NEW YEAR S TIDE. 



JAN. 4. St. Titus, disciple of St. Paul. 

 St. Gregory Bp. of Langres. 

 St, Rigobert Bp. 

 St. Rumond of Eno-land. 



'&• 



Obs. St. Titus was born a gentile, and was converted by St. 

 Paul the apostle, who styles him his brother and partner in his 

 labours. In a.d. 51 he accompanied him to the Council held 

 at Jerusalem on the subject of the JMosaic rites. He died at a 

 very advanced age in Crete, and his remains are held in great vene- 

 ration in the cathedral of Gortyna the antient capital of that island. 



Pollux rises achronycally in N.E. 



Hazel Corylus avellana flowers. 



The hazel is frequently found in blossom or in catkin on this day ; 

 its pendent greenish blossoms hanging all the early spring from its 

 naked boughs. In the dedication of plants to diff-rent saints, a 

 relique of antient British piety, this shrub is styled The Bush of St. 

 Titus. 



Both the filbert and the cobnut are varieties of the hazel, and 

 produce their nuts about the same time, that is from about St. 

 Bartholomewtide to Martinmas. 



The hazel nut reminds us of the following aspiration : 

 As the hardest nutshells have oftentimes the sweetest kernels ; as 

 the tenderest love is often the most difficult of approach ; as the 

 warmest friendship has frequently the crudest exterior; so is the 

 sweetest unction of divine grace envellopped in the severest cover- 

 ing of penance. Embrace therefore with thy ferv'ent hands, O 

 Virgin Hierophila, now in thy noviciate, rather than trample with the 

 feet of disdain the veil which separates the troubled air of a vain 

 world from the kernel of conventual peace. Xor liken thyself unto 

 a foolish maiden that crushed the shell in hastie impatience of its 

 hardness and destroys therewith the interior repast. 



Floril. Sanct. Asp. iiij. 



