GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 26, 29 June 1905, Page 31

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR.

July 2, Sunday.— Third Sunday after Pentecost. The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. „ 3, Monday.— The Most Precious Blood. „ 4, Tuesday.— St. Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr. „ 5, Wednesday.— St. Antony M. Zaccaria, Confessor. „ 6, Thursday.— Octave of the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul. „ 7, Friday.— St. Benedict XL, Pope and Confessor. „ 8, Saturday.— St. Kilian, Bishop and Martyr.

The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This festival was instituted in commemoration of the Blessed Virgin's visit to her cousin, St. Elizabeth. It was established by St. Bonaventure, in 1263., for the Order of St. Francis, and was extended to the Universal Church by Urban VI. in 1379. Feast of the Most Precious Blood. This feast commemorates the intense love which led the Son of God to shed His Blood for the salvation of men. St. Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr. St. Irenaeus was born between 130K140 at Smyrna, in Asia, Minor, and had the happiness, from his earliest youth,, of being instructed by St. Polycarp and other apostolic men. His deep attachment to the Christian doctrine did not prevent him from studying the Greek poets and philosophers, especially Homer and Plato. With a view to missionary work, he journeyed to Gaul, where he was ordained priest by Phontinus, Bishop of Lyons, who suflered martyrdom in the persecution of Marcrs Aurclms (178). Irenaeus was nominated to succeed him as bishop l>y Pope Eleutherius, to whom he had been sent on an ecclesiastical mission. In this ollice he s!iov\ed untiring yeal and energy for the good of the Churches in Gaul. Moreover, by means of his writings in defence of the unity and purity'of the faith, which was endangered by the Gnostics, he made his influence felt far beyond the limits of Gaul. Finally he elV'tod a hanpy compromise between the East and the West in the dispute concerning Easter, which had gone so fir as to cause- an open rupture between the "two sections (f the Church In the great persecution under Se ti'iiis S'e erus the she. herd suffered martyrdom with m.ny of his flock (June 28, 202). St Antony Zaccaria, Confessor. St. Antony was born in 1500, at Cremona, in the nortn of Italy. Af'er ha\ ing labored for some time in I;is n.iti c city as a secular priest, he founded, in c&n-jt:i,cfi'-n with two Milanese nobles, a congregation of monks, ca'led UarnaHtcs, from the Cnurch of St. Barnabas, where they came together, like the early Christwins to li c a life in common and to devote themselves to the o'fice of instructing the young. St Benedict XI., Pope and Confessor. St. Benedict XI. was an Italian by birth, and oocupicdthc Pap-a.l throne for about a year. He annulled the Bulls of Boniface VIII. against Philip the Fair of France. St. Kilian, Bishop and Martyr. St Kilian was an liish bishop who was martyred at Wur/burg, He was the'first to preach the Gospel in the north of Bay aria, the country now known as Franconia. With two companions, Coioman (a priest) and Totnan (a deacon), Kilian left Ireland, his native countr", in 686, and, with the sanction of Pope Conon, extall;s'!el a miss-ion at Wurzburg. Duke Gozbert received him kindly and was converted, and his example was fallowed by a ereat number of his subjects. But St. Kilian fell a victim to the hatred of Geilana, whosa marriage with Go/bert, brother of her former husband, 1 c declared to be contrary to the law of God. He and Ms comparions. in the absence of the Duke, were crie'ly mrrdered, in 689.