[Sidenote: Palm-Sunday, Christ's entry into Jerusalem.]
Palm-sunday is so called from the commemoration of our blessed
Saviour's entry into Jerusalem, when, according to St. John (XII, 13)
"a great multitude took branches of palm-trees, and went forth to meet
him, and cried: "Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the
Lord". Thus when Simon Maccabee subdued Jerusalem, he entered it "with
thanksgiving and branches of palm-trees, and harps, and cymbals, and
hymns and canticles, because the great enemy was destroyed out of
Israel". 1 Macc. XIII. The entry of our divine Redeemer therefore was
one of triumph: but it was also the entry of a king into his capital:
for "many spread their garments in the way" (Mark XI, 8), as when
Jehu was elected king, (4 Kings IX, 13), the Israelites spread their
garments under his feet. Thus also Plutarch relates of Cato of Utica,
that the soldiers regretting the expiration of his authority with many
tears and embraces spread their garments, where he passed on foot.
Pope Julius II returning to Rome after the siege of Mirandola
distributed palms to the Roman court at S. Maria del Popolo; and
then rode in triumphal procession to the Vatican passing under seven
arches adorned with representations of his extraordinary and heroic
deeds[26].
[Sidenote: Sixtus V and Captain Bresca.]
When Sixtus V. undertook to erect in the Piazza di San Pietro the
ponderous egyptian obelisk[27], which formerly adorned Nero's circus
at the Vatican, he forbade on pain of death that any one should speak
lest the attention of the workmen should be taken off from their
arduous task.
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