Friends at Court.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 24, 20 October 1898, Page 5

Friends at Court.

™ BIOGRAPHICAL CLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR. (Written for the N.Z. Tablet.) Octobee 23, Sunday.— 21st after Pentecost. Feast of the Most Holy Redeemer. „ 21, Monday.— St. Raphael, Archangel. „ 25, Tuesday.— St. Boniface, Pope and Confessor. „ 2fi, Wednesday. — St. Evaristus, Pope and Martyr. „ 27, Thursday.— Feast of the Purity of the B. V. M. „ 28, Friday.— SS. Simon and Jude, Apostles. „ 29, Saturday.— St. Leo, Pope, Confessor, and Doctor. ST. LEO THE GREAT. This Doctor of the Church and illustrious Pontiff lived in the fifth century. His character bears a strong resemblance to that of his successor in the 19th century — similar genius, penetration, zeal, sanctity, learning and prudence, combined with great governing power, and the versatility of the ' all-round ' man. Leo L, surnamed the Great, was a native of Rome, and a scion of the Tuscan nobility. After a very successful course of studies he was ordained priest, and held a leading position under Pope Celestine, who made him archdeacon of Rome. Some jealousies and differences set at variance iEtius and Albinus, two generals in the army of the Emperor Valentinian 111. To prevent disastrous results the eloquent and tactful Archdeacon Leo was sent to Gaul by the Emperor to make peace. During his absence, the reigning Pope, Sixtus, died. Leo was called to the chair of Peter by the vox populi. With sincere humility and detachment he submitted to the onerous dignity, for he considered the path of honour to be full of pitfalls. His prayer was : ' 0 You, who have laid upon me this heavy burden, bear it with me.' Many sermons of this Pope are extant. Among other interesting points, they treat of the ends the Church had in view when instituting Ember-Days in the four seasons of the year. They are, first, for the fruits of the earth, and other blessings we continually receive from His bounty. A tribute of thanksgiving ; secondlv,the exercise of self-control in mortification, with a view to' self-conquest. Pope Leo 1. dwells further on the solution of a social problem in a very practical way. He shows that the rich are merely the stewards of the wealth they possess : they are 1 bound to assist their poorer brethren by every means in their power. God does not give wealth, he says, to be hoarded up or spent in superfluities. He traces the custom of making ' collects,' or gatherings for the poor to the time of the apostli s. The Council of Chalcedon met during thia pontificate, Leo presiding through his legates. The fathers of the Council, in a synodal letter, besought him to confirm their decrees, faying he had presided over thfiu •as the head over the members.' The Pope limited his confirmation to the decrees relating to matters of faith, and vigorously opposed as an innovation the twenty-eighth canon, framed in the absence of the Pope's legates, by which the Archbishop of Constantinople w as declared patriarch, and first among the patriarchs of the East. It may not hi out of place to give h<-re Alban Butler's explanation concerning the hierarchy. In the order of the ecclesiastical hierarchy we have patriarchs, primate-, archbishops and bishops. Archbishops, or metropolitans, were e-fallished by the apostles to direct all public and coin mo a affairs of the several churches of large provinces. St. Titus superintended the churches of Crete ; St. Paul entrusted to Tinuthy the superintendence of all the churches of Asia, Minor. The jurisdiction of a primate may be extended over several metropolitans ; often, primacies are merely titular. The jurisdiction of patriaichs also varies, but the order in the hierarchy is superior in di^uity. Tne Pope, who is over all the Church, ia styled Patriarch of the West. During the reign of Leu the Great, Attila. chief of the barbarian Huns, marched agam&t Rome. He was already enriched with the plunder of nations, and termed himbelf ' The Scourge of God.' Destruction menaced Rome, now quite unable to defend itself. All turned to the Pope to save the city. To the astonishment of Rome and the world, the haughty barbarian became gentle as a lamb in the presence of the old man whose spiritual power he was made to feel. With all honour and favour Attila received the Pope to audience, and at his request concluded a treaty of peace on condition of an annual tribute trom Imperial Rome, now, through military despotism, how fallen ! An invasion of the Vandals, under Genseric, followed soon after. This time the Pope succeeded in again saving the city from destruction, though the Vandals could not be refrained from plunder.. Thus, in the fifth century, Christianity a:d civilization were saved by the genile, peaceful, but povverlul influence of the successor of St. Peter. The magnanimous Pontiff, Lao I, was reverenced and beloved universally. His noble career closed after a pontificate of over twenty-one years.

To do a thing thoroughly well is the easiest plan after all, for if you have to do it over again you will wish you had done it well at first. Take trouble that you may be saved trouble.