Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 26, 28 June 1906, Page 31

Friends at Court

QLEANINQS F^Tr NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

July 1, Sunday.— Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Feast of the Most Precious- Blood. „ 2, Monday.— Visitation of tfie .. Blessed Virefn Mary, * „ 3, Tuesday.— St. Paul 1., Pope and Confessor. „ 4, Wednesday.— St. Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr. „ 5, Thursday.— St. Antony Zaccaria, Confessor. „ Friday.— Octave of SS. Peter and Raul. ' „ 7, Saturday.— St. Benedict XL, Pope and Confjssor. Feast of the Most Precious Blood. This feast commemorates the intense love which led the Son cf God to shed His Blood for the salvation of men. The Visitation of the Bjessed Virgin Mary. This festival was instituted m commemoration of tiho Blessed Virgin's \isit to her cousin, St. Elizabeth. It was established by St. Hcnaventure, in 1263 for the Older of St. Francis, and was extended to the Universal Church by Lrb'.n VI. in 1379. ' St. Paul 1., Pope and Confessor. St. Paul 1. was Pope from 757 to 7C7. He was a Roman by birth, and successor to Stephen 11. He had to defend the Uhristians of the EasL against the persecutions of Emperor Constantine Copronymus. St. Irenaeus, BichoD and Martyr. St. Irenaeus was torn 'between 130-140 in Smyrna in Asia Minor, and had the happiness, from his earliest youth, of being instructed by St. Polycarp and other aiostolic men. His d-ep attachment to the Christian doctrine did not prevent him from studying the Greek poets and philosophers, especially Homer and Plato With a view to missionary work he journeyed to Gaul where he was ordained, priest by Phontinus* Bishop of Lyons, who suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Marcus Aurclius (178). Irenaeus was nominated to succeed him as bishoi) by Pope Eleutherius, 'to whom ho had been senfon a n ecclesiastical mission. In this office he showed untiring zeal and encrgv lor the erood of the Churches in Gaul. Moreover, by means of his writings in defence of fhe unity and purity of the faith which was endangered by the Gnostic*, he made his influence lcit far beyond, the limits of Gaul. Finally he effected a happy compromise between the East and the West in the dispute concerning Easter, which had gone so -far as to cause an open rupture between the two sections of the Church. In the great persecution under Septimus Severus the shepherd suffered martyrdom with many of his flock (June 28, 202). St. Anlony Zaccaria, Conftssor. St. Antony was bo,™ in 1500, a t Cremona, in the north of Italy. After having labored for some time in his native city as a secular priest, he founded, in conjunction with two Milanese nobles, a congregation of monks, called Barnabites, t from the Church of St Barnabas, where they came together, like the early Christians, to live a life in common and to devote themselves to the office of instructing the young. St. Benedict XL, Pope and Confessor. St. Benedict XI. was an Italian by birth and occupied the Papal throne for about a year. He 'annulled the Bulls of Boniface VIII. against Philip the Fair of