all emitting one common prayer. Whoever is oppressed by care has recourse to their aid, as he has that prospers: the first, to seek deliverance; the second, that his good fortune may continue. The pious mother is found praying for her children, and the wife for the return and health of her husband. O ye common guardians of the human race, co-operators in our prayers, most powerful messengers, stars of the world and flowers of churches, let us join our prayers with yours."

From the above passages it is as clear as the light of day, that in the second, third, fourth, and fifth centuries, the Greek Fathers of Jerusalem, Alexandria, Syria, Cæsarea, and Constantinople, believed and prayed, as we Catholics do to-day in the nineteenth century. The faith of the Catholic Church is as immutable as God Himself, "yesterday, and to-day, and the same for ever" (Heb. xiii. 8).

SECTION VII.

The early Latin Fathers on the Invocation of Saints.

St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, who flourished in the third century, and sealed his faith with his blood in the year 258, writes

"Let us be mindful of one another in our prayers; with one mind and with one heart, in this world and in the next, let us always pray, with mutual charity, relieving our sufferings and afflictions. And may the charity of him, who, by the Divine favour, shall first depart hence, still persevere before the Lord; may his prayer for our brethren and sisters not cease." Therefore, according to St. Cyprian, after death, as in life, we are to pray for one another.

St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, who wrote in the fourth century, and died in the year 397, writes: "Peter and Andrew interceded for the widow' (Luke, iv. 38). It were well if we could obtain so speedy an intercessor; but, surely, they who implored the Lord for their relative can do the same for us. You see that she who was a sinner was little fitting to pray for herself, or at least to obtain what she asked. Other intercessors to the Physician were, therefore, necessary. The Angels, who are appointed to be our guardians, must be invoked; and the Martyrs likewise, whose bodies seemed to be a pledge for their patronage. They who, in their blood, washed away every stain of sin, can implore forgiveness for us: they are our guides, and see our lives and

actions; to them, therefore, we should not blush to have recourse.'

We shall quote but one more Latin Father, the great St. Augustin, who was born at Tagastum, in Africa, in the year 354, one of the greatest lights and Doctors of the Church of God. "The Christian people," writes the Saint, 66 celebrate the memories of the martyrs with a religious solemnity, in order that they may learn to imitate them, and may be associated to their merits, and be aided by their prayers." In another place he writes: "It is a proof of kind regard towards the dead when their bodies are deposited near the monuments of Saints. But in what are they thus aided, unless in this, that recollecting the place where they lie, we be induced to recommend them to the patronage of those Saints for their prayers to God. Calling, therefore, to mind the grave of a departed friend, and the near monument of the venerable martyr, we naturally commend the soul to his prayers. And that the souls of those will be thereby benefited who so lived as to deserve it, there can be no doubt."*

We might eite passages from other Latin Perrone. De Sanct. Invocat. Wiseman, Lect. XIII. p. 113.

Fathers, but the above quotations clearly prove that St. Augustin preached the Invocation of Saints at Hippo, St. Cyprian at Carthage, and St. Ambrose at Milan, and that in the third and fourth centuries.

SECTION VIII.

The Irish Fathers on the Invocation of Saints.

A celebrated French writer, Count Montalembert, says, "The history of the Catholic Church of the seventh century belongs to Ireland." In the seventh, and we may add in the sixth and eighth centuries, Ireland was the light of the Church of God. Not only did faith, piety, and the love of God flourish at home; not only did the hymn of praise from virgin lips, from hill and dale, ascend to heaven; not only was Erin the Island of Saints and the Island of scholars, at home, but abroad her apostolic Missionaries evangelized many countries in Europe; her scholars taught in the most famous schools on the Continent, and her martyrs fertilized with their blood the garden of the Church.

In the seventh century hordes of barbarians swept over Europe, not leaving behind them a vestige of religion, science, or civilization. Erin was then in peace and

happy; her sons were engaged in prayer and study; and whilst on the Continent the lamp of science hardly flickered in its socket, in Ireland, the sun, not only of science and learning, but also of religion, shone forth in all the brilliancy of its meridian splendour.

The day of bitter trial came. The foe, the stranger, the heretic, desolated the happy homes of Erin. The schools, with their priceless treasures of manuscripts, were reduced to ashes; the monasteries, on hill and dale, from which prayer and sacrifice for mau's salvation ascended, like sweet incense, before the Almighty, were razed to the ground; and holy monks and priests were put to the sword or exiled to a foreign land. The ivy-mantled ruins, in countless numbers through the land, speak more eloquently than words of the past glories of our Church, and of the ruthless barbarities of the stranger and the heretic. Yet from amid this universal destruction of seats of learning, of famous monasteries, of libraries containing books and manuscripts, most precious and priceless, masterpieces of men of genius, of learning, and of world-wide fame, enough remains to attest the glories of our ancient Irish Church, and to make the Irishman glory in the faith of his fathers. Yes, there is a sacred bril