Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 28, 9 July 1903, Page 31

Friends at Court

OLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR July 12, Sunday.— -Sixth Slunday after Pentecost. Si John Gualbert, Abbot. „ 13., Monday.— St. Anacletus, Pope and Martyr. „ 14, Tuesday. — St. Bonaventure, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. „ 15, Wednesday. — St. Henry, Confessor. „ 16, Thursday. — Feast of our Lady of Mount Carmel. „ 17, Friday. — St. Leo IV., Pope and Confessor. „ 18, Saturday.— St. Camillus of Lellis, Confessor. St. John Gualbert, Abbot. St. John Gualbert was the founder of the celebrated Abbey of Vallombrosa, in Tuscany, in the year 1038. He was a member of a noble Tuscan family, and had been charged by his father to take a bloody revenge upon the murderer of his brother Hugh, and, coming up with the object of his search on Good Friday, in a narrow 1 defile where escape was impossible, he made directly for him. The murderer threw himself upon his knees, and, arranging his arms in the form -of a cross, besought his antagonist to, show mercy out of love of Him Who that day suffered for 'all. From respect for the symbol of salvation, and touched with the beauty of the appeal, John not only granted the prayer of the murderer, but took him to his bosom and adopted him in place of the brother he had lost. He then withdrew to pray in the neighboring) monastery of San Miniate, and, while kneeling j before a crucifix, saWithe figure of our Saviour incline its head towards him. Accepting this as a token of divine approval of what he had done, he at once entered upon an ascetic life, commenced the practice of great austerities, and ended by founding an Order, whose members were clothed in an ash-colored garment and observed the rule of St. Benedict in its most severe form. At the death of St. John Gualbert (1072), the community counted 12 monasteries. St. Anacletus, Pope and Martyr. St. Anacletus died about the year '91. Very ancient martyrologies gave him the title of martyr. He is named, by the ancients, among the first successors of St. Peter to the See of Rome. But they are not in accord about the order which they assign to him in this sucsession. According to St. Irenaeus-, and also given by Eusebius, the following is the catalogue of the first Popes : Peter, Linus, Anacletus, Clement. According to St. Augustine, Clement was the successor of Linus, and Anacletus succeeded Clement. There are catalogues which mention a Cletus instead of Anacletus. Others name Cletus and Anacletus as ..two different personages 1 . It would appear, according to the chronicle of Damasus, and according to St Epiphanius and Rlafinus, that Linus and Clement were charged by St. Peter, as his representatives, to govern the Church of Rome — without any of them becoming Pope in the sense of the word — as successor of Peter. In this case, Peter's immediate successor was Clement, who would have been succeeded by AnacleUis. As to the distinction between Cletus and Anacletus, we find it indicated in many old catalogues, and especially in a notice of the ' Pontifical,' according to which Cletus was a Roman by birth and Anacletus an Athenian. St. Bonaventure, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. St. Bonaventure, surnamed 'Doctor Seraphicus,' was a Franciscan, and distinguished for his piety and learning. He was born in 1221, at Bagnarea, in Tuscany, and was educated at the Uaiiversity % of Paris, where, as early as 1253, he obtained a p.riofe'ssorship of theology, and a-t the age of 35 years he became the general of' his Order, the internal disorders and contentions of which he brought under due regulation. Pope Clement IV. wished to make him Archbishop of York, but desisted at the request of Bonaventure ; on the other hand, Gregory, X., in 1273, compelled him to accept the bishopric of Albano. In the year following Bonaventure attended the Ecumenical Council of Lyons, and died while it was in session, July 15, 1274. Bonaventure acquired great fame by his mystical writings. But both his philosophical and scholistico-theological works, of which the principal ones are the ' Breviloouium ' and the ' Certi'oquium ' are highly estoemed, although their author does not, on these subjects reach the level of St. Thomas. St. Leo IV., Pope and Confessor. St. Leo IV. was Pope fr0m; 84.7 to 855. The eight years of his pontificate were employed chiefly in arming and defending the Roman State against the Saracens, over whom he gained a complete victory. He encompassed thp Vatican hill with walls and towers, and founded whnt has been called after him the ' Leonine City.' In RSO he crowned Louis 11., son of Lothaire, pmperor, and anointed as king the young Alfred of England, afterwards surnamed the- Great. In 850 and 853, he held synods st Rome, at which canons were enacted enforcing ecclesiastical discipline.