And in that respect he represents the great mass of Christian men and women through the ages.  This thought forces itself upon one’s mind when one turns over the pages of an old parish register.  Among the long columns of names are devout communicants and self-sacrificing mothers and fathers who brought up their children to be loyal Church men and women.  Yet we know nothing of them.  The registers contain no record of their discipleship: that is written only in the Lamb’s book of life.

And the same is true of the history of the Church.  We read only of the prominent figures, worthy and unworthy, and we are apt to forget that behind them all, century after century, were the humble, obscure disciples, faithfully serving their Master in their own little corner in life.

Yet, more than anything else, it was the quiet witness of those unknown people who perpetuated the Christian Faith and changed the pagan heart of Europe and made it Christian.