ROME LETTER

New Zealand Tablet, 15 July 1915, Page 49

ROME LETTER

(From our own correspondent.)- ' ■•'■ ? i • / -'/* - . May 15, THE FEAST OF SS. NEREUS AND ACHILLEUS. Notwithstanding the excitement in connection with the political situation/ the Church did not omit to celebrate in the Catacomb of St. Domitilla, which lies two miles outside the walls of Rome, the Feast of SS. Nereus and Achilleus, martyred under Domitian, who had been converted to Christianity by St. Peter himself. f. Their feast was celebrated with much pomp and solemnity by a society of priests and laymen, who had the long dark passages lighted up oh the occasion, and guards placed at points beyond which, no visitor is" allowed to pass lest he might get lost in the gloomy labyrinths. The niche's, or loculi, in which the bodies reposed before being transferred within the city walls in the eighth century, were covered with fresh flowers; and all the preparations for High Mass were made by this -zealous body. These services were already performed when the faithful arrived from Rome at the Catacomb of St. Domitilla yesterday.' In this catacomb on the Via Ardeatina, Mass was celebrated in the bowels of the earth, upon the tomb in which the bodies of, SS. Nereus and Achilleus lay for over 600 years. After the Gospel, a prelate read the homily pronounced on that very spot by Pope St. Gregory the Great. And after the Holy Sacrifice had been offered up, Rome’s foremost archaeologist, Marucchi, gave a lecture on the glories of the feast, all it recalls, and all that every Catholic breast feels on reading of the martyrs buried in the Roman catacombs. POPE BENEDICT XV. TO. HIS OLD DIOCESE. One of the grandest works of art produced in this century is said to be the magnificent gold monstrance which his Holiness the Pope has donated to the Cathedral of Bologna, as a token of affection for his old diocese. The monstrance is of massive .gold, artistically chased, surmounted by a. cross made of Oriental pearls and amethysts. The base consists of Oriental stone on which scenes of tlie Five Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary are represented. Like Benedict XIV., his successor Benedict XV. holds Bologna in deep affection. THE CAUSE OF THE IRISH MARTYRS. In the course of about three weeks we expect the Sacred Congregation of Rites to return to the Archbishop of Dublin all documents concerning the names of the 257 Irish bishops, priests, laymen, and women, mentioned in the recent Decree on the Irish martyrs. The Most Rev. Dr. Walsh will be asked to act in the name of the Holy See, and gather all further evidence that is possible to substantiate the claim to martyrdom for the faith put forward on the part of each of these holy servants of God. This is called the Apostolic Process. With such an energetic man at the helm, as is Archbishop Walsh, we may expect the entire mass of evidence to be ready for forwarding to Rome in about a year. Time flies quickly in Rome. It seems only yesterday that I saw Father Conmy, S.J., arrive in Rome in charge of the mass of evidence that led to the publication of the recent decree authorising the introduction of the Cause to the Sacred Congregation of Rites. He was relieved by Monsignor Murphy, Rector of the Irish College, to whom, as Postalator of Ihe Cause, Father Conmy delivered up the documents. That is ten years ago/ Both are now gone to untimely graveskindly, learned, courtly gentlemen who are not yet forgotten in Rome. NOTE. Next Sunday, the seventh centenary of the solemn approbation of the Franciscan Order, given in 1215 by Pope Innocent 111., will be duly observed in Rome.