Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1893-09-07

TIE INTzLLz5z ~ 81
TEE EAa1sz
Br FR4Sczs E13oz osrzdsn
Tread lef,re ne H ! fslaus,I.z
Congress % cashelle rs
Woman, Is tl,s sl| f1so
Gross fell alhxaxi IL h;lIS
of Jadea. left the l,Iai I'D ~4sit
into the moantaiA xoa il
summit xisvseg Ler 4 j <nze.
she bssaass j sssI,nel - ~
an'l zasa; Re-
Christianity rehabiiIisased be-; che
who before hal been the slave of
man. spassions. honorea alone for fe-
cmdity. aud holding ) place in the
household BY the capricioas will Of
her master, now claimed for herself
by the virtue OF her divine birth
right her Individuality. The Chris
tain woman had scaled, by the way
Of the Cross, the height to which
the pagan elevated man. Bound BY
the same moral law. she stood at
his side his companion and equal,
gathering in with eageruess the til-
ings of doctrine That conferred
upon her dignity and sacred
ness hitherto unknown, aud which
taught her that she, too, was 10 be
held accountable before The Most
High for the talents lie bestowed.
1t was this knowledge that gave to
women of the Early Church the in
tellectual impetus and that sowed
the seed of which to-day we garner
the grain.
The intellectual history of woman
has been one Of repression. View
ing her through the dim twilight of
ages, mere watcher on the thres-
hold, few of us have penetrated be
yond the traditions that raint the
mothers Of the Christian faith mere
ly as models of spirituality, as if
the highest types Of enthusiastically
were not those that reflect perfectly
the sentiments Of God. One does
rot salfsk of PTlzcr Chloe. e<a
s<..oebe Us women who afsne sought
wool and flax aud held the distaff,
but as women whose minds grasped
the divine philosophy, and who
labored in IFS cause.
The first two centuries following
The planting Of the Cross were ages
of iron, and it was then that woman
claimed her first right--to die for
her faith, and TO rival men in the
stern qualities that had been con-
ceded their monopoly--courage to
endure the rack and torch. A faith
for which an Agnes Perpetual
bore SO much, became the marvel of
the pagan women and no wonder
they sought to know something of
its truths, and thus the Christian
matron and maid standing as mar
tvs before the Praetorium became,
as it were, teachers, and the Early
Church, conceiying every hope from
female intelligence, refused naught
that could add to its cultivation.
Amid the wrecks of time but few
traces have been left to as OF the
intellectual labors of the women of
the first ages of Christianity. A
few letters, some Latin serses Of an
early writer, Feltona Proba, and
some hymns which have been
adopted in the Roman liturgy, writ
ten by Elipicia, the wife Of Boethus,
alone remain, but these sufiice to
show that our earliest authors pos
sessed great talents and wrote with
ease and elegance.
In every age there appears asmall
number of privileged spirits who
serve as guides, becoming centre
around which souls reyolse, and in
the fourth century home beheld one
composed of brilliant women, whose
influence has sent its glory adown
Times purple tide, and to which we
owe today the greatest work OF any
age-St. Jerome's translations Of
the Holy Scriptures into Latin
The yulgate-that resolntionized
the language Of the Roman world,
aud introduced into the Latin
"Ths Poetry Of the Hebrew, the
Philosophy of the Greek. =
1t was the age Of transition; old
faiths, old traditions we're dying.
but old customs remained. and old
rites still fingered; though the altars
of the gods were Ger toppled, soli-
tude reigned within the walls Of the
Pantheon, and AsacIine span her