Saviour returned to the East-viz., Epaphras, Marcella, and Syntyche, who is buried in Philippi, and of whom the apostle writes: Parmenas, full of faith and of the grace of God, who was found worthy of the martyr's crown, and Germanus and Euchodia. These afterwards with St. Clement and others, helped the blessed apostles in their work "whose names are written in the book of life" (Phil. iv. 2, 3).

Since the day of the death of St. Martha miracles without number have taken place in her church, health and soundness being restored to the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the lame, paralytics, and persons suffering from fever, from leprosy, and from possession of devils. Clovis King of the Francs and Teutons, the first who bore the profession of the Christian faith, moved by the multitude and greatness of the miracles performed at the shrine of St. Martha, came to Tarascon, and as soon as he had touched the tomb of the saint was delivered from a grave disease of the kidney, which had caused him severe suffering. In grateful record of this great deliverance King Clovis gave to God three measures of lands around the church of St. Martha reaching to the farther side of the Rhone, with the towns, villages, and woods situate upon them, sealing the deed with his ring. All this property the (church of) the sainted heroine possesses to this day. Robbery, pillage, sacrilege, and false witness were frightfully and immediately punished here by the direct judgment of God and to the praise of the Lord Christ. Chapter 50:

Hitherto it has sufficed to narrate the religious life and precious death of St. Martha the venerable servant of the Son of God, and this has now been done. The wonderful things done after her death, through her intercession and owing to her influence, as well as the

account of the holy life and passion of her brother the blessed Lazarus, bishop and martyr, these are reserved for a new volume. We shall here only briefly refer to the miracles that were done through (the intercession of) Mary Magdalene, the chosen of God, and only lightly glance at the death of the holy priest St. Maximinus.

Knowing that the time was near when he should be taken away from this world and receive the reward of his labours as it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit-St. Maximinus ordered a place to be prepared for his burial in the church which we have already spoken of as having been built (with cunning workmanship) over the most holy body of the blessed Mary Magdalene. And he desired that his sarcophagus should be placed close to that of St. Mary, the chosen of God.

So, after he was dead, the holy body of St. Maximinus was thus honourably deposited by the faithful, and both St. Mary and St. Maximinus make beautiful the place of their burial, and by their intercession obtain miracles here for those who pray that they may gain health of soul and body.

This place has since become so sacred that no king or prince, or any one else, however endued with power or wealth, can enter into the church here in order to ask for a blessing, except he shall have first put down his arms. and set aside all animal desires and angry passions, so that, at length, he may enter in with all humility and devotion.

And no woman of any condition, however high her rank or position, has had the boldness to presume to enter into this most holy temple.

This monastery-church is called the Abbey of St. Maximinus. It is situated in the county of Aix, and is greatly endowed with riches and honours. And it was on the sixth of the ides of June that the blessed priest St. Maximinus received his heavenly crown.

THE TRADITIONS OF THE

THREE

MARIES AND THEIR COMPANIONS

N

"How pure at heart and sound in head,

With what divine affections bold

Should be the man whose thought would hold
An hour's communion with the dead!

In vain shalt thou, or any, call

The spirits from their golden day,
Except, like them, thou too canst say,
My spirit is at peace with all.

They haunt the silence of the breast,
Imaginations calm and fair,
The memory like a cloudless air,

The conscience as a sea at rest.

But when the heart is full of din,
And doubt beside the portal waits,

They can but listen at the gates,

And hear the household jar within."

Tennyson, "In Memoriam," xciv.

O words are needed, I think, to point out or recommend the many interesting features of this Life of St. Mary and St. Martha.

There are undoubtedly mistakes and inaccuracies in it, but the evident good faith of the author, his reverence and respect for the authorities at his command, his real devoutness and his determination not to be misled by what is plainly spurious-all testify to a transparent

honesty, carefulness, and goodness that can hardly be questioned.

This is the only ascertained copy of the "Life of Rabanus," but some other six or seven old manuscript lives of St. Mary Magdalene are still extant. Some of these are probably older than the "Life of Rabanus," and all bear out the main details of the Provençal mission.

The oldest is in the form of a hymn which appears to belong to the seventh century, and is published by M. l'Abbé Narbey in the supplement to the "Acta Sanctorum."

In this we read of the departure of St. Mary Magdalene and St. Maximinus from Palestine after the martyrdom of St. Stephen, of their arrival at Marseilles, their missionary labours, their death and burial at Aix; the whole corresponding to the history of Rabanus, but containing nothing beyond the bare details here recorded.

The next in point of date appear to be two old manuscript Lives preserved in the Paris libraries dating from the tenth century (Faillon) or from the eleventh to the thirteenth century (Duchesne). If the original “Life of Rabanus" was compiled by its reputed author, these manuscripts are copies of a pre-existing "Life," for some portions of these histories have been incorporated word for word in the "Life of Rabanus." For this reason Faillon traces the original of these manuscripts to the sixth century, but any date before the time of Rabanus would be consistent with the supposed authorship of the Oxford manuscript.

Next to these in date of composition, but not perhaps in date of manuscript (but all are copies) is the "Life of Rabanus" in the Magdalen College Library. Then we have

'The essentials of this are also found in the first volume of the Chronicles of "Matthew of Paris," probably dating from 1190 or before this.

the MS. Laud 108 of the Bodleian (thirteenth century ?) and several later manuscripts, of which the "Buchedd Mair Vadlen" and "Buchedd Martha," in the Hafod Collection at Cardiff (1604), and the fragment in the Llwfyr Gwyn Rhydderch of the Hengwrt MS., are the more important in British libraries.

In addition to these, too, we have the devotional romance of the Life of St. Mary Magdalene by an unknown Italian writer of the fourteenth century, recently translated into English by Valentine Hawtrey and published by Mr. John Lane at the Bodley Head. In this, though the writer confines himself to the period of the Gospels, and professedly fills his pages with imagined interviews and conversations, it is noticeable that the setting of his story is taken either from the "Life of Rabanus" or from some corresponding Life, for the parentage of Martha and Mary, their possessions at Bethany and Magdala, and the residence with them of Marcella, or "Martilla," are given almost exactly as in the record of Rabanus.

In examining these various Lives one important feature must strike every observer. All the older manuscripts, which profess, too, to be copies of histories more ancient still, contain very little or no account of any miraculous events; the oldest of all simply recording the coming of St. Mary Magdalene, St. Martha, St. Lazarus, and St. Maximin to Provence, and giving the plainest details of their life and death. The "Life of Rabanus" is much fuller but contains very little that is miraculous. The later Lives, on the other hand, are full of miraculous, wild, and unbelievable additions.

Corresponding to the main narrative contained in these Lives we find local traditions, local monuments and relics, and local liturgies preserving in some way or another, the same essential features.