Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/152

140 was at Kiew, in a Dominican convent, of which he was the founder, when the Mongol hordes, thirsting for blood and carnage, burst into the town. Whilst some of them were engaged in cutting the throats of the in- habitants, others were rushing about with flaming torches to set fire to the buildings, and soon every quarter of the city was enveloped in one vast conflagra- tion, which glared frightfully on the heaps of dead bodies, and streams of blood. Before the fire could reach the Dominican convent, Saint Hyacinth, clothed in his sacerdotal vestments, went to the chapel to with- draw the Holy Elements from the profanation of the barbarians. He was anxiously bearing away from its tabernacle the treasure of the Eucharist, and was passing a statue of the Virgin, near the end of the church, when he thought he heard — according to the legend — a voice saying, Hyacinth, my son, are you going to abandon me to the insults of the wicked ? The holy saint cast a tender and mournful look towards the statue, which was of alabaster, and of con- siderable weight, when the same voice said, " Hyacinth, Hyacinth, do not forsake me ; be of good courage, you shall have strength enough to save both Son and Mother."

The generous servant of God, listening only to his zeal and his piety, flung his arms round the statue, raised it with facility, and bearing in the other hand the holy Pyx, issued from the town through the flames, and miraculously crossed the river Dnieper. This same Virgin of Kiew was afterwards transported by the illus- trious Thaumaturgus to Cracow, where the Poles honoured it with a special devotion.