Irish Jesuit Province

Mary's Autumn MayAuthor(s): Arthur RyanSource: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 12, No. 136 (Oct., 1884), p. 524Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20497184 .

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S24 Mary's Autumn May.

while in Ireland. So deeply was Count Vincent impressed by the saint's extraordinary gifts of intellect, eloquence, and grace, that he became extremely anxious to persuade him to pass over into Gaul and undertake a mission to the Franks. Strenuously urging his appeal in behalf of the multitudes sitting in darkness, the zealous nobleman gained his cause. The hermit's missionary ardour was aroused. Renouncing all that he held most dear-freedom from external engagements, and his hut in the woods-and choosing some com panions to assist him in the work he was about to undertake, he bade adieu to England, and, under the escort of Count Vincent, set sail for a foreign shore.

MARY'S AUJTUMN MIAY.*

BY THE REV. ARTHUR RYAN.

S AY, dearest Mother Mary, can it be That, having May, thou claim'st October too?

The flowers of Spring we plucked and gave to thee, And these sad leaves of Autumn wilt thou sue ?

When evenings first were lengthening, calm and warm, We lit thy altar, gay with lily bloom;

Now falls the night full swift with threatening storm, And still thy tapers stay the advancing gloom.

'Tis thine, and ten times welcome, Mother dear ! This ripe and crisp October month is thine.

What though our flowers and leaves be scant and sere, The Calendar of Love knows no decline.

Accept these autumn wreaths-our chaplets bright, With crimson-yellow stained, like sunset skies:

O Star of morn, be still our Star at night, And bless our falling years as thou didst bless their rise.

* Exactly ten years ago another of our poets, Miss Alice Esmonde, wrote a "

May Song for October

" {" Irish Monthly," vol. ii., p. 617). In Australia, as May is a

winter month, the Mois de Marie is kept in October. And now Pope Leo XIII. has

turned October into a second May all the world over.?Ed. I, M.

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