Friends at Court.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 5, 2 February 1899, Page 10

Friends at Court.

BIOGRAPHICAL GLEANINGS FOB- NlltT WEEK'S CALENDAR. (Written for the N.Z. Tablet.) February 5, Sunday. — Sexageeitna Sunday. „ 6, Monday. — St. Hyaeintha MariscoMi, „ 7. Tuesday — Commemoration of the, Passion of Our Lord. „ 8, Wednesday. — St. John Matha. „ ■ 9, Thursday.— St. Zozimus. „ 10, Friday,— St Scholastics. . „ 11, Saturday.— St. Antheri, P.M. ST. ROMUALb, ABBOT. ■ , In 976 Sergins, a nobleman of Ravenna, quarrelled with a relation about an estate, and slew him in a dufcl. His eon, ttOnroald, horrified at his father* crime, entered the Benedictine monastery at Classe to do a forty days' pittance fk*r, him. Tiiis, I>en»n€e ended in hia vocation to the religious life. After three years af'Cjawe, Romuald went to live as a hermit near Venice, where he was joined by Peter Urseolua, Duke of Venice, and together they led a mosV austere life in the midst of assaults from the evil spirits. St. Romuald founded many monasteries* the chief - of which -was' that at Cainaldoli, a wild desert place, whwe he built a church, which he surrounded with a number of separate cells for the solitaries who loved under his rule. His disciples were hence called Gmm&Molese. He is said to have seen here a vision of a mystio ladder, and his white-clothed monks ascending by it to heaven. Among his first disciples were SS. Adalbert and Boniface, apostles of Russia, and 88. John and Benedict of Poland, martyrs for the Faith. He was an intimate friend of the Emperor St. Henry, and was rererenoed and consulted by many great men of his time. He onoe passed seven years in solitude and complete silenoe. He died, as he had foretold twenty years before, alone, in his monastery of Val Castro, on June 19, 1027. ST. HYACINTHA MAEISCOTTI. Hyacintha was born of noble parents A.D. 1585, and educated in the Franciscan convent at Viterbo. Though nofc without piety, she showed herself a vain child, and despised her elder sister, a holy nun in the same community. Her one desire was to marry, and she was stung to the quick when her younger sister was preferred to herself as the bride of a powerful nobleman. In deference to her parents' wish, and without any true vocation, but fearing lest her refusal should be attributed to jealousy of her sister's marriage, Hyaciutha now took the veil. Her first act in the Third Order of Penance was to build herself separate apartments, which she furnished luxuriously, and here she lived for ten yews, careless alike of the public scandal, of her Superior's reproaches, and of her sister's te.tr.-. At length a change came. Being prostrated by fever, she !>erit for a confessor. The sight of her oodtly furniture kindled tlie holy m in'? wrath, and he refused to absolve her, saying 'that hell, not heivei, wan for her.' The words struck home. Clad in a poor haoit she descended to the refectory, and on her knees begged pardon for her life. She rose up a new creature, and, after twenty years of heroic penance, died A.D. 1640, in poverty, mortification, and obedience, the model of a perfect nun. ST. JOHN CF MATHA. The life of St. John of Matha was one long course of selfsacrifice for the glory of God and the good of his neighbour. As a child his chief delight was serving the poor, and he often told them he had come into the world for no other end but to wash their feet. He studied at fans with such distinction that his professors advised him to become a priest, in order that his talents might render greater service to others ; and, for this end, John gladly sacrificed his high rank and other world. y advantages. At his first Mas* an angel appeared, clad in white, with a red and blue cross on his breabt aud h's hands reposing on the heads of a Christian and a Moori-h captive. To ascertain what this signified, John repaired to St. Felix ot Valois a holy hermit living near ftieaux, under whose direction he led a life of extnjme penance. Tne angel again appeared, and they then set out for Konie, to learn the will of God from the lips of the Sovereign Pontiff, who told them to devote thunselves to the redvniption of captives. For this purpose they founded the Order of the Holy Trinity. The Religious fasted every day, and gathering alms throughout Europe took them, to Barbary to redeem the Christian slaves. Tney devoted themselves also to the sick and prisoners in all countries. Worn out by his heroic labours John died in 1213 at the age of fifty-three. ST. SCHOLASTICA, ABBESS. Of this saint but little is known on earth, save that she was the sister of the great patriarch St. Benedict, and that, under his direction, she founded and governed a numerous community near Monte Cassino. St. Gregory sums up her life by saying that she devoted herself to God from her childhood, and that her pure soul went to God in the likeness of a dove, as if to show that her life had been enriched with the fullest gifts of the Holy Spirit. She was accustomed jbo visit her brother every year, for ' she could not be sated or weaiied with the words of grace which flowed from his lip*.' When she died, St. Benedict, her spiritual daughters, and the monPs sent by St. Benedict, mingled their tuqrs and prayers. 'Alas ! alas I dearebt mother, lo whom dost thou leave us now 1 Pray for us to Jesus, to whom thou art goue.' They then devoutly celebrated Holy Mas-*,M as-*, ' commending her soul to God ' ; and her body was borne to Monte Cassino, and laid by her brother in the tomb he had prepared for himself.