the prophets and saints,
with Moses, Abraham, David, &c., met him, now redeemed by him. (Cat. 14,
n. 19, p. 214.) He extols exceedingly the state of virginity as equal to
that of the angels. (Cat. 4, n. 24; Cat. 12, n. 33, 34.) He says it will
in the day of judgment, in the list of good works, carry off the first
crowns. (Cat. 15, n. 23.) He compares it to gold, and marriage, which is
yet good and honorable, to silver; but prescribes times of continency to
married persons for prayer. (Cat. 4, n. 26.) He calls Lent the greatest
time of fasting and penance, but says, "Thou dost not abstain from wine
and flesh as bad in themselves, as the Manichees, for so thou wilt have
no reward; but thou retrenchest them, good indeed in themselves, for
better spiritual recompenses which are promised." (Cat. 4, n. 27.) He
mentions the fasts and watchings of superposition, _i.e._ of holy week
before Easter, as most austere. (Cat. 18.) He expresses on all occasions
the tenderest devotion to the holy cross of Christ, and a great
confidence in it, with which he endeavors also to inspire others. "Let
us not be ashamed of the cross of Christ," says he: "sign it openly on
thy forehead, that the devils, seeing the royal standard, may fly far
trembling; make this sign when thou eatest or drinkest, sittest, liest,
risest, speakest, walkest, in a word, in every action [Greek: en
pantipragmati]." (Cat. 4, p. 58.) And again, "when thou art going to
dispute against an infidel, make with thy hand the sign of the cross,
and thy adversary will be struck dumb; be not ashamed to confess the
cross. The angels glory in it, saying, Whom do you seek? Jesus, the
crucified, Mat. xxviii. 6. You could have said, O Angel, My Lord: but
the cross is his crown." (Cat. 13, n. 22, p. 194.) St. Porphyry of Gaza,
instructed by St. Cyril's successor, John, following this rule, by
beginning a disputation with a famous Manichean woman, struck her
miraculously dumb. St. Cyril, in his thirteenth catechesis, thus
addresses his catechumen, (n. 36, p. 200:) "Be careful to form with your
finger on your forehead boldly, the sign of the cross for a signet and
standard, and that before every thing,--while we eat our bread, or drink
our cups, in coming in and going out, before sleep, and in rising, in
walking, and in standing still." He testifies, in his tenth catechesis,
(n. 19,) that the holy wood of the cross kept at Jerusalem, had, in the
few years since its invention by St. Helena