Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 31, 3 August 1905, Page 31

Friends at Court

QLEANINQS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

August 6, Sunday.— Eighth Suhday after Pentecost. The Transfiguration of Our Lord. „ 7, Monday.— St. Cajetan, Confessor. „ 8, Tuesday .—St. Cyriacus and Companions, Martyrs. „ 8, Wednesday,— St. Emygdius, Bishop and Martyr. . „ 10, Thursday.— St. Lawrence, Martyr. „ 11, Friday.— St. Sixtus 11., Pope and Martyr. „ 12, Saturday.— St. Clare, Virgin. Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The miraculous Transfiguration of Our Blessed Lord in the presence of the Apostles Peter, James, and John, is narrated by St. Matthew in that portion of his Gospel which is read on the second Sunday in » Lent. St. Cajetan, Confessor. St. Cajetan, the son of wealthy parents in the north of Italy, was reiruarkaMe for his charity to the poor. On the death of his parents he expended a great part of his patrimony in the establishment of hospitals .and pious associations for the relief of the sick and the indigent ; the, remainder he divided between the poor and those of his relations who were in straitened circumstances. In conjunction with Arch'bistiop, Caraffa, afterwards Pope Paul IV., he founded the religious Congregation of Theatines. He died in 1547, worn out by labors and austerities. St. Cyriacus and Companions, Martyrs. St. Cyriacmsi was a Roman deacon who, with 22 others, suffered a glorious martyrdom aurvng the reirn of Diocletian, A.D. 303. St. Emygdius, Bishop and Martyr. St. Emygdius, a native of Rhenish Prussia, was consecrated Bishop of Ascalon by Pope Marcellus. After a saintly life, memorable for the miracles which Go 4 wrought through his instrumentality, he was martyred during the 1 persecution of Diocletian. St. Lawrence, Martyr, St. Lawrence, deacon and martyr, was born near Huesca, Spain. He was the chief among the seven deacons of the Roman Church. In the year 258 Pope Sixtus was led out to die, and St. Lawrence stood by weeping that he could not share his fate. The holy Pope comforted him with the words : « Do not weep my son ; m three days you will follow me. 1 This prophecy came true. The prefect of the city knew the rich offerings which the Christians put into the hands of the clergy and he demanded the treasures of the Roman Church from Lawrence, their gjuaurdian. The saint promised at. the end of three days, to show him riches exceeding all the wealth of the empire, and set about collecting the poor, the infirm, and the religious woo lived by the alms of the faithful. He then bade the prefect see th e treasures of the Church.' Christ Whom Lawrence had served in His poor, gave him strength in the conflict which ensued. Roasted over a slow flre he made sport of his pains. 'I am done enough,' he said eat if you will.' His remains were buried in the Catacombs of Campo Verano. Constantino buiK over his tomb a basilica, which is one of the fire patriarchal cnu rones and one of the seven stations. St. Sixtus 11., Pope and Martyr. St. Sixtus, a Greek by birth, ruled the Church for LawL a ( e!Tn r '2 58 He "" beh " ltod **» "^ «*• S *- St. Clare, Virgin. St. Clare of Assisi, who renounced wealth and rank to embrace the religious state, was remarkable for her love of poverty and her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. She became, under the direction of St. Franois of Assisi, the founder of a very strict religious Order the members of which practised the most rigorous austerities. She died in her 60th year, A.D. 1253