November 20 — Saint Felix

Joanne de Matha Parisiensi doctore, a quo ex divina inspiratione quaesitus et inventus, per aliquot annos sanctissime vixit; donee ambo per Angelum a Deo admoniti Romam petierunt, specialem a Summo Pontilice vivendi regulam impetraturi. Facta igitur Innocentio Papae tertio inter Missarum solemnia revelatione religionis et instituti de redimendis captivis, ab ipso Pontifice, simul cum socio, candidis vestibus bicolori cruce signatis induitur, ad earn formam qua Angelus indutus apparuit : et insuper voluit Pontifex, ut nova religio juxta triplicem colorem, quo habitus constat, sanctissimae Trinitatis titulo decoraretur.

Regula propria ex Summi Pontificis Innocentii confirmatione accepta, in dioecesi Meldensi apud locum, qui Cervus Frigidus dicitur, primum ordinis paulo ante a so et socio exstructum ccenobium ampliavit, ubi religiosam observantiam, et Redemptionis institutum mirifice coluit, ac indo per alumnos in alias provincias diligentissime propagavit. Illustrem hie a beata Virgine Matre f avorem accepit : dormientibus siquidem cunctis fratribus, et ad matutinas preces in pervigilio Na- tinence, but enjoying an abundance of heavenly gifts and graces. There he was joined by John of Matha, a Parisian doctor, who had been inspired by God to seek him ; and they lived together in a most holy manner for some years. God then sent an Angel, who bade them go to Rome and obtain a special rule of life from the Sovereign Pontiff. Pone Innocent TTT . received, during solemn Mass, a revelation concerning the religious Order to be instituted for the ransom of captives ; and he himself clothed Felix and John in a white habit with a red and blue cross, such as was worn by the Angel who had appeared. Moreover the Pontiff determined that on account of the three colours of the habit, the new Order should bear the name of the most holy Trinity.

Upon receiving the confirmation of their rule from Pope Innocent, Felix returned to Cerfroid, in the diocese of Meaux, and enlarged the first convent of the Order, which he and his companion had built there shortly before. There he caused religious observance and the work of ransom to flourish; and he diligently propagated the Order by sending disciples into other provinces. In this place he was favoured with a remarkable grace by the blessed Virgin Mary. On the vigil of the Nativity of the Mother of

TIME AFTEH PBNTECOST. tivitatis Deiparae media nocte recitandas, Deo sic disponente, non surgentibus, Felix de more vidians, et horas praeveniens, chorum ingressus, reperit beatam Virginem in medio chori habitu cruce ordinis insigpito indutam, ac ccelitibus similiter indutis sociatam. Quibus permixtus Felix, prsecinente Dei par a, laudes divinas concinuit, riteque persolvit. Et quasi jam a terrestri ad coelestem chorum evocaretur, instantis mortis ab Angelo certior factus, filios ad caritatem erga pauperes et captivos adnortans, animam Deo reddidit, setate ac meritis consummatus, anno post Christum natum ducentesimo duodecimo supra millesimum, sub eodem Pontifice Innocentio tertio.

God, while the brethren, God so disposing, remained asleep instead of rising at midnight for Matins, Felix who was watching according to his custom before the appointed hour, entered the church, and found the blessed Virgin in the middle of the choir, clad in the habit and cross of the Order, and surrounded by Angels in the same attire. Felix joined them, and the Mother of God having intoned the Office, he sang the divine praises with them even to the end. Then, as if calling him from the choir of earth to that of heaven, an Angel informed him that his death was at hand. He exhorted his sons to love of the poor and of captives; and gave up his soul to God, full of days and of merits, in the year of our Lord 1212, in the pontificate of the said Innocent III.

Felix, happy lover of charity, teaoh us the worth, and also the nature, of this queen of virtues. It was she that attracted thee into solitude in pursuit of her divine Object ; and when thou hadst learnt to find God in himself, she showed him to thee and taught thee to love him in thy brethren. Is not this the secret which makes love become strong as death, and daring enough, as in the case of thy sons, to defy hell itself? May this love inspire us with every sort of devotedness; may it ever remain the excellent portion of thy holy Order, leading it to adapt itself to every new requirement, in a society where the worst kind of slavery, under a thousand forms, reigns supreme.

Novembbr'^21.

THE PRESENTATION OP THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART.

The Presentation is one of the minor solemnities of our Lady, and was inscribed at a comparatively late date on the saored Oyole ; it seems to oourt the homage of our silent contemplation. The world, unknown to itself, is ruled by the seoret prayers of the just ; and the Queen of saints, in her hidden mysteries, wrought far more powerfully than the so-called great men, whose noisy achievements fill the annals of the human race.

The East had been celebrating for seven centuries at least 1 the entrance of the Mother of God into the temple of Jerusalem, 2 when in 1372 Gregory XI. permitted it to be kept for the first time 3 by the Roman oourt at Avignon. Mary in return broke the chains of captivity, that had bound the Papacy for seventy years; and soon the successor of St. Peter returned to Rome. The feast of the Visita-

1 Pitra, Analecta sacra Spicilegio Solesmensi parata, i. 275.

2 Mensea, ad diem hanc. 3 Le Blant in N°. 542 A de la Gaule, N°. 433.

This is to be understood only of the feast properly so called ; for the marble of Berre, reproduced by of Inscriptions chretiennes proves that the fact of Mary's sojourn in the temple of Jerusalem was recognized and honoured in the West in the fifth century. See Plate 72 of tine same work,

TIME AFTER PENTECOST. tion, as we saw on July 2 nd , was in like manner inserted in the Western Calendar, to commemorate the re-establishment of unity after the schism whioh followed the exile.

In 1373, following the example of the Sovereign Pontiff, Charles V. of France introduced the feast of the Presentation into the chapel of his palace. By letters dated 10 th November 1374, to the masters and students of the college of Navarre, he expressed his desire that it should be celebrated throughout the kingdom : " Charles, by the grace of God king " of the Franks, to our dearly beloved : health in " him who ceases not to honour his Mother on earth. " Among other objects of our solicitude, of our daily " care and diligent meditation, that which rightly " occupies our first thoughts is, that the blessed " Virgin and most holy Empress be honoured by us " with very great love, and praised as becomes the " veneration due to her. For it is our duty to glorify " her ; and we, who raise the eyes of our soul to her " on high, know what an incomparable protectress " she is to all, how powerful a mediatrix with her " blessed Son, for those who honour her with a pure

" heart Wherefore, wishing to excite our faith-

" ful people to solemnize the said feast, as we our- " selves propose to do by God's assistance every year " of our life, we send this Office to your devotion, " in order to increase your joy." 1

Such was the language of princes in those days. Now just at that very time, the wise and pious king, following up the work begun at Br£tigny by our Lady of Chartres, rescued France from its fallen and dismembered condition. In the State then, as well as in the Church, at this moment so critical for both, our Lady in her Presentation commanded the storm,

1 Launoy, Historia Nayarrae gymnasii, Pars I. lib. i. cap* 10.