GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 11, 16 March 1905, Page 31

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

March 19, Sunday. -Second Sunday in Lent. St. Joseph, Spou.se of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 20, Monday— St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop, Confessor, nrorl Doctor „ 21, Tuesday.— St. Benedict, Abbot. „ 22, Wednesday.— St. Frigidian, Bishop and Confessor. >, 23, Thursday.— The Lance and Nails. „ 21, Fnday.— The Holy Winding Sheet of Our Lord. „ 25, Saturday.— The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. St. Jo,e;h was chosen by God ,lo watjch over tha infancy of Christ, to be a protector of Mary's chastity, and 1o secure her from calumnies in the birth of iher JhMiic Son. So great a dignity, such famiJiar liitercoursie, with the Deity, required a sanctity far above the common. That St. Joseph possessed this, we know from the inspired word of God. He is styled in thir New Testament ' a just man,' one, namely, endowed with all the virtues. From the fact that no mention is made of him after the finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple, we conclude that he must have died before the beginning of Our Lord's punlic ministry. We cannot doubt that he was comforted and assisted in his last moments by Jesus and Mary. Hence his intercession is sought particularly to obtain the grace of a happy death. St Cyril of Jerusalem. St Cyril, a Father of the Church, was born at, or ncai, Jerusalem, about the year 315. He was ordained piiest in 315 by Bishop Maximus, who also entrusted him with the charge of the Catechumens, and in his stead appointed him preacher to the people. In 350, Cyril succeeded Maximus in the see of Jerusalem, and was ((viscerated by Acacius of Cacsarea This Acacrus, a bitter Arian, soon became a severe enemy ami persecutor of Cyril, and in 358, procured his deposition and exile, from Jerusalem. Cyril was restored by the Council of Sclencia, in 359, but, at the instignation of Acacius, he waa banis-hod again, the next year by Constantius'. On the acmsMon of Julian, Cyril returned to Jerusalem. The Emperor Yalens, in 377, again banished Cyril from his see, and only after eleven years was he allowed to return In 381, he assisted at the Second General Council of Constantinople He died in 386, after a troubled episcopate of thirty-five years, sixteen of which weie spent in exile. St. Benedict, Abbot St Benedict, founder of Monachism ia the West, was born in 180 at Nursia, i n Umbria, of noble parents, and at the a^e of fourteen withdrew into the wilds of Subia/'o, nil the Apennines. Here he lived for three years in a d^cep. and almost inaccessible cavern. His reputation for sianctity and his miracles soon gathered a number of disciples around him, for whom he erected two monasteries. In 520, he retired with a few monks to Monte Cas^ino, where, on the site of an ancient terntile of Apollo, ho founded a monastery, which became the glorious monastic centre of the West. Several otiier monasteries were alsio founded by St. Benedict ; among Uiese, one for women, which he placed under the airect'on of his sister St. Schol a stica. St. Benedict, wh(o is called the patriarch of the Western Monies died in St Frigidian, Bishop and Confessor. St. Frigidian was a native of Ireland, or at least of Irish extraction. Travelling in Italy to improve him-s-lf in I'rwnvledge, he was chosen Bishop of Lucca. He diod in 578, after having, by his piety and zeal for •souls, added new lustre to the episcopal office. The Anirunciatiom of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The institution of this feast dates back to the first centuries of Christianity. St. A than as ius mentions it in one of his sermons. For a long time they commenced the civil year with the feast of the Annunciation. The custom of commencing the year on. the Ist of January was introduced in France in 1564, in Scotland in 1570, in England in 1752.