SAINT FEAST DAY 23 MARCH: ST JOSEPH ORIOL

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 23rd of March

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 JOSEPH ORIOL, PRIEST

Saint Joseph Oriol was born at Barcelona, November 23, 1650. He studied in the University of Barcelona, receiving the degree of Doctor of Theology, August 1, 1674. Ordained priest, May 30, 1676, he visited Rome in 1686 and was granted a benefice in the church of Nuestra Señora del Pino, in Barcelona. His priestly life was remarkable for a spirit of penance, profound humility, and prudence in directing souls.

PRUDENCE IN DIRECTING SOULS

Impelled by a desire of martyrdom, he went to Rome in April, 1698, to offer himself for the foreign missions, but, falling sick at Marseilles, he returned to Barcelona. God bestowed upon him prophetic and miraculous power. The dying, the blind, the deaf and dumb, the lame, and the paralytic, were instantly cured by him. He died March 23, 1702. He was beatified by Pius VII, 5 September 5, 1806, and canonized by Pius X, May 20, 1909. His feast occurs on March 23. 

(Information from Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)

HIS ENTRY IN THE ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Barcelona, in Spain, Saint Joseph Oriol, priest and beneficiary of the church of St Mary of the Kings. He was remarkable for his love of poverty and his charity towards the needy and the infirm. Distinguished both in life and after death by the working of miracles, he was placed in the number of the Saints by Pius X.