Saint Leocadia, A.D. 304
by VP
Posted on Monday December 09, 2024 at 12:00AM in Saints
Mariano Salvador Maella: Saint Leocadia before the Praetor
DOCILITY OF VIRTUE.-The practice of the highest virtues is really difficult to those only who are animated with the worldly spirit. Any one who is trained to well-doing accomplishes it without effort, but the transition from evil to good is more arduous, because the habits already contracted, and the sentiments long cherished, oppose a formidable barrier. Leocadia was living at Toledo in the practice of all Christian virtues, and had grown accustomed thereto from her childhood. Far from aspiring after the advantages and prospects of the world, she only longed for martyrdom; her soul was inflamed with ardour in reading the lives of the saints, and she piously envied above all the combats and goodly reward which fell to St. Eulalia. God lent a favourable ear to her yearnings; she was brought before the governor Dacian during the course of Diocletian's persecution, cast into chains, tortured with horrible atrocity, and finally thrown into prison, where she expired from her sufferings. Thus does death itself become sweet to any one that knows how to desire it aright.
MORAL REFLECTION.- "By thy commandments I have had
understanding; how sweet are thy words to my palate! more than honey to
my mouth."-(Psa. cxix. 103.) Pictorial Half Hours with the Saints by Fr. Auguste Lecanu
