Page:The Way of the Holy Cross Martin.djvu/13

, than that in which he had expired, abandoned by them all? Especially when the thought of bewailing their base ingratitude, and of animating themselves to embrace sufferings and death, if they could only propagate the knowledge and the love of Him in the hearts of men? The first Christians, also, even those who lived at a great distance from Jerusalem, were naturally impatient to contemplate spots where such mysteries had been accomplished, and to learn from eye witnesses every circumstance of their Lord's agony; thereby to nourish their own and their children's piety, with the most important events that had ever taken place.

From that time, a pilgrimage to Calvary became the favourite devotion of the faithful. Even during the sanguinary persecutions, which extended over the three first centuries, illustrious pilgrims, such as St. Alexander, St. Ephrem and St. Eustachius, were seen running in crowds to the holy Sepulchre.

"It would be too long to recount," says St.