Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 24, 15 June 1905, Page 31

Friends at Court

QLEANINQS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR June 18, Sunday.— Trinity Sunday. „ 19, Monday.— St. Juliana Falconieri, Virgin. „ 20, Tuesday.— St. Silverius, Pope and Martyr. „ 21, Wednesday.— St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Confessor „ 22, Thursday.— Feast of Cumin, Cluisti. „ 23, Friday.— St. Mark the Evangelist. „ 2-1, Saturday. —St. John the Baptist. Trinity Sunday. To-day we are not asked to imitate the virtues of some saint, or to contemplate the merciful dealings of God with man. We are taken up, as it were, into the Holy of Holies, and irnited to gaze on the radiant perfection of God as the Blessed see Him— one God in three Divine Persons. Until the fourteenth century this feast was not generally celebrated in the Church, for the reason that all the festivals in the Christian religion are truly festivals of the Holy Trinity, since they are only means to honor the Blessed Trinity and steps to raise us to It as the true and only term of our worship As Pone Alexander writes, in the eleventh century :— * The Roman Church has no particular festival of the Trinity, because she honors it every day, and every hour of the day ; all her offices containing Its praises and concluding with a tribute of glory to It.' St. Juliana Falconieri, Virgin. St. Ji'liana was a native of Florence. Having, while still a child, lost her father, she found a second father in her uncle, St. Alexis Falconieri, one of the founders of the Senite Order. She is celebrated for her devotion to the adoraMe Sacrament of the Altar and to the Mother of God. Like so many other saints, she was singularly successful m reconciling enemies a,nd reclaiming sinners. She died at an advanced age in 13*10. St Siheiius, Pore and Martyr. St. Siheiius, by his refusal to favor the Eutychian heretics, excited the enmity of the Empress Theodora, who proL'inod Ins banishment to Patns, in Asia Minor' He owed his release to the efforts of the Bishop of the place, who remonstrated with the Emperor Justinian over the indignity offered 'to the Vicar of Christ. 'There are,' he urged, ' many 1 ings in the world, but only one Pope o\er the Church of the whole world. 1 Having again fallen into the hands of his enemies, St. Silverius died from hard usage, or, accorSing to some, was put to a uolint (loath, A.I) 538. St. Alovmus Gon/aga, Confessor. (JCF St. Men sins Goir/apa was born at Castiglione, Lombardy, in 1508, and died at Rome in 1591. He was the Mm of Ferdinand of Gon/aga, Marquis of Castiglione, punce of the Holy Roman Empire, and was page at the Coiat of Philm 11. He entered a novitiate of the Jesuits (1587) at Rome , died of a slow fever contracted in talking care of those afflicted with the disease. He was canonised by Benedict XIII. in 1726. He is the patron saint of youth. Corpus Christl. The fust mention we have in history of the solemnity of a Heast of Corpus Christi is in 1246, when Robeit, Bishop of Liege, made arrangements to introduce it into his diocese, but death prevented his intention bemg carried into effect After the Bishop's death the Cardinal Legate Hugh undertook to carry out his directions, and celebrated the festival for the first time in t^e year 1217, n the chinch of St. Martin at Liege. Several bishops; followed ris example, and the festival was onsen pd in many dioceses, before Urban IV., in 12(51, finally ordered the celebration by the whole Church. This order was confirmed by Clement V. at the Council of Vienna in 1311, and the Thursday after the octave of Pentecost arvnointed for its celebration. In 1317 Pope John XXII instituted the solemn procession. St. John the Baptist. St John the Baptist, the precursor of the Messiah, was born six months before Jesus Christ, and was the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth. He was the last representative of the Prophets of the Old Covenant ; his work was to announce the way for and to prepare the ad'ent of the promised Messiah. John was put to death by the order of Herod, at the instigation of Ilerodias, whose licentiousness he had the boldness to repro'. c