Friends at Court.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 45, 10 November 1904, Page 31

Friends at Court.

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

November 13, Sunday.— Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost. Feast of the Patronage of. the Blessed \ lrgin Mary. „ 14, Monday. — St. Lawrence, Bishop and Confessor „ 15, Tuesday.— St. Gertrude, Virgin. „ 10, Wednesday. — St. Stanislaus kostka, Confessor „ 17, Thursday.— St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, Bishop and Confessor. '„ 18, Friday.— Dedication of the Basilicas of SS. Peter and Paul. „ 19, Saturday.— St. Pontian, Pope and Martyr. St. Lawrence, Bishop and Confessor. St. Lawrence, who was born in the year 1125, vas Ilu> s ion (if a princely fannlj . Jn his youth he had been held in captivity as a hostage by Dermot M'Murrou^h, Kins; of Lcinster. At the age of 25 he was chosen ahbot of Glendalough, and on the death of Archbishop Gregory in llf>2, was promoted to the metropolitan See of Dublin He was consecrated by Gelasius, successor to St. Mai achy in the pnmatial See of Armagh. His first care was to reform the manners of the clergy and to furnish his Church with worthy ministers. He was so rigid in enforcing ecclesiastical discipline that, though h? had the necessary faculties himself, he frequently obliged grievous sinners to journey to Rome for absolution In 1179 the saint, with some other Irish prelates, attended the Third General Council of Lateran. On his return to Ireland he at once commenced to discharge his legal i ne power by makina; wholesale regulations and introducing much needed reforms. After a glorious 1 and most useful episcopate of 18 years St. Lawrence O'Toole, who was styled, as St Bernard tells us, ' the father of his country,' died in the j car 1180. He was canonised in 1225 by Honorious ij.l. St. Gertrude, Virgin. St Gertrude, who was a religious of the Order of St. Benedict, v. as born at Fisleben, Saxony, in 12G4 She v\ , s a sister of St. Mechtilda. She wrote in Latin a book called ' Revelations,' in which she relates her cominui.iiMtiOhS with God. St. Stanislaus Kostka, Confessor. St. Slanrlaus Kostka, who belonged to one of the noblest families in Poland, was born m the middle of the ifJth century His eai ly studies vveie made at home, but at the ane' of 11 h'* was sent, with his elder brother Paul, to the Jesuit College at Vienna. At the age of li he set out for Rome, where he entered the Jesuit iioviliato, where he died in the 18th year of his age. St. Gregory Thaumatuigus. SV Grrgo.y, a Father of the Church was. from) his e\tiaoiu.iui v miracles sui named Thaumaturgus (wonderworker) lie was born in Neo- Caesarea in Pontus, and was educated as a pagan until he came to Caesarea, Palestine, whore he was converted to the faith by On gen lie passed five years in the school of Origen and three at Alexandria, during the persecution of Maximian. (Jregory was made Bishop of his native city, wluci. then numbered only 17 Christians ; but at his death only 17 pagans lemaincd Dedication of the Basilicas of St. Peter and Paul. '\ hese two basilicas are situated in Rome, the one on the Vatican hill, the other on the road which leads to the mourn of the 'liber. '1 hey are famous throughout the world for si7e, richness, and magnificence of deco at ion, but the most precious treasures which they contain are the relics of the two great Apostles— St. Petei, the Vicar of ChrM and St. Paul, the zealous missionary of the infant Church. St Pontian, Pope and Martyr.* St Pontian was Pope from 230 to 235. He was exiled by Alexander Seveius to the island of Tavolato, on the eastern coast of Sardinia, where he was put to death by order of Maxunin.