Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LI, Issue 3, 17 January 1924, Page 3

Friends at Court

- GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK’S CALENDAR. January 20, Sunday.—Second Sunday after ' Epiphany. ‘ SS. Fabian and. Sebastian, Martyrs. • ,j 21, Monday.St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr. „ 22, Tuesday.—SS. Vincent and Anastasius, Martyrs. „ 23, Wednesday.—St. Raymund of Pennefort, Confessor. ~ 24. Thursday.—St, Timothy, Bishop and Martyr. ~ 25, Friday.—Conversion of St. Paul, Apostle. ~ 26, Saturday.—St. Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr. , \ V SS. Fabian and Sebastian, Martyrs. St. Fabian was elected Pope in 236, and governed the Church for fourteen years. His life, like that of so many of the early Popes, was closed by martyrdom, A.D. 250. St. Sebastian was an officer of high rank in the Imperial Guard. Owing to his virtue and courage, he was much esteemed by the Emperor Diocletian, and was enabled by the influence thus acquired to protect numbers of his persecuted fellow-Christians. He was beaten to death with clubs about the year 288. St. Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr. St. Polycarp, a disciple of St. John the Evangelist, governed the important See of Smyrna for 70 years. He is believed to have been the Angel or Bishop of Smyrna commended by Our Blessed Lord in the Apocalypse (chap, ii.). He was martyred in 169, being then about 100 years of age. St. Vincent and Anastasius, Martyrs. These two saints, though commemorated on the same day, suffered ,at different times and in distant countries. St. Vincent, a deacon, was a native of Spain. After enduring torments that are well-nigh incredible, he died of his wounds? at Valentia, A.D. 304. St. Anastasius, a Persian monk, after having been cruelly tortured, was strangled in 628. Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. St. Paul was at first a violent persecutor of the Church. In fact, at the very moment when the grace of God touched his heart he was on his way to Damascus, with authority to seize any persons whom he might find professing the new- faith, and send them in chains to Jerusalem. After his conversion, St. /Paul devoted all his energies to the propagation of the Christian religion, and spent his life in carrying the glad tidings of redemption to the nations that till then had sat “in darkness and in the shadow of death.” Grains of Gold FAITH. Across unchartered ways, The course of my ark lays, And though the waters round it rising .high, • With thunder, storm the sky, Unfaltering it sails Abreast the wanton gales. Oh, Thou, Celestial Dove, Give my soul wings of love, Fleet wings of love to soar To Heaven’s distant shore, That from the flowers blooming there : It may returning bear • A leaf of hope to me , . - . . As symbol of eternal verdancy. , : Oh, happy day, when it will not return again! I shall know then - t ". The flooding tide of days on which I have been cast /■■■/:;•.- Has ebbed at last. - ~ , * — Catherine M. Bresnan, in the Missionary.