ese great models often before our eyes, than by inserting
in her daily office an abstract of the lives of the martyrs and other
saints; which constant sacred custom is derived from the primitive ages,
in which the histories of the martyrs were publicly read at the divine
office, in the assemblies of the faithful, on their annual festivals.
This is testified of the acts of St. Polycarp in the life of St.
Pionius, and, by St. Austin,[5] of those of SS. Perpetua and Felicitas,
&c. The council of Africa, under Aurelius, archbishop of Carthage, in
397, mentions the acts of the martyrs being allowed to be read in the
church on their anniversary days.[6] St. Caesarius permitted persons that
were sick and weak, to hear the histories of the martyrs sitting, when
they were of an uncommon length; but complained that some who were
healthful unreasonably took the same liberty.[7]

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All great masters of a spiritual life exceedingly extol the advantages
which accrue to souls from the devout reading of the lives of eminent
saints; witness St. Nilus,[8] St. Chrysostom, and others. Many fathers
have employed their pens in transmitting down to posterity the actions
of holy men. And the histories of saints were the frequent entertainment
and delight of all pious persons, who ever found in them a most powerful
means of their encouragement and advancement in virtue, as St.
Bonaventure writes of St. Francis of Assisium. "By the remembrance of
the saints, as by the touch of glowing stones of fire, he was himself
enkindled, and converted into a divine flame." St. Stephen of Grandmont
read their lives every day, and often on his knees. The abbot St.
Junian, St. Antoninus, St. Thomas, and other holy men are recorded to
have read assiduously the lives of the saints, and by their example to
have daily inflamed themselves with fervor in all virtues. St. Boniface
of Mentz sent over to England for books of the lives of saints,[9] and,
by reading the acts of the martyrs, animated himself with the spirit of
martyrdom. This great apostle of Germany, St. Sigiran and others, always
carried with them in their journeys the acts of the martyrs, that they
might read them wherever they travelled. It is related of St. Anastasius
the martyr, that "while he read the conflicts and victories of the
martyrs, he watered the book with his tears, and prayed that he might
suffer the like for Christ. And so much was he delighted with this
exercise that he employed