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


- 80 Ne~~N sh VIZ
early ages Of Christianity that we
do not find some gem of intellect
shrouded beneath the veil Of the
Christian yestal, some great mind
bursting through its environments
and stamping its influence on the
age, and among them stands, pre-
eminent, Hilda, abbess OF Whitby,
a princess Of the blood royal of the
Deirian dynasty. Seldom has one
woman been gifted with suck strong
intellectual faculties joined to so
much executive ability. In what
ever light we view this daughter OF
the Anglo-Saxon race, we see her
in advance of her times, and in the
turbulent age in which she lived
she stood "a Pharos of light and
peace" to the souls of men. Her
love for knowledge gave her an i'm
portant part in the progress of let
tiers at that era, and she inspired
the monks under her authority
with such zeal for learning that
the monastery subject to the cro2ier
OF woman sent forth the most GEL
ebrated scholars of the day. It
was within the sea-swept walls of
Whitby that arose the first song
that ever stirred the lips of Anglo
Saxon bard from Cacdmon, the
Cowherd, the father of English
poets. Discovering his gift of i'm
provisation, Hilda admitted him
among her monks, and made him
translate the Bible into the Anglo
Saxon tongue. AS the sacred his
tories were related to him he made
himself master of the tale and trans.
formed it into a deathless song
that will ever add additional lustre
to the name of Whitby's foundress,
whose GROWING glory is not that
she was adviser of kings or sat in
counsel with the Bishops of the
church, but that she was the foster
mother Of English literature.
In the next century we find the
Abbey of Winburn, celebrated for
the erudition of its inmates. Here
were educated Walpurga and Lioba,
the beloved one, whose exquisite
little letter to her relative, st.
Boniface, inclosing him some Latin
verses which she begs he will COR
rect is a poem in prose. Lioba is
described as q woman of heroic
courage and indomitable in over
coming obstacles. Thoroughly in
strncted in liberal arts and having
a perfect knowledge of the writings
of the fathers and the DEGREES and
the canons of the Church, she, and
and Walpurga, were chosen by st.
Boniface to aid him in spreading
the Gospel throughout Germany.
Amid the forests of Thuringa
these toilers in the vineyard studied
as diligently as they had at Win
burn, and the taste for literature
which has always characterized the
German nuns may be traced to the
founders of the Abbey of Bishof-
shien, Lioba aud Walpusga, who
has the honor of being the first
English or German authoress, hav-
ing written in Latin the life of her
brother, st. Wimbald.
Mabillon, the learned Benedic-
tine, describes the early German
nuns as devoting themselves to
study and transcription of books,
and gives unstinted praise to their
paintings, and to the beauty of
their manuscripts adorned with
liquid gold, gems and pearls.
Among the last female authors
of the Early Church may be named
Hildegard and Harrada, whose writ
ings exhibit a passionate depth of
devotion that no visionary has ever
reached.
1t is only by studying the politi-
cal and ecclesiastical history of her
time that We can form true esti-
mate of the character of Hildegard.
The Cassandra of Germany, the
denouncer of tyranny and upholder
of the oppressed, she became known
throughout Europe by her writings
denouncing the social corruption of
the age. Utterly fearless and no
respecter of persons, she wrote alike
to Emperor, Pontiff, and Bishops
letters of admonitions and warn
ings, while likewise enriching the
Church by her learned work, "Sci-
Was" treatise on the laws of ma
ture which preceded the discoveries