The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-03-31
Saints and Poets Eulogize Her
Benign Influence.
life OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
The Pattern Of Virtue to Wife,
Maiden and Mother.

In Harper's Bazaar of March II under
the heading of "Women and the BIZ
ble," His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons
contributes the following article on the
Blessed Virgin Mary:
The world is governed more by ideals
than by ideas; it is influenced more by
living, concrete models than by abstract
principles of virtue.
The model held up to Christian wo-
men is not the Amazon, glorying in her
martial deeds and prowess; it is not the
Spartan woman, who made female per-
lection consist in the development of
physical strength at the expense of
feminine decorum and modesty; it is
not the goddess of impure love, like
Venus, whose votaries regard beauty
and form and personal charms as the
highest type of female excellence; nor
is it the goddess of imperial will, like
Juno. No; the model held up to woman
from the very dawn of Christianity is
the peerless mother of our blessed Re-
.deemer.
She is the pattern of virtue alike to
maiden, wife and mother. She exhibits
the virginia. modcsty becoming the
maid, the conjugal fidelity and loyalty
of the spouse and the untiring devoted
ness of the mother
The Christian woman is everywhere
confronted by her great model. Mary's
portrait gazes down upon her from the
wall. Her name is repeated in the
pages of the book before her. Her
'eulogy is pronounced from the pulpit
Affairs and temples are dedicated in her
honor. Festivals are celebrated in her
praise. In a word, the Virgin Mother
is indelibly stamped on the intellect,
the heart, the memory and the imagina-
ton of the Christian daughter. The
influence Of Mary, y, therefore, in the
moral elevation of woman can hard
ly be overestimated. She is the perfect
combination of all that is great and
good and noble in pagan womanhood
with no alloy of degradation.
Hers is exquisite beauty, but beauty
more of the soul than of the body; it
delights without Intoxicating. The con-
temptation of her excites no inward re-
'bellion, as too often happens with Gre
clan models. She is the mother of fair
love devoid of sickly sentimentality or
:sensuality.
In her we find force of will without
pride or imperiousness. We find in her
moral strength and heroism without the
sacrifice of female grace and honor-a
11eroism of silent suffering rather than
of noisy action What Spartan mother
ever displayed such fortitude as Mary
exhibited at the foot of the cross?
1t seems to me that some writer's are
disposed to lay undue stress on the ad-
mirable and tender qualities of Mary
and Of holy Christian women without
dwelling sufficiently on the strong and
robust points of their character. The
Holy Scripture in one place pronounc-
es a heightened eulogy on woman.
What does the Holy Ghost specially ad-
mire in her? Not her sweet and amia
Bile temper or her gentle disposition,
though of course she possessed these
qualities, for no woman is perfect with
out them. No; He admlres her valor,
courage, fortitude and the sturdy vir-
tue of self-reliance He does not say,
"Who shall find gentle woman?" but
rather, ''Who shall find valiant wo-
man?" GAS things brought from afar
and from the uttermost coasts is the
price of her" prov, xxxi.) It is only
heroic virtues practised in heroic de-
gree that the church canonizes.
After our Lord Jesus Christ, no one
has ever, exercised so salutary an infu-
ence as the Blessed Virgin on society,
on the family and on the individual.
The Mother of Jesus exercises through
out the Christian commonwealth that
hallowing influence which good mo-
ther wields over the Christian family.
What tempel or chapel, how rude So
ever it may be, is not adorned with
painting or statue of the Madonna?