Friends at Court.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 8, 23 February 1899, Page 6

Friends at Court.

BIOGRAPHICAL GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR. (Written for the N.Z. Tablet.) February 26, Sunday.— Second Sunday in Lent. „ 27, Monday. — St. Marcellus, Pope and Martyr. 28, Tuesday. — St. Ignatius, Bishop and Martyr. March 1, Wednesday. — St. Hyginius, Pope and Martyr. „ 2, Thursday. — St. Simplicius, Pope and Confessor. „ 3, Friday.— The Holy Winding Sheet of Oar Lord. „ 4, Saturday. — St. Lucius 1., Pope and Martyr.

ST. IGNATIUS. St. Ignatius, surnamed Theophorus, a word implying 1 a divine or heavenly person, -was a zealous convert and an intimate disciple of St. John the Evangelist, as his acts assure us ; also of the apostles SS. Peter and Paul, who united their labours in planting the faith at Antioch. It was by their direction that he succeeded Evodius in the government of that important see, as we are told by St. Ohrysostom, who represents him as a perfect model of virtue in that station, in which he continued upwards of forty years. During the persecution of Domitian, St. Ignatius defended his flock by prayer, fasting, and daily preaching the word of God. In the year 106, the ninth of his reign, Traj&n set out for the east on an expedition asrainst the Parthian s, and made his entry into Antioch on the 7th of January, 107, with the pomp of a triumph. Ignatius as a courageous soldier, being concerned only for hia flock, willingly suffered himself to be taken, and carried before Trajan, who thus accosted him : ' Who art thou, wicked demon, that durst transgress my commands, and persuade others to perish?' The saint answered, 'No one calls Theophorus a wicked demon.' Trajan said : ' Who is Theophorus V Ignatius answered, 'He who carrieth Christ in his breast.' Trajan replied : 'And do not we seem to bear the gods in our breasts, whom we have assisting us against our enemies ?' Ignatius said : ' You err in calling those gods who are no better than devils, for there is only one God Who made heaven and earth, and all things that are in them, and one Jesus Christ, His only Son, into Whose kingdom I earnestly desire to be admitted.' Trajan said : 'Do not you mean Him that was crucified under Pontius Pilate ?' Ignatius answered : ' The very same, who by His death has crucified with sin its author -who overcame the malice of the devils, and has enabled those who bear him in their heart to trample on them.' Trajan said : ' Dost thou carry about Christ with thee ?' Ignatius replied, ' Yes, for it is written, I will dwell and walk in them.' Then Trajan dictated the following sentence : ' It i 3 our will that Ignatius, who saith that he carrieth the crucified Man within himself be bound and conducted to Rome, to be devoured there by wild beasts, for the entertainment of the people.' The holy martyr, hearing this sentence, cried out with joy, ' I thank thee, 0 Lord, for vouchsafing to honour me with this token of perfect love for Thee, and to be bound with chains of iron in imitation of Tby Apostle Paul, for Thy sake.' Having said this, and prayed for the Church, and recommended it with tears to God, he joyfully put on the chains and was hurried away by a ravage troop of soldiers to be conveyed to Rome. He arrived at Rome on the 20th of December, the last day of the public entertainments, and was presented to the prefect of the city, to whom the emperor's letter was delivered at the same time. He was then hurried by the. soldiers to the amphitheatre. The saint, hearing the lions roar, cried out : ' I am the wheat of the Lord : I must b° ground by the teeth of these beasts to be made the pure bread of Christ.' Two fiprce lions being let out upon him, they instantly devoured him, leaving nothing of his body but the larger bones. Thus his prayer was heard. ' After having been present at this sorrowful spectacle,' says our authors, ' which made us sh»'d many tears, we spent the following night in our house watching and praying, begging of God to afford us some comfort by certifying us of his glory.' They relate that their prayer was heard, and that several of them in their slumber saw him in great bliss. They are exact in setting down the day of his death, that they might assemble yearly thereon to honour his martyrdom. The Greeks keep his feast a holyduy on the day of his death, December '20. His martyrdom happened in 107. St\ MARGARET OF COETONA. St. Margaret of Cortona was born at Alviano, in the diocese of Chiusi, in Tuscany, about the middle of the thirteenth century. At the age of sixteen she fell away from God, and for nine or ten years Margaret led a life of shame. She was still in the bonds of sin when one day she saw the body of her partner in guilt, who had been murdered, covered with worms. She then entered into herself, nnd resolved to do penance for her evil life. She returned to her father's* house, and he received the prodigal child. Margaret spent nisrht and day in bewailing her past guilt, and with a rope round her neck begged pardon publicly in the parish church for the scandal die had given. Her stepmother objected that her penance compromised the respectability of the fumily, and persuaded her father to send her away. Margaret thereupon went to Cortona. and put herself under the care of the Friars of St. Francis, who, after a long trial to test the sincerity of her conversion, admitted her to the third Order, called the Order of Penance. She who had once lived in luxury, pampering her body, lived henceforth a life of heroic patience and mortification in a narrow cell, but perfectly obedient in all things to her confessors, growing in holiness, in mastery over self, and in perfect detachment from the world. She died February 22, 12117, and her incorrupt body still testifies to the efficacy of her penance and to the recovered purity of her soul.