Sixth Centenary of Dante's Death

New Zealand Tablet, 29 September 1921, Page 18

Sixth Centenary of Dante's Death

On. the evening of September 21, the sixth centenary of Dante's death, a large audience assembled in St. Joseph's Hall, Dunedin, to honor the great Catholic poet whose life and works were to lie the subject of Father Buckley's address. f Amongst those present were his Lordship Dr. Whyte, the Cathedral, South Dunedin, and MosgieL clergy, students of Holy Cross College, of St. Phiolmena's, St. Dominic's,, and the Christian Brothers' Schools. The lee-, ture was illustrated by fine limelight views taken from Dore's famous pictures of the scenes in the Divine Comedy. The atmosphere of the whole evening received its final perfection from the Italian songs sung at intervals by Miss Ursula Lunden, who sang Caro Mio Ben, and Messrs. Heley and Fogarty, who gave an artistic rendering of the duet, Solenne in Quest' Ora. '

The reason we: are gathered in this hall to-night (said Father Buckley) -is to do honor to the genius and the memory of a great Catholic poet who has sung in lofty strains ttte mysteries and the doctrines of the Christian religion and who is known to the world as Dante Alighieri, or simply Dante.

On the occasion of the 6th anniversary of Dante's death, which occurred this month (September 14) throughout the world of culture and learning assemblies of this nature are being heldand in many places of far greater impressiveness—to recall the memory of Dante, to eulogise and explain the works of his poetic genius, and to create if possible a task, nay a love, for his poems which are so instructive, so sweet, so awe-inspiring, so^transcendent.

Long before the war, in the year 1913, preparations were begun in Ravenna,' where the poet's ashes lie,, for world-wide celebrations this year, but the war interfered with the arrangements. On the cessation of hostilities preparations-were again feverishly pushed on, so that today, in every country of the civilised world; and in every city of importance, resound the name and fame of Dante, the foremost of Christian poets. And of these world-wide celebrations the chief promoter is Pope Benedict happily reigning. He has given his approval and his encouragement to these centenary.honors; he has done more has contributed a princely sum of money towards the restoration of the Church of St. Francis, near .which the bones of our poet lie at Ravennaand he has written a letter to the institutions of learning throughout the world eulogising Alighieri and exhorting their associates to the study of his works, so that it is. in accordance with the express wish of the Sovereign Pontiff that we, are gathered here to-night to talk of the life and glance through the writings of the great Florentine 'poet. . : .

The Popes and Learn

It is a well-known fact that in every age the pontiffs of Rome ha-we been the patrons of art and artists, and it is owing to the fostering care of the Catholic Church and her rulers that many a priceless gem of sculpture, painting, architecture, music, and literature, has been preserved to the-world. Raphael, Michelangelo, Giotto, l'Angelico, Palestrina, and a host of others famous in the world of art, were the painters, sculptors, and musicians of the Churchnot to speak, of the zeal of the monasteries in saving the classic literature of pagan Rome and Greece we know that the Popes" accumulated in their own Vatican home a mass of the most precious manuscripts of antiquity and made it rank . the* first among the foremost , of the World's great libraries. Litterateurs were ever encouraged and befriended by the Church and the Popes: lasso, the . Italian Milton and author of." Jerusalem Delivered' died in the convent of Saint Onofrio under the protection of the Pope arid the* shadow ;of tho Vatican Palace.-/Petrarch, is patronised /and; assisted,by the Cardinals in Curia—his merits are rewarded' and; he , is.-. solemnly crowned as poet in the ancient capitol of Rome —the Topes' Cathedral City. Benedict XV J

LECTURE BY REV. D. BUCKLEY

follows in the footsteps of his predecessors, and is faithful to ancient traditions. Lite Maecenas of old— minister of Augustus and admirer and friend of Horace and Virgil, Benedict XV calls our attention to the lofty genius and tho polished unsurpassed writings of the great Florentine seer, Danto Alighieri, whose poems are impregnated with the noblest of Christian principles, both in faith and morals, and who has sung of things spiritual and heavenly as no other poet either before or after him.

So-Called Dark Ages

The ages, before the so-called Reformation—or at least those before the taking of Constantinople in 1453 are looked upon as ages of ignorance and illiteracy: they are called dark and of course the darkness, the ignorance and the illiteracy are ascribed to the Catholic Church, the only church of Western. Europe in those days. We must remember that those were ages long before the invention of the printing press — • manuscripts were rare and writing material not easy to procure. 'Tis true there were in these so-called dark ages no poison, gasses,. no submarines, no dreadnoughts, no Lewis guns, and similar instruments of destruction, but if darkness consists in the want of these—then welcome, a thousand times welcome again the darkness of the Middle Ages. But Dante Alighieri of this evenings' celebrations was an offshoot of those times. He belonged to the 13th century and he stands forth in his works convincing evidence to the erudition, the culture and to the lofty and noble ideas' and v ideals of those oft and much maligned times. Dante, too, is an argument to prove that the learning of those days was not confined to the clergy and the monasteries, but extended to the laity who had leisure and talent to acquire it. The knowledge he possessed— it was of no mean orderhe acquired not onlyfrom his contemporaries, but from the works of the great masters who had lived deeper,down the centuries and closer than he to the middle of the Middle Ages.. He was acquainted with and versed .in the astronomy of his day. He had an understanding of music (and what Italian has not?) and had moreover learned to sketch and paint. We are told ho was a perfect rhetorician arid a very rmble orator sent on many • important diplomatic missions. He enjoyed a responsible position in his own Florence, having been one of the six priors elected to the government of the city.

He lived in centuries far different and distant from ours. He was born 200 years and more before Luther, 300 years before Shakespere, 75 before Chaucer the father of English poetry, whose favorite poet he was in days when Merrie England was as 'Catholic as Dante's Italy is today. •He lived long before the Renaissance began to spread the new learning throughout Europe and, child of the Middle Ages as he was, he has endowed the literature of the world with works that rightly entitle him to rank with the geniuses of the world's poets—Homer, Virgil, Shakspere—the romantic singers of humanity, and to be classed as the father of the mellifluous Italian tongue. Dante drew the inspiration of his poems from Catholic philosophy 'and theology, and'in his writings has embodied musically the doctrines and beliefs of the Catholic Church. So sweetly and religiously has he sung the theological teaching of the Church that he is deservedly called the "St. Thomas of Poetry." I Albertus Magnus, Boethius, Bonaventure, Thomas of Aquin were a few of the masters he -had studied and with whose teaching he became saturated, so much ; so. that throughout his poems it is impossible?to find -him erring, even in one solitary instance, from the accepted teaching of the Church. He was familiar with the 'Fathers and Doctors of the Church—with Augustine, Gregory ; the ; Great;; 'Anselm, Bernard, and others ! all |of whom St. Thomas points' out ) : to him in, the I circle of the' Sun ■'[ in Paradise; : '\ So inti-

mate, indeed, was he with the works of St. Thomas that he looked upon him as a companion and well-known friend, and styles him as would a Brother of St. Dominic's community—"ll buon fra Tomaso" —Good Brother Thomas.

Dante and the Bible

He would seem to have memorised the Sacred Scriptures, both Old and New, in the Latin, as appears from the numerous texts he quotes and from the Scripture material he handles and weaves into verse. He goes much further than this—this child of the ignorant and obscure ages—he solemnly recommends the reading of the Bible to his contemporaries and places it in juxtaposition with the teaching of the Church through her chief pastor, the Sovereign Pontiff of Rome: ' /

Avete il vecchio e il Nuovo Testamento E il pastor della Chiesa che vi guida . Questo vi basti a vostro salvamento.

You have the Old and the New Testament, The Shepherd of the Church, too, for your guide. These to preserve you ample means present.

And yet, ladies and gentlemen, we are told in all .seriousness that the Bible was a banned and unknown book till it was fortuitously discovered by an apostate monk in the 16th century hidden away in a German library. But while Dante imbibed the inspiration of his poems in no small part from Christianity, from the teaching of the Church, the Fathers and Sacred Scripture, he did not overlook or neglect the lessons taught by the best minds of pagan Greece and' Rome. He is steeped in Aristotle, whom he calls the Doctor of Reason—" The Master of those who know," "II maestro di color che sanno." Plato, too, and his opinions were known to him, but as Ozanam says, "while accepting a large number of Platonic dogmas regarding God, nature, and humanity, he never dreamed of betraying the faith due to his first master, Aristotle." He was a proficient scholar of Roman classics and wrote works in the Latin language— Monarchic, De Vulgdri Eloquentia. Horace, Ovid, Virgil, and Luccan were his favorite authors, who, along with Homer in the IV. Canto of the Inferno, form 'the t'bella scuola" with whom Dante made the. sixth. , To explain this passage I must remark that our poet was fully conscious of his own talents, which he* knew would not fail him. He trusted in his own powers rather than in another's.

Fidandomi dime piu che di un altro—

and does not hesitate to place himself on an equal with Homer, Horace, Virgil, and the others just mentioned. Virgil, who had left his realm of Limbo, which is the antechamber of Hell, had gone in* search of Dante lost in the darkness of the Forest. He returns with Dante to Limbo, where dwell the other poets mentioned, when at the sight of Virgil returned, a' voice cries out: "OnorateTaltissimo poeta~- honor to the all high poet, words now inscribed

on Dante's own monument.

Assembled thus the goodly school I saAV Of him, the master of the most .high song, Who o'er the others like an eagle flies. [This is . ' • m Homer]

When somewhat they together had discoursed They-turned to me with gesture of salute: My master also smiling at the same. And more they did me honor yet by much For so they made me of their company That I became, 'mid so much mind, the sixth.

Cosi vidi adunar la belld scuola Di quei signor delV altissimo cant* Che sovra gli altri come aquila vola. Epin d'onore ancora assai mi fenna Che essi mi facer della loro chiera * Si ch'io fiii sesto tra, cotahto senno.

Dante's Art

The polished art of Dante is seen in the | manner he employs sacred and profane history, blending them together

so that while leaving them distinct he moulds them into one harmonious whole. The heroes of antiquity he mixes up with: the champions of the Christian faith. Charon is the boatman in Hell, Cato in Purgatory. Mythology is blended with the lives of the saints, and out of a medley of diverse philosophy, theology, natural - science, nature study, legends of paganism, history sacred and profane—he succeeds in weaving a poem in his Divina Commedia which for refinement subtlety, beauty of language, loftiness of purpose, dignity of style, grandeur of thought, and height and wealth of imagination stands unsurpassed in poetic literature. In his own words: -

Sovra gli altri comeaquila vola —• "Above all others he soars—an eagle."

This much has been said by way of giving a. general idea of the high standing place Alighieri occupies in the world of letters. It is now time to speak of his life in more detail and to refer to certain passages of his works which must interest a Catholic in a special way.

Florence r

Unjlike other great men, he alone is claimed by Florence as her son —"Florence the flower of all cities and the city of all flowers." Here he was born on the banks of the Arno in 1265, a few years before the Florentines began to build their magnificent Cathedralthe Church of Santa Croce the mausoleum of their famous dead, and just before Giotto raised aloft that masterpiece of graceful architecture, his marble Campanile. No doubt he was baptised in what was then the cathedral church, for which he always entertained a tender affection, and which he calls "His beautiful St. John's" — mio bel San Giovanni. The name Dante was & a fortunate for it is an abbreviation of Durante, which means the "enduring one." " The struggle between the Guelfs and the Ghibellines is so intimately connected with our poet's age and life and works as to require a word of explanation before we proceed ' further. Originally the . Guelfs represented the adherents of the Popes, who stren- * uously resisted the might and tyranny jof the German Emperors, whose followers were the Ghibellines. But the spiritual conflict between the Pope and Emperor was over for the Pope had won, and now with the lapse of time the IV Guelfs were formed of those who fought for the liberties of the people—for communal franchise — a word, for the rights of Democracy, whereas the Ghibellines favored the feudal privileges of the barons and the nobility, and were supported by the Emperor's power. The struggle between these two parties was one between aristocracy, overbearing

and relentless, and democracy, and then as now the Pope sympathised with the weak, sided Vith the people striving for their liberty, and favored the democratic Guelfs. The Ghibelline was worldly, without religion, insolent, and selfish , : he had what we would call she manners of Potsdam. He was a man of the court whose will was law, with whom right was might. The Guelf belonged to the middle, classes: he was the well-to-do tradesman (the popolano) who had risen from the low rungs of the ladder of life. He was strong because of his command of money, was attached to his religion and to his Church. Now these two-parties incessantly fought, and each had its victories and its defeats, and though the Popes did their best to reconcile them they were unsuccessful. The great battle of Campaldino was fought with Dante on the battlefield on the Guelf side, and was 9-1 victory for the people democracy: in a word, for the Guelfs. But before long a family feud arose between .the Donati arid the Cerchi, and J the Guelfs themselves were split into two factions called 1 respectively the Whites and Blacks — Bianchi e Neri. A French prince went to Florence to make peace. The leaders of the Whites were condemned and banished, and with them some who had endeavored to hold the balance of power between the two parties, and among these was Dante. Thus the great

Florentine poet was thrust forth from his native city to wander an exile eating the 'bread of strangers and climbing another's '* staircase : till jat length after nineteen years he died at Ravenna on the Adriatic coast, • where his body was

buried in the Church' of his own loved . St. 7 " Francis of

Assisi. ; "Ungrateful Florence," sings Byron, "Dante sleeps afar."

Beatrice

When* Dante was nine years old he first met Beatrice, the subject of his poems, who was then beginning her ninth year, and his yOufig,- affectionate, and guileless heart was captivated by her childish charms. She was clothedhe tells us in his Vita Nuova —in a most noble color, a subdued and decorous crimson, girdled and adorned in such wise as was suitable to her most youthful age. Thenceforth love swayed his soul and often times commanded him to seek to behold this youngest angel: "Wherefore," he says, "I, in my boyhood, many times sought her out, and saw her so noble and laudable in bearing that she appeared the offspring not of mortal man but of a god." His love for Beatrice continued throughout his life, but "it was a love purified, idealised, transfigured, spiritualised. She was to him the embodiment of all that is pure, tender, and noble in woman, and she exercised over him an influence for good as he himself admits. The sight of Beatrice praying in church awakened Dante's fervor. He would stand by the way awaiting her, but, though, he saw her and was satisfied they never actually met. On one occasion and one orly did she deign to recognise him and to salute him when his joy knew no bounds.

"When she appeared a sudden flame of charity was. enkindled within me which made me pardon all and have; no more enemies. j When she was about to salute me a spirit of love annihilated all other sensitive spirits, leaving strength to those of sight alone. And one who wished to know what it is to love, would have learned by seeing all my limbs tremble. Then, —(and here's his happy moment) then, at the moment when that noble lady bowed her head to greet me, nothing could veil the dazzling brightness which filled my sight: I stood as if stricken by an unendurable beatitude."

In his Vita Nuova he has sung of Beatrice and her many virtues, thus:.

"Now will I tell you of her excellence. I say then that the lady who would show

True gentleness should walk with her; for when She moves, love casts o'er vulgar hearts a chill, Which freezes and destroys their every thought, And he whom love permits to see her long A thing ennobled will become, or die.

He never seems to have sought her in marriage nor is there any reason to believe that she was aware of the pure deep love she had inspired in the heart of our poet. She married another: Dante married too. Beatrice died at the early age of 24. In various sonnets he sings of her death and in his own self-confidence, and with a conviction of his own ability he resolves, if he be spared, to sing of her in such a manner as has yet never been sung of any other woman. He fulfilled his resolution in the Divino. Commedia. The Vita Nuova was the work of his unripe years, but after the death of Beatrice he applied himself seriously to study and especially to the study of philosophy of which he becomes enamoured, and which he studies as he tells us himself "in the schools of the religious" from the clergy. This philosophy he personifies: She is a lady, the noble daughter of the universe to whom Pythagoras gave the name of Philosophy. This study now became his joy and consolation. It was the comfort of his soul and he found in it a remedy for his tears, so that every other thought was expelled and destroyed.

Dante's Pride

At long last, aftter many years of exile the Florentine authorities decided to permit him to return to the city of his heart and earnest longings, but only on condition of the payment of a fine \ and an admission of guilt, but the proud Alighieri, noble in his praise-worthy pride refused these base stipulations—and he reminds us forcibly of another noble soul across the Tasman sea—he, too, banished from the land of his birth by autocratic ascendency, and who* spurned the conditions laid down for his entry into Ireland, preferring "not to see ■ Ireland rather > than to sell

her." "If by no honorable means," says Dante, "an entrance be found into Florence, then I will never return" "Nunquam : revertai^—wlmt !—Can* I not from any corner of the earth behold the sun and star." He died, as I said before, at;, Ravenna of fever, in his 57th year, after having received all the Sacraments of the Church with humility and devotion as his biographer Boccaccio tells: Ogni Ecclesiastico Sacramento umilmente e con devozione ricevuto." His ashes lie at Ravenna safe-guarded for centuries by the humble followers of the gentle Francis of Assisi of whom he so sweetly sings in Paradise. •

Florence has endeavored as late as 1864 to gain possession of Dante's remains, but in —ungrateful Florence, Dante sleeps afar.

These simple Latin lines are inscribed upon his tomb:

Sic claudor Dante's patriis extorris ab oris Quern genuit parvi Florentia mater amoris.

Here I am enclosed, Dante, exiled from my native land Whom Florence bore, the mother that did little love him.

But in the church of Santa Croce, the mausoleum of Florence's greatest sons, a monument stands to Dante's memory, with the inscription impressive in its simplicity:

Onorate Vaitissimo poeta.

"Do honor to the all high poet."

( A True Catholic

We may now inquire what Dante's attitude was towards religion.' Of course he professed to be a Catholic, he died a Catholic with all the rites of the Church, but was he orthodox in his beliefs? , Did he sincerely hold to the doctrines as taught by the Catholic Church? There are those who, jealous of his greatness, endeavor to wrest and twist passages of his writings as they do the scriptures to make his words fit in with their own prejudiced and preconceived opinions, but apart from the more obscure and difficult passages which bear various interpretations we are fortunate in numerous and unambiguous verses which ' unquestionably prove not only his orthodoxy, but his sincere, devout childlike spirit of Catholicity and his unwaver- / ing attachment to the See of Peter and to Peter's successors. If he sees blemishes in the ecclesiastics of his day, and no one doubts that these existed even in high places, Dante deplores and condemns them, but he is careful always to distinguish between the office the individual holds and the person occupying that office. He respects the Ecclesiastical office, above all the chair of Peter, but he scathingly rebukes the one who would degrade it. Much of his denunciation owes its origin to political differences, for, as he disliked the French, so he strongly disapproved of the friendly relations that existed, at times, between the Popes and the French kings. Much, again, of his invective may be traced to a wrong understanding of history, as. when he condemns Pope Anastasius II as guilty of heresy' but whose orthodoxy is recognised now, by Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Dante was an Irishman in this sense at least, that while he unhesitatingly took his religion from Rome, he as uncompromisingly refused to take his politics.

He shows little sympathy for those who deny the teachings of the Church in matters of faith, for he places them very early in his poem in hell's sixth circle buried there in red-hot ovens. A few of these heretics he mentions by name, and the dogmas they denied, such as the- immortality of the soul. He had held heresy in such horror that if he saw it even in a Pope, in his private capacity of course, he would not hesitate to place him among the damned.

Let us - now take the teaching of the Church in detail and as expounded by Dante. Adam was created by God, formed/by Him out of the slime of the earth. He is to Dante the man who was • never born, our first father. 1 He was created and endowed -.. with original justice, and his soul was so beautiful ;- and rich in grace . that ■ God was enamored with '-\ the work his hands had formed.v" This

doctrine' of original innocence, of original sin, man's fall and sin's transmission, is sung in Purgatorio xxviii.— «

The Sovereign Good, sole source of oui; own peace, Made man sublime and gave him this high seat, An earnest of the joy that ne'er -shall cease.

Not long man stayed there, through his foul defeat, By his own fault he into toil and woe

Changed laughter innocent and past time sweet.

The doctrine of the Freedom of the Will, on which many a heretic has stumbled, is thus poetically described in Paradiso v.—

The gift which from our Maker's bounty flows N Most precious, most- resembling His own good

And that for winch the most regard He shows Is liberty of will, a .gift bestowed

On creatures who possess intelligence,

For they and only they.are so endowed.

And as the greatest gift of —of course in the order of nature — freedom of the ill, so the greatest sacrifice a human creature can make is to bind himself by a vow and make a sacrifice of his will's liberty. And here the theologian poet takes occasion to expatiate on the vows of the Church and taken by her 'religious. He dwells on the conditions necessary for valid vows, for their dispensation, and permutation, and hastens to assure his readers that all these things are subject to the ecclesiastical authorities. In reading this treatise of his on vows one would imagine to-be attending a lecture in the theological halls of Mosgiel College. The Church to him is the sj)ouse of Christ. "Whom He espoused and with His blessed blood poured forth, did bind secure and faithful as His plighted bride." She is, Peter's barque succored by St. Francis and St. Dominic in perilous times. - .

Think now what colleague ought to hold the helm Of Peter's barque with him (viz. St. F.), when on her way O'er the high seas which threatened to overwhelm.

Paradiso X1.,31.

The Church, in fine, it to Dante infallible. ''The holy Church that cannot speak a lie." La Santa Chicsa che non puo dvi menzogna.

Faithful to Rome

His veneration, respect for, and his attachment, and obedience to Rome and the Chair of Peter; his belief in the supremacy of the Sovereign Pontiffs, who, he attests,. •are Peter's successors . are found, scattered broadcast throughout »the pages, of his works. Rome is the city of. Peter's successor and Peter received the keys.

U'sicde il successor del maggio.r Piero,

"Where reigns the successorof the great St. Peter."

In the realm of purgatory, Dante met a shade and questioned him his name. The shade replied: "Understand that It was the successor of St. Peter." Seias quod ego fui successor Petri. It was Adrian V, and immediately hearing this, Dante, out of respect for the supreme keys, falls upon his knees before the Pontiff, as one of us would to-day before the person of Benedict XV in the throneroom of the Vatican palace.

In fact," the foundation of Rome, and its mighty Empire were in the Providence of the Almighty, ordained with a view to Rome one day being the See of the Popes and the holy city, like unto -heaven, itself another where Christ Himself is Roman. v

. E sarai meco, senza fine che . .'/,. Di quella Roma, onde Christoc Romano.

Purgatorio XXXII., 102.

\' The Pope, with Dante, is ever the Vicar of Christ, no matter what one may think of his private, life, ho matter how Dante may dislike his political views. Though he entertained' little love for Boniface VIII as a private individual, for he thought him a' party to his exile, yet, when this Pope 'was brutally assaulted, and .imprisoned at Anagni, by Philip the Fair of France, Dante, the poet I, ....:.■:. , '■ V. \

of the Chair of Peter, forgets his personal feelings towards Boniface and sees in the ill-treatment of the Pontiff the Passion of Christ repeated in the person of His Vicar i

Entering Alagna I see the fieur-de-lys, And in His Vicar Christ again o'erthrown A captive and enduring mockery: ~

With vinegar and gall, betwixt a pair » Of robbers murdered Sim, I see.;'•

These are but a few instances culled here and there, more or less at random, to show what Dante's opinions were regarding the Church and its Supreme Head, the Roman Pontiff, and . they\r# sufficient to convince any unbiassed mind that he sincerely reverenced, loved and believed in the Catholic Church, her infallibility, and the supremacy of the Roman Pontiff.

No subject, perhaps, receives more mention in the Vivina Commedia. than prayers for the dead. Throughout Purgatory we find the shades begging him to remember them when ho returns to the v upper light, the world of the living. King Manfred dies under censure of the Church, but repents of his contumacy and is saved at the last moment by the mercy of God. He explains to the poet how those who die in enmity with the Church, even though saved, must dwell on the threshold of Purgatory 30 years for every year of their disobedience to the Church; unless, he adds, the prayers of the living—and they, he. says—are very 'helpful—abbreviate the time.' , i

The Sacrament of Penance is ; dealt with in his Purgatorio under an allegory. An angel symbolising the Catholic priest, sits with drawn sword at the entrance to* the real Purgatory, the sword being figurative ,of Divine Justice. The three steps leading up to the door, which represents the Sacrament of Penance itself, are types or figures of the threefold requisites on the part of the penitent.—viz., Contrition, Confession, and Satisfaction. The first step is of limpid, translucent white marble, or the heart truly contrite and brilliant in. God; sanctifying grace, the second step, a stone of inky purple, rough and calcined, split both lengthwise and athwart, represents by its inky color the oral confession which reveals secrets hidden in the darkness of the heart and rends asunder the stubborn pride of man. The third step is of porphyry, as flaming red as blood that spurts forth from a vein. Come sangue chc fuor di vena spiccia: and it symbolises the burning- ardent charity that urges the penitent soul to penance and to the works of satisfaction imposed by the priest. ',

I am compelled to omit for the sake of brevity, his references to Baptism solely remarking that he places the unbaptised in "Limbo. I pass over in silence his doctrine oh the mysteries of the Incarnation and the Redemption, all in conformity with the Church's teaching.

Then there is his veneration of images. He had been to Rome for the jubilee of 1300 and had seen Veronica's towel with the imprint if Our Lord's countenance, and he speaks of it thus:

Like one, perhaps, who from Croatia, strayed Our Veronica hither comes to see

Whose ancient fame,' long as it is displayed Makes him insatiate, so that inwardly He says: "My Lord, Christ Jesus, the true God, Was this your form and aspect really." /

I pass over also his veneration for the saints and the many beautiful lines he has written in his Paradiso of St. Francis, St. Dominic, St. Bonaventure, St. Bernard, and others, but I cannot omit without doing an. injustice to Alighieri his sweet references and hymns in honor of the Saint of Saints the Virgin Mother of God. • \

Dante and Our Lady

\ No poet has sung of Mary as Dante has. No theologian, no* Doctor of the Church, no mystic writer has risen to such lofty heights and has written in such sublime, tender, .and loving words 6f Mary's virtues, Mary's privileges, and Mary's glory in heaven as Dante Alighieri. The Madonna is all in all to Dante—Mary is the name, he invokes both morn and night - - v '"V '")•'-■■) ~ ; . ' " ...■ \

■: r -The name of that f airj' flower; which). I" invoke HI Both morn, and evening ever..- I ; - ' v V

II nome del bel fi'or, ch'io sempre invoco E nyane e sera. > : *\

Her humility, her charity, her mercy, her loveliness inspire his mind and enflame his heart and make him burst forth in song rapturous in its sweetness, touching in its tenderness, unsurpassed in its childlike affection towards the Mother of God. V

Buonconte dies with the name of Mary on his lips and he is saved. Mary's name re-echoes throughout the prisonhouse of Purgatory. Maria ora pro nobis —"For us, 0 Mary, pray," call out the souls. Her virtues are the contemplation of the holy souls.' Her humility in the Annunciation is : set before the proud to reflect upon. To those who knew no charity in this life blessed spirits are whispering the charitable lesson of Mary at the marriage feast xinum non habent her patience in the three days' loss is set before the wrathful, the slothful admire her task in the Visitation; the sensual her angelic, virginal purity.

.Dolce Maria, sweet name of Mary, re-echoes throughout the circles of Purgatory: *.

By chance I heard amidst their wail who grieved "Sweet Mary," right before us cried, as one In pangs of travail cries to be relieved.

But if Alighieri has sung of Mary's virtues so attractively and feelingly in Purgatory, he has surpassed himself when singing of her glory in heaven. There Dante guided by St. Bernard, the Abbot of Clairvaux~ is permitted to gaze upon the heavenly and smiling countenance of Mary who fills with joy indescribable the myriad of spirits who surround her, . and whose effulgence dims the splendor of the other blessed inhabitants of heaven. Mary sits supreme in the heavenly session of the blessed with St. Peter and St. John the Evangelist on' her right hand. On her left Adam and Moses, the holy. women of the Old Testament, the Doctors and Fathers of the Church, and the children who although baptised have died before the use of reason, with their baptismal innocence untarnished.

St. Bernard recommends our poet to gaze intently into the countenance of Mary, the most like in splendor to that of her Divine Son, for her glory alone will render him capable of gazing without being dazed upon the divine effulgence of her Son:

Now look thou on the face which that of Christ Resembles most, for in- her aspect bright Alone shalt thou find strength to gaze on Christ.

Then on her saw I showered such great delight Ecstatic, which those holy beings bore Created to fly, through that ample height, That whatsoever I had seen before

So much of wonderful ne'er puzzled me, Nor, to my view, of God such likeness wore. That angel who descended formerly,

And sweetly sung—Hail Mary, full of grace " His wings outspread before her piously The blessed court, from every several place An answer "made to that sweet song divine So that still more serene became each face.

And now in the presence of Mary and the whole host of heaven, standing by his side, Dante puts upon the lips of St. Bernard the most beautiful hymn of praise and intercession that has yet been penned by any Christian writer, beseeching herthe heavenly Queen —to guard his protegee who is still of the living world and to save him from the allurements ,of his frail human nature: \

Vergine madre figlia del tuo Figlio Vmile ed alta piu che creatura, etc.

Such, ladies and gentlemen, are the sentiments, in brief, of Dante Alighieri on the doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church, sentiments different from those of devout Catholics to-day only in j this that they ' are more ardent, more devout, .more filial than those of many, and if-in these readings of the poet the < non-Catholic is able to descry or discover anj indication of Dante's tendencies towards the new religion of the 16th; century, x he-must in

truth be deemed a clever example of one who distorts words and sentences from their literal and* obvious meaning. On the contrary if those who would claim him'as a forerunner of the Reformation admit the natural interpretation of the passages quoted as they must and are pleased with them, "Let them," as Ozanam says, "speak in like manner and at this rallying word the south and north will exchange salutations; the doctors from London and Berlin will meet at the gates of Rome; the Vatican will enlarge its porticos for the accommodation of the reconciled generations and in the joy occasioned by a universal alliance, will be realised the prophecy inscribed on the obelisk of St. Peter's: "Xtus vincitj Xtus regnal, Xtus imperat Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands. •" . '

At the close of the lecture the Bishop called on Dr. Kelly to propose a vote of thanks. In a brief speech which laid emphasis on what Dante owed to Celtic inspiration, Dr. Kelly expressed his gratitude to Father Buckley for the admirable lecture which they had just heard, and said he was sure he was speaking for all present when he said it was a real intellectual treat of a kind that only comes our way too rarely.

The Bishop in seconding the vote of thanks referred to Dante's wonderful learning and to his central place in history, and above all to his Catholic spirit and his sound knowledge of theology. The worth of the poet was shown by the fact that afijer all those years the Pope sent out a special Encyclical inviting the whole world to join in doing honor to the great Florentine. His Lordship called upon the audience to pass the vote of thanks with unanimous applause.

ST. VINCENT DE PAUL JUNIOR SEWING GUILD, DUNEDIN

The Dominican Nuns' pupils' St. Vincent de Paul Work Guild held their first meeting at St. Dominic's Priory 'on Friday afternoon, September 16, when the following office-bearers were elected: —Treasurer, Nancy Spiers; secretary, Mabel Dowdall; wardrobe-keeper, Gladys Nicholson. The work was commenced with great enthusiasm, and the young workers gave evidence of much earnestness and desire to be worthy of their motto Fide et labore.

The second meeting was held the following Week, when his Lordship the Bishop', Right Rev. Dr. Whyte (patron of the guild), and Very Rev. Father Coffey (chaplain) were present. His Lordship briefly addressed the girls, remind? ing them of the nobleness of the work they had undertaken, and of the high motives.which should animate them in all their labors. i

For the past two Sundays the members of the guild have, under the nuns' direction, conducted Christian Doctrine classes for the benefit of the children attending public schools in the city. They are assisted in this branch of the work by members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, who, in their work of visiting, come into touch with children in the instruction of whom these classes are of incalculable benefit. On both occasions the attendance/has been satisfactory, .there being a noticeable increase .iirnumbers last Sunday. x "■"' ~.."'• ."'