SAINTS, AND THEIR BODIES. E VER since the time of that dyspeptic heathen, Plotinus, the saints have been "ashamed of their bodies." What is worse, they have usually had reason for the shame. Of the four famous Latin fathers, Jerome describes his own limbs as misshapen, his skin as squalid, his bones as scarcely holding together; while Gregory the Great speaks in his Epistles of his own large size, as contrasted with his weakness and infirmities. Three of the four Greek fathers- Chrysostom, Basil, and Gregory Nazianzen ruined their health early, and were invalids for the remainder of their days. the whole eight were able-bodied men, gustine, and Athanasius; and the permanent influence of these three has been far greater, for good or for evil, than that of all the others put together. Three only of Robust military saints there have doubtless been in the Roman Catholic Church: George, Michael, Sebastian, Eustace, Martin, Hubert the Hunter, and Christopher the Christian Hercules. But these have always held a very secondary place in canonization. Maurice and his whole Theban legion also were sainted together, to the number of six thousand six hundred and sixty-six; doubtless they were stalwart men, but there never yet has been a chapel |