Saint AMBROSE BARLOW, OSB, 1641

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH

ON the eves before the principal festivals of the year, whilst Father Barlow was in health, the Catholics resorted to him from distant places and passed the night, after the manner of the primitive Church, in watching, prayer, and spiritual colloquies, whilst, for his part, he was employed almost all the night hearing confessions. On the next day he treated them all with a dinner, when he and some of the more honourable of his flock served them that were poor, and waited upon them, and then dined off their leavings. When he sent them home he gave each of them a groat in alms, and when all had dined he distributed what remained to the poor of the parish. His zeal had made him as well known in all that neighbourhood as the very parson of the parish. Some reprehended him for going about so publicly ; to whom he replied, " Let them fear that have anything to lose, which they are unwilling to part with." This was indeed not his case, as he had set his heart upon nothing in this world, and was even desirous to lay down his life for God's cause. Nor could he be persuaded to retire further from danger, desiring, were it God's will, to shed his blood at Lancaster.

" And the multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul ... all things were common unto them."—ACTS iv. 32.