Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 46, 16 November 1905, Page 31

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR , November 19, Sunday.— Twenty-third Sunday after: Pentecost. St. Pontian, Pope and Martyr. 20, Monday.— «t. Felix of Valois, Confessor. „ 21, Tuesday.— Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 22, Wednesday.— St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr. „ 23, Thursday.— St. Clement, Pope and Martyr. „ 24, Friday.— St. John of the Cross^ Confessor. „ 25, Saturday.— St. Catherine, Virgin and Martyr. St. Pontian, Pope and Martyr. St. Pontian was Pope from 230 to 235. He was exiled by Alexander Severus to the island of Tavolato, on the eastern coast of Sardinia, where he was put' to death by order of Maximi.n. ' St. Felix of Valois, Confessor. St. Felix was born in Valois, France, in 1127, and founded, with St. John of Matha, the Order of Trinitarians for the redemption of captives. The Order was approved of by Innocent 111., and counted in the 15th century more than 800 houses spread all over Christendom. The religious wore a white habit with a red and blue cross on the breast. After having established themselves in Paris, in 1228, in the ancient Benedictine Abbey dedicated to St. Mathurin, they took the name of Mathurins. The Order was driven, from Germany by the Reformation, and counted 94 houses in France when it was suppressed in 1789. Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, According to a pious tradition, dating from the earliest times, the Blessed Virgin, when a child, was taken by her parents to the temple of Jerusalem, where she was carefully instructed and trained by piou* matrons in the practice of virtue. The feast we celebrate to-day commemorates the generous enthusiasm with which the Blessed Virgin dedicated her life to the service of her Creator— an offering which she never recalled by the slightest sinful act. 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 his brother to the Christian religion. On this coming to the cars 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 1., Pope and Martyr. St. Clement was Pope from 91 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. 3) as one of his fellowlaborers, ' whose names are written in the 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 9'G, wrote an Epistle to the Corinthians, ' in the name of the Roman Church,' which for a long time continued to be read in the ancient Church. He 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 fievotion 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. Catherine, Virgin and Martyr. St. Catherine, a native of Alexandria, and illustrious for her brilliant talents and profound learning, was, after suffering many cruel torments, beheaded by order of the Emperor Maximin 11., in the beginning of the fourth century.

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