Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 39, 24 September 1903, Page 31

Friends at Court

OLEANINQS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR September 27, Sunday.— Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost. Commemoration of all the canonised Roman Pontifls. „ 28, Monday.— St. Wenceslaus, King and Martyr. „ 29, Tuesday.— Dedication of the Basilica of St. Michael, Archangel. „ r . 30, Wednesday.— St. Jerome, Confessor and Doctor. October 1, Thursday .-St. Gregory, Bishop and Mar2, Friday.— The Holy Guardian Angels. 3, Saturday.— St. Adrian 111., Pope and Confessor. Commemoration of All the Canonised Roman Pontiffs. In this feast we commemorate the virtues of those saintly men who, called by God to govern His Church upon earth, have lived lives in keeping with their exalted office. St Wenceslaus, King and Martyr. St. Wenceslaus, Duke of Bohemia, was remarkable for his devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. His zeal for the propagation of the true Faith led to his death at the hands of his brother, A.D. 982. Dedication of the Basilica of St. Michael, Archangel. The dedication of the famous Church of St. Michael, on Monte Gargano, in Italy, gave occasion to the present feast ; but the Church also proposes to our devotion on this day the veneration of all the angels. Today, therefore, we are called upon to give thanks to God for the glory and happiness which the angels enjoy, and to join with them in adoring, blessing, and praising Him. St. Jerome, Confessor and Doctor. St. Jerome was born at Stridon, in Dalmatia, in 340 His youth was passed in Rome, whither he was sent to complete his studies under Aelius Donatus, a celebrated grammarian. His thirst for knowledge caused him to visit foreign cities, among others Treves, where he transcribed for his friend Rufmus a commentary on the Psalms and a treatise on Synods by St Hilary. In company with several friends, Jerome, in 372, set out for the East, travelling through Asia Minor to Antioch. Here he attended the Biblical lectures of Apolhnaris, the future hcresiarch. He afterwards withdrew into the Syrian desert of Chalcis, where, for four years, he led a solitary life, learning at the same time from a converted Jew the rudiments of the Hebrew language. While living in the dcseit he wrote the life of St Paul, the first hermit, and his dialogue against the Lucifenan Schismatics The Meletian schism caused him to return to Antioch, where he was ordained priest in 379. In 381 Jeiome went to Constantinople to study the Holy Scriptincs under St. Gregory Naxian/en, and thence returned to Romp lie was the intimate tucnd of Pope Damasus, who appo nted him his secretary At the Pope's request, Jerome began his revision of the old Latin, or Italic version of the Bible After the death of Damasus he set out again for Palestine, where he founded and superintended several monasteries until his death, which occurred at Bethlehem in 420 He was buried amid the ruins of one of his monasteries, which had been destroyed by the partisans of Pelagius St. Jerome, who is called by the Chinch ' the greatest doctor raised by the Dmne hand to interpret the Sacred Scriptures,' was the auihor of the Latin translation of the Bible, known as the Vulgate Oi all his writings this is the most useful and most widely known. St. Gregory, Bishop and Martyr St Gregory, Apostle of the Armenians, was born about 257 at Valarshabad, in the province of Ararat, Armenia, and educated at Caesarea, Cappadocia. In 302 he baptised King Tiridatcs, and, with the aid of Greek priests, propagated the faith throughout the whole country of Armenia Haung been consecrated bishop by Leontius, Archbishop of Caesarea, in Cappadocia, and constituted Metropolitan of Armenia, he ordained a great number of bishops (it is said about 400) for the converted nation. lie left the Church of Armenia in a flourishing condition when he died, in 332.