August 26 — Pope and Martyr

Zephyrinus was the first Pontiff to be buried in the celebrated crypt where the Popes of the third century oame after their combat to sleep their last sleep. The catacomb which thus succeeded the Vatican cemetery in the honour of sheltering the vicars of Christ, had been opened thirty years before by the virgin martyr Crocilia. As, when at the point of death, she had consecrated her palace into a church, so now from her tomb she caused her family burialplace to pass into the hands of the Church. This gift of the Ceecilii was the inauguration, in the very faoe of the pagan government, of common Church property officially recognized by the State. Zephyrinus entrusted the administration of the now cemetery to the person who ranked next to himself in the Roman Church, viz: the archdeacon Callixtus. The holy Pontiff witnessed the growth of heresy concerning the Unity of God and the Trinity of the divine Persons ; without the help of the special vocabulary, which was later on to fix even the very terms of theologioai teaching, he knew how to silenoe both the Sabellians to whom the Trinity was but a name, and the precursors of Arius, who revenged themselves by reviling him. 1

Zephyrinus Romanus Se- Zephyrinus, a Roman by vero imperatore ad regen- birth, was chosen to govern the

1 fhilosophumena. Lib. ix,

SAINT ZEPHYKINUS dam Ecclesiam assumptus, sancivit, ut qui ordinandi essent, opportuno tempore et multis praesentibus clericis et laicis, de more sacris initiarentur; doctique ac spectatae vitae homines ad id officii mnnus deligerentur. Decrevit praeterea, ut rem divinam facienti episcopo sacerdotes omnes astarent. Idem instituit ut patriarcha, primas, metropolitans adversus episcopum non f erant sententiam, nisi apostolica auctoritate fulti. Vixit in pontificatu annos decern et octo, dies decern et octo. Habuit ordinationes quatuor mense decembri, quibus creavit presbyteros tredecim, diaconos septem, episcopos per diversa loca tredecim. Antonino imperatore martyrio coronatus est, et sepultus via Appia prope coemeterium Callisti, septimo calendas septembri.

Church during the reign of the emperor Severus. He ordained that, according to custom, Holy Orders should be conferred on candidates at a fitting time and in presence of many both clergy and laity; and also that learned and worthy men should be chosen for that dignity. Moreover he decreed that when the bishop was offering the holy Sacrifice, he should be assisted by all the priests. He also ordained that neither patriarch, nor primate, nor metropolitan might condemn a bishop without the authority of the apostolic See. His pontificate lasted eighteen years and eighteen days. In four ordinations which he held in the month of December, he ordained thirteen priests, seven deacons, and thirteen bishops for divers places. He was crowned by martyrdom under the emperor Antoninus, and was buried on the Appian Way, near the cemetery of Callixtus, on the seventh of the Calends of September.

Viotor I was the Pontiff of the Pasch; and thou also, his successor, wast devoured by the zeal of Grod's house, to maintain and increase the regularity, the dignity, and the splendour of the divine worship on earth. In heaven the court of the Conqueror of death gained, during thy pontificate, many noble members, such as Ireneeus, Perpetua, and the countless martyrs who triumphed in the persecution of

TIME AFTER PKNTEC08T

Septimus Severus. In the midst of dangerous snares thou wast the divinely assisted guardian of the truth, whom our Lord had promised to His Church. Thy fidelity was rewarded by the increasing advancement of the hride of Jesus, and by the definitive establishment of her foothold upon the world which she is to gain over wholly to her Spouse. We shall meet thee again in October, in company with Callixtus, who is now thy deacon, but will then, in his turn, be vicar of the Man-God. To-day give us thy paternal blessing ; and make us ever true sons of St. Peter.

4 To thee is the poor man left: thou wilt be a helper to the orphan.' 1 Proud Venice has already seen these words realized in her noble son Jerome JSmilian : to-day they indicate the sanctity of another illustrious person, descended from the first princes of Navarre, but of still higher rank in the kingdom of oharity.

God, who waters the trees of the field as well as the cedars of Libanus, because it is He that planted them all, takes care also of the little birds that dp

August 27

SAINT JOSEPH CALASANCTIUS confessor

»Ps. ix. 14.

SAINT JOSEPH CALASAHCTIUS

$5 not gather into barns: will He then forget the child, who is of much more value than the birds of the air P Or will He give him corporal nourishment, and neglect the soul hungering for the bread of the knowledge of salvation, which strengthens the heart of man? In the sixteenth century one might have been tempted to think our heavenly Father's granaries were empty. True, the holy Spirit soon raised up new saints ; but the reviving charity was insufficient for the number of the destitute; how many poor children, especially, were without schools, deprived of the most elementary education which is indispensable to the fulfilment of their obligations, and to their nobility as ohildren of God: and there was no one to break to them the bread of knowledge!

More fortunate than so many other countries overrun with heresy, Spain was at her apogee, enjoying the hundredfold promised to those who seek first the kingdom of God. She seemed to have beoome our Lord's inexhaustible resource. A little while ago she had given Ignatius Loyola to the world ; she had just enriched heaven by the preoious death of Teresa of Avila, when the Holy Ghost drew once more from her abundance to add to the riches of the capital of the Christian world, and to supply the wants of the little ones in God's Church.

The descendant of the Calasanz of Petralta de la Sal was already the admired apostle of Aragon, Catalonia, and Castille, when he heard a mysterious voice speaking to his soul: ' Go to Rome ; go forth from the land of thy birth ; soon shall appear to thee, in her heavenly beauty, the oompanion destined for thee, holy poverty, who now calls thee to taste of her austere delights ; go, without knowing whither I am leading thee ; I will make thee the father of an immense family ; I will show thee all that thou must suffer for My name's sake. 9

Forty years of blind fidelity, in unoonsoious sanctity, had prepared the elect of heaven for his sublime vocation. 4 What can be greater,' asks St. John Chrysostom, * than to direct the souls and form the characters of children P Indeed I oonsider him greater than any painter or sculptor, who knows now to fashion the souls of the young.' 1 Joseph understood the dignity of his mission: during the remaining fifty-two years of his life he, according to the recommendations of the holy Dootor, considered nothing mean or despicable in the servioe of the little ones ; nothing oost him dear if only it enabled him, by the teaohing of letters, to infuse into the innumerable children who came to him the fear of the Lord. From St. Pantaleon, his residence, the Pious sohools soon oovered the whole of Italy, spread into Sicily and Spain, and were eagerly sought by kings and people in Moravia, Bohemia, Poland, and the northern countries.

Eternal Wisdom associated Calasanotius to her own work of salvation on earth. She rewarded him for his labours as she generally does her privileged ones, by giving him a strong confliot, that he might overoome, and know that wisdom is mightier than all. 2 It is a conflict like that of Jacob at the ford of Jaboo which represents the last obstacle to the entrance into the promised land, when all the pleasures and goods of the world have been sent on before by absolute renouncement; it is a confliot by night, wherein nature fails and becomes lame ; but it is followed by the rising of the sun, and sets the combatant at the entrance of eternal day ; it is a confliot with God hand to hand, under the appearance, it is true, of a man or of an angel ; but it matters little under what form God chooses to hide Himself, provided it takes

1 Somilia diet, ex Ghyri. in Matth. lx. * Wisd. x. 12.

SAINT JOSEPH CALASANCT1US nothing from His sovereign dominion. * Why dost thou ask my name?' said the wrestler to Jacob; * thine shall be henceforth Israel, strong against God.' 1

Our readers may consult the historians of Saint Joseph Calasanotius for the details of the trials which made him a prodigy of fortitude, as the Church calls him. 2 Through the calumnies of false brethren the saint was deposed, and the Order reduced to the condition of a secular congregation. It was not until after his death that it was re-established, first by Alexander VII, and then by Clement IX, as a Regular Order with solemn vows. In his great work on the Canonization of saints, Benedict XIV speaks at length on this subject, delighting in the part he had taken in the process of the servant of God, first as consistorial advocate, then as promoter of the faith, and lastly as Cardinal giving his vote in favour of the cause. We shall see in the lessons that it was he also that beatified him.

Let us now read the life of the founder of the Poor Regular Clerks of the Pious Schools of the Mother of God.

Josephus Calasanotius a Joseph Calasanotius of the

Matre Dei, Petralte in Ara- Mother of God was born of a gonia nobili genere natus, a noble family of Petralta in teneris annis futurae in pu- Aragon, and from his earliest eros caritatis et eorum in- years gave signs of his future stitutionis indicia praebuit. love for children and their

Nam adhuc parvulus eos ad education. For, when still a se convocatos in mysteriis little child, he would gather fidei et sacris precibus eru- other children round him and diebat. Humanis divinis- would teach them the myste- que litteris egregie doctus, lies of faith and holy prayer, cum studiis theologicis Va- After having received a good lentiae operam daret, nobilis education in the liberal arts potentisque feminae illece- and divinity, he went through

1 Gen. zzxiL 3 2nd lesson of the second Noctunu bris fortiter superatis, virginitatem quam Deo voverat, inoffensam insigni victoria servavit. Sacerdos ex voto factus, a corapluribus episcopis in Castellaa Novae, AragoniaB, et Catalauniae regnis in partem laboris ascitus, exspectationem omnium vicit, pravis ubique moribus emendatis, ecciesiastica disciplina restituta, inimicitiis cruentisque factionibus mirifice exstinctis. At coelesti visione et Dei voce frequenter admonitus, Eomam prof ectus est.

In urbe gumma vitas asperitate, vigiliis et jejuniis corpus affligens, in orationibus et coelestium rerum contemplatione dies noctesque versabatur, septem ejusdem Urbi ecclesias singulis fere noctibus obire solitus: quern inde morem complures annos servavit. Dato piis sodalitatibus nomine, mirum quanto ardore pauperes, infirmos potissimum, aut carceribusdetentos eleemosynis omnique pietatis officio sublevaret. Lue Urbem depopulante, una cum sancto Camillo, tanto fuit actus his theological studies at Valencia. Here he courageously overcame the seductions of a noble and powerful lady, and by a remarkable victory preserved unspotted his virginity which he had already vowed to God. He became a priest in fulfilment of a vow; and several bishops of New Castillo, Aragon, and Catalonia availed themselves of his assistance. He surpassed all their expectations, corrected evil living throughout the kingdom, restored ecclesiastical discipline, and was marvellously successful in putting an end to enmities and bloody factions. But urged by a heavenly vision, and after having been several times called by God, he went to Rome.

Here he led a life of great austerity; fasting and watching, spending whole days and nights in heavenly contemplation, and visiting the seven basilicas of the city almost every night. This last custom he observed for many years. He enrolled himself in pious associations, and with wonderful charity devoted himself to aiding and consoling the poor with alms and other works of mercy, especially those who were sick or imprisoned. When the plague was raging in Rome, he joined St. Camillu, and not content impetu caritatis, ut praeter subsidia aegrotis pauperibus large collata, ipsa etiam defunctorum cadavera suis humeris tumulanda transferret. Verum cum divinitus accepisset, se ad informandos intelligentiae ac pietatis spiritu adolescentulos, praecipue pauperes, destinari, Ordinem Clericorum regularium pauperum Matris Dei scholarum piarum fundavit, qui peculiarem curam circa puerorum eruditionem ex proprio instituto profiterentur: ipsumque Ordinem a Clemente octavo, a Paulo quinto, aliisque summis Pontificibus magnopere probatum, brevi tempore per plurimas Europae provincias et regna mirabUiter propagavit. In hoc autem tot labores perpessus est, ac tot aerumnas invicto animo toleravit, ut omnium voce miraculum f ortitudinis, et sancti Jobi exemplum diceretur.

Quamvis Ordini uni verso praeesset, totisque viribus ad animarum salutem incumberet, numquam tamen intermisit pueros, praesertim pauperiores, erudire, quorum scholas verrere, eosque domum comitari consuevit. In eo summae patientiae et humilitatis munere, valetudine etiam infirma, duos et quinquaginta annos perse- in his ardent zeal, with bestowing lavish care upon the sick poor, he even carried the dead to the grave on his own shoulders. But having been divinely admonished that he was called to educate children, especially those of the poor, in piety and learning, he founded the Order of the Poor Regular Clerks of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools, who are specially destined to devote themselves to the instruction of youth. This Order was highly approved by Clement YIIL, Paul V., and others of the Roman Pontiffs, and in a wonderfully short space of time it spread through many of the kingdoms of Europe. But in this undertaking Joseph had to undergo many sufferings and labours, and he endured them all with so much constancy, that every one proclaimed him a miracle of patience and another Job.

Though burdened with the government of the whole Order, he nevertheless devoted himself to saving souls, and moreover never gave over teaching children, especially those of the poorer class. He would sweep their schools and take them to their homes himself. For fifty-two years he persevered in this work, though it called upon him to veravit: dignus propterea, quern crebris Deus miraculis coram discipulis illustraret, et cui beatissima "Virgo cum puero Jesu, illis orantibus benedicente, appareret. Amplissimis interim dignitatibus repudiates, prophetia, abdita cordium et absentia cognoscendi donis et miraculis clams, Deiparae Virginis, quam singulari pietate et ipse ab infantia coluit, et suis maxime commendavit, aliorumque coelitum frequenti apparitione dignatus, cum obitus sui diem, et Ordinis tunc prope eversi restitutionem atque incrementum praenuntiasset, secundum et nonagesimum annum agens, Roma? obdormivit in Domino, octavo calendas septembris, anno millesimo sexcentesimo quadragesimo octavo. Ejus cor et lingua post saeculum integra et incorrupta reperta sunt. Ipse vero multis post obitum quoque signis a Deo illustratus, primum a Benedicto decimo quarto beatorum cultu decoratus fuit, ac deinde a Clemente decimo tertio inter sanctos solemniter est relatus. practise the greatest patience and humility, and although he suffered from weak health. God rewarded him by honouring him with many miracles in the presence of his disciples; and the blessed "Virgin appeared to him with the Infant Jesus who blessed his children while they were praying. He refused the highest dignities, but he was made illustrious by the gifts of prophecy, of reading the secrets of hearts, and of knowing what was going on in his absence. He was favoured with frequent apparitions of the citizens of heaven, particularly of the Virgin Mother of God, whom he had loved and honoured most especially from his infancy, and whose cultus he had most strongly recommended to his disciples. He foretold the day of his death and the restoration and propagation of his Order, which was then almost destroyed; and in his ninety-second year he fell asleep in our Lord, at Rome, on the eighth of the Calends of September, in the year 1648. A century later, his heart and tongue were found whole and incorrupt. God honoured him by many miracles after his death. Benedict XIV. granted him the henours of the blessed, and Clement XIII. solemnly enrolled him among the saints.

SAINT JOSEPH CAtASANCTIUS

The Lord hath heard the desires of the poor, 1 by making thee the depositary of His love, and putting on thy lips the words He Himself was the first to utter: 'Suffer the little children to come unto me.' 2 How many owe, and will yet owe, their eternal happiness to thee, 0 Joseph, beoause thou and thy sons have preserved in them the divine likeness received in Baptism, man's only title to heaven ! Be thou blessed for having justified the confidence Jesus placed in thee by entrusting to thy care those frail little beings, who are the objects of His divine predilection. Be thou blessed for having still further corresponded to that confidence of our Lord, when He suffered thee, like J ob, to be persecuted by satan, and with yet more cruel surprises than those of the just Idumaean. Must not God be able to count unfailingly upon those who are His ? Is it not fitting that, amidst the defections of this miserable world, He should be able to show His angels what grace can do in our poor nature, and how far His adorable will can be carried out in His saints ?

The reward of thy sufferings, which thy unwavering confidence expected from the Mother of God, came at the divinely appointed hour. 0 Joseph, now that the Pious Schools have been long ago re-established, bless the disciples whom even our age continues to give thee ; obtain for them, and for the countless scholars they train to Christian science, the blessing of the Infant Jesus. Give thy spirit and thy courage to all who devote their labours and. their life to the education of the young ; raise us all to the level of the teaching conveyed by thy heroic life.

1 Offertory from Ps. ix. 17. 2 Communion from St. Mark x. 14.

August 28 SAINT AUGUSTINE

BISHOP AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH

To-day Augustine, the greatest and the humblest of the Doctors, is hailed by heaven, where his conversion caused greater joy than that of any other sinner ; and celebrated by the Church, who is enlightened by his writings as to the power, the value, and the gratuitousness of divine graoe.

Since that wonderful, heavenly conversation at Ostia, 1 God had completed His triumph in the son of Monioa's tears and of Ambrose's holiness. Far away from the great oities where pleasure had seduoed him, the former rhetorician now cared only to nourish his soul with the simplicity of the Scriptures, in silence and solitude. But grace, after breaking the double ohain that bound his mind and his heart, was to have a still greater dominion over him ; the pontifioal consecration was to consummate Augustine's union with that divine Wisdom, whom alone he deolared he loved ' for her own sole sake, caring neither for rest nor life save on her account.' 2 From this height, to which the divine mercy had raised him, let us hear him pouring out his heart:

• Too late have I loved Thee, 0 Beauty so ancient and yet so new ! Too late have I loved Thee ! And behold Thou wast within me, and I, having wandered out of myself, sought Thee everywhere without. . . . I questioned the earth, and she answered me: "lam

1 See life of St. Monica, May 4, Paschal time Vol II. * Soliloqt. i. 22.