The Lives of the Saints Volume 1 - St. Patrick's Basilica

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THE lives of the principal martyrs, fathers, and other more illustrious
saints, whose memory is revered in the Catholic church, are here
presented to the public. An undertaking of this kind seems not to stand
in need of an apology. For such are the advantages and so great the
charms of history, that, on every subject, and whatever dress it wears,
it always pleases and finds readers. So instructive it is, that it is
styled by Cicero, "The mistress of life,"[1] and is called by others,
"Moral philosophy exemplified in the lives and actions of mankind."[2]
But, of all the parts of history, biography, which describes the lives
of great men, seems both the most entertaining, and the most instructive
and improving. By a judicious choice and detail of their particular
actions, it sets before our eyes a living image of those heroes who have
been the object of the admiration of past ages; it exhibits to us a
portraiture of their interior virtues and spirit, and gives the most
useful and enlarged view of human nature. From the wise maxims,
experience, and even mistakes of great men, we learn the most refined
lessons of prudence, and are furnished with models for our imitation.
Neither is the narration here interrupted, nor the attention of the
reader hurried from one object to another, as frequently happens in
general history. On these and other accounts are the lives of eminent
personages the most agreeable and valuable part of history. But, in the
lives of the saints, other great advantages occur. Here are incidentally
related the triumphs of the church, the trophies of the most exalted
virtue, and the conversion of nations. What are profane histories better
than records of scandals? What are the boasted triumphs of an Alexander
or a Cæsar but a series of successful plunders, murders, and other
crimes? It was the remark of the historian Socrates, that if princes
were all lovers of peace and fathers of their people, and if the lives
of men were a uniform and steady practice of piety, civil history would
be almost reduced to empty dates. This reflection extorted from the pen
of a famous wit of our age, in his history of the empire of the West
since Charlemagne, the following confession: "This history is scarcely
any more than a vast scene of weaknesses, faults, crimes, and
misfortunes; among which we find some virtues, and some successful
exploits, as fertile valleys are often seen among chains of rocks and
precipices. This is likewise the case with other histories."[3] But the
lives of the saints are the history of the most exemplary and perfect
virtue and prowess. While therefore all other branches of history employ
daily so many pens, shall this, which above all others deserves our
attention, be alone forgotten? While every other part of the soil is
daily raked up, shall the finest spot be left uncultivated? Our
antiquaries must think themselves obliged by this essay, as the greatest
part of these saints have been the objects of the veneration of the
whole Christian world during several ages. Their names stand recorded in
the titles of our churches, in our towns, estates, writings, and {050}
almost every other monument of our Christian ancestors. If the late