The Holy Name of Mary

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 36, 8 September 1904, Page 31

The Holy Name of Mary

The name of Mary, according to St. Bernard, means ' Star of the Sea,' an emblem of hope in the midst of danger. St. Peter Ch'rysologus considers the inquiring of Alary to be ' Queen,' and this would accord with her royal dignity, as Mother of Him Who was truly King. St. Rose of Lima, Virgin. St. Rose, who was a religious of the Third Order of St. Dominic, was born at Lima, Peru,, South America. She is the patron saint; of "her native city, and was the first saiat of South America. St. Sergius 1., Pope and Confessor. St. Sergius was Pope from 087 to 701. He refused to sanction the Trullati Synod, wlrich assembled in 692, at the summons of the Emperor Justinian 11. Irritated by this refusal, the haughty emperor sent orders for the apprehension and transportation of the Pope to Constantinople. But the Romans, and even t/he Imperial soldiery, rushed to the- defence of the Pope, and only lor the Pope's intervention, they would have torn Zacharias, the Imperial 'officer, to pieces. Exaltation of the : Holy Cross. St. Helena, having gone to Jerusalem, ordered the destruction of the temple of Venus, built over the tomb ol Christ. Tlhen upon excavating to a great depth,, the holy Sepulchre, and near it the three crosses, a!s o the nails which had pierced our Saviour's body, and the title which had been affixed to His cross, were found. The* trjue Cross was recognised by t»he miracles which it wrought. St Helena sent a part of the Cross to Constantinople and left the other part at Jerusalem, where it was encayud m a silver box and preserved in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which had been erected oo the spot of the discovery. The Church has consecrated this e\ent by the institution of the Feast of the ' Finding of t'hie Hiyly Cross,' which is celebrated en May 3. Ch os roes 11., King of Persia, having taken Jerusalem, carried oft the relic, which was recaptured 14 years later, under Siroes, his son and successor, by the Emperor; Heracli'us. Both the Greek and Latin Churches still celebrate this victory, on September 14, by the feast of the ' Exaltation of tlie Cross.' Saints Cornelius and Cyprian, Bishops antl Martyrs.

These two saints were contemporaries and friends. Cornelius was elected to succeed Pope Fabian in 251. During his Pontiiicate the Church had to contend - not only with the persecution of the Emperor Decius, but also with fhe internal disturbances excited-by the heretic Novatiaji In 262 St. Cornelius was banished, tot-Civita Vetachia. Brought back to Rome in the same year he there gained the crown of martyrdom.

St Oypiian. Bishop of Cartihage, was born in the beginning of the third century, of a wealthy senatorial family, and had been an esteemed and successful rhetorician at Carthage, his native city. He was converted to Christianity about the year 246, by Caecilius, a presbyter at Cartihage, whose name he added henceforth to his own ; soon after he was raised to the priesthood, and, on the death of Bishop Donatus in 248, hie wag chosen to succeed that prelate. During the persecution under Decius in 250, Cyprian concealed himself, maintaining, however, from his place of concealment, a comsbaqut correspondence with his flock. A fter^jhe,. fanatical frenzy had abated, he returned to Carthage, where, between the years 251 and 256, he held several fiotuncilfj; Cylnrian ended his noble episcopate by marWrdoim under Valerian in 258. Very important is his admirable treatise 'On the Unity of the Church,' in which h« gives a clear statement of the Church's organic unity, wMch he proves is founded on the Primacy of Peter.