Note 58 — BOOK XV. (continued 2)

Wadin, the author of a chronicle entitled Annales Minorum, tom. ii. p. 585, quotes a circumstance which St. Antonine relates in the third part of his Somme Historique. After having said that the greater part of the French Cordeliers were killed by the Saracens, he adds these words: “But not one of the virgins of St. Claire escaped.” The abbess of this order, who possessed a masculine spirit, having learnt that the enemy had entered the city, called all her sisters together by the sound of the bell, and by the force of her words persuaded them to hold the promise they had made to Jesus Christ, their spouse, to preserve their chastity: “My dear daughters, my excellent sisters,” said she, “we must, in this certain danger of life and modesty, show ourselves above our sex. The enemies are near to us; not so much to our bodies as to our souls; these barbarians, who, after having satisfied their brutal lusts upon all they meet, slay them with their swords. In this crisis we cannot hope to escape their fury by flight, but we can by a resolution, painful it is true, but sure. Most men are seduced by the beauty of women; let us deprive ourselves of this attraction, let us seek a preservative for our modesty in that which serves as a cause for its violation. Let us destroy our beauty to preserve our virginity pure. I will set you the example; let those who desire to meet their heavenly spouse imitate their mistress.” At these words she cut her nose off with a razor; the others did the same, and boldly disfigured themselves, to present themselves more beautiful before Jesus Christ. By these means they preserved their purity, for the Saracens, on beholding their bleeding faces, conceived a disgust for them, and killed them all, without sparing one.