SAINT FEAST DAY 20 APRIL: ST ANICETUS, POPE AND MARTYR

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 20th of April

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 ANICETUS, POPE AND MARTYR

The Roman Pontiff who succeeded Pius towards the year 157, and reigned till about 168. According to Duchesne (Origins) the confusion of dates about this period is such that more exact verification is impossible. 

ST POLYCARP CAME TO CONFER WITH HIM

While Anicetus was Pope, St Polycarp, then in extreme old age, came to confer with him (160-162) about the Paschal controversy; Polycarp and others in the East celebrating the feast on the fourteenth of the month of Nisan, no matter on what day of the week it fell; whereas in Rome it was always observed on Sunday, and the day of the Lord’s death on Friday. 

The matter was discussed but nothing was decided. According to Eusebius: “Polycarp could not persuade the Pope, nor the Pope, Polycarp. The controversy was not ended but the bonds of charity were not broken”; the Pope permitting the aged saint to celebrate on the day he had been accustomed to in the Church of Smyrna.

HIS MARTYRDOM

Hegesippus, the first Christian historian whose writings are of great value, because he lived so near the time of the Apostles, also came to Rome at this time. His visit is recorded by most ecclesiastical authors as noteworthy, inasmuch as it calls attention to the fact that many illustrious men repaired to Rome at that period, thus emphasising very early the supreme dignity and authority of the Roman Pontiffs. 

Marcion, Marcellinus, Valentine, and Cordo were also at Rome, disturbing the Church by their Manichaeism. Anicetus suffered martyrdom in 161, but the dates vary between 16, 17, and 20 April. 

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)