ST. PKTER S TIDE. 



181 



+ JUNE 29. SS. PETER and PAUL, apostles. 



St. Emma. 



Obs. The festival of St. Peter and St. Paul is a holiday of obligation 

 in the church. At Rome the dome of St. Peter's church is beauti- 

 fully illuminated, as it is also on some other great festivals. These 

 illuminations and fireworks at Rome have been well described by a 

 modern writer : " At Ave Maria," she observes, " we drove to the 

 piazza of St. Peter's. The lighting of the lanternoni, or large paper 

 lanterns, each of which looks like a globe of ethereal fire, had been 

 going on for an hour, and, by the time we arrived there, was nearly 

 completed. As we passed the Ponte San Angelo, the appearance 

 of this magnificent church, glowing in its own brightness — the 

 millions of lights reflected in the calm waters of the Tiber, and 

 mingling with the last golden glow of evening, so as to make the 

 whole building seem covered with burnished gold, had a most 

 striking and magical effect. 



St. Peter the Apostle, son of Jonas and brother of St. Andrew, was 

 the first consecrated bishop of the Catholic church in the cathedral of 

 Rome. From him, by a succession of ordinations, all the regular 

 clergy have proceeded. — SeeBut/er's Lives, and the Apostolical Tree, 

 by the Rev. J. JVIilner, in his End nf Religious Controversy. 



Yellow Rattle Rhinanthus Crista Galli fullest fl. 

 Jacob's Ladder Polernonium Coeruleum full fl. 

 White Jessamine Jasmin odorafum full fl. 

 Officinal Poppy Papaver somniferum full fl. 

 The yellow floure called the Yellow Cock's Combe which flour- 

 eth now in the fields is a sign of St. Peter's Day, whereon it is always 

 in fine floure, in order to admonish us of the denyal of our Lord by 

 S. Peter, that if even he the Prince of the Apostles did fall through 

 feare. and denied bis Lord, so are we fallible creatures the more 

 liable to yield to a similar tentatiotm, — Florilegium vi. 29. 



Of the Jasmine Milton feigns the bower of our first parents to be 

 partly composed : — 



Thus talking, hand in hand alone they pass'd 



On to their blissful bower : it was a place 



Chosen by the sovereign Planter, when he framed 



All things to man's delightful use ; the roof 



Of thickest covert was inwoven shade. 



Laurel and Myrtle, and what higher grew 



Of firm and fragrant leaf; on cither side 



Acanthus, and each odorous bushy shrub. 



Fenced up the verdant wall; each beauteous flower. 



Iris all hues, Roses, and Jessamine, 



Rear'd high their flourish'd heads between, and wrought 



Mosaic ; underfoot the Violet, 



Ciocus, and Hyacinth, with rich inlay 



Broider'd the ground, more colour'd than with stone 



Of costliest emblem. — Paradise Lost. 



R 



