Golden Rose

GOLDEN NUMBER: A number (I.-XIX.) indicating the place of R year in the Metonic cycle, according to which the new moon of any particular month occurs on the same day every twentieth year. The name is said to be due to the fact that when the Metonic cycle came into general use about 432 B.C. inscriptions in letters of gold were set up in Athens and other cities indicating the number of the year in the cycle. The numbers were also written in gold or red letters in the old calendars. In the year 1 B.C. the new moon fell on Jan. 1. Hence to find the golden number of any year, add one to the year A.D. and divide by nineteen; the remainder, if any, is the golden number of the year; if there be no remainder, the golden number is nineteen. The golden number is used in finding the date of

Easter. See Calendar, the Christian, § 4 ; and Easter, 1., 3.

GOLDEN ROSE: An ornament blessed by the pope every year on the fourth Sunday in Lent (called Laetare Sunday from the opening words of the introit of the mass for the day) and usually sent afterward as a mark of special favor to some Catholic sovereign, male or female, or to some Catholic personage distinguished either as a church member or in the civil community. The rose is also occasionally bestowed on noted churches orsanctuaries, or even on illustrious Catholic cities or commonwealths.

Originally the ornament consisted of a single flower of wrought gold colored red; later the golden petals were decked with rubies and other precious stones; and finally the form adopted was that of a thorny branch bearing several flowers and leaves with one principal flower at the top, all of pure gold. The ceremonies at present employed in the blessing of the golden rose are quite elaborate, symbolizing, according to the liturgists, Christ and his grace. The origin of the custom is uncertain. An allusion to it is certainly found in the Chronicle of William of Newburgh (1197) and mention of the golden rose as such is found as early as the eleventh century. Urban V. who sent a golden rose to Joanna of Naples in 1366, is Said to be the first to determine that the blessing should take place annually. Doubtless the practise was but the development of a much earlier custom on the part of the popes of sending presents to princes who had deserved well of the Church.

Among the great number of instances of the conferring of the golden rose recorded in Morone'sDizionario ecclesiastico, a few of the more noteworthy are the following: Henry VIII. of England received the rose from three popes, the last time from Clement VII. in 1524. His daughter, Queen Mary, received the same favor from Julius III. in 1555. Pius IV. honored the republic of Lucca with it in 1564, and the same pontiff in 1564 bestowed the favor on the Lateran basilica. The shrine of Loreto received it from Gregory XIII. in 1584. Similarly the cathedral of Capua was favored by Benedict XIII. in 1726, and in 1833 the same distinction was bestowed by Gregory XVI. on the basilica of St. Mark in Venice. The queen of France, MariaTheresa, received it from Clement IX. in 1668; and the queen of Poland, Maria Casimir, from Innocent XI. in 1684, in recognition of the recent deliverance of Vienna by her valiant husband, John Sobieski. If in any particular year no one is deemed worthy to receive this distinction, the rose is laid up in the treasures of the Vatican.

James F. Driscoll.

Bibliography: G. Moroni, Diyionaria eccleaiastico, s.v., Rome, 1865; w. E. Addis and T. Arnold, Qatholic Dictionary,

pp. 412-413, London, 1903.