Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 47, 19 November 1903, Page 31

Friends at Court

OLEANINQS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR November 22, Sunday .—Twenty-fifth and last Sunday after Pentecose. St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr. „ 23, Moriday.— St. Clement, Pope aad Martyr. „ 24, Tuesday.— St. John of the Cross, Confessor. „ 25, Wednesday.— St. Catherine, Virgin and Martyr. 2»5, Thursday.— St. Sylvester, Abbot. 27, Friday.— St. Virgil, Bishop and Confessor. 28, Saturday.— St. Gregory 111., Pope and Confessor.

St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr. St. Cecilia was a member of a noble Roman family. Betrothed by her parents, against her own wishes, to Valerian, a pagan, she succeeded in converting him and Jii,s barothßlr to the Christian tteligfon. On tbjis oomirtg to the ears of the Prefect of the city, the two brothers were beheaded. The same sentence was passed on St. Cecilia, but owing to the clumsy manner in which the executioner performed his task, the holy virgin lingered for three days in great agony, A.D. 230. St. Clement I. v Pope and Martyr. « St. Clement was Pope from 81 to 100. He was a Jew by birth and the disciple and third successor of St. Peter. He is supposed to be the same St. Clement mentioned by St. Paul (Phil. iv. 8) as one of his fellowlabprersi, ' whose names are writtefc tn tbe Book of Life.' By another account Clement was the immediate successor of St. Peter, St. Linus and St. Cletus being only the Apostolic vicars at Rome in his absence. St. Clement, in 96, wrote the Epistle to the Corinthians. lin the name of the Roman Church,' which for a long time continued to be read in the ancient Church. Ho suffered martyrdom under Trajan in the year 100. St. John of the Cross, Confessor, St. John was a Spaniard. He received his- surname from his special devotion to the passion of Christ. He was associated with St. Theresa in reforming the Carmelite* Order, of which he was a member. At the time of his death, in 1591, St. John was In his fiftieth year. St. Sylvester, Abbot. St. Sylvester was' born near Loreto, in Italy, in 1177,. At the age of 40 he retired into a desert in order that, free from worldly cares he might be able to devote more time to prayer "and contemplation. Having been followed byia number of disciples he founded several monsteries to which he gave the strict rule of St. Benedict. St. Sylvester died in 1267. St. Virgil, Bishop and Confessor. St. Virgil (or Fearghil), a native of Ireland, was consecrated Bishop of Salzburg, in Germany, in 766. During the period of 18 years for Which hie ruled this see he not only advanced the interests of religion in his own diocese, but also labored most successfully for the propagia^ion of the faith in the neighboring provinces of Austria. St. Virgil died in 784. St. Gregory 111., Pope and Oonfessor. St. Gregory 111. was Pope from 731 to 741. During his reign he, like his predecessor, Gregory 11., defended the faith and boldly resisted the efforts of the Emperor Leo the Isaurian to propagate the heresy of the Iconoclasts, or Image-breakers. He eloquently explained and defended the Catholic teaching regarding the respect to be shown to images of Christ and the saints, and condemned the Iconoclasts in a Roman Council held in the year 732. Under his pontificate, and in the same year, occurred the great victory of Charles Martel over the Saracens near Poitiers in France.