SAINT FEAST DAY 25 DECEMBER: ST ANASTASIA

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 25th of December

🌲 Christmas 🌲

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 ANASTASIA, MARTYR

St Anastasia's name is mentioned in the canon of the Mass, in the sacramentary of St Gregory, and in other ancient catalogues of martyrs. There stands in Rome an ancient church, which is dedicated to God in her memory. 

MARTYRDOM

In the acts of St Chrysogonus we are told, that she was of an illustrious descent at Rome, had St Chrysogonus for her tutor and director in the faith, and when that holy martyr was apprehended at Aquileia in the persecution of Diocletian, went thither to comfort him in his chains.

It is further related, that after suffering exquisite tortures, she was sentenced by the prefect of Illyricum to be burnt alive in 304. 

COMMEMORATION IN THE SECOND MASS

Her body was removed to Rome, and laid in the church which still bears her name. In this church the popes anciently said their second Mass on Christmas night, or rather that of the morning, whence a commemoration of her is made in the second Mass. 

The relics of St Anastasia were translated to Constantinople in the time of the Emperor Leo, and deposited first in the church of Anastasia or the Resurrection, afterwards in the patriarchal church of St Sophia: but were lost when that city was taken by the Turks. The Greek Menologies and the Muscovite Calendars commemorate our saint on December 22, the Roman Missal on the 25th. 

(From: Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)