Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 24, 11 June 1903, Page 31

Friends at Court

OLEANINQS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR. June 14, Sunday.— Second Sunday after Pentecost. St. Basil, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. 15, St. John of Facundo, Confessor. IG, Tuesday.— St. Antoninus, Bishop and Confessor. „ 17, Wednesday.— St. Paschal T , Pope and Confessor. 18, Thursday. — Octave of Corpus Christi 19, Friday.— Feast of the Sacred Heart. 20, Saturday.— St. Silverius, Pope and Martyr.

St. Basil, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. St. Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, was born at Caesarea aboVit the year 330. Two of his brothers, Gregory and Peter, became bishops, the former of Nyssa, the latter of Sebaste, and are also honored by the Church as saints. Basil studied with great success at Athens, where he became intimate with Gregory Nazianzen. The two friends vied with each other both in learning and in the practice of virtue. 'We know but two streets in the city,' said Gregory, ' the one leading to the chiurch and the othefi leading to the schools.' They remained at Athens four or five years whoro they olso made the acquaintance of Julian, who afterwards earned the evil name of apostate. Having received baptism in 357, Basil visited the monastic institutions of Syria and Egypt, and founded several monasteries in Pontus and Cappadocia. He became Father of monasticism in the East. The Basilians are to this day the principal religious Order in the Oriental Church. Jn 364 Basil was ordained p,riest by Bishop Eusebius, successor of Dianius, and on the death of that prelate was chosen Bishop of Caesarea, in 370. He was an instrument in the hand of God for beating back the Arian and Macedonian heresies in the East. His energy and zeal, learning and eloquence, and the exceeding- austerity and holiness of his life, have gained for him the reputation of one of the greatest bishops of the Church, and his character and works have earned for him the surname ' Great.' Basil died in 379. His works are of a theological or nn ascotical and ethical character, and embrace also sermons and commentaries. St. Antoninus, Bishop and Confessor. St. Antoninus, who was a native of Florence, became at an early age a member of the Order of St. Dominic At the invitation of Pope Eugene IV., he assisted at the General Council of Florence. Elected Archbishop of Florence, he gave a signal example of Christian charity on the occasion of a pestilence which raged in that city during a whole ;uar. St. Antoninus died in v. r >y St. Paschal J., Pope and Confessor. St Paschal became Tope in 817, and during a pontificate of nearly eight years he manifested great energy in building churches, hospices, and convents, and in lestonng and beautifying the sacred edifices which already existed He was also solicitors in providing for the wants of the Greek Christians whom the persecutions of the Iconoclasts had driven from the East. St Silverius, Pope and Confessor. St Sil\erius, by his refusal to favor the Eutychian heretics, excited the enmity of the Empress Theodora, who procured his banishment to Patris, in Asia Minor. lie owed his release to the efforts of the Bishop of the place, who remonstrated with the Emperor Justinian o\er the indignity offered to the Vicar of Christ. "There are,' he urged, ' many kings in the world, but only one Pope over the Church of the whole world.' Having, again fallen into the hands of his enemies, St. Silverius died from hard usage, or, according to some, was put to a \iolcnt death, A.D. 538.