Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9, 1 March 1906, Page 31

Friends at Court

. . ♦ QLEANINQS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

March 4; Sunday.— First Sunday in Lenf. „ 5, Monday.— St. Casimir, King and Confessor. „ 6, Tuesday.— St. Fridolin, Abbot. „, 7. Wednesday.— Em-b6r Day. St. Thomas of Aquin, Confessor and Doctor. „ -8, Thursday.— St. Cataldus, • Bishop and Confessor. „ 9, Friday.— Ember Bay. The Lance and Nails. „ 10, Saturday.— Ember Day. The Forty Martyrs.

St. Casimir, King, and Confessor

Poland honors as its patron St. Caslmir, second son. of the King of that country. He learned from pious preceptors to practise austerities, which contrasted remarkably with the luxury and splendor of his father's court. lie died in 1482, at the age of twenty-four, and is proposed to the young as the model of every virtue.

St. Fridolin, Abbot

St. Fridolin, the first Apostle of the Alemanni, was a native of Ireland or Scotland. Fie labored as a " missionary in Gaul, where he restored the congregation of St. Hilary at Poitiers, which had been corrupted by Arianism, and in Germany, where he founded a monastery at Seckingen, an island in the Rhine, near Basel. St. Fridolin Jived in the sixth century.

St. Thomas of Aquin, Confessor and Doctor.

St. Thomas of Aquin, the angel of "the school, was born a.t Aquino, a town near Naples, in 1225. His early education was entrusted to the care of the Benedictines of Monte Cassino. After completing his education at the University of Naples he entered the Dominican Order, and became the scholar of Albortus Magnus. He taught with universal admiration at Cologne, Paris, Bologna, Naples, and other places. He was equally famous as a preacher. He persistently refused any ecclesiastical dignity. Called by Gregory X. to assist at the Ecumenical Council of Lyons in 127,4, he fell sick on the journey and died in the Cistercian Monastery of Fossanova before he had completed his 50th year. He was solemnly canonised by John XXII. in 1323, and ranks among the great Doctors of the Church.

St. Cataldus, Bishop and Confessor\

St. Cataldus, the second apostle and patron saint of Taranto, was born in Ireland about the year 615, and whilst a youth was sent to study at the great monastic school of Lismore. Whilst returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, in which he was accompanied by some of his disciples, the vessel was wrecked in 'the Gulf of Taranto, not far from the city of that name. WJien the Irish Bishop saw this beautiful city given over to pleasure and vice his spirit was moved within himi, and in burning language he implored the inhabitants to return to the service of God, Whom they had forgotten. It happened at this time that there was no bishop in the city, so the Tarenlinos besought Cataldus to remain with them, to which rpqiiest. he reluctantly acceded. The saint succeeded in bringing back the inhabitants to the service- of God, and Taranto became a Christian city in reality, as! well as im* name. St. Cataldus died towards the close of the seventh century, and his remains were buried in a marble tomb, which up to this day is preserved in the sacristy of the Cathedral of Taranto.

The Lance and Nails

This feast serves to remind us of. two incidents in the Passion of Our Lord — how the soldiers nailed Him to the Cross, and after His death pierced His sacred side with a Jlance. The latter event is thus narrated by St. John : ' The soldiers therefore came ; and they broke the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with Him*. But after they were come to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers, with a spear, opened His side, and immediately there came out blood and water;. . . For these things were done, that the Scripture might be fulfilled r " You shall not break a bone of Him." And another Scripture saith : " They shall look on Him Whom they pierced." '