THE PATRONESS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 182, 22 September 1876, Page 15

THE PATRONESS.

Our Buffalo contemporary the ' Catholic Union' quotes this pretty story from L. Veuillot : — Our captain was a brave seaman, who maintained his authority without the aid of oaths, and in foul weather, as in fair, his cheerful temper was unruffled. In his cabin hung the portrait of the Blessed Virgin. " Captain what do you think of the weather." "It is villainous ! We shall be tossed about at such a rate as to be forced to stop." *' But the ship is good, and the captain lucky." " I am fifty years old, and I have spent fifty years upon the ocean's waves, for I was born upon waters. In my voyages to Rome I never met with any serious accident, but I cannot say the same of many other trips." • " Captain, I saw the likeness of a certain Lady in your cabin. Is she the patroness of your vessel ?" The captain smiled. " The Company of the Imperial Line do not trouble themselves much about a patroness. Our good ship is called the Lycurgus. Did you ever hear of a saint of that name ? But the Lady of whom you speak is my own special patroness." " How long has she been such, captain ?" " Since a. certain day, when I and several others, who did not any of us very often think of looking up to heaven — I mean the heaven of our good God — suddenly found ourselves near the bottom of the sea. Then, when all hope of earthly aid had vanished, we discovered that we were more pious than we professed to be, for we made a vow to * Notre Dame de la Garde ;' she immediately took us in tow, and we entered the port as if led by the hand. "In our shirt-sleeves and barefooted we fulfilled our vow, chanting the litanies as we went along. "Ah! the good Virgin did all things well.' Sometime afterwards she gave mo my wife, and my wife gave me my daughter. " Now my wife and daughter pray for me. As sentinels they stand before 'Notre Dame de la Garde/ where their prayers burn like two tapers of purest wax. " They ask the Blessed Virgin that I may die in my bed, well prepared by a good confession. They tell her that as we have been so separated on this earth, we should not be so in eternity. God will grant them what they ask. "My daughter will close my eyes, and bury my poor body. So, now, go to your cabin and sleep as tranquilly as I do."