Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 33, 13 August 1903, Page 81

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

August 16, Sunday.— Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost. St. Joachim, father of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 17, Monday —Octave of the Feast of St. Lawrence. „ 18, Tuesday.— St. Hyacinth, Confessor. „ 19, Wednesday.— St. Urban 11., Pope and Confessor. 20, Thursday.— St. Bernard, Confessor and Doctor. „ 21, Friday.— St. Frances de Chantal, Widow. „ 22, Saturday.— Octave of the Assumption. St. Joachim, Father of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Fathers of the Church unite in extolling the sanctity of St. Joachim and St. Anne, whose privilege it was to be the parents of the Most Pure Mother of God. St. Hyacinth, Confessor. St. Hyacinth, a Polish Dominican, and apostle of Northern Europe, was born in the Castle of Sassi (Siberia), and died at Cracow. He received at Rome the religious habit from the hand of St. Dominic, who appointed him Superior of the mission established in Poland, founded a monastery of Dominicans at Cracow (1217), and several others in the principal cities of Poland. He made numerous conversions all over northern Europe, and preached the Oospel to the Tartars. St. Urban 11., Pope and Confessor. St. Urban was born near Rheims, in France. Having been elected Pope in 1088, he employed all his energies in putting an end to the unwarranted interference of the civil power in purely ecclesiastical affairs, and securing for the Church that liberty of action which was required for the efficient discharge of her divinely appointed duties To the wisdom and zeal of St. Urban was due the initiation of those expeditions for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre, which are known as the Crusades. St. Urban died in 1099 in the twelfth year of his pontificate. St. Bernard, Confessor and Doctor. St Bernard, the glory of Christendom during the twelfth century, was born at Dijon, in France, A.D. 10!) l On the death of his pious mother, in 1110, he retired, with some thirty companions, into the solitude of a Cistercian monastery. He there gave a perfect example of the \irtues proper to the monastic state, while at the same lane, on occasions when duty called him, his inter\ention in public affairs was attended with the happiest results lie so ably defended Catholic doctrine with his \oico and pen that his efforts in this direction have earned for him the title of Doctor. St. Bernard died in 1153 St. Frances de Chantal, Widow. > This saint was born at Dijon in 1573 She was married at the age of 20 to the Baron de Chantal, but eight years later had the misfortune to lose her husband through an accident Having completed the education of hei children, she founded, under the direction of St. Fiancis de Sales, and with the co-operation of some other ladies of rank, the religious Order of the Visitation. She died in 1611.