The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-02-13


their bonds and forced aboard leaking ship
without sails, rudder or anchor, and abandoned
to the mercy of the waves. As the water-logged
hulk was being pushed from the shore the little
hand of martyrs, as well as their murderous cap
tors, were ste-tled by the sudden appearance of
Sarah, q devoted maid-servant, whom the kid
nappers had not thought worth the trouble of
their attention, but who had followed their foot
steps and now demanded to share the fate OF
Mary, her mistress. The prayer was granted.
Sarah was permitted to enter the ship, shared In
all the adventures of her companions, and even
tually became the patron saint of the Bohemians
and Gypsies.
In curious old French canticle the scene OF
the embarkment is thus described:
"Entraz Sarah, dams la nacelle.
Lazare, Martha ct Maximin,
Cleon, Trophime. Saturnin,
Les trois Maries at Marcelle,
Eutrope ct Martial, Sidoine avec Joseph.
Vous perirez dams cette nef.
Allez sans wolfe ct sans cordage,
Sans mat, sans ancre, sans timon,
Sans ailments, sans aviron,
Allez faire un triste naufrage,
Retirez vous d'ici. laisez nous en- repos.
Allez crever parmi les fiots."
A friend of the editor makes this free transa-
ton:
Enter Sarah into the little boat,
Lazarus, Martha and Maximum,
Cleon, Trophime, Saturnin,
The three Marys and Marcelle,
EUROPE and Martial, Sidonie with Joseph,
You will perish in this nave of the church.
Go without sail, without rope,
Without mast, without anchor, without rudder,
Go and make sad shipwreck,
Go from here and leave us in peace,
Go kill yourselves among the torrents.
But the little band was miraculously saved
from the waves. Scarcely had the sinking YES
sci drifted out of sight of land when Trophime,
who was kneeling in the prov, beheld a snow
white dove descending from the clouds, with a
silver cord in its beak. The cord was fastened
to the bowsprit and the dove flew northward.
For three days and three nights the ship was
drawn, light as a wind-driven foam, upon the
dancing waves, then land was sighted, and as the
dove remounted the sky the boat grounded upon
the shore of Camargue, in the delta of the
Rhone, upon the very spot where this village of
Saintes Maries de-la-Mer was later founded.
After rendering thanks to God for their deliv-
erance the exiles landed and became the first
Christian Missionaries in Gaul.
Lazarus and Trophime followed the course of
epoch great Roman metropolis. Lazarus, after
fearlessly hurting from their pedestals the sta
tues of Venus, Bacchus, and other pagan gods.
suffered martyrdom in the Arlesian arena. Tro-
phime, who was no less jealous but more con-
sentative and intelligent, eventually succeeded
in converting the city to Christianity and lived
to become bishop. It seems to me, in passing,
that Goth century preachers and missionaries
nfoI.f 6rox mn fho fnl mr. frOn
this little incident.
AS for the Saintes Marie they spent their lives
in pious pilgrimages from village to village,
from city to city, throughout all Gaul, spread
ing the Gospel, healing the sick and comforting
the afflicted. Sarah, the hand maiden, was sepa-
rated from her companions, and made long
journey into the country of the Huns (now
Hungarian Bohemia) but later rejoined the
Marys and upon her death was buried by their
side.
Nearly every province upon the Mediterranean
coast continues. in its purely local legends and
folklore, this Odyssey of the Saintes Marie. Upon
the slope of gigantic cliff in the mountains of
the Applies, in the neighborhood of Les Baux,
is an enormous detached block of stone, over
hanging precipice. Upon the eastern face of
this block are craven three grandiose female
figures, objects of the superstitious veneration
OF the mountaineers. These three figures (Which
/ examined while visiting Les Baux several
months ago. are certainly 900 or 1000 years old.
Two distinct legends are woven around the
statues. or. more properly speaking, the bas re-
liefs, and both legends connect them with the
Saintes Marie. According to the great Proven
cal poet, Frederick Mistral, the three Marys
visited Les Baux and were SO Hospitality re-
ceived by the inhabitants of the village that
Mary Magdalene traced with her finger, upon the
mountainside, the portraits of herself and her
two companions, in order to render eternal the
souvenir of their visit. The other legend, re-
corded by Jules Canonge, is not so creditable to
the hospitality of the villagers, who, according
to this second version, treated the sanity women
as sorceresses and chased them from the neigh
borhood with sticks and stones. Shortly after
ward, Les Baux, until that moment the health
lest spot imaginable, was afflicted by terrible
plague, a species of cholera, which threatened to
wipe out the village. Sacrifices to the pagan
gods and godesses proving of no avail, the priests
remembering that the three strange women, who
had recently visited the mountain, had claimed
to be the messengers of new and unknown
God, came to the conclusion that this deity,
offended by the indignities heaped upon his
emissaries, had sent the plague as a punish
menC, consequently they decided 10 erect q
shrine to the three mysterious women, and
carved upon the cliff the three figures, which
have remained until this day.
Unfortunately for those who seek to discern a
shadow of real truth in either of these tales the
stone figures themselves suggest, or rather i'm
pose, a third more practical and less poetic ex-
PLANTATION of their origin. Their style is indis-
putably Roman, and they were executed by
habile workmen. Furthermore, the grouping,
drapery and headdresses of the figures leave
little room to question that they were intended
to represent the three Graces.
But let us return to the legend. The three
Marys and the servant Sarah. having converted
the Gauls, and having grown old in the long,
long course of their wanderings returned to the
Camargue to spend their few remaining days in
peace, and to die here upon the spot where they
had disembarked. The fishermen of the neigh
borhood, who had known and honored the holy
women during their lives, protected and re-
spected their sepulchre, and later, the faithful
raised shrine and altar, to which they made q
ious pilgrimage every year upon the anniver-
sary Of the Marys' death. Such was the origin
of famous pilgrimage, which is still celebrated
every year, and which, by its picturesque char
acter. annually attracts thousands of tourists of
all nationalities. SEABRooK.