Friends at Court.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 3, 17 January 1901, Page 7

Friends at Court.

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR.

(Written for the N.Z. Tablet.) January 20, Sunday. — Second Sunday after Epiphany. Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. „ 21, Monday. — Rfc Agnes, Virgin and Martyr. „ 22, Tuesday. — SS. Vincent and Anastasius, Martyrs. „ 23, Wednesday, — Espousal of the Blessed Virgin Mary. „ 24, Thursday. — St. Timothy, Bishop and Martyr. „ 25, Friday. — Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. „ 26, Saturday.— St. Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr. ST. AGNES. St. Agnes was a Roman virgin and martyr, 12 or 13 years of age, beheaded during the reiern of Diocletian. She was slain after having been exposed to the vilest outrage in a house of ill-repute. A magnificent church was erected in her honor at Rome by Constantine the Great. There every year on the feaßt of the saint they blesH two lambs, which religious have carefully raised. The lambs' wool serves to make the pall hums which the Sovereign Pontiff sends, as a sign of their jurisdiction, to all the patriarchs and all the metropolitans. BT. PAUL. St. Paul, Apostle of the Gentiles, was born in the year 2 A.D.,of Jewish parents of the tribe of Benjamin, at Tarsus in Cilicia, a city whioh enjoyed Roman citizenship ; martyred at Rome in the year 67. Named Saul at his birth, he was sent to Jerusalem to become a disciple of the famous Doctor Gamaliel. He was on his way to Damascus, when our Lord appeared to him. The violent enemy of the Christians was converted (37) and baptised. He remained three days in solitude, then went to Jerusalem 'to see Peter.' At Antioch he was ordained, and officially recognised as an Apostle of the Gospel. In company with Barnabas he set out on his first missionary journey (45-48) to Cyprus, where he converted the proconsul, Bergius Paulus ; thence he passed to Asia Minor, spreading the Gospel and strengthening the Faithful in the faith of Christ. By prayer, fasting, and imposition of hands, he ordained biihops and priests to govern the new congregations, and then returned to Antioch. A great controversy had arisen in the Church of this city. The Jewish Christians contended that the Gentiles, who were admitted into the Church ■without circumcision, should be made subject to the law of Moses. The difficulty was settled by the Apostolic Council of Jerusalem (50) in these words : 'It hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay no further burden upon you than these necessary things, that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication ' (Acts xv. 28). In consideration of the Jewish Christians, Peter had up to this time observed the Mosaic law ; Paul reproved him, fearing that the pagan converts might be led astray if the Head of the Church continued to observe the law of circumcision. An to the matter itself, both Apostleß were of one mind. In the year 52-55 St. Paul set out on his second missionary journey. It extended to Asia Minor, Macedonia, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, and Antiooh. On his third missionary journey, whioh lasted from 55-58, Bt. Paul went to Asia Minor, remained a long time at Ephesus, then visited Corinth, Macedonia, Miletus, Ctesarea, and Jerusalem. Immediately upon his arrival at Jerusalem the Jews attempted to put him to death (58), but the guard of the temple freed him. Having spent two years in prison at Ccesarea (59-61), Bt. Paul appealed to Caesar, was sent to Rome, where he was again imprisoned for two years (61-63). Having recovered his freedom (64), he went to the far West (Spain), thence to Asia Minor, Macedonia, Crete, wu again sent to prison and beheaded in Rome, June 29, A d. 67. F. June 29. Feast of St. Paul's Conversion, January 25. We have fourteen canonical letters from St. Paul, which are addressed partly to one or several congregations, partly to certain persons (Timothy, Titus, Philemon). " ST. POLYCARP. St. Polycarp (70-166) was bishop of Smyrna. He was the immediate contemporary and friend of St. Ignatius, but nothing certain is known as to his origin or the place of his birth. Irenaeus, his disciple, tells us that he was instructed by the Apostle St. John, »nd appointed by him Bishop of Smyrna. About the middle of the second century he journeyed to Rome to consult with Pope Anicetus regarding the time of Easter. On this occasion he brought back to the Churoh many who had been led away by the Gnostics, Valentine and Marcion. It is reoorded that on meeting Marcion in the streets of Rome, when the latter asked whether he knew him, he replied that he knew * the first-born of Satan.' He was close on a hundred years old when he died the death of a martyr by the sword — having been miraculously preserved from death by fire — under Marcus Aurelius, about 166, or, according to others, about 155 or 156. Of his letters, which St. Polycarp, according to the testimony of St. Irenaeus, wrote to the neighboring Churches and to particular persona, we possess only that to the Philippians, whose authenticity is vouched for by Irenseaus and Eusebius, and by the fact that it was publicly read in the churches, and that its subject is quite in harmony with the doctrine of the Apostles and the circumstances of the time of the author.