Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 29, 26 July 1923, Page 3

Friends at Court

|K GLEANINGS EUR NEXT WEEK’S CALENDAR. July 29, Sunday.—Tenth Sunday altar Pentecost. 'y „ 30, Monday. —SS. Abdon and Senen, Martyrs. ~ 31, Tuesday.St. Ignatius Loyola, Confessor. August 1, Wednesday. —St. Peter’s Chains. . ~ 2, Thursday. — St. Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop, Con- & gr? lessor, and Doctor. j 3, Friday.—Finding of the Relics of St. Stephen, Proto-Martyr. . ~ „ 4, Saturday. St. Dominic, Confessor. ¥ TV SS.. Abdon and Senen. SS. Abdon and Senen were noble Persians, martyrs, - at Rome, under the persecution of Decius. Their veneration is very ancient. Discovery of the Body of St. Stephen, First Martyr. The martyrdom of St. Stephen is commemorated on December 26. The feast which is celebrated to-day was instituted on the occasion of the discovery of the remains of this great saint, A.D. 415. v r . St. Peter’s Chains. This feast commemorates the miraculous deliverance of St. Peter from the prison into which he had been cast by order of King Herod Agrippa. The circumstances of - this miracle are narrated by St. Luke in the twelfth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. * St. Alphonsus, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. St. Alphonsus Liguori was born at Naples in 1696. At the age of 30 he abandoned the legal profession, in which he had already made a name for himself, and, in spite of the opposition of his father, he became a priest. Applying himself zealously to the duties of his sacred calling,, he touched by his fervent discourses the hearts of the most inveterate sinners. Still more abundant was the fruit which he gathered in the tribunal of penance, where he joined a singular prudence and firmness to the most tender , sentiments of paternal affection. He founded and for a long time governed the Congregation of the Most Holy j Redeemer. For eight years he was Bishop of St. Agatha, but at length obtained leave to resign this responsible office, which he ,had accepted only . very reluctantly. In the midst of his labors he found time to compose a number of doctrinal and devotional works, which have earned for him the title of Doctor of the Church. St. Alphonsus died in 1787, at the age. of 90. St. Dominic, Confessor. St. .Dominic, a. Spaniard of noble birth, was remarkable from childhood for a tender love of the poor, and a filial devotion to the Blessed Virgin. After his ordination to the priesthood, these two characteristics became still more marked. To his veneration for the Blessed Virgin *. is attributed the institution of the Holy Rosary, which was such a'powerful factor in the conversion of the Albigensian heretics, and which has ever since remained a favorite devotion of Catholics. St. Dominic died in 1221, having some years previously founded the well-known. Order of monks called after him, Dominicans.