Page:The Way of the Holy Cross Martin.djvu/11

 earliest period of the Church, and the august Mother of God is said to have been the first to set the example. "During her latter years," says St. Andrew, of Crete, "she used to frequent incessantly those places where her Divine Son had been loaded with contumely and nailed to the cross." But why seek for written testimony? Doomed to sojourn as an exile upon the earth, away from Him, in whom she loved at once her Son and her God, how could her affectionate heart have been satisfied if she had not visited again and again the spots consecrated by the most memorable events in the life of her Beloved?—and Calvary, above all, where, standing by His side, she had sustained those inward sufferings which have caused her to be styled the Queen of Martyrs? How often must she have been seen, in the evening of her days, musing, with weeping eyes, along the road where her Son had passed, bearing the load of His cross!—and standing, overwhelmed with grief, on the heights where He expired! Fond and