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Vol. EX. —
hitade!phia, "Thursday, November 18, 1841.
Whole
THE CATH OLIO, WERALD
18 PUBLISIIUD RVERY THURSDAY BY
cop ce Me. PITITIAN, !
, Noe 6t North Second Street, Philadelphia.
Terms.—Three Dollars
per annum, payable half vearly
i 1
in advance. Five Dollars will be received for 2 copies, or
copy for two years. “All arrearages must he settled prior to
orlering a paper ta be discontinued. Al] Communications,
except from Agents, or Subscribers enclosing remittances,
misthe past paid, and “addressed _* ‘To the Editor of the
Catholic Herald, . Philadelphia, Pa.”
EVEN
ati bry aan I
<c The fait eninmer ove has come down to our door,
., And the noise of the the ds1a{T-is sull 5
And the birds Qoating off through the ether no more, ,
‘Their vexper songs quietly thrill—
f sleep on the old lea y bongh,
Aad his ray geoweth holy and bright;
* Like the linyering hue of the dyiug man’s brow
» As it siealeth the heavenly Tight!
u coe TL
From the east to the west, o'er the wide spreading sky;
y Notacloudlet fluats lazily oa— .
The thunder which revelled in grandeur on high,
D And the wing of the tempest are gone j— :
They have anre'd not its beauty—o'er mountain and vale,
Tis Sabbath hues slumber on high;
"Like the souf which once breasted ine billow and gale,
But (eels that the storm hath passed by?
ae ee TL
oo We are hereon the sward, ‘neath the tall poplar tree,
‘Theold with hte's years fed away 5
And the young in their hey day of ferrerloxs glee,
Who have Jived in this world bat a day 5
We press to our bourne—but long after the wave
* OP oblivion shall kink us from view==
. Fair eve shall) ww hailow the grave,
its pleasure renew.
pea co ee We
Great Gonor our FATHERS! who rules o'er the whole—
<5 When the sunset of lite gilds the brow. : ‘
©: Of grantin thy love, it mny fall on, the rout, ,
© With a quietude holy ax .
is May the suo whieh isheds richly te metlowing light,
bo, Oler the staintess and beautiful west, :
Bea typerhittue orb winen is bid from our, sight,
Hath found a more glorious rest!
p Virgin. —'* What other ean we make of that
address of Elizabeth to her:-*And blessed is: she that
believed, for there slall be a performance of thase things
Which were told Hier fron the Lord:’ that ‘expression
Plainly implying her faith of the Angel’s message, bot
Whe a ground of her own blessedness. and a medium
Whereby ours was to be procured. / Sure [ani that an-
cient and holy father Irenus did not only. make» that
Interprotation of it, but represented sit moreover, ©as It
did well deserve, asa farther proof of the completeness
of that vietory which, we obtain over the devil through
er seed. / For +30 also,’ sail hey *did the knot of .the
dsohedience of Eve receive a solution by the vbedience
of Mary. Whatthe Virgin Eve bound: by” her inere-
Uulity, ‘that the Virgin Mary loosed by her faitth; even
Y that faith by which she conceived in her womh the
kreat Redeemer of the world, and by whom it, is- that
We are foosed fron our bonds. ..Upon which! account
itis also to be said, that-she onght not only to be held
M honor, upon the account of God's making use of her
Womb far the conception of oar Lord 3’ and for which
She herself affirms, that all generations shonld eall her
blessed but apon the’ account also of- her i fanh by
Which she was enabled to conceive Him. » But. from
hence we may also collect, how unreasonably. that of
SUF Saviour’ is alleged against this good report, which
Was returned by Him toa oman, who, upon occasion
is gracious words cried outs. ‘filessed is the womb
that bare thee, and the paps that thou | hast ssucked.’
For as to the utmost thatanswer of Eis imports
itis amnch more blessed thing to conceive Christ in
“ur heart than simply to conceive [im in-a wonh, so
Wi : : a
poand vt i
it doth not only, make nothing at all. against the doe
honor of this conception, but rather give a. amore sure
establishment to it 3. because this conerption was a con-
ception of her heart as well as of her womb, a eoncep-
tion by faith as well as a fleshy one.”’—~ Zrawerson
Explic. Cat. of Church of England, p. 155.
ROME AND ITS CATACOMBS.
According ‘to the difference of our tastes or our pur-.
suits, how different are the feelings whieh crowd upon
the soul on our first entering Rome, In the elassica
admirer and the lover of Pagan antiquities the references
and allusions with which his mind is stored (like seeds
Iving buried through the winter, wailing only, for the
yenial showers and invigorating breath of spring) shoot
forth and fructify beneath the glow of classic sunshine
which bursts upon him at every step. Butin the breast
of a Catholic these feelings are of a far more absorbing
nature, He feels that he is treading on sacred ground;
he knows that here the smail grain of mustard seed,
cast from the hands of the prince of the apostles and
| nurtured by his own blood, took reot upon and shot
from the ruins of the central temple of Pagan worship,
spreading its branches to -the four winds of beaven,
becoming the greatest of all trees, and affording a ladg-
ing to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field
a shelter and retreat ; he knows that here the keys. of
that church which was built npon, a rock, which has
outlived all other institutions, witnessing: the rise and
wane of so many states, and, amidst the constant fluc-
tuations of other powers, itself remaining unchangeable
and immoveable, have -been handed down from St.
Peter to Gregory XVL., and that the chureh itself pre-
sents a living proof, of the veracity and omnipotence
of her Divine Founder, who promised her that ** the
gates of hell should never prevail against, her.”
In spirit he accompanies the (wo chiefs of the apos-
tles to their lonesome dungeon in the Mamertiue prison,
and follows them on their last journey to ‘the place of
martyrdom. . He’ weeps tears of joy as he spreads his
garments. beneath the feet of the blessed martyr, St
Ignatius, and kisses the ground on which he trod as
he was led to the amphitheatre. “Every - step presents
him with monuments of the triamph of Religion, and
her basilicas and her churches present a glorious, aud
a consoling contrast with the caverns and catacombs of
the three first ages of Christianity Standing here, and
gazing on this scene of magnificence, heis borne back
insensibly though willingly to the days of: her eompa-
rative apparent nothingness. Reading her. triamphs he
reverts to her struggles 3 atiending the pomp aud splen-
dour of her ceremonial, his heart is faraway—in spirit
he is present at the solema nridnight Mass ofthe eata-
combs 3 he lifts his heart and) makes his offering to
Heaven in unison’ with and emulous of the persecuted
faithful. . :
therefore, the mind so natural'y reverts to the
pasts. as the medium ef contrast is the most ordinary
vehicle of onr enjoyments ; and as, in fine. the con-
sideration of antiqvity has always in itself svch a par-
ticular interest (enabling us, in a manner, to live again
in the days that are gone, to see, lo converse with those
whose memories, like the monuments they have left
us, are enshrined inthe .ateiration and yeneration of
posterity.) it will not, we trust, be an ungrateful task
to turn our attention to the subject of the catacombs,
those monuments of Christianity—objects. which have
far gregter claim on our admiration than all the temples,
laces. aquedacts, and roads of; this stupendous city,
In the hasty. glance. which we intend to take of the
ancient cenetries orcatacombs we need not delay our
projeet by stating the different manners and customs of
antiquity in their. tteatment of bodies after death.
Suffice it to say. on this point, that the Christian cus-
tom of inhumation was inferred from the words of God
to Adam, concluding that dreadful punishment he pro-
nounced on him and his posterity, —* From dust thou
art, and unto dust thou shalt) return’? Gen. iii, 14),
and from the constant practice of the Jews in this re-
: —ihat they; rejected the combustion of the Pa-
pa
xpeets P compue ,
gans, which, contrary, to their conviction. of a future
resurrection, seemed to imply that all was ended in
deal .
th. Co a
+ “Iris alse needless to trace the origin of the great ree
spect shewn to dead bodies, the, care taken of, them,
the anxiery of) the dying to have all the requisite rites
and ceremonies performed in their regard, the dread of
being deprived of them, and the consequent fidelity of
children to the promises made to dying parents on this
important point... We may safely conclude, however,
that Christians, bound together by the strongest .ties
‘| (the consideration of their being all: members of one
body, whose head was Christ) and hoping to enjoy the
company of each’ other in another and’ better world,
would shew every possible care and ‘attention to their
departed brethren; their fellow-soldiers in the strife:
With regard’ to the first construction ef the catas
combs, the most probable opinion is, that they were
formed by the extraction ofa ferruginons. sand of
voleanic production, called pozzolana, for the purpose
of making the cement used by the Romans in the con-
struction of their buildings. Notio break up and spoit
the sorface of the ground by the extraction of this mas
terial, the work of excavation was carried on ina mans
ner much resembling the mode of working coal: mines
inthis country, The shaft was sunk to a certaindepth,
and. then branched out in every direction where the
veins of sand were found, '
‘These: subterranean passages, being. thus. coms
menced by the Romans prier to the preaching of the
Gospel, were afterwards arranged, enlarged, and rens
dered available to the various purposes of concealment,
of occasional residence, of places of meeting and pray~
ing, of administering: and partaking of the sacred rites
of religion, and, finally, of receiving the bodies of the
triumphant martyrs. .
‘I'v all these purposes the cataeombs were admirably
adapted, and that they. were employed for there ends
there can be but litte doubt. “The vonsiceration of the
arguments on which this opinion is founded would oes
eupy too much time and space for our present purpase.®
We will, therefore, content ourselves with a hasty
sketch of their nature and -constrnetion, . :
‘The catacombs have the appearance > of -an endless
subterranean: labyrinth; the passages, some low and
narrow, others higher and broader, branch outin every:
direction to an immense extent In fact,s had -it: not
been deemed nece-sary to close up parts af them for >
the prevention of accidents from the too great curiosi+
ties of visitors and that the egress might be the mora
easily found, axpace of twenty miles might be travelled
over in these dark and gloomy corridors,
‘The sepulechres destined to ‘receive the. bodies are
ent ont of the rock’ ov either sides ‘Occasionally we
enter larger and more open spaces. In many instances
they are highly ornamented, containing pictures, and
the remains of altars, which objeets at once -tell the
purpose for which they were ortginally intended, ,
In speaking of the ornaments; pictnres, and remains
of sculpture found in the catacombs, it may not: be ims
proper to mention those which oecur. the most fre«
quently, me ' : .
“'The representation of Adam and Eve, Mases strik-
ing the rock, Daniel in the lion’s den, Jub in his af.
fictions, ‘Tobias and the : angel, form the chief. ornas
inents of several parts of the roof, St. Peter receiving
from Christ the keys of the kingdom of heaven is ent
out on the front of many of the sarcophagi; the Greek
characters (Chr), an abbreviation of the word Christus,‘
is seen on almost every sepu'chre.: This, was a pros
fession ‘of the faith: in. which they had died, ‘and. to
which, alike undsunted by the threats: and tortures as.
unmoved by. the promises: held out. to. them by theie:
persecutors, they had: borne testimony by their: death,
‘The good shepherd, bearing on his shoulders the stray:
ed lamb, is met with, both on the roof and the tombs,!
It was the favourite representation ot the early Chris«
tians, embodying the whole life and passion of our
Blessed Lord, who gave his life for his sheep, toresene
them from the bondaye of satan. It was, moreover. one
of the pictures drawn by our Redeemer of himself, as
characteristic of the love he bore us, wey ous
‘The representation of a fish occurs very frequently,
‘The name of Pisicali, given to the Christians. by the
Pagans, seems to have taken its origin. from their use
‘of this emblem, ! Phe motives of the Christians -for
‘ * They may be seen at full length in the 4th Appendix
to the *flierargtay® by Dr, Rock, vol. ii,, p- 800,