Prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas
{To he said before study or class)
O MERCIFUL God, grant that I may eagerly desire, carefully search out, truthfully acknowledge, and ever perfectly fulfil all things which are pleasing to Thee, to the praise and glory of Thy name. Amen.
Indulgence of 300 days, each time. — Leo XIII, June 21, 1879.
A Novena in Honor of St. Philomena, Virgin and Martyr
The Little Wonder-Worker of Our Own Times
FOR close on a hundred years the name of St. Philomena has been accorded in the Church a veneration which, growing intensified by the number of miracles vouchsafed through her intercession, has spread over the whole world. Previous to the discovery of her tomb and relics at the opening of the nineteenth century, her name had found no place in sacred story. There is a pious tradition that she was a child-martyr and a contemporary of St. Sebastian, who suffered in the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian about the year of Our Lord 286.
The Catacomb of St. Priscilla, outside the walls of Rome, lies beneath the Via Salaria Nova. Here, in the pontificate of Pius VII, a remarkable slab attracted the custodians of the cemetery, who were then prosecuting investigations there, and on the 25th of May, 1802, the tomb was formally examined. On the tiles that enclosed it, the following inscription was read: "Philomeiia Pax Tecum." The devices which were interwoven with these simple words — an anchor, an arrow, and a palm — determined the spot as the last resting place of a martyr. The tomb was opened by Monsignor Ludovici, who disclosed to the gaze of his assistants and bystanders the precious
