Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 31, 30 July 1903, Page 31

Friends at Court

GLEANINQS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR August 2, Sunday.— Ninth Sunday after Pentecost. St. Stephen 1., Pope and Martyr. 3, Monday.— Finding of the body of St. Stephen, Protomartyr. 4, Tuesday— St Dominic, Confessor 5, Wednesday.— Dedication of the Church of St. Mary ad Nives. „ 6, Thursday.— Transfiguration of Our Lord. „ 7, Friday.— St. Cajetan, Confessor. „ 8, Saturday.— Saints Cyriacus and Companions, Martyrs. St. Stephen 1., Pope and Martyr. St. Stephen, Pope and martyr, was born at Rome, and occupied the papal throne from 253 to 257. He was beheaded in the latter year by order of Valerian. St. Stephen, Protomartyr. St. Stephen was the first deacon and first martyr, having been stoned to death about the year 35. A young man, called Saul, who watched the garments of his executioners, was touched by grace and became the Apostle St. Paul. The body of St. Stephen was found in 415, and the Church celebrates the Invention of his remains on August 3. St. Dominic, Confessor. St Dominic, who was born at Calahorra, in Old Castile, was distinguished in his early youth by piety and love of study. Having been ordained a priest, he went, in company with his bishop, to the south of France, where he witnessed the atrocities committed by the Albigenses. The sight of so many ruined soulfc moved him to devote his life to their conversion. It was then that our saint propagated the use of the holy Rosary, which was re\ealed to him in a vision by the Blessed Virgin. After spending ten years in this toilsome mission, St Dominic, in 1215, founded a new Order, the chief object of which was to furnish to the Church zealous preachers and missionaries for the instruction of the faithful and the conversion ol the heretics. He selected the Rule of St. Augustine for the use of his Older, adding certain statutes, which were borrowed chiefly lrom those of the Premonstratensians. The habit which he gave to his religious consisted of a white tunic and scapular, \w\\\ long black mantle, from which latter robe was demed their name, ' Black Friars.' Pope Ilononus 111 , in 121G, approved of the new society under the title of ' Preaching Friais.' The same Pontiff appointed Dominic ' Waster of the Sacred Palace, 1 which othce is to this day held by a member of the Order. Alsi St Dominic founded an Older for women, to whom be ga\e the luie of the Friars, and a Tertiary Order lor people living m tne world The Order of St. Domniic has contributed to the Church, besides countless saint*-, thiee Popes, GO Cardinals, about 150 archbishops, and upwaids of 800 bishops Feast of Dedication of the Church of St. Mary ad Nives. The Chinch of St Mary ad Nives, or, as it is more frequently called, St Alary Major, is one of the four gieat basilicas of Rome, and the largest and most celebtatcd of the many in that city which are dedicated to the Mother of God Built in the 4th century, under Pope Libenps, it was rebuilt on a magnificent scale in the- lollt/w ing century. Transfiguiation of Our Lord. Tl c miraculous Transfiguration of Our Rlessed Lord in the piesence of the Apostles Peter, James, and John, im nana'ed by St Watt hew in that portion of his Gospel which is lead on the second Sunday in Lent. St Caietan, Confessor. St Caietan. the son of wealthy parents in the north of Italy, was remaikable for his charity to the poor. On the'death of his parents he expended a great part of tvs patrimony in the establishment of hospitals and pious associations for the relief of the sick and the indigent , the icmainder he divided between the poor and 'those ol his relations who weie in straitened circumstance In comunction with Archbishop Caraffa, afterwards Pope Paul IV , he founded the religious Congregation oi Thea tines He died m 1547, woin out by labors and austeiities St Cynacus and Companions, Martyrs. SI Cyiiacus was a Roman deacon, who, with 22 otheis, su tiered a glorious martyrdom during the reign ol Diocletian, A D 303.