Protestants, some
of them held, had been concerned in the crucifixion of the Saviour; at
all events, they would not go to mass or confessional, and despised
the saints, those glorified beings who, under the Queen of Heaven, and
with the angels, were the guardians of Christian souls in this life
and their intercessors in the next. They were anxious to save her, and
when I was born, the same old dame I have told about a page or two
back, finding that I had come into the world on St. Dominic's Day, set
herself to persuade my mother to name me after that saint, that being
the religious custom of the country. For if they should succeed in
this it would be taken as a sign of grace, that she was not a despiser
of the saints and her case hopeless. But my mother had already fixed
on a name for me and would not change it for another, even to please
her poor neighbours--certainly not for such a name as Dominic; perhaps
there is not one in the calendar more obnoxious to heretics of all
denominations.
They were much hurt-it was the only hurt she ever caused them-and the
old dame and some of her people, who had thought the scheme too good
to be dropped altogether, insisted always on calling me Dominic!
My mother's sympathy and love for everybody appeared, too, in the
hospitality she delighted to exercise.
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