SAINT FEAST DAY 26 OCTOBER: ST EVARISTUS

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER

Saints celebrated on the 26th of October

 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 EVARISTUS, POPE AND MARTYR

⬅️ Saintly Popes - Index

Saint Evaristus succeeded St Anacletus in the see of Rome, in the reign of Trajan, governed the church nine years, and died in 112. He is honoured with the title of martyr in the Pontificals and in most Martyrologies.

The institution of cardinal priests is by some ascribed to him, because he first divided Rome into several titles or parishes, according to the Pontifical, assigning a priest to each: he also appointed seven deacons to attend the bishop. 

HE CONFERRED HOLY ORDERS THRICE IN THE MONTH OF DECEMBER

He conferred holy orders thrice in the month of December, when that ceremony was most usually performed, for which Amalarius assigns moral and mystical reasons; for holy orders were always conferred in seasons appointed for fasting and prayer. St Evaristus was buried near St Peter’s tomb, on the Vatican.  

INHABITANTS OF HEAVEN

The disciples of the apostles, by assiduous meditation on heavenly things, were so swallowed up in the life to come, that they seemed no longer inhabitants of this world, but of heaven, where their thoughts and affections were placed, and whither they directed all their actions, even their necessary attention to temporal concerns. 

(Excerpts from Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)