besides the Blessed Virgin, He would not deny it to St. Joseph, her spouse."*

The celebrated and pious Gerson defended the same opinion at the Council of Constance. "This dissimilitude," said the Chancellor of the famous University of Paris, "may be noted between Mary and Joseph, that Joseph, after contracting original sin, was sanctified in the womb by the baptism of the Spirit. So it is declared in the Jerusalem Office, composed for St. Joseph."

Father Segneri, justly esteemed for piety, eloquence, and solid learning, writes: "St. Joseph was ennobled and singularly privileged with the honour of being the spouse of the Mother of God: a dignity which is a solid principle, from which it follows, with every mark of probability, that St. Joseph was not only sanctified, as we maintain, in his mother's womb, but that he was afterwards confirmed in grace, and exempt from all evil, so that no man-we say it boldlyno man on this earth ever was holier than Joseph."†

The Venerable Maria of Jesus of Agreda

Sane si post B. Virginem illud alicui alteri dedit, S. Josepho ejus sponso id ipsum non negasse videtur. (Matt. c. 1, p. 49.)

† Vallejo, p. 21.

holds the same opinion. She writes: "St. Joseph was the greatest Saint of God on earth. He ought to have been, as he was in reality, a prodigy of holiness, and by the special providence of God he was sanctified before his birth. . . . Although he had not the use of reason in his first sanctification, in which he was justified only from original sin, his mother was sensible of a new joy in the Holy Spirit; and without fully penetrating the mystery, she performed great acts of virtue, and believed that her child would become great before God and man." (Cité Mystique de Dieu).

The learned Trombelli writes: "Theologians have not been wanting, who have maintained that St. Joseph was sanctified in his mother's womb. Gerson, a name of great authority in theology, confirms this grace by the Breviary of Jerusalem, in which, he says, be read it. He is followed by Isodore Isolano, who, by many arguments, seeks to show the greater probability of this opinion. Among moderns, Father Reiss adorns it and establishes it with many proofs, averring that this opinion has not a few defenders, such as Carthagena, Diego de Valencia, Theophilos, and St. Chrysostom, cited by Isolano, and finally Cornelius à Lapide."

We shall cite but one more author, Father Vallejo, the devout Client of St. Joseph.

"The privilege of sanctification in his mother's womb," he writes, "was bestowed on the Baptist, who was born as the glorious Precursor of the Man-God. And whoever will consider the profound dignity of St. Joseph, who was born the chosen spouse of the Virgin Mary, and the putative father of Jesus, cannot but deem him entitled to this grace of presanctification, which adds a new degree of splendour to his sanctity." (Life of St. Joseph, p. 19.)

From the above arguments and authorities we conclude that the opinion that the glorious St. Joseph was sanctified in his mother's womb is tenable, and can be safely held and believed. The devout Client of St. Joseph will gladly adopt it, because it redounds to the greater glory of the Holy FamilyJesus, Mary, and Joseph.

SECTION IV.

St. Joseph, by a special Privilege from God, was Confirmed in Grace.

A celebrated writer, describing the glories of St. Peter's in Rome, says: "The mind expands" and grows "colossal" contemplating

the beauty, the majesty, and sublimity of this greatest of temples in the Church of God. The same may be said, in different order, of the heroic virtues of our great St. Joseph. When, after long reading and thinking, we come close to see and examine the eminent virtues of our great Patriarch, the mind must "expand" and grow "colossal" to take in and comprehend the height, the width, and sublime beauty of this mighty spiritual edifice, not the work of the genius and wealth of man, but designed and constructed by the hands of the Omnipotent Himself.

That St. Joseph was comfirmed in grace is

* "But thou of temples old, or altars new,
Standest alone, with nothing like to thee,
Worthiest of God, the holy and the true.
Since Zion's desolation, when that He
Forsook His former city, what could be,
Of earthly structures, in His honour piled,
Of a sublimer aspect? Majesty,

Power, glory, strength, and beauty, all are aisled
In this eternal ark of worship undefiled.

"Enter: Its grandeur overwhelms thee not;
And why? It is not lessened; but thy mind
Expanded by the glories of the spot,
Has grown colossal, and can only find
A fit abode wherein appeard enshrined
Thy hopes of immortality; and thou
Shalt one day, if found worthy, so defined,
See thy God face to face, as thou dost now
His Holy of Holies, nor be blasted by His brow."

BYRON.

a tenable and well-grounded opinion. The writers who hold that St. Joseph was sanctified before his birth, maintain the above opinion also, and with the same arguments. This special privilege was conferred upon our Saint by the Almighty on account of his relations with Jesus and Mary. Suarez says it is certain that St. John the Baptist and the Apostles were confirmed in grace.* Cornelius à Lapide, from this, argues and concludes, that Almighty God would not and could not refuse to confer upon St. Joseph, His reputed father, and the chaste Spouse of the Immaculate Mother of God, any grace or privilege granted to any other Saint after the Blessed Virgin. In one word, St. Joseph was confirmed in grace by the Almighty, on account of his dignity and sanctity, as reputed father of Jesus, husband of Mary, and head of the Holy Family.

We shall quote only a few of the many respectable authors before us.

The learned and eloquent Father Segneri

*"Dicendum est, Joannem Baptistam nunquam mortaliter peccasse; atque adeo in prima sua sanctificatione confirmatum in gratia fuisse. Hanc affirmationem existimo ita certam, ut sine magna temeritate, ac error negari posset." (Quæst xxxviii., Disp. xxiv., Sec. iv.)

† Matt. i. 16.