The Holy Virgin-Martyr Columba of Cordoba (+853) on why she never listened to slander and idle tales:
"I know the wiles of the demons and I know the insolence of men, who sometimes attack with the scorn of their maledictions someone whom God Omnipotent regards as being approved by most worthy merits. Many things approved and sanctified by Divine Consideration are condemned by human judgment. Frequently men transgress against Divine Meaning with their own opinions when they are ignorant of the merits by virtue of which someone stands in His Presence. They praise him as worthy or they defame him as reprehensible, as if they have knowledge of hidden things; certainly they would judge themselves to be innocent if they were to turn their attention to themselves. If they considered the size and type of burden to which any given person may be subject or what may have been destined for the one accused, by no means would they so culpably argue about things they do not know. Some do these things so that the Divine Censure that was formerly brought against us may be truly confirmed, the One that says: 'Attend, and hearken; no man speaketh what is good, there is none that doth penance for his sin, saying: What have I done?' [Jer. 86] They who, ignoring the beam of their own sin, remain anxious about other peoples' motes, [Matt. 7:3] accept as true and by no means unbelievable that which they have gathered from the most trivial whisper."
[From the "Life" of St. Columba of Cordoba, as recorded by the Holy Martyr Eulgoius of Cordoba (+857), in "Memoriale Sanctorum", Book III, Chapter 10, section 5]
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