ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 3rd 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.
BL. JOHANN NEPOMUK VON TSCHIDERER ZU GLEIFHEIM, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR
Blessed Johann Nepomuk, Bishop of Trent, was born at Bozen, February 15, 1777; he died at Trent, December 3, 1860. He sprang from a family that had emigrated from the Grisons to the Tyrol in 1529 and to which the Emperor Ferdinand III had given a patent of nobility in 1620.
A NOBLE FAMILY
Johann Nepomuk was ordained priest, July 27, 1800, by Emmanuel Count von Thun, Bishop of Trent.
After spending two years as an assistant priest, he went for further training to Rome, where he was appointed notary Apostolic.
After his return he took up pastoral work again in the German part of the Diocese of Trent, and was later professor of moral and pastoral theology at the episcopal seminary at Trent.
In 1810 he became parish priest at Sarnthal, and in 1819 at Meran.
Wherever he went he gained a lasting reputation by his zeal and charitableness.
HIS ZEAL AND CHARITABLENESS
In 1826 Prince-Bishop Luschin appointed him cathedral canon and pro-vicar at Trent; in 1832 Prince-Bishop Galura of Brixen selected him as Bishop of Heliopolis and Vicar-General for Vorarlberg. In 1834 the Emperor Francis I nominated him Prince-Bishop of Trent and on May 5, 1835, he entered upon his office.
During the twenty-five years of his administration he was distinguished for the exercise of virtue and charity, and for intense zeal in the fulfilment of the duties of his episcopal office.
HE WAS EXCEEDINGLY SIMPLE AND ABSTINENT IN HIS PERSONAL HABITS
He was exceedingly simple and abstinent in his personal habits. On the other hand he loved splendour when it concerned the decoration of his cathedral, the procuring of ecclesiastical vestments, and the ornamentation of the churches.
He devoted a considerable part of his revenues to the building of churches, and to the purchase of good books for the parsonages and chaplains’ houses.
His charity to the poor and sick was carried so far that he was often left without a penny, because he had given away everything he had.
A SHINING EXAMPLE OF CHRISTIAN COURAGE
Twice the cholera raged in his diocese and on these occasions he set his clergy a shining example of Christian courage.
He left his property to the institution for the deaf and dumb at Trent and to the seminary for students that he had founded, and that was named after him the Joanneum. Directly after his death he was honoured as a saint; the process for his beatification is now in progress.
(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)
[Blessed Johann Nepomuk was beatified April 29, 1995 by Pope John Paul II]
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