Page:The Way of the Holy Cross Martin.djvu/14

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Jerome, the "names of all the bishops, of all the martyrs, of all the famous doctors who have flocked to Jerusalem, from year to year, from our Lord's Ascension to this day. The most illustrious persons in Gaul came here: Christians from the centre of Britain, from the farthest extremities of the West, leave their homes that they may view here the spots, with which pious letters and the veneration of whole kingdoms have made them familiar. What shall I say of the Armenians, the Persians, the Indians, the people of Ethiopia and Egypt, amongst whom holy solitaries are so numerous? Of the multitudes from Pontus, Cappadocia, Syria, Mesopotamia, and the whole East, who flock here to edify us by their devotion. They all differ in language, but the piety of all of them is the same. Each nation forms a separate choir to resound the praises of God." The Saint goes still further, and declares in a letter to Desiderus, that "a man thought himself only half a Christian until he had worshipped his