THE CATHEDRAL OF MESSINA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIII, Issue 42, 14 February 1896, Page 27

THE CATHEDRAL OF MESSINA.

bTORY AND TEXT OF A LETTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN.

BTEANGE LEGEND OF A GHOSTLY VISITANl 1 . The Edinburgh Catholic Herald publishes an interesting article on the famous cathedral. Our readers will of course take the ghost story for what it is worth. Meseina in Sicily, called by some the Queen of the Mediterranean, is a very ancient city. It is said to have been founded by a colony of Greeks, 530 years before the destruction of Troy, and about 1000 before Christ. It is in a charming position, and the long range of the ippenmes en tbe neighbouring coast give a picturesque character to he view. The situation of the city, wtich lies be ween Etna on the one hand and Stromboli and Vesuvius on the other renders it peculiarly subject to earthquakes. The Mesainesi are proud of their city and its history, Tney are eai i to have been converted by the pre^cii'ng of St Paul, and tradition says that St Peter sent them their first bishop, Messina has about fifty churches, some of them extremely beautiful and of good architecture. The centre of interest as in most lialian cities, is the cathedral not so much for its architectural beauty as for its interesting history, and more than all for the letter which is said to have been sent to them by our Blessed Lady, whose miraculous picture, supposed to have been painted by St Luke, hcings ovar the high altar, which is a fine specimen of the inlaid work of Florentine Mosiac. At the back of the altar Bcreen is (he famous letter. A MOST PRECIOUS BELIO, a letter, writ'en by the Mother of God herself. St Paul visited M.'fsin',and having found the people well disposed, and eager to hear the Word of God from his lips, preached them two sermons one on our Lord's Passion, tha other on the perpetual virginity of our Blessed Lady. This latter bad >uch an effect on the inhabitants that they cried out with one voice, " Our city must be placed under the protection of tbe Virgin Mother." The story goes on to say that an embassy at the head of which was St Paul himself was sent to Jerusalem, where the Blessed Virgin was than living, and that as sion as she received tbe embassy she 6ent a rpply to the Messinese in Hebrew, stating that she was willing to accede to their pioas wishes. This letter was afterwards trannlated into Greek by St Paul, md deposited in tbe ancient chutch cf Messina, whence in course of time i' was removed to its present place in (be high alar of the cathedral church. The following is A COPY OF THIS SINGULAR DOCUMENT : — " Mary Virgin, daughter of Joahcim, most lowly handmaid of Goi, Mother of the Crucified J..sus Christ, of the tribe of Juda, from the race of David, to all the people of Messina salutation and ol«ss'ng from God the Father Almighty. It is certified by public iiooumen s, that all of you have in greit faith, sent emissaries and ambdss.dorrt to us. Led to know the way of the truth through the preacning of Paul, the Apostle, you confess that our Son, the OnlyBegotten of God, is both God acd man, and that He ascended into Heaven utter His Resurrection. For this reason we, therefore, blesB you and your city, whose peipetu d Piotpctress we desire to become. Year of our S n 42 ; ludiction I ; lii, nones of Jane ; xxvii of the m< on ; feria v from JerusWem, Mary Virgin, who hath approved the ban I*vittirg nb iv» " To establish tho genuineness of this leitei, the leirne' J.-suit Father Mdchior Incbofer, wrote a very learned Litin wo!k entitled " Episto'te B. Virgiais Mfariae and Messinenses Ventas vindicata." " Tt.e truth of the Epistle of the Blessed Virgin

Mary to the people of Messina vindicated." The Cathedral besides possessing this great relic is interesting in many ways from an historical point of view. One reads its history on its walls, in other wordß, one Bees the effect of the many vicissitudes of the city from foreign invasion. Its northern doors are singularly rich in Norman carving and decoration. The Norman holy water-s'oop tells ita tale as it reßts on inverted marble columns covered with Greek inscriptions. The monuments, too, TELL THBIB TALE ; here we Bee one erected to an ancient Greek Bishop, ano'hsr to a Spanish Achbisbop of Cordova. Beneath the Cathedral is the Norman Crypt with ita low marble column. Byzantine pictures and groined roof. Connected with the Cathedral is the celebrated Messinian " GHOST STOBY " For those of our readers who may not know this legend, we here re-produce it, At the end of the last century, after the terrible earthquake which occurred in 1784, and which destroyed almost the whole city except the Cathedral, said to have been miraculously pre■erved by Our Lady, a distinguished French priest of noble family, Tiaited Messina for the purpose of seeing the devastation add of making researches amongst tbe monuments and ruins. This priest, one of whose brothers wa? a general officer, and another a miniser at Berlin, wag himself of tbe order of the Knights cf Malta, a man of high character, of cultivated intellect, and of great physical courage. He arrived at Messina on a summer day, and getting the key of the Cathedral from the custode — for it was after Vespers— commenced copying the inscriptions and examining the building. His researches occupied him so long that he did not see that the day was waning ; and when he turned round to go out by the door, through which he had come in, he found it locked. He tried the other doors, bat all were equally closed. The custode, having left him some long time before, concluded the priest had long Bince gone away, had thus locked up the building, and had gone home. The priest shouted in Tain ; the earthquake had destroyed all the houses ia tbe neighbourhood. There was no one about to hear his cries He determined to make himself comfortable for the night. Tbe confessionals appeared about the most convenient spot to rest in, so there he settled himself for a sleep. Sleep, however, wbb not so easy. The strangeness of the situation, the increasing darkness, and the superstition which tbe strongest mind might be supposed to feel under the circumstances, effectually banished any feeling; of drowsiness. There was a large clock in the tower of the cathedral, whose tones sounded more near and solemn within the building than without. The priest, with the intensity of hearing which sleeplessness gives, listened to EYEBY tTROKE Oi' THE CLOCK. First ten, then the quarters ; eleveD, then the quarters again ; then twelve o'clock. As the last strok* of midnight died awiy, he perceived suddenly a light appearing at the high altar . The alar candle s seemed suddenly to be lightel, and a figure in a monk's dicss and cowl walked out from a niche at the back of the altar. Turning, when he reached the front of tbe altar, the figure exclaimed, in a deep and solemn voice. "Is there any priest here who will say a Mass for the repose of my soul?" No answer followed ; and the monk slowly walked down the church, passing by the confessional where the priest waß sitting. As he passed, his eyes being naturally rivited on the figure, he saw that tbe face under the cowl was that of a dead man. Entire darkness followed ; but when the clock struck the half-hour, tbe same lights appeared, and the same figure ; the same question wasaßked, and no answer returned ; and the same monk, illuminated by tbe same unearthly light, walked slowly down tbe church Now the priest was A BOLD MAN ; and he resolved, if the §ame thing occurred again, that he would answer tbe question and Bay tbe Mas 3. As the clock struck one, the altar was again lighted, and tbe monk again appeared, and when he once more exclaimed : " Is there any Christian priest here who will say a Mass for therepoße of my soul?" he boldly stepped out of the confessional, and replied in a firm voice, •' I will I ' He then walked up to the altar, where he found everything prepared for the celebration, and summoning up all his courage, celebrated the sacred rite. At ita conclusion the monk spoke as follows : " For one hundreJ find forty years every night I have askad this question, and, until to-night, in vain. You have confe red upon me an inestimable benefit. There w nothing I would not do for you if I could in return ; but there is only one thing in my power, and that ia to give you notice when the hour of your own death approaches." The poor priest beard no more. He fell down in a swoon, and was found the next moroing by the custode, very early, at the foot of the altar. Alter a time be recovered and went away, He returned to Venice, where he was then living, and wrote down the circumstances abjve related, which f he also told to several of his intimate friends. He steadily aeaertid and maintained that he was never wider awake, or more completely in possession of his reasoning faculties tLanhe was th.t night, until the moment when the monk had done speaking.

THREE YEABS AFTER he called his friend s together and took leave of them. They asked him if he were going on a journey. He said : " Yes ; and one from which there is no return." He then told them that the night before, the Monk of Meseina had appeared to him, and told him that he was to die in three days. His friends laughed at him, and told him, which was true, that he eeemed perfectly well. Bnt he persisted in his statements, made evety preparation, and the third day was found dead in his bed. This story was well known to all his friends and contemporaries. Curiously enongb, on the Cathedral of Messina beine; "stored a few years after, the skeleton of a monk was found , walled up, in his monk's dress and cowl, and in the very place which the priest had always described as the one from which the spectre had emerged.