Synopsis "Short Lives of the Dominican Saints (in English)"
THIS book is an album of Dominican pictures. The pictures are word-painted and not limned in crayon or oil; they are drawn with a graphic pen and not painted with an artist's brush. They are pictures all the same-lifelike, faithful, and true. Each chapterand there are nearly a hundred of them-is a portrait, the original of which once lived in a Dominican cloister, in a Convent home, in an ancestral hall, in a princely or noble mansion, or, like Jesus at Nazareth, in a lowly cottage amongst simple, humble, working folk who earned their daily bread by the sweat of their brow. They are offered to the reader for his study, his admiration, and maybe even for his imitation. There are lights and shades in all these pictures, as there are lights and shades in every human life, if we except one, that was ever lived, or will be lived, from Eden to Jehosophat, from the dawn of creation to its doom. Each of these pictures tells its own story, each teaches its own lesson, each preaches its own sermon, each is a picture from life and from a holy life-for each is the life of a Saint. The word Saint is used in its comprehensive sense. All, the stories of whose lives are here briefly told, are not canonized Saints. Some are only Beati or the beatified of Saint Dominic's Order. They await the Church's final seal. Not one of the very large number beatified by the voice of the people, but not as yet declared blessed by the voice of the Church, finds a place in this book. There are several portraits introduced into this Dominican series over which Saint Dominic has no right or claim. They are painted here because they have a claim upon him and his, on account of signal services rendered to the Order in the hour of the Order's need. Saint Augustine of Hippo, whose Rule Saint Dominic adopted in accordance with the decree of the Fourth Lateran Council prohibiting the introduction of new religious Rules; Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Dominic's twin brother, "brought forth together by Holy Mother Church," as the old chronicler puts it, although their ways were divided and their lives were lived apart; Saint Servatius, who, on a memorable occasion, did spiritual yeoman's service in the interest of Saint Dominic's sons; Saint Mary Magdalen, and Saint Catharine, the Virgin Martyr of Alexandria, each of whom is called "Protectrix of the Order," for reasons given in their respective Lives. To these are added two Feasts intimately connected with Dominican life and work-the Feast of Our Lady's Patronage and the pre-eminentIy Dominican Feast of Rosary Sunday. These Lives are necessarily" short," since all have to be compressed between the two covers of a single octavo volume. Their very brevity may add to their charm, and may induce many to read them. L'appetit vimt en mangeant. Perhaps, having read these, they may be drawn to read other Lives of the same Saints which are more exhaustive than these, owing to the limited space allowed to each, can possibly be. Though necessarily miniatures, the pictures in this album are faithfully drawn-drawn from life. The principal authorities from which the facts are taken are Marchese's "Diario Domenicano," the Lessons in the Dominican Breviary, and the excellent work, "L'Annee Dominicaine." Although the "Annee Dominicaine" already numbers sizteen large volumes, the compilers have only yet reached the end of the month of August. Consequently the writer of these little sketches had not had the invaluable help of that work in drawing up the histories of the Saints whose Feasts occur in the four months subsequent to August. For, as will be seen, the order followed in these short Lives is neither alphabetical nor chronological; it is the one suggested by the Calendar of the Dominican rite.
