SAINT FEAST DAY 11 FEBRUARY: ST GREGORY II.

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY

Saints celebrated on the 11th of February

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST GREGORY II., POPE

⬅️ Saintly Popes - Index

Saint Gregory II, Pope, was Roman-born and educated at the Papal Court. St Gregory II became a Benedictine monk, and was made Librarian or Archivist of the Roman Church. 

He succeeded Pope Constantine (A.D. 715) and, during his Pontificate of sixteen years, initiated the conversion of Germany, by despatching thither as missionaries SS. Boniface and Corbinian. 

HE BOLDLY OPPOSED THE OUTBREAK OF ICONOCLASM

He boldly opposed the outbreak of Iconoclasm under Leo the Isaurian, and successfully resisted the aggression of King Luitprand and his Lombards, restoring likewise many churches and monasteries (among them the Abbey of Monte Cassino) destroyed by these Barbarians. 

St Gregory frustrated several attempts of the Eastern Emperor to seize or even murder him, and passed away in peace, February 10, 731. He was (writes Anastasius Bibliothecarius) "a man, pure in life, learned in Holy Scripture, eloquent of speech, and of resolute will."

(Information from The Book of Saints, 1921, by the Monks of Ramsgate)