Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 38, 21 September 1905, Page 31

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

Sop t ember 24, Sunday.— Fifteenth Sunday after Pente* cost. Feast of Our Lady of Mercy. „ 25, Monday.— Saints Eustace and Companions, Martyrs. 26, 'Tuesday.— St. Eusebius, Pope and Martyr. „ 27, Wednesday.— Saints Cosmas and Damlan, Martyrs. „ 28, Thursday.— St. Wenceslaus, King and Martyr. „ 29, Friday.— Dedication of the Church of St. Michael, Archangel. „ 30, Saturday.— St. Jerome, Confessor and Doctor. Feast of Our Lqriy of Mercy. In the -thirteenth century, when the Mediterranean was swept by Moorish pirate®, a religious Order was instituted under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the purpose of collecting alms for the relief ami ransom of Ohristian captives, of visiting them in their c&ptiijvity, end restoring them when possible to their friends and families. In memory of the institution of this admirable Order, and of the tender Oompassion of the Blessed Virsjin, to whom it owed its origin, the feast of Our Lady of Mercy was instituted. Saints Eustace and Companions, Martyrs. St. Eustace, a Roman general, suffered martyrdom together wiuh 'his wife and two sons, shortly after the begi'nming of the second century. St. Eusebius, Pope and Martyr. St. Euseblus, who succeeded St. Marcellus on the i apali throne, was Vanished by Maxentius to Sicily whoro suffering and privation soon caused his death, Saints Cosmas and Damlan, Martyrs. These two saints were brothers, born in Arabila and renowned far their skill in medicine. They were remarkable for their charity, and for the zeal with which they endeavored to propagate the Ohristian religion They were both b-eheaxierJ in the persecution of Diocletian about the year 303. ' St. Wenceslaus, King and Martyr. St. Wenceslaus, Duke of .Bohemia* was remarkable ror his Hevptiom to Hie Blessed Sacramewt. His zeal for t'ho DFcmeJf tion of Uhe true Faith led to his death at the hands of his brot'he-r, A.D. 982. Dedicatitom of lEue Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel. The* dedication of the famous Church of St. Michael on Monte Gargano, in Italy, B ave occasion to the pre^ sent floast ; Init Uhe Church also proposes to our de^jotuoji. on tihis day the veneration of all the angels 1 o-day, therefore, we are called upon to give thanks to uort for the glory and happiness which the angels emiov h IT ] ° in Wlth lbCm in a ' doring > tossing, 'and praisSt. Jerome, Confessor and Doctor. St. Jerome was bom at Stridon, in Daimatiia in 340 His youth was passed in Rome, whitlher he was sent to complete his studies u;nder Aelius Dtonatus a ceUibratei grammarian. His thirst for knowledge caused him to visit foreign cities, among others Treves, where he ti'amscrilol fur his friend Rufmus a commentary on the Psalms and a treatise on Synods by St. Hilary In 381 Jerome went to Constantinople to study the holy Scriptures under St. Gregory Nazianzen, and thence returned to Rome. He was the intimate friend of Pope Damasus, who appointed him his secretary. At the Pope's ro^urst, Jerome be -{an his revision of the old Latin or Italic version of the Bible. After the death of Damasuis he set out for Palestine, where he founded and superintended several monasteries until hLs death., which occumtt at Bethlehem in 420. He was buriedi amid the ruins of ono of his monasteries, which had been destroyed by the partisans of Pelaeaus. St. Jerome, who is called by the Church ' the gjreatest Doctor raised (by the) Divine hand to interpret the Sacred Scriptures,' was the author of -the Latin translation of tihe Bible, known as the Vuljgate. Of all his writings this is the most useful and. most widely known.