From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Of Love of Solitude and Silence [III]   
      
      No man appears in safety before the public eye unless he first   
   relishes obscurity. No man is safe in speaking unless he loves to be   
   silent. No man rules safely unless he is willing to be ruled. No man   
   commands safely unless he has learned well how to obey. No man   
   rejoices safely unless he has within him the testimony of a good   
   conscience.   
      More than this, the security of the saints was always enveloped in   
   the fear of God, nor were they less cautious and humble because they   
   were conspicuous for great virtues and graces. The security of the   
   wicked, on the contrary, springs from pride and presumption, and will   
   end in their own deception.   
      Never promise yourself security in this life, even though you seem   
   to be a good religious, or a devout hermit.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ–Bk 2 Ch 20   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   14 November – St Laurence O’Toole   
      
   Archbishop of Dublin, Abbot, Reformer, Mediator, Preacher, Apostle of   
   Charity, Papal Legate to Ireland, he established new Churches and   
   monasteries – born Lorcan Ua Tuathail in 1128 at Castledermot, County   
   Kildare, Ireland and died on 14 November 1180 at Eu, diocese of Rouen,   
   Normandy, France of natural causes. Patron of the Archdiocese of   
   Dublin.   
      
   Saint Laurence was the son of the king of Leinster in Ireland. His   
   birth caused such great joy to his father, that in thanksgiving, to   
   honour Christ, he pardoned a vassal who was an enemy and even chose   
   him for sponsor of the child. They were stopped on the way to church   
   by a man who was regarded as a prophet and who told them in verse that   
   the child would be magnificent on earth and glorious in heaven and   
   that his name must be Laurence. Though the king had decided otherwise,   
   the infant was indeed given that name.   
      
   When only ten years old, his father delivered him up as a hostage to a   
   rival prince who required this of his sincerity when there was a   
   question of a treaty of peace but who treated the child with great   
   inhumanity, leaving him to suffer hunger and cold and other inhuman   
   conditions until his health was nearly ruined. His father, hearing of   
   this, by menaces obliged the tyrant to put him temporarily in the   
   hands of the Bishop of Glendenoch in the county of Wicklow. The holy   
   youth was soon cured and, by his fidelity in corresponding with the   
   divine grace, he grew to be a model of virtues. When his father came   
   for him, he declared he desired to enter into the service of the   
   Church and remain with the good bishop. To this his father willingly   
   agreed.   
      
   On the death of the bishop, who was also Abbot of a monastery of the   
   same city, Saint Laurence was chosen Abbot in 1150, though only twenty   
   years old and doubting his competence. Nonetheless, he governed with a   
   paternal spirit, employing all his revenues during a famine in the   
   province, to procure food for the needy, remedies for the sick and aid   
   of all kinds for the unfortunate. Never did he use his revenues, even   
   when prosperity returned, for anything but care of the poor, repairs   
   for ruined or decrepit churches or the construction of new ones and   
   the foundation of hospitals. When the see of Glendenoch became vacant   
   once more in 1161, it was Saint Laurence who was chosen to fill it and   
   although he could not resolve to accept that new dignity, he was   
   obliged soon afterwards to become Archbishop of Dublin and he was told   
   that to refuse would be to resist the Will of God.   
      
   He established a regular life for the Canons of his cathedral,   
   according to the example of St Augustine and he himself followed   
   all the rules with exactitude, sharing their table, their prayer and   
   their silence. Each Lent he returned to Glendalough to make a forty   
   days’ retreat in St. Kevin’s Cave on a precipice of Lugduff Mountain   
   over the Upper Lake.   
      
   About the year 1171 Saint Laurence was obliged, for the affairs of his   
   diocese, to go to England to see the king, Henry II, who was then at   
   Canterbury. He was received by the Benedictine monks of Christ Church   
   with the greatest honour and respect. On the following day, as the   
   holy Archbishop was advancing to the altar to officiate, a maniac, who   
   had heard much of his sanctity and who thought it would be a gift to   
   the Church to make of him another martyr in the likeness of Saint   
   Thomas Becket, struck him a violent blow on the head. All present   
   concluded that he was mortally wounded but the Saint recovered his   
   senses and asked for some water, which he blessed. He then requested   
   that the wound be washed with it, and the blood was immediately   
   stanched and the archbishop celebrated Mass. He obtained the   
   offender’s pardon from the king. His prayers brought about many   
   miracles, including the return to their senses for those who had   
   become alienated, a miracle rare in the history of religion. After he   
   attended a General Council in Rome in 1179, the Pope made him his   
   legate for all of Ireland and he visited all its provinces to   
   re-establish ecclesiastical discipline everywhere.   
      
   In 1175 Henry II of England became offended with Roderick, the monarch   
   of Ireland and prudence that he granted him everything he asked and   
   left the whole negotiation to his discretion.   
   After a stay at the Monastery of Abingdon south of Oxford –   
   necessitated by a closure of the ports – he landed at Le Tréport,   
   Normandy, at a cove named after him, Saint-Laurent. He fell ill and   
   was conveyed to the Abbey of St Victor at Eu. Mortally ill, it was   
   suggested that he should make his will, to which he replied:  “God   
   knows, I have not a penny under the sun to leave anyone.” His last   
   thoughts were of his people in Dublin : “Alas, you poor, foolish   
   people, what will you do now? Who will take care of you in your   
   trouble? Who will help you?” He died on 14 November 1180.   
      
   The Saint is described as tall and graceful in figure. He was well   
   known as an ascetic, wore a hair shirt, never ate meat and fasted   
   every Friday on bread and water. In contrast to this, it is said that   
   when he entertained, his guests lacked for nothing, while he drank   
   water coloured to look like wine so as not to spoil the feast.   
   Due to the great number of miracles that rapidly occurred either at   
   his tomb or through his intercession, Lorcán was canonised only 45   
   years after his death in 1225 by Pope Honorius III.   
      
   St Laurence’s heart was preserved in a reliquary in Christ Church   
   Cathedral, Dublin from the 13th century. His skull was brought to   
   England in 1442 by a nobleman named Sir Rowland Standish who had   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)