Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 27, 5 July 1906, Page 31

Friends at Court

". GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR July 8, Sunday.— Fifth Sunday ' after PentecosCVvlSt^ n »«• -.> Kilian, Bishop and.M a rtyr. : „;->---; " in f Monday .—Prodigies of the Blessed Virgin Wkry.f- „ 10, Tuesday : -Tbe Seven Brother, Martyrs!'- -'„ " \i' Wednesday.— St. Pius I. Pope and Martyr. /'• „ 12, Thursday.— St. John Gualbert, Abbot. • " " " }?' o day J~ St - A aacletus, Pope and Martyr. -.' "' „44 .baturday.— St. Bonaventure, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. . ; St. Kilian, Bishop and Martyr. * §*" a lian was a n Iri h bishop who was martyred at Wurzburg. He was the -first to preach the Gospel in. the north of Bavaria, the country now known as Franconia. With two companions, Coloman (a priest) and Totnan (a deacon), Kilian left Ireland his native country, in 686, and with the, sanction • of Pope Conon, established a mission at Wurzburg. Duke Gozbert received him kindly and was converted,-, and his example was followed by a great number of. his subjects. But St. Kilian fell a victim to the hatred of Cxeilana, whose marriage with Gozbert, brother of her former husband, he declared to be contrary to the law of God. He and his companions, in the absence of the duke, were cruelly murdered, in 688. Prodigies of the Blessed Virgin Mary. God, who rewards His saints with perfect happiness in heaven, often honors them before men by miraculously assisting those who invoke their- intercession The Blessed Virgin foein?, as Mother of God tho greatest of aU the saints, her devout clients have most frequently been the recipients of such jniraculmis favors. From the changing of the water into .wine at the marriage feast of Cana to the miraculous cures that are yearly effected at Lourdes and other celebrated shrines, God has in e\ery age exercised His power on behalf of those who appeal to Him through His Blessed Mother. Jn the feast of to-day, instituted on the occasion of some miraculous events which took place in Rome at the clow of the eighteenth century, we express our gratitude for this display of God s power and mercy, and we honor her whom He has condescended to thus honor. The Seven Brothers, Martyrs. . The seven saints whose glorious -death is commemorated to-day were the sons of St. Fe licitas, and suffered at Rome about the middle of the second century. They were exhorted to constancy in suffering ,"by their heroic mother, who herself soon aft>r received the crown of martyrdom. ' - . St. Pius 1., Pope and Martyr. c.4. A J?. uileia ' , in Northern Italy, was the birthplace of St. Pius who occupied the Chair of St. Peter from {•"to 157. According to some writers, he was beheaded ; according to others his death was the result of hardships endured for the Faith. St. John Gualbert, Abbot. " | St. John was born in Florence of noble parents in 999. Like many of the class to which he belonged he grew up imbued with a pride which would neither brook opposition nor allow any injury to pass "unavenged. Hajving, however, on one occasion in obedience to the promptings of Divine Grace, forgiven a dej fenceless enemy, this exorcise oi Christian- --charity proved the beginning of his complete conversion He entered a Benedictine monastery, .and afterwards .founded the . famous abbey and Order of^ , VJalLom'bToisa He died in 1073. —---r, , " c St. -BonaventuTe; Bi&hop, Confessor /"and Doctor • St. Bonaventure, surnamed € Doctor Seraphiou's,' was a Franciscan, and distinguished for \his' piety and learning. He was bom in 1221 at Banarea, in Tuscanv and was educated at the University of Paris; -wb.ere,Vas early a s 1253,-^ he obtained a professorship of theology and^ at- the age of- 35 years he tjecame the general of his Order, the internal disorders and contentions 6t which he brought under due_ regulations.. Pope~Clement IV wished to make him Archbishop of York, but desisted at •> the request of Bonaventure ; on the , other han<| Gregory ' X., in 1273, compelled him to accept the bishonrlCvof Albano.. In the year following Bonaventure attended the Ecumenical Council of Lyons,' and y died- while" -it-was Mn session, July 15, ]274. - . _. . • •