy Ghost, 
 which has long since found its place in the 
 form used by Anglicans. 
 
 From time to time, efforts have been made to 
 introduce other clauses, as the devotion of the 
 people suggests. In Siena, after the ascription 
 of blessing to St. Mary, is sometimes inserted, 
 “Blessed be her most pure Spouse, St. Joseph”; 
 and the words, “Blessed be her most pure Heart,” 
 are occasionally found. 
 
 These additions, however, seem to be quite 
 local, and have had no great vogue. The ob¬ 
 jection which is made to adding such ascriptions 
 as these seems to be valid when the original 
 purpose of the prayer is recalled. There seems 
 to be no doubt that it was first used as an act of 
 reparation for the outrage done to the honour of 
 God by sins of blasphemy. 
 
 60 
 
Unless this special intention is to be lost sight 
 of, it were wise to permit the introduction of no 
 ascription save to the Adorable Persons of the 
 Holy Trinity, for while moralists hold that the 
 sin of blasphemy can be committed against the 
 Saints, they all agree that this would be only a 
 kind of secondary blasphemy, touching the honour 
 of God through these in whom He dwells. Even 
 the praise of the Mother of God might seem out 
 of place if the original purpose is to be strictly 
 adhered to. 
 
 But if it be a stimulus to love and devotion, 
 why limit the prayer to the purpose intended by 
 good old Father Felici, who lived in Italy more 
 than a century a^o? .America has sins numer- 
 ous enough and bad enough for which indeed all 
 possible reparation ought continually to be made; 
 but it happens, by the mercy of God, that blas¬ 
 phemy is not one of our national sins. We have 
 too much indifference amongst us for that. A 
 man cannot very vigorously blaspheme one to 
 whom he is indifferent, or in whom he does not 
 believe. 
 
 Chesterton says blasphemy depends on faith 
 and fades with it. “If anyone doubts this, let him 
 sit down seriously and try to think blasphemous 
 thoughts about Thor. I think his familv would 
 find him at the end of the day in a state of 
 seme exhaustion.” 
 
 61 
 
To an Italian, the Catholic religion is a very 
 present thing. He may hate it, but he has got to 
 believe in it. He cannot get very far away from 
 it, try as he may. The result is seen in that 
 which has been described as “the atrocious blas¬ 
 phemies which a passionate Italian is apt to for¬ 
 mulate with almost diabolical ingenuity.” 
 
 It may have been this that Father Felici was 
 trying to offset and repair. But one is not sure 
 that there may not be another side to the sub¬ 
 ject. Cardinal Manning once said, “Italian is the 
 weakest language in the world. It is all superla¬ 
 tives.” 
 
 If this be so, the Italian who loses his temper, 
 and wishes to express himself accordingly, is at 
 a disadvantage from the beginning. He has no 
 moderate words at his command in his most sober 
 moments, and it may be that what to us has the 
 sound of fearful blasphemy, connotes less to the 
 Italian mind,—and perhaps to the mind of the 
 merciful God who looks on the heart,—than a 
 mild expletive would to the cold, reserved New 
 Englander. 
 
 But it is not only for blasphemy that reparation 
 is needed. Those who have learned to know and 
 love the Divine Praises, realize as they look out 
 across the world, as every day’s news brings 
 word of the hideous welter of sin and sorrow, of 
 wrong to man and outrage to the majesty and love 
 
 62 
 
of God, breaking of human hearts and crucifying 
 the Lord of life afresh, that one of the chief du¬ 
 ties of the loving soul is by our praise and prayer 
 and service to balance honour against dishonour, 
 fervour against indifference, love against hate, 
 reverence against scorn. 
 
 When they curse, we cry, “Blessed be God”; 
 when they flout and deny we proclaim, “Blessed 
 be His Holy Name!” 
 
 63 
 
THE ANGELUS 
 
 T HE Angel of the Lord announced unto 
 Mary and she conceived by the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord Is 
 with thee. Blessed art thou among women, 
 and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, 
 Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, 
 pray for us sinners now and at the hour 
 of our death. Amen. 
 
 Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be It 
 unto me according to thy word. 
 
 Hail Mary, etc. 
 
 The Word was made flesh: and dwelt 
 among us. 
 
 Hail, Mary, etc. 
 
 Let us pray. 
 
 We beseech Thee, O Lord, pour Thy 
 grace into our hearts; that, as we have 
 known the Incarnation of Thy Son Jesus 
 Christ by the message of an Angel, so 
 by His cross and passion we may be 
 brought unto the glory of His resurrec¬ 
 tion; through the same Jesus Christ our 
 Lord. Amen. 
 
 64 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE ANGELUS. 
 
 HE Angelus is a devotion in honour of 
 the Incarnation of our Rord. It is 
 essentially the recitation of the Hail 
 Mary thrice, but in later times there have been 
 added to it three versicles, and the Prayer 
 Book Collect for the feast of the Annuncia¬ 
 tion. The name of the devotion is taken from 
 the first word of the Ratin form of the open¬ 
 ing versicle ,—Angelus Domini Nuntiaznt Marine , 
 —The angel of the Rord announced unto Mary. 
 
 The origin of the Angelus is obscure. Origi¬ 
 nally it was used only in the evening, but of later 
 centuries, the custom has become universal of 
 saying it also at noon and in the early morning. 
 There seems to be no doubt that it was recited 
 very generally throughout Europe as an evening 
 devotion in the thirteenth century, a bell being 
 sounded to warn tfle faithful of the hour. 
 
 As early as the year 975 we find a mention of 
 the Tres Orationes , or Three Prayers, in a 
 monastic rule drawn up by St. Ethelwold of Win¬ 
 chester, which were to be said three times each 
 day, before Matins, at Prime, and after Compline. 
 
 65 
 
While there is no evidence that the Hail Mary 
 was a part of this devotion, it is probable that 
 out of this practice, which also prevailed in cer¬ 
 tain parts of the Continent, developed the later 
 use of the Angelus. 
 
 The morning Angelus in its earliest form is 
 first mentioned in the chronicle of the city of 
 Parma, 1318, when what was known as the 
 “Peace Bell” was rung; and it is on record that 
 the Bishop exhorted the people to recite, at the 
 sound of the bell, the Lord’s Prayer and the 
 Hail Mary three times each for the peace of the 
 city. 
 
 The mid-day Angelus which originated in Ger¬ 
 many, seems to have been a memorial of our 
 Lord’s Passion, and in 1386 at Prague and in 
 1423 at Mayence, we find it mentioned as being 
 rung only on Fridays, although it was soon ex¬ 
 tended to the other days of the week. 
 
 In an English manuscript in the Harleian Col¬ 
 lection written in 1576 it is suggested that the 
 Pesurrection be commemorated at the morning 
 Angelus, the Passion at noon, and the Incarnation 
 at evening, since these hours correspond to the 
 actual times at which these Mysteries took place. 
 . Some manuals of this period give the Regina 
 Coeli as a devotion appropriate to be said in hon¬ 
 our of the Resurrection at the ringing of the 
 morning Angelus, and this very likely was the 
 
 66 
 
beginning of the present custom of substituting 
 the Regina Coeli for the Angelus during Easter¬ 
 tide. 
 
 The Regina Coeli is so called from the first 
 two words of the Latin form. It is said in 
 place of the Angelus during Eastertide, i. e., from 
 the first Vespers of Easter until the First Ves¬ 
 pers of Trinity Sunday. Its authorship is un¬ 
 known, but it dates back to about A. D. noo. It 
 was adopted by the first Franciscans, and 
 through their influence spread throughout the 
 Christian world. About fifty years after the 
 death of St. Francis, we find it in general use 
 throughout the Western Church. Its form is as 
 follows: 
 
 V. Rejoice, 0 Queen of heaven, Alleluia. 
 
 R. For He whom thou wast found worthy to bear, 
 Alleluia, 
 
 V. Hath risen as He said, Alleluia. 
 
 R. Pray for us to God, Alleluia. 
 
 V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary! 
 
 Alleluia. 
 
 R. For the Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. 
 
 Let us pray. 
 
 O God, who by the resurrection of Thy Son Jesus 
 Christ our Lord, hast vouchsafed to give gladness 
 unto the world: grant, we beseech Thee, that we be¬ 
 ing holpen by the prayers of the Virgin Mary, His 
 Mother, may attain to the joys of everlasting life. 
 Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
 As the principal devotion in the Angelus is the 
 
 67 
 
Angelical Salutation, or, as it is commonly called, 
 the Hail Alary, it will be of primary interest to 
 trace the history of this prayer which for many 
 centuries has been so dear to the hearts of Chris¬ 
 tians in every part of the world. 
 
 From the earliest ages of the Christian 
 Church the instinct of the hearts of men has been 
 to give honour to her whom Incarnate God chose 
 to be His Mother. This devotion found expres¬ 
 sion in various ways, and from an early period the 
 use of the Salutation with which the angel 
 Gabriel greeted the Blessed Virgin when he 
 came to announce to her her high vocation, 
 has been a popular one. 
 
 His words, or words conveying a like meaning, 
 are found in authorized services both in the east 
 and in the west as early as the sixth century, 
 but it is doubtful if at that time anything an¬ 
 alogous to the later Hail Alary was in use as a 
 separate devotion. 
 
 Like most religious practices whose origin is 
 obscure, the Hail Mary has its legend. One 
 of the most attractive is that concerning St. 
 Ildephonsus of Toledo, who flourished about 660. 
 
 The story which has been told for at least 
 seven centuries, is that on one occasion going to 
 the cathedral by night to pray, the saint had a 
 vision of the Blessed Alother seated on his own 
 episcopal throne, surrounded by a choir of vir- 
 
 68 
 
gins engaged in singing her praise. Falling on his 
 knees the saint cried out in the words of St. Ga¬ 
 briel, adding to them by an inspiration of devo¬ 
 tion, the ejaculation of Elisabeth, “Blessed is 
 the Fruit of thy womb.” 
 
 Our Lady was so pleased with his homage that 
 she presented him on the spot with a chasuble 
 of rare workmanship, and the saint henceforth 
 diligently promulgated this devotion amongst his 
 flock. There is the charm of simplicity about this 
 legend which does honour to the heart of him 
 who invented it, but unhappily there can be little 
 doubt that St. Ildephonsus never heard of it. 
 
 The devotion, according to the conclusion of 
 Father Thurston who has studied its history care¬ 
 fully, almost certainly arose out of the use of the 
 versicles and responses found in the Little Of¬ 
 fice of the Blessed Virgin, somewhere about the 
 tenth century. 
 
 There is no doubt that by the year 1184 it was 
 a common practice amongst pious folk in England 
 to use the Angelical Salutation. The Cistercian 
 Abbot Baldwin was made Archbishop of Canter¬ 
 bury in that year, and he wrote a paraphrase of it, 
 saying that it was in these words with the addi¬ 
 tion of the words of St. Elisabeth, that “we daily 
 greet the most Blessed Virgin.” The Hail Mary, 
 like the Rosary and so many other Catholic devo- 
 
 69 
 
tions of a similar kind, was thus early a regular 
 practice in the Church of England. 
 
 Across the channel in France, it had spread 
 with equal fervour, and in 1196 a decree of 
 Eudes de Sully, Bishop of Paris, issued in a 
 synod of his diocese, directed the clergy to see 
 to it that the faithful were as familiar with the 
 Hail Mary as with the Lord’s Prayer and the 
 Creed. Beginning at this time, there were re¬ 
 peated similar enactments in many parts of the 
 world. The first of these in England was at a 
 council held at Durham in 1217. 
 
 The Angelical Salutation, previous to the addi¬ 
 tion of the Ora pro nobis , was not, however, used 
 without some external act of devotion. The gen¬ 
 eral custom was to kneel, or even prostrate one¬ 
 self, at each Hail Mary, and as early as the 
 twelfth century, the 150 Hail Marys of the 
 present form of the Rosary, were in use. In 
 certain religious Orders this was enjoined. 
 
 It is not generally known that during the days 
 of the Reformation, before the Ora pro nobis had 
 been added in the general use of the Salutation, 
 certain protestants objected to this devotion on the 
 ground that a mere greeting was without point, 
 as it contained no petition. But when a little 
 later, the Ora pro nobis was added, another cry 
 went up that Catholics were unduly exalting the 
 Mother of God by asking her to pray for them. 
 
 70 
 
Catholics, however, did not wait for this ob¬ 
 jection before making a petition to the Blessed 
 Mother. However disingenuous it was on the 
 part of their opponents, they themselves had 
 long before realized that there was an incongruity 
 in calling on Blessed Mary, and then saying 
 nothing to her. During the fourteenth century, 
 nearly two hundred years before the Reformation, 
 we find paraphrases of the Hail Mary which in¬ 
 cluded various petitions for her intercessions. 
 Among the best known of these was one which 
 for a long time was attributed, although wrongly, 
 to the great poet Dante. In Italian it ran as 
 follows: 
 
 “O Vergin benedetta, sempre tu 
 Ora per noi a Dio, che ci perdoni 
 E diaci grazia a viver si quaggin 
 Che’l paradiso al nostro fin si doni.” 
 
 Freely Englished, this verse is as follows: 
 "O Blessed Virgin, pray for us to God always, 
 that He may pardon us and give us grace so to 
 live here below that He may reward us with 
 Paradise at our death.” 
 
 The same devotional tendency to appeal to 
 the Blessed Mother to pray for sinners, especially 
 as death drew near, showed itself in the later 
 middle ages throughout the whole Catholic world. 
 Versions similar to the above are found in Italian, 
 
 71 
 
Spanish, German and Provencal, much variety 
 existing in their form. 
 
 The Ave Maria in its modern form is found 
 in the first Breviary of the Camoldolese monks 
 about 1514, and it is generally supposed from this 
 fact, that it originated in Italy, and spread thence 
 throughout the Christian world. 
 
 The statement is made by one authority that the 
 present full form of the Hail Mary is to be found 
 in the handwriting of St. Antoninus of Florence 
 who died in 1459. This is uncertain, however. 
 But there is no doubt that in a book by Savona¬ 
 rola printed in 1495, a copy of which is preserved 
 in the British Museum, the Hail Mary is printed 
 in its modern form, with the exception of the 
 word our. 
 
 A still earlier publication was the French “Cal¬ 
 endar of Shepherds,” which was issued in 1493, 
 and contained the later form in part. An in¬ 
 teresting English translation of this work was 
 made by one Pynson in which was produced a 
 quaint illustration representing the Pope and the 
 whole hierarchy, symbolized by a cardinal, two 
 monks, and several Bishops, kneeling before the 
 Blessed Mother invoking her with the following 
 salutation and petition: “Ayle Marye fulle of 
 grace god is with the thou arte blessyed amonge 
 all. Holy Mary moder of god pray for us syn- 
 ners.” 
 
The present form of the Salutation,—“Hail, 
 Mary,Full of grace, the Lord is with thee;Blessed 
 art thou among women, and blessed is the Fruit 
 of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, 
 pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our 
 death, Amen,”—did not receive official approval 
 until the Roman Breviary was revised in 1568. 
 It was then inserted in the form in which we 
 now say it. It is certain, however, from what 
 we have seen, that it was not new at that time, in 
 any part of the western world. People did not 
 say it because it was put in the Breviary; but 
 it was placed in the Breviary because it was the 
 practically universal way of saying it. 
 
 This illustrates the well known liturgical prin¬ 
 ciple that the Church waits to promulgate devo¬ 
 tions, and forms of worship, until they have been 
 proved by long popular use to be good. And she 
 always gives her children the freedom to make 
 such tests. 
 
 In out of the way districts, however, the old 
 form persisted, especially among the ignorant. 
 Father Herbert Thurston is authority for the 
 statement that within the memory of living men, 
 it was the custom amongst the peasantry in certain 
 sections of Ireland to use both parts of the Salu¬ 
 tation, but to regard them as separate devotions. 
 They spoke of the “Hail Mary,” and also of the 
 “Holy Mary.” 
 
 73 
 
The historical development of the devotion has 
 passed through four phases. These are quaintly 
 set forth in an old German book of devotion, pub¬ 
 lished in 1474, called Der Salen Troist. It de¬ 
 clares that the first part was composed by the 
 angel Gabriel; the second part by St. Elisabeth 
 on the occasion of the Visitation; the third in¬ 
 serted by the Pope, referring to the belief that 
 Urban IV in 1261, had ordered the addition of the 
 Sacred Name of Jesus; and the last portion by 
 the consent and use of the Church at large. With 
 the possible exception of the mention of the Pope, 
 this would seem to be an accurate account of the 
 development of the Hail Mary. 
 
 The question raised by non-Catholics of the 
 propriety of the Ora pro nobis, involves, of 
 course, the whole subject of the Communion of 
 Saints, and this is not the place for its discussion. 
 One might add just this: Those amongst us who 
 object to asking the Saints in glory to pray for 
 us are almost invariably those who have never 
 invoked the Saints. To them it is an academic 
 question. 
 
 Those who have for long years counted the 
 Saints amongst their friends, who have in their 
 love for them learned to speak familiarly with 
 them, to rejoice in their loving companionship, 
 and in the power of their intercessions, need no 
 academic or historical arguments to show them 
 
 74 
 
what is wise and right. They have the witness in 
 themselves, and spiritual experience is worth 
 more than all the reasoning of the schools. They 
 have been content humbly to follow the custom of 
 the Church throughout the entire world, east and 
 west, and in this following they have found hap¬ 
 piness and reward. 
 
 75 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE CHISTMAS CRIB. 
 
 HROUGHOUT the land, Christmas is 
 celebrated in every home where there 
 is the joyful presence of little children, 
 by the decorating and illumination of a Christ¬ 
 mas tree. The statement was made some 
 years ago that in New York State alone some¬ 
 thing over four million young pines and fir trees 
 were cut every year for this purpose. 
 
 The custom is a beautiful one, even though 
 it be of pagan origin; and it should by all 
 means be encouraged. But it would become 
 thoroughly Christianized if at the foot of every 
 tree in the land there was erected the touch¬ 
 ing representation of the scene in the stable at 
 Bethlehem on the first Christmas night. 
 
 This custom is happily on the increase, and 
 the Church furnishing-stores are prepared to 
 supply very beautiful cribs, or “creches/' as 
 they are often called, at any price ranging from 
 tiny ones, costing but a few cents, that might 
 be erected on the nursery or library table, to 
 elaborate representations of great cost and 
 splendour. 
 
 76 
 
Would it not be a blessing for every house¬ 
 hold to which this suggestion comes, to have a 
 crib,—a little manger full of straw, a little 
 Christ Child with loving hands outstretched, 
 and kneeling round in sweet adoration, the Vir¬ 
 gin Mother, Blessed Joseph, the Shepherds 
 from the hills; and standing by, the gentle 
 beasts of the stall? Is there likely to be any 
 way devised which could tell to our little chil¬ 
 dren so vivid a story of how God loved them 
 and sent his dear Son to save and bless them? 
 
 No special forms of prayer and devotion are 
 appointed for use in connection with the Crib. 
 At such a time it is indeed fitting that every¬ 
 one should be free to speak to God as the lov¬ 
 ing impulse of his own heart might dictate. 
 But naturally, as we look upon the symbolic 
 representation of God our Saviour humbling 
 Himself to become a helpless little child amidst 
 the cold and destitution of the stable, the words 
 of many sweet old carols come to mind, and in 
 every part of the world, especially in places 
 where little children gather for their Christ¬ 
 mas devotions, it has been the custom to sing 
 the praise of the Infant God even as did the 
 angels among the midnight stars above the hills 
 of Bethlehem. 
 
 When placed in a church, the Crib should not 
 be in the sanctuary or choir, but in the nave 
 
 77 
 
where it will be easily accessible to everyone. 
 It can be easily constructed as a simple frame, 
 and covered with the Christmas greens; or 
 there may be no structure at all, the manger 
 being placed on a platform raised about two 
 feet from the floor, surrounded by green 
 boughs. 
 
 It is only necessary to have a figure of the 
 Holy Child lying in the straw of the manger, 
 although kneeling figures of the Blessed Virgin 
 and St. Joseph often accompany it, and in the 
 more elaborate arrangements those of the Shep¬ 
 herds, and the ox and the ass. Figures of the 
 Wise Men are substituted for the Shepherds 
 at Epiphany, and a red light hung above to 
 symbolize the star. In churches where there is 
 a midnight Mass, the Crib is prepared before¬ 
 hand, and immediately after the reading of the 
 Gospel, the figure of the Holy Child is placed 
 in the manger. The Crib should be removed 
 after the Octave of the feast of the Epiphany. 
 
 The Crib, like the Stations of the Cross and so 
 many like devotions, is Franciscan in its origin, 
 and the story of its beginning is one of the 
 sweetest in the history of the early days of the 
 Friars Minor. 
 
 We are told that the autumn of 1223 saw the 
 great Saint of Assisi at Rome seeking the ap¬ 
 probation of Pope Honorius III for the rule 
 
 78 
 
by which his growing community was to be 
 governed. 
 
 Those who are familiar with Franciscan an- 
 nals will recall the difficulties that had beset 
 the way of the Saint in those latter years of 
 his life, so short, as men count time, but so 
 aflame with divine love. But now at last, the 
 great instrument which was to rule the sons 
 of Francis, received the imprimatur of the 
 Church, and the Poverello’s heart was over¬ 
 flowing with grateful devotion. 
 
 The Rule was formally sanctioned on the 
 29 th of November. Advent was upon the 
 Church, and it had been borne in upon him 
 that this solemn season was to bring him some 
 special blessing from God in his own interior 
 life. 
 
 Leaving Rome, he made his way to Greccio 
 in the Umbrian hills. Here dwelt his friend, 
 Giovanni de Vallita, whom Franciscan students 
 know by the Englished name of John of Grec¬ 
 cio. This John was a man of substance, who 
 owned the rocky cliffs which fronted the town. 
 
 Here amidst the solitude of a lofty eminence 
 where the rock falls sheer some hundreds of 
 feet to the slopes of the lower hills, John had 
 erected a hermitage for Francis and his breth¬ 
 ren. 
 
 In this lonely place, amidst the rugged 
 
 79 
 
beauty of the mountains, the Saint made his 
 long Advent retreat, meditating upon the mys¬ 
 teries which the joyous season of the Nativity 
 was about to present once more to the hearts 
 of men. As he thought on the sweetness of 
 the divine condescension he felt a vital urge 
 to celebrate the coming festival as he had never 
 done before. 
 
 He sent for John, and said to him: “I would 
 make a memorial of the Child who was born 
 in Bethlehem, and in some sort I would look 
 upon the hardness of His infant state, how He 
 lay amid the hay in the manger with the ox 
 and the ass standing by. If you will, we shall 
 celebrate the feast together at Greccio, and do 
 you go before, and prepare as I bid you.” 
 
 John hastened back to Greccio, and in the 
 forest near the hermitage he built a stable, 
 rough and unfinished, with a manger, and be¬ 
 side the manger he set up an altar. 
 
 Word went forth through the countryside 
 that the Little Poor Man of Assisi was come 
 to spend the Feast in their obscure parish, and 
 of what he was preparing in honour of the Lord’s 
 Birthday. 
 
 The hill-country of Umbria has about it none 
 of the warm breath of the South at the winter 
 solstice, but the bitterness of the night did not 
 stay the pious peasant folk from hastening, like 
 
 80 
 
the shepherds of old, to see this strange thing 
 which had been made known to them. 
 
 From far and near they came, through the 
 crisp winter night, lighting their way up the 
 rocky trail by torches which glowed along the 
 mountain steep like gleaming constellations set 
 to shine upon the manger-bed of the Infant 
 King. 
 
 When they drew near tl]ey saw that around 
 the manger Francis had grouped figures of the 
 Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, and the beasts 
 of the stall. 
 
 Francis acted as deacon of the midnight 
 Mass, and having sung the Gospel he kneeled 
 for a little space to meditate before the manger 
 on the sweet mystery of that night. A sense 
 of reverence had made him shrink from mak¬ 
 ing a representation of the Infant God, but as 
 he meditated, (so the ancient legend says), the 
 people were overwhelmed with awe to see in 
 the arms of Francis a little child of strange and 
 wondrous beauty whose form radiated a light 
 of heavenly softness. 
 
 Thus did the divine goodness reward the 
 humble Saint for his reverence and devotion to 
 the Mystery of the Manger. To him whose 
 sense of his own unworthiness would not per¬ 
 mit him on that night of all nights in the year 
 to form an image of the Holy Child, was given 
 
 81 
 
to see in his arms the vision of the shining form 
 of the Babe of Bethlehem. 
 
 The Mass was over, the last blessing spoken. 
 In silent awe, the country folk returned down 
 the rocky stair; their smouldering torches 
 gleaming fitfully along the way; and disappear¬ 
 ing one by one, they left the mountain brow in 
 darkness, save where the great stars shed 
 their still radiance upon the solitary figure of 
 the Saint, kneeling all through the night in 
 rapt contemplation of the divine Word made 
 Flesh. 
 
 Back to farm and vineyard the humble peas¬ 
 ant people took their way, but it was a night 
 that could not be forgotten. In tones of awe 
 men told their fellows of the wondrous Christ¬ 
 mas scene upon the mount of Greccio. Mothers 
 drew their dark-eyed children to their sides, 
 and wearied not of telling them the story of 
 the Child they saw in Francis’ arms what time 
 the music of the Mass arose so sweet that it 
 seemed that once again the angels, high 
 amongst the stars, were singing glory to God 
 and peace on earth, good will to men. 
 
 And, as far and wide the story went, pious 
 pastors wisely thought to bring in like manner 
 to their people the scene in Bethlehem’s stable 
 long ago. 
 
 And so arose the cultus of the Crib, and 
 
 82 
 
wherever sons of Francis went, on homely 
 roads, to heathen lands, or to far continents 
 across the sea, with each returning Christmas- 
 tide they sought to show to humble souls how 
 in the manger God’s Son lay shivering in the 
 winter cold that men might see how great a 
 love He bore to them. 
 
 83 
 
THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS 
 
 I. Jesus Condemned to Death. 
 
 II. Jesus Receives His Cross. 
 
 III. Jesus Falls the First Time. 
 
 IV. Jesus Meets His Blessed Mother. 
 
 V. The Cross is laid on St. Simon. 
 
 VI. St. Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus. 
 
 VII. Jesus Falls the Second Time. 
 
 VIII. Jesus Comforts the Women of Jerusalem. 
 
 IX. Jesus Falls the Third Time. 
 
 X. Jesus Stripped of His Garments. 
 
 XI. Jesus Nailed to the Cross. 
 
 XII. Jesus Dies on the Cross. 
 
 XIII. Jesus Taken Down from the Cross. 
 
 XIV. Jesus Laid in the Tomb. 
 
 84 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS. 
 
 N Lent more than any other season of 
 the year, the thoughts and affections 
 of the faithful turn to the devotion 
 mown as the Way, or the Stations of the Cross. 
 More and more, thanks be to God, it is becoming 
 a devotion loved and practised amongst us, al¬ 
 though one would rejoice to see it cultivated not 
 only during the solemnities of Lent, but at all 
 times of the year. 
 
 This devotion, like the “Three Hours” on 
 Good Friday, is one that does not, at any rate 
 in its present form, go back to very remote an¬ 
 tiquity. The now famous Via Dolorosa in Je¬ 
 rusalem is said not to have been called by that 
 name until the sixteenth century, although 
 Christian piety in very early ages marked out 
 the holy places in Jerusalem and its vicinity 
 that were connected with our Lord’s life and 
 sufferings. 
 
 But there is no evidence that any set form 
 of devotions existed until late. St. Sylvia, who 
 flourished about 380 , visited the Holy Land, 
 and in her “Pilgrimage to the Holy Places/' 
 
 85 
 
described minutely all the devotions that she 
 found in use then, but she makes no mention 
 of the Stations of the Cross. 
 
 St. Jerome speaks of the great throngs of pil¬ 
 grims who, in his day, (he died in 420 ) paid 
 their devotion at the places consecrated by the 
 Passion of our Lord, but he seems to know 
 nothing of this devotion as the piety of later 
 centuries has developed it. 
 
 But not many centuries elapsed before the 
 purpose evinced itself among devout folk to 
 commemorate these places and the incidents 
 that sanctified them. The earliest effort of 
 this kind is said to have been at the monastery 
 of St. Stephen at Bologna. St. Petronius, who 
 was Bishop of that city in the fifth century, con¬ 
 structed at this monastery a series of connected 
 chapels each one representing one of the holy 
 places at Jersualem. What devotions were 
 made here, however, is not known. 
 
 The Way of the Cross in the modern sense, 
 had its origin in the fifteenth century, and 
 while the first promoters of the devotion are 
 unknown, it is supposed by many students of 
 history that it had its origin among the Fran¬ 
 ciscans, as to these good friars was entrusted 
 the care of the holy places at Jerusalem in 1342 , 
 not a great while before the devotion of the 
 
 86 
 
Station of the Cross began to be heard of in 
 various parts of the Christian world. 
 
 The supposition is entirely congruous, as it 
 was of the genius of the sons of St. Francis 
 to inculcate love and devotion to our Lord by 
 appealing to the dramatic instinct of the faith¬ 
 ful. St. Francis himself originated the devo¬ 
 tion of the Crib for Christmas, and it was quite 
 like his followers to have originated that of the 
 “Via Crucis.” 
 
 As the system of indulgences in the Roman 
 Church grew up, certain indulgences were at¬ 
 tached to visits to the spots which tradition 
 identified with the Passion of our Lord. Fer- 
 raris, who lived about 1750 mentions seven 
 such spots. These were where our Lord met 
 His Blessed Mother, where He spoke to the 
 women of Jerusalem, where He met St. Simon 
 of Cyrene, where the soldiers cast lots for His 
 garments, the place of the Crucifixion, the Holy 
 Sepulchre, and Pilate’s hall. 
 
 The spiritual blessings and consolations prom¬ 
 ised made many long to make the journey to 
 Jerusalem, but in spite of the popularity of 
 pilgrimages in the middle ages, few could af¬ 
 ford the time and expense of the journey. It, 
 of course, became increasingly perilous when 
 the Saracens overran the East, and especially 
 after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. So de- 
 
 87 
 
vout souls were compelled to substitute some 
 devotion at home for the Way of the Holy 
 Places at Jerusalem. 
 
 It was in 1520 that Leo X granted an indul¬ 
 gence of a hundred days to each of a set of 
 carved Stations that had been erected in the 
 cemetery of the Franciscans at Antwerp. But 
 these were not the Stations of the Cross, strict¬ 
 ly speaking, but represented the Seven Sorrows 
 of the Holy Mother, a devotion which was very 
 popular among the Franciscans and their peo¬ 
 ple. 
 
 The word station as referring to the shrines 
 of the Via Sacra at Jerusalem occurs, curiously 
 enough, not in the writings or devotions of any 
 perfervid Spanish or Italian ascetic, but in the 
 narrative of a sober-minded English pilgrim of 
 the simple English name of William Wey, who 
 visited the Holy Land in 1458 and again in 
 1462 , and who has left a description of the man¬ 
 ner in which the pilgrims were wont to pay 
 their devotions at the various places hallowed 
 by the events of Good Friday. 
 
 The method of worshipping at the Holy 
 Places for many centuries was to begin at 
 Calvary and go back event by event to Pilate’s 
 judgment hall. By the sixteenth century, 
 however, the more reasonable method of going 
 from the Condemnation on to the climax on 
 
 88 
 
Golgotha, obtained, and it seems by that time 
 to have become a formal devotion very much as 
 we have it now. 
 
 During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries 
 several representations of the Holy Places were 
 erected in Europe. One of the first was built 
 by the Blessed Alvarez at the Dominican convent 
 at Cordova in Spain shortly before 1420. Blessed 
 Eustochia, a Poor Clare of Messina, set up a set 
 of Stations in her convent about the same time. 
 
 The devotion grew rapidly in popularity, some 
 very rich and famous Stations being erected in 
 Germany and the Low Countries. At Gorlitz a 
 set of Stations was erected by Emmerich in 1465, 
 and in 1568 Ketzel did the same at Nuremberg. 
 A little later they are found at Louvain and Fri¬ 
 bourg. This last set was famous and was copied 
 in many parts of Europe. 
 
 The Nuremberg Stations and several others 
 were seven in number, and were called by the peo¬ 
 ple the “Seven Falls,” because they all repre¬ 
 sented our Blessed Lord as being borne down to 
 earth by the weight of the Cross. Most of these 
 Stations were erected in the open air. One 
 curious feature of them, in many instances, was 
 that the distances along the Way were the same 
 as those on the Via Sacra at Jerusalem. Several 
 distinguished artists visited the Holy City for the 
 purpose of securing the exact measurements. But 
 
 89 
 
strange to say, while each one claimed to be cor* 
 rect, there is great discrepancy between them. 
 
 How the number of the Stations was arrived 
 at is not known. At different times they varied 
 widely. The famous Nuremberg Stations, as we 
 have seen, were seven in number. Wey’s account 
 of the Stations at Jerusalem in 1458 gives four¬ 
 teen, but only five of them correspond with the 
 Stations as used at the present day. Among those 
 that he describes are Dives’ house; the sheep- 
 pool, the porch where Pilate showed our Lord to 
 the people, crying ‘Behold the Man”; and the 
 houses of Herod, and Simon the Pharisee. 
 
 Romanet Boffin narrates that when he visited 
 Jerusalem in 1515 to get the data for the Stations 
 he erected at Romans in Dauphine he was told 
 by the Franciscans resident there that the num¬ 
 ber should be thirty-one. Manuals of devotion 
 published about this time or a little later, give 
 in some cases, nineteen, and in others twenty- 
 five and thirty-seven. 
 
 The arrangement that is universally in use at 
 the present day seems to have originated with a 
 book published in 1584 by a certain Andrichomius 
 which had a wide circulation, being translated into 
 numerous languages. It was entitled, “Jeru¬ 
 salem in the Time of Christ,” and gives twenty 
 Stations which correspond exactly with the first 
 twelve as we use them now, but as late as 1799 
 
 90 
 
there seems to have been much discrepancy as 
 to the number. 
 
 A set prepared for use in the diocese of Vi¬ 
 enne in France in that year contained eleven sta¬ 
 tions, five of which—the Agony, the Betrayal, the 
 Scourging, the Crowning with Thorns, and our 
 Lord receiving the gall,—do not appear in the 
 modern arrangement. 
 
 It was not usual to place the Stations of the 
 Cross in churches until the end of the seventeenth 
 century. This custom originated amongst the 
 Franciscans. They had for centuries been the 
 custodians of the Holy Places in Jerusalem, and 
 now that the pilgrimages become impossible to so 
 many Christians, they w*ere permitted by Pope In¬ 
 nocent XI, in 1686, to erect Stations in all their 
 churches, the same indulgences being attached 
 to them as were to be gained by an actual jour¬ 
 ney to Jerusalem. 
 
 This privilege was confirmed by several later 
 Popes, and in 1731 Clement XII allowed the erec¬ 
 tion of Stations in all churches, convents or hos¬ 
 pitals provided it was done by a Franciscan 
 father with the Bishop’s sanction. At the same 
 time he formally declared the number to be four¬ 
 teen, and arranged the subjects as they are today. 
 So the Franciscans who in 1342 were given the 
 guardianship of the Via Sacra in Jerusalem, still 
 hold some sort of right over the representations 
 
 91 
 
of the original Stations. There seems to have 
 been some modification of this rule, but the 
 Catholic Encyclopedia speaks of it as universally 
 in force at present. 
 
 Apropos of the connection of the Franciscans 
 with the origin of the Stations a charming story 
 is told of the Via Crucis in the loggia outside 
 the Franciscan Church on Mount La Verna, where 
 St. Francis received the Stigmata. The loggia 
 was built in 1582, and until that time the Sta¬ 
 tions were in the open air, and regardless of 
 weather, the friars always made their devotions 
 before them at certain times. 
 
 The tradition tells us that one night a 
 frightful blizzard was raging, and the brethren 
 growing faint-hearted, remained indoors. But 
 when they went out on the following morning, 
 lo, the snow of the pathway was marked with the 
 footprints of all manner of beasts and birds that 
 had come down from the forest and made the 
 Way of the Cross instead of the self-indulgent 
 friars. After this rebuke the community never 
 failed to make their Stations, be the cold never 
 so bitter or the snow never so deep. 
 
 The historical foundation for many of the Sta¬ 
 tions of the Cross, as used at the present day, is 
 very slight. There is no warrant for our Lord’s 
 successive falls beneath Cross. Neither history 
 nor early tradition mentions His meeting His 
 
 92 
 
Blessed Mother; and the incident of St. Veronica 
 wiping our Lord’s face with her veil, is not heard 
 of until the fourteenth century. The order in 
 which the Stations appear was arranged in com¬ 
 paratively modern times by certain devout folk in 
 Flanders, so it has not even the support of 
 mediaeval legend or tradition. 
 
 These facts would incline one to reject the en¬ 
 tire devotion, were it not for one consideration 
 which cannot be lost sight of, namely, that the 
 Stations of the Cross are not intended to present 
 definite historical events. They set forth a sym¬ 
 bolic drama for the edification of devout souls. 
 The devotion is akin to a mediaeval miracle 
 play intended to teach certain lessons, and to 
 stimulate devout souls to meditation on the Pas¬ 
 sion. The purpose is not necessarily to display a 
 series of historic happenings. It is not fact 
 which is contemplated for while all sorts of 
 modern and unnecessary legends have been fast¬ 
 ened by a false piety upon these symbolic scenes, 
 no intelligent person in the world pretends that 
 certain of the stations are facts any more than 
 we are expected to regard as authentic the fare¬ 
 well scene between our Lord and His Blessed 
 Mother which in the Oberammergau Passion 
 Play never failsto melt the breathlessthousands 
 to tears and sobs. Yet who would wish to remove 
 from the great Passion drama of the Bavarian 
 
 93 
 
peasants this tenderest and most moving of inci¬ 
 dents ? 
 
 Take, for example, the Station of St. Veronica. 
 The name of the character is derived from the 
 scene, and shows that nothing historical is in¬ 
 tended. The word Veronica was erroneously 
 supposed to be formed of a Greek and a Latin 
 word, and to mean a true image. The reference 
 is to the imprint of the Lord’s face which is rep¬ 
 resented as having been made upon the veil with 
 which she wiped the blood and sweat from His 
 sacred brow. 
 
 That great lover of Christ and His poor, Henri 
 Pereyve, exemplifies the lessons this Station 
 teaches, in his meditations on the Stations of the 
 Cross. He writes: “More happy than Veronica, 
 whose trembling hand touched Thee but once, 
 Christian charity is able, every day and every mo¬ 
 ment, to dry Thy tears, to wipe the sweat from 
 Thy brow,—the brow of Thy poor. Who will 
 teach us to love Thy poor sufficiently, who will 
 teach us to regard their sorrows, to reverence 
 them as the sacrament of Thy Passion? Who will 
 teach us always to see beneath their features, 
 disguised though they may be by physical and 
 moral misery, the features of Jesus?” 
 
 The Stations of the Cross are themes for medi¬ 
 tation as we pass in symbolic procession from 
 one to another along the Sorrowful Way that 
 
 94 
 
leads from the hall of His condemnation to the 
 moment of His suffering and death. 
 
 The series of prayers, the acts of worship and 
 of contrition, the tender description of the 
 scenes, the pleading cadences of the appointed 
 hymns—few indeed are the hearts that, follow¬ 
 ing along this way of suffering love, would not 
 be stirred by this divine drama of woe to a deeper 
 and more enduring devotion to Him who so loved 
 us and gave Himself for us. 
 
 95 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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