Saint Abel

The two brothers, of different inclinations, also chose different ways of life. The elder devoted himself to agriculture, and the younger gave himself to the pastoral life. It is certain that our first parents religiously observed the Sabbath day, presented to God the first fruits of their crops and their flocks, and offered sacrifices. They also instructed their children in the purest morality and the principles of religion. Following the example of the authors of their days, the two brothers did not fail to pay their homage to the sovereign Master; they adored Him, prayed to Him, and regularly offered Him a portion of the goods they received from His liberal hand. The Lord, for His part, showered them with blessings, granting them graces to overcome their passions and obey His laws; but they did not bring the same correspondence to them. An occasion arose that made one and the other known and decided their fate.

They were already advanced in age. Cain had not lost the habit of offering to God the first fruits of his harvests, and Abel the firstborn of his flocks and the fat of his victims; but Cain's piety was as stingy as Abel's was sincere and generous. The Lord, who sees the depths of hearts, noticeably testified to the difference He made between the two offerings. He consumed those of Abel with fire from heaven, and, in reward for the young shepherd's religion, He spread fertility upon his flocks, while He disdained those of Cain, and sterility devastated his fields.

Jealousy tramples all justice underfoot. Instead of recognizing the cause of this disgrace, of humbling himself, of admitting his guilt, Cain resolved to take revenge on his innocent brother. The crime, once conceived in his heart, was reflected in the distorted features of his face. The Lord, who wished to bring him back to better sentiments and save him, made him hear His voice: "Why," He said to him, "are you angry? Whence this pallor? Why is your face dark and melancholy? If you do well, will you not receive the reward? If, on the contrary, you do evil, will not your sin always be present to you like a monster ready to devour you, and will it not provoke my vengeance? There is still time, however violent the passion that agitates you, you can resist it."

Not only does jealousy know no justice, but it is also inflexible: it listens neither to God nor to men. Thus, the divine remonstrances made no impression on the poisoned mind of Cain. Then, despising the Lord, who wished to prevent his fault, trampling underfoot the cries of his conscien ce, Caïn First son of Adam and Eve, murderer of his brother. he feigned a desire to take a walk with his brother: "Let us go out together to the countryside," he said to him. Abel, charmed by this invitation, followed him with a spirit of peace: he was too gentle, too innocent to suspect evil designs in his brother; perhaps he was even happy to be able to dispel the sorrows by which he saw him tormented. Alas! Scarcely had Cain moved a little away from the paternal roof than he threw himself upon his brother and sacrificed him to his fury. It is not known what instrument he used to consummate his fratricide. Painters usually represent him armed with a jawbone; but painters, as we know, make wide use of the freedom to feign. Others claim that he struck him with a stone on the forehead. The Rabbis say that he tore him to pieces and that he literally ripped apart all the limbs of his innocent body.

A figure of Jesus Christ, Abel died a virgin; the first of the priests, he offered to God an agreeable and pure victim; he was struck by his brother just as Jesus Christ was by his brothers; a shepherd of sheep, his blood spilled upon his flock, just as the blood of the divine Shepherd did upon the spiritual flock of souls. The murderer of Abel would be a wanderer and a fugitive on all the shores of the earth, bearing on his forehead the seal of divine curse; no one would be able to kill Cain, reserved for the vengeance of God alone; likewise, the Jewish people, murderers of Jesus Christ, would be wanderers and fugitives throughout the universe: they would bear among the nations, on all the fields of history, the seal of the curse they called down upon themselves. Reserved as the witness of divine vengeance, they would await the unknown hour of mercy, never dying out as a race and never mingling their blood with the flow of the generations they traverse.

The bas-reliefs of some sarcophagi represent Abel and Cain offering their sacrifices to God. Cain presents a sheaf, and sometimes a bunch of grapes which he holds in his hand, and ears of corn which are at his feet; Abel offers a lamb. — In his capacity as a shepherd, Abel is dressed in the tunic and the paenula; Cain, on the contrary, as a farmer, is half-naked: it is known that, in antiquity, he who drove the plow was always without clothing. — A 6th-century mosaic at San Vitale in Ravenna shows a very sin gular r Ravenne Birthplace of the saint and site of his final mission. epresentation: it is Melchizedek offering his sacrif ice of bread Melchisédech King of Salem and priest of the Most High. and wine to God, and, on the other side of the altar, Abel, also raising his hands to the heavens. The lamb offered to God by Abel is the figure of the Agnus Dei who was one day to immolate himself for the salvation of men; the sacrifice of Melchizedek, composed of bread and wine, is the figure of the Eucharistic sacrifice which is the same as that of the divine Lamb. There is no doubt that the intention here was to bring together these two figures of the same mystery, which occurred in history more than two thousand years apart. One seems authorized to think so by these words of the canon of the Mass, where this same comparison is expressed: 'Deign, O Lord, to look with a propitious and serene countenance, and to accept these offerings, as you deigned to accept the gifts of your child, the just Abel, and the sacrifice of your patriarch Abraham, and that which your high priest Melchizedek offered to you.'

[APPENDIX: CULT AND RELICS.] Jesus Christ himself, according to Saint Paul, took it upon himself to place Abel at the head of the Just, the Prophets, and the Saints, whose innocent blood must fall upon the wicked who shed it, and upon their children who imitate their crimes. It is therefore surprising that Abel, so authentically canonized in the Old and New Testaments, has not received a cult in the Greek Church, where one has been publicly awarded to the Patriarchs and Prophets, and that his name does not appear in any of the Latin martyrologies before the 10th century, nor even in the modern Roman one. However, Saint Abel has long been invo ked in the saint Abel Biblical figure whose sacrifice is compared to that of Melchizedek. litanies drawn up for the commendation of the soul of the dying. Some other martyrologies have marked his memory on March 25, as having been the first figure of the dying Jesus Christ, whose death the ancients had fixed on this day. The Bollandis ts have adopted Les Bollandistes A society of Jesuit scholars who publish the Acta Sanctorum. this date. He is placed on January 2 in a Julian calendar. It is Peter de Natalibus who marked him on July 30.

In the vicinity of Damascus, two leagues from a bridge located on the Sycus, one may discover the Mountain of Abel. If one is to believe tradition, it was in this place that Cain and Abel offered their sacrifices to God, and that, a little further on, Cain sacrificed his brother to his jealousy Sainte Hélène Mother of Emperor Constantine, who came to pray at the saint's tomb. .

Saint Helena had a church built in the place where his tomb was found. Only three columns remain of it; but time has respected them and left them whole. The tomb of Cain is three leagues from Damascus, on the road to Sidon.

To compose this biography, we have used: the Life of the Saints of the Old Testament, by Buet; the History of the Church, by Abbé Darnas; the Commentaries on the Holy Scripture, by Dom Calmet; the Bible without the Bible by Abbé Gainet; the Holy Places, by Mgr Mislin; the Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, by Abbé Martigny; and an anonymous book entitled: Marvels of the History of the People of God, Paris, Régis Buffet, 1865.