The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-11-24
November 20.
ST. sTANIsLAUs KosTkA.

ST. STANISLAUS KOsTKA.
St. Stanislaus was of q noble Polish fam :
lily. AS child he showed such purity of
soul, it was said he was an angel now and
would be Saint by and by. When at his
fathers table any evil talk took place, the
boy would turR pale, and if the subject
was pursued he would swoon away. At
the age of fourteen he went with his elder
brother Paul to the Jeeuits' College at
Vienna; and though Stanislaus was ever
bright and sweet tempered, his austerities
were felt as a reproach by Paul, who
shamefully maltreated him. This ill-usage
and his own penapce brought on a danger
GUS illness, and being in Lutheran house
he was unable to send for priest. He
now remembered to have read of his pa
troness, st. Barbara, that she never per-
mitted her clients to die without Holy
aid, and she appeared with two angels,
who gave him the Sacred Host. He was
cured of this Illness by our Lady herself,
and was hidden by her to enter the Society
of Jesus. To avoid his fathers opposition
he was obliged to fly from Vienna; and
performing the most menial offices, he was
admitted to the novitiate at Rome. There,
after @ probation of ten short months,
marked by a rare piety, obedience and de-
votion to his institute, he died, as he had
prayed to die, on the feast of the Assump-
LlOus lOOO, az LILO age VI ScNSulOcus
st. Stanislaus had drawn as his monthly
patron for August the glorious martyr st
Laurence, and in his honor he performed
daily some penance or devotion. On the
eve of his feast he obtained leave to take
the discipline in the morning he went to
Communion, and then laid before the
image of the Saint a letter addressed to
our Lady, in which he begged that he
might die on her feast of the Assumption,
and he prayed st. Laurence to present to
her his petition. That night he was
seized with a slight fever, which, however,
rapidly increased aud on Assumption eve
he received the last Sacraments. Then, as
he lay dying, be had brought to him a
little book containing Litany in his own
writing of his monthly patron Saints,
whom he constantly invoked. AT a. M.
on the feast of the Assumption his face
suddenly lit up with joy, and he breathed
forth his soul to the Mother of God, who
had come to conduct him to heaven.
November 81
So. TARACHUs AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
st. Tarachus and his companions were
apprehended in Cilicia about the year 304
and died at Anazarbus, one of the chief
cities in that country. Differing as they
did in age and in condition, they were all
alike in the constancy of their faith, and
proof against the utmost ingenuity of tor
ture. They were scourged and racked,
Their jaws we're broken and their teeth
knocked out with stones. Their hands
were thrust into the burning Goals, and in
this extremity Of torment they found re-
freshment for their souls. The tongue of
the young Andronicus was cut out and
burnt, lest, as the Governor Maximus said ,
"foolish women" should honor it as relic.
At last they were all carried helpless to
the amplitheatre, and the wild beasts let
loose upon them. But God showed that
men have no power of their own over the
souls and budies of His Saints. Maximus
was obliged to despatch them with the
sword, for the wild beasts licked the sores
and crouched at the feet of the martyrs.
Their dead bodies were thrown among
those of the gladiatOrs, and watch seS
over them. But at night stOrm and earth
quake scattered the guards q miraculous
light like star guided the Christians in
their search, stood over each of the sacred
bodies in succession, and then went before
the faithful band till the relics were placed
in safety.
In the fourth century, when the heather
persecution had passed away, worse evil
threatened the Church for the blasphemy
of Arius spread like plague, and the faith
of many was subverted. Then once again
God was pleased to show the glory of His
martyrs and their dread sanctity. Auxen
thus, the Arian Bishop of Mopsuestia, ded
icated a church to st. Tarachus and his
companions, and it is said he opened the
marble shrine in which their bodies rested,
wishing to obtain some of their relics for
hiB new chureh The nrndiDiaR which