Friends at Court.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 6, 9 February 1899, Page 28

Friends at Court.

BIOGRAPHICAL GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR. (Written for the N.Z. Tablet.) February 12, Sunday. — Quinquagesima Sunday. „ 13, Monday.— St. Gregory 11., Pope and Confessor. „ 1 1. Tuesday.— St. Agatho, Pope and Confessor. „ 13, Wednesday. — Ash Wednesday. „ 10, Thursday.— St. Gregory X., Pope and Confessor. „ 1 7, Friday.— St. Fintan, Abbot. „ 18, Saturday. — St. Raymund Pennafort. ST. RAYMUND, OF TENNAFORT. The house of Pegnafort, or, as it is pronounced, Pennafcrt, was descended from the counts of Barcelona, and nearly allied to the kingsof Arragon. lUymund was born in 1175, at Pennafort, a castle in Catalonia, whicn in the fifteenth century was changed into a convent of the order of St. Dominick. Such was his rapid progress in his studies, that at the age of twenty he taught philosophy at Barcelona. This he did gratis, and with so great reputation, that he began to be consulted by the ablest masters. He was about thirty years of age when he went to Bologna in Italy, to perfect himself in the study of the canon and civil law, commenced doctor in that faculty, and taught with the same disinterestedness and charity as he had done in his own country. In 1219 Berengarius, Bishop of Barcelona, who had been at Rome, took Raymund home with him, to the great regret of the university and senate of Bologna, and, not content with giving him a canonry in his church, made him his archdeacon, grand-vicar, and official. He was a perfect model to the clergy, by his innocence, zeal, devotion and boundless liberalities to the poor, whom he called his creditors. In 1222 he took the religious habit of St. Dominick at Barcelona, eight months after the death of the holy founder, and in the forty-seventh year of his age. No person was ever seen among the young novices more humble, more obedient, or more fervent. It was upon the most perfect selfdenial that he laid the foundation of that high sanctity which he made the object of his most earnest desires. The grace of prayer perfected the work which mortification had begun. In a spirit of compunction he begged of his superiors that they would enjoin him some severe penance, to expiate the vain satisfaction and complacency which he said he had sometimes taken in teaching. They indeed imposed on him a penance, but not such a one as he expected. It was to write a collection of cases of conscience for the instruction and convenience of confessors and moralists. This produced his Summa, the first work of that kind. Raymund joined to the exercises of his solitude the functions of an apostolical life, by labouring without intermission in preaching, instructing, hearing confessions with wonderful fruit, and converting heretic?, Jews, and Moors. Among his penitents were James, king of Arragon, and St. Peter Xolasco, with whom he concerted the foundation of the Order of Our Lady of Ransom for the Redemption ol Captives. He b gan this great work by preaching a crusade ag anst the Moorp, and rousing to penai.ee the Chri^tains enslaved in both body and soul by the infidel. For the recovery of his health he returned to his native country, wasrectived with the greatest joy, and continued his former exercises of contemplation, preaching, and administering the sacrament of penance. In 1215U Gregory IX. summoned him to Rome, and made him his confessor and grand penitentiary, and directed him to compile the Decretals, a collection of the scattered decisions of the Popes and Councils. It is looked upon as the best finished part of the body of the canon law, on which account the canonists have usually chosen it for the texts of their comments. In 123."> the Pope named St. Raymund to the archbishopric of Tarragon, the capital of Arragon. The tears and entreaties of the humble reJigious, and his subsequent illness, brought on through anxiety and fear, induced the Pope to excuse him. He refused other dignities with the like constancy. He was chosen in 1238 third General of his Order, which post he again succeeded in resigning on the score of his advanced age. His first act when set free was to resume his labours among the infidels, and in 12o(>, Raymund, then eighty-one, was able to report that ten thousand Saracens had received baptism. The holy man prepared himself for his passage to eternity by ernploj ing days and nights in penance and prayer. During his laßt illness Alphonsus. King of Castile, with his queen, sons, and brother, and James, King of Arragon, with his court, visited him, and received his last benediction. He armed himself with the lat-t Sacraments, and in languishing sighs of divine love gave up his soul to God on the 6th of January, in the year 127.3, and the hundredth year of his age. The two kings, with all the princeß and princesses of their royal families, honoured his funeral with their presence, but his tomb was rendered far more illustrious by miracles. Several are recorded in the bull of his canonisation, published by Clement VIII. in 1601. Bollandus has filled fifteen pages in folio with an account of them. Hia feast is this year transferred from the 2."5 rd of January.