Friends at Court GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 17, 26 April 1906, Page 31

Friends at Court GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

April 2 1 ', Sunday.— Second Sunday after Easter. St. ireter, Martyr. „ 30, Monday.— St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin. May 1, Tuesday.— SS. Philip and James, Apostles. „ 2, Wednesday.— St. Atnanasius, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. „ 3, Thursday.— The Finding of the Holy Cross. „ 4, Friday.— St. Monica, Widow. „ 5, Saturday.— St. Pius V., Pope and Confessor. SS. Philip and James, Apostles. St. Phihp was a| native of Bethsaida. After the descent oi the Holy Ghost he preached in Scythia and Phrygia. He lived to an advanced age and received the crown of martyrdom in Phrygia. St. James the Less was a brother of the Apostle St. Jude. He was called to the Apost.olalte in the second year of Our Lord s public ministry. lie was the first Bishop of Jerusalem, and took a prominent part in the Councils ot the Apostles held in that city In 51. He was stoned to death in ,62. St. Athanasius. St. Athanasius, suinamed the Great, the greatest luminary among ihe Ouentat Ductors, was tne aeienaer oi tiie Uhuich against the Allan heresy, lie was boru at Alexandria, auoui the \ e^r 2at>,, oruained deacon in oi 9, and -was cnoseji by Alexander, his liisnop, to accompany hnn to the Council ot Nice. To his acuteness, learning, and eloquence in that Council was principally owing tne condemnation of Ariamsm. On the aeaiii ot Alexander la b^s Atnanasius became Patriarch ot Alexandria,, Jund ciur.rng 40 >ears he withstood, olten almost al^ne, tne whole brunt of the Arian assault. He stjjpd unmoved agiannst t l our Woman emperors, wiaa banished hve times, was the butt of eveiy wrong and calumny the Arians could <ievise, and lived in constant peril of death, l-iim and unbending in defence ot the Catholic, Jaith, he merited the honorable title oi 'Father ot Onhod^xy.' He closed his stormy life in peace in 373. binding ot the Holy Cross. St. Helena, having gone to Jerusalem, ordered the destmction ot a temple oi V.enub, 'Uuilt over the tomb ol L-'iuist. H'hen, -ju^on exc^vaung to a 'great de-pin,/ the l*oiy sepuithre, jama near it .three cros-ses^also the nails wincn had pieiced Our Saviour's body, and the title which had tetn alfixed to His cross, were found, 'the true cross was recognised Ly the miracles which it wrought, fet. Helena sent a part of the cross to Constantinople and debt xi\e other part at Jerusalem, where it was encased in a silver box and preserved in the Church of the He ly Sepulchre, which had been erected on the spot ot the 'discovery. The Church has consecrated this event by the institution of the least ot the -'Finding of the Hcly Cross,' which is cele/tirated on May 3. Chosroes, Ki<ng of Persia, having taken Jerusalem, carried off the xelic (614), which -was recaptured 14 years later under Sir&es, his son and successor, by the Kmperor lleraclius. Both the Greek and Latin I hurches still celebrate this victory on September 11 by the least of the '-Exaltation of the Cross.' St. Monica, Widow. St . Monica , was a natne ot Africa, and brought about the conversion of her husband, who was a pagan. Her son, the great St. Augustine, having been led in his. youth to emlfrace the errors of the Manichean heretics, owed his subsequent conversion to her prayers. She died in Ostia, Italy, in 387. St. Pius V., Pope and Confessor. On the death of Pius IV. in 1565, Cardinal Ghisleri, a native ol Northern Italy, and a member of the Order of St. Dominic, became Pope under the name of Pius V. His pontificate was signalised by the brilliant victory gained by the Christians over tho Turks at Lepanto. The expedition was organised mainly through the eHorts of St. Pius, and its success is attributed to the prayers which he caused to he ottered up throughout Christendom, no less than to the valor of the Christian soldiers. As Pope, St. Pius lived the same simple and frupjal life which he had adopted when embracing the religious state. He died in 1572, in the »9th year of his age.