Passion Sunday.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 12, 25 March 1909, Page 443

Passion Sunday.

- As the animal commemoration of the death of Our Blessed Saviour approaches, the Church seems to enter into deeper mourning. On the eve of Passion Sunday" the images and statues of the saints, and even the representation of the crucified Redeemer, are covered with purple veils, which will not be removed till the close of Holy Week. From the Office and Mass are omitted the few expressions of joy which remained after Septviagesima Sivnday. - \

St. Thomas of Aquin, Confessor and Doctor.

St. Thomas, son of the Count of Aquino, was born in 1126, and received his early education at the famous abbey of Monte Cassino. At the age of seventeen, in spite of the opposition of his family, he entered the Order of St. Dominic. By his piety and extraordinary talents, he became the glory, not merely of his Order, but of the^j,vhole Catholic world. His great humility caused him to-refuse the dignities offered to him "by more than one Pope. He died in 1274, whilst on his way to attend the Council of Lyons, to which he had been sumoned by Gregory X. All Catholic schools were placed under his special patronage hy the late Pope Leo XIII.