SAINT FEAST DAY 17 DECEMBER: ST VIVINA, ABBESS

Saints celebrated on the 17th of December

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.

SAINT VIVINA, ABBESS

St Vivina (Wivina), who died in 1170 at Bigard (Bigardae) near Brussels, had numerous miracles confirm her holiness.

Her relics have been resting in the Church of Our Lady au Sablon in Brussels since 1804.

SHE WISHED TO REMAIN A VIRGIN FOR THE LORD

From her earliest childhood she sought and loved the devout, withdrawn life and although, besides a noble birth and great fortune (she came from the respected family of the Oisy), as a virgin she was also distinguished by rare beauty, and therefore had many suitors.

She, however, wanted to remain a virgin for the Lord and therefore decided to secretly leave the parental home to live with her servant Enteware in a desert.

THEY FED ON THE HERBS OF THE FOREST

The decision was carried out; they lived for three years, unknown and unnoticed by the world, in penance and prayers; they slept on the ground and fed on the herbs of the forest.

However, this penitential life gradually became known and the two servants of God found themselves again in the middle of the world from whose dangers they had wanted to escape.

GODFREY THE BEARDED HAD A MONASTERY BUILT FOR THEM

Godfrey the Bearded, Count of Brabant, gave them the place of their hermitage and had a monastery built for them on it.

They took the Rule of St Benedict, and gathered around them virgins who, under their guidance and after their example, strived for Christian perfection.

The evil enemy tried in vain to carry the spirit of discord into this new place of heavenly peace, for St Vivina overcame all his persecutions through her trust in God and her humility.

TRUST IN GOD

Once when all the candles went out during choir prayers, she lit them again through her devotion.

After she had been a mother and an example to the monastery for 34 years in this way, the good Lord took her in 1179 at the age of 70 years. She is shown as an abbess with a burning candle in her hand.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)

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