GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

New Zealand Tablet, 4 October 1906, Page 3

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

October 7, Sunday.— Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost; The Holy Rosary. „ 8, Monday.— St. Bridget, Widow. „ 9, Tuesday.— St. Denis and Companions, ■ Martyrs. „ 10, Wednesday.— St. Francis Borgia, Confessor. „ 11, Thursday.— St. Canice, Abbot. „ 12, Friday.— St. John Leonard, Confessor. „ 13, Saturday.— St. Edward, King and Confessor.

St. Bridget of Sweden, Widow. St. Bridget, the foundress of an Order of religious, was born about the year 1302 of the royal family of Sweden. The state of marriage which she embraced by the advice of her parents did not cause her to lose her fervor for the pious exercises she had shown from her tenderest years. After having become a widow (1343) she consecrated herself entirely to works of charity and to exercises of piety, and founded the Monastery of Wadstena (1344) on the shores of Lake Vettern. The Order was confirmed, under the title of ' Order of the Saviour,' by Urban V., in 1370. The religious followed the rule of St. Augustine and the particular constitutions which their holy foundress is said to have received by divine revelation. St. Denis and Companions, Martyrs. St. Denis, the first Bishop of Paris, and one of the most illustrious writers of the early Church, is believed to have been identical with Denis, the Areopagite, converted by St. Paul. He was martyred, with several companions, on the hill of Montmartre in Paris, about the year 119. St. John Leonard, Confessor. St. John was born in Lucca, in Italy. As a priest, he effected such a complete reformation of morals in Lucca that its inhabitants rivalled the early Christians in fervor. He himself seemed to have imbibed that burning zeal which caused the apostles to traverse the world in order to convey to all nations the teachings of Christ. Anxiaus for the " propagation of the true Faith, and unable himself to leave Italy, he devoted his time aad abilities 'to the training of suitable young men, who were destined, after their ordination., to proceed as missionaries to heathen and heretical countries. He died in 1609, at the age of sixty-five.