FRIENDS AT COURT

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 7, 25 February 1925, Page 3

FRIENDS AT COURT

> GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK’S sOi CALENDAR. sferch 1, Sun. — Sunday of Lent. 7s, 2, Mon. —Of the Feria. 3, Tues.Of the Feria. ~ .4, Wed.St, Casimir, Confessor. Ember Day. Abstinence. £.\ „ 5, Thurs. —Of the Feria. f? ~ 6, Frid. —SS. Perpetua and Felicitas, - Martyrs, Ember Day. Abif, stinence. ‘ ~ 7, Sat.—St. Thomas of Aquin, Confessor and Doctor. Ember Day. Fast, no abstinence, ft • f St. Casimir, Confessor. St. Casimir (Prince of Poland), Confessor, was horn in the royal palace at Cracow, in 1458, and died at the court of Grodno on March 4, 1484. He was the grandson of ~ Wladislaus 11. Jagiello, King of Poland, who introduced Christianity into Lithuania. St. Casimir was possessed of great charm of person and character, and was noted particularly for his justice and chastity. Often at night he would kneel for hours before locked doors of churches, regardless of the hour or the inclemency of the weather. He had a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and the hymn of St. Bernard of dairvaux, Omni die die Maria mea laudes anima was long attributed to him. After his death he was venerated as a- saint because of the miracles wrought by him. He was canonised by Pope Adrian VI in 1522. Pope Clement VIII named March 4 as his feast. St. Casimir is patron of Poland and Lithuania. 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 Gassino. 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 i talents, he became the glory, not merely of his Order, but of the whole 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 summoned by Gregory X. All Catholic schools were placed under his special patronage by the late Pope Leo XIII.