GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 36, 6 September 1900, Page 7

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR.

(Written for the N.Z. TABLET.) September 9, Sunday. —Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. „ 10, Monday. —St. Hilary, Pope and Confessor. „ 11, Tuesday. —St. Nicholas of Tolentino, Confessor. r - „ 12, Wednesday.—Venerable Edward Barlow, 0.5.8., Priest and Martyr. „ 13, Thursday. —St. Berguis 1., Pope and Confessor. „ 14, Friday.—The Exaltation of the Holy Cross. „ 15, Saturday. —St. Cornelius and companions, Martyrs.

VENERABLE EDWARD BARLOW, 0.6. B , FBIEST AND MARTYB. The Venerable Edward Barlow belonged to an ancient Catholic family and was born in the neighborhood of Manchester. His father, who was a great sufferer for the Faith, gave him a good religious education, and placed him at the age of 12 as page in the family of a gentleman of position who was related to him. As he increased in years, he became more and more convinced of the vanity of the world, and was inspired by God with the desire of embracing the ecclesiastical state, so as to be able to devote himself to the conversion of his fellow-countrymen. With this view he crossed the sea and entered the Seminary of Douay, whence he was transferred to Valladolid ; but finally he took the religious habit in the English Benedictine Monastery at Douay where his brother was already professed. After he had made his vows and been ordained priest, his superiors, who had a high opinion of his virtue and learning, sent him upon the English mission. The scene of his apostolace was his native country of Lancaster, where he labored for a long period of years with signal success. The zeal of Father Barlow made him so well known in the neighborhood, that he lived in perpetual danger, and was advised by his friends to retire for a time to the house of a kinsman in Cheshire ; but he could never be persuaded to do so, having an earnest desire to shed his blood in Lancaster. There he had had the happiness of administering the Sacraments to the Venerable Edmund Arrowßmith when a prisoner in the Castle, and it is related that on the night after his execution that holy martyr appeared to him, and assured him that he also would have the glory and happiness of shedding his blood for hia Divine Maßter. A few months after his last apprehension, (for he was several times a prisoner for the Faith), hearing that some dear frienda of his were on the point of committing a grievous scandal, he was so greatly afflicted that it brought on a stroke of paralysis which deprived him of the use of one side. While he was thus lying at death's door, they sought in vain for a priest to oome and anoint him ; but he was comforted by the remembrance of Father Arrowsmith's promise, and supported by the hope the Divine Providence would preserve him for a martyr's death. Nor was he doomed to disappointment, for on the following Easter Sunday, when he was just beginning to recover from his illness, he was apprehended while preaching to his people after Mass by a neighboring minister who came accompanied by his congregation to seize him in the midst of his flock. After four months' imprisonment Father Barlow was arraigned at the summer assizes on the usual charge of high treason. Having freely acknowledged that he was a priest and had exercised his sacred functions in England for more than 20 years, he was at once found guilty, and on the following day was condemned to death. Two days later — namely, on Friday, September 10, A.D. 1641, Father Barlow was brought out of prison and laid upon the hurdle on whioh he was drawn to the place of execution. He suffered with great constancy according to his sentence, being then in the fifty-fifth year of his age, and having served the English mission for four-and- twenty years. THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CBOBS. The feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is of very ancient origin. Ics first institution was in memory of the glorious apparition of the Holy Cross in the heavens to Constantino and his army when on the eve of battle, and in thanksgiving for the decisive victory gained over the forces of Maxentius by the power of that sacred sign. The finding of the True Cross by St. Helen, which happened a few years later, was at first oom mem orated on the same day, but afterwards a separate celebration was appointed for May 3. But what added fresh glory and solemnity to the feast of to-day was the recovery of the precious relics of the Cross in the seventh century from the hands of the Persians who, after taking and plundering Jerusalem, had carried them away along with the Patriarch and his clergy into their country beyond the Euphrates. The Emperor Heraclius, hawng in several engagements defeated the armies of the Persians, inflicted upon them in A.D. 627 a decisive overthrow near the ruins of ancient Niniveh. Their King Chosreoa being soon afterwards slain by his eon, the latter sued for peace, which was granted on condition of his releasing the Roman prisoners and restoring the captured spoils, especially the relics of the Holy Crons which for 14 years had remained in the hands of the infidels. Being anxious to restore the sacred relics with due solemnity to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and to return thanks to God in that venerable sanctuary for the success of his arms, the pious Emperor during the following spring undertook a journey to Jerusalem. Upon their arrival at the ohurch the Patriarch, finding the seals of the sacred treasure still unbroken, opened the silver case in which the relics were contained and exposed the precious wood of the Gross to the veneration of the faithful. This solemn ceremony was performed with great devotion, and was accompanied with the miraculous oure of many tick and infirm.