St. Sylvester, Pope and Confessor.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 52, 28 December 1905, Page 31

St. Sylvester, Pope and Confessor.

St. Sylvester, a native of Rome, was called to rule the Church • during the twenty-one years which followed the accession of Constantine. One of his principal cares was to provide churches for the faithful, who were now, for the first time, allowed perfect liberty in the exercise of their religion. The most important event in the pontificate of St. Sylvester was the celebration of the First General Council, which was presided over by the Papal legates, and in which the errors of Arius were condemned. St. Sylvester died in 335. Feast of the Circumcision. This is a festival celebrated on January 1 to remind us of the humility of our Lord in allowing Himself to be seemingly numbered among sinners, by submitting to the law of the Jews. Circumcision was a religious practice among the Jews in the observance of which a distinctive mark was placed on male children the eighth day after their birth, and on all adults who embraced their religion. It was established as a distinctive sign of the people of God, a sign of the covenant made by God with Abraham^ and as the figure of Baptism in the New Law. The feast of Circumcision is very ancient in the Church, as is proved by the homilies and sermons of the Fathers of the Church. Feast of the Epiphany, * This festival is set apart to solemnly commemorate the coming of the three wise men from the East, guided by a miraculous star which appeared to them, and directed them> to Bethlehem, where they found Christ in the stable ; here they honored and adored Him and offered gifts to Him. The Octave of a Feast. The octave of a feast is the period of eight days assigned for its celebration during which is repeated every day a part of the oflice of the feast, as the hymns, antiphons, or verses, with one or several lessons referring to the subject. On the eighth day, the octave properly speaking, the office is mom solemn than that of the preceding days. Generally the most solemn feasts, like Christmas, "Easter, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, the feast of the patron saint, are accompanied by an octave.