Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 13, 29 March 1906, Page 31

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR April 1, Sunday. — Passion Sunday. '„ 2, Monday. — St. Francis of Paula, Confessor. „ 3, Tuesday. — Feria. „ 4, Wednesday. — St. Isidore, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. „ '5, Thursday. — St. Vincent Ferrer, CJon\fessor. „ 6,, Friday. — The Se\en Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary. „ 7, Saturday.— St. Celestinc 1., Pope and Confessor. Passion Sunday. Passion Sunday is so called because from that day the Church occupies herself exclusively with the contemplation of the Passion and Death of tlie Saviour. The pictures of Christ crucified are covered on this day in memory of His having hidden Himself from the Jews until His entrance irto .Jerusalem, no longer showing Himself in public (John xi 51). In the Ma»ss, the Glory be to the Father, etc , is omitted, because in the person of Christ the Holy Trinity was dishonored. St. Francis of Paula. St. Francis of Paula was the founder of the Order of Minim-Hermits about the \car ld.'ifi. In H'Tjß Pope Sixtus IV. gave his sanction to the 'new congregation, and named St. Framis its Its! Superior-general. Notwithstanding its great seventy the Order spread rapidly through Italy, J^ runce, and Spain Within a few years it numbered f>>wr hundred and fifty convents for men, and fourteen for women. St. Francis, who died in 1507, was canonised in 1519. St. Isidore, Buhop, Confessor, and Doctor. St. Isidore, theologian and chronicler, was born at Carthegena in Spain, of \,hich his father Sexeiianus was prefect He was a brother of Fulgentius of Caithagena and of St. Leander of Seville, succeeding the latter as bishop (GOO.) I'c presided at the synods of Seville and Toledo, in fl'J and i> j:. lie was declared a Doctor of the Church in 18'2S Isidore was 'undoubtedly the e;rcate\st' man and most erudite scholar of his time. His most important work, entitled, ' Onginum sive Ethymologiaruni Libii XX ,' is a Kind of encyclopaedia of the aits and sciences then 1-novvn 11 is other works deserving monti m are ' Chronicon,' or history of the world from the 1 Creation to the year (;2C> , a ' Chronicon,' or hi tory of the Y'si^oths, from A.D. 17*2 to 628 ; and a ' Book of Ecclesiastical Writers,' a continuation of a similar work composed bvSt. Jerome and Gennadius, to which be added the names of thirivthree other au'hors. The collection of canons, formerly ascribed to him, is not his work. With SI Isidore closes the line of the Latin Fathers of the Church. The Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On the third Sunday in September, there is also a commemoration of the soriovs of the Mother of dod. To-day the CVnirch proposes to our devout' consideration one special dolor of Mary — her standing at the fr ot of the Cross. St. Celestine I , Pope and Confessor. St. Celestine I. was successor to St. Boniface I , and occupied the Panal throne from 122 to 132. He was noted for his zeal in su pressing Pelapianism, and confirmed the degrees of the Genev.il Council of Ephesus and the sentence of rtenosition pronounced hv that body ngiain^t, Nestoiius. Tbi-, Pn;>o sent St. Palladius and St. Patrick to convert V'<o Scots and liish.