SAINT FEAST DAY 26 SEPTEMBER: MARGARITA AND JOHANNA PARVA

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 26th of September

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.

MARGARITA AND JOHANNA PARVA, VIRGINS AND MARTYRS

Margarita and Johanna Parva (venerated on September 26) were two pious virgins of the Order of St Clare. 

Margarita, a native of Rouen, was fatally stabbed with a dagger in Mortain in Normandy. This horrific deed was done by by the furious Huguenots when they, under the French Admiral Caspar Coligny, ravaged the city in 1569. They robbed the churches and monasteries, for the sake of faith and chastity.

THE CHURCHES AND MONASTERIES WERE ROBBED, FOR THE SAKE OF FAITH AND CHASTITY

Another sister, Johanna Parva (because she was very small, called Picciola) shared the same fate with Margarita. 

According to Hueber, several more Poor Clare nuns  would have been murdered with them, whose names are not handed down to us. 

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - 📷 A German 15th century leaf from an Antiphonary. The text for this leaf is the first matins response for Christmas Day and begins Hodie nobis celorum rex (On this day the King of Heaven). The leaf survives with two known sister leaves with text and illustrations that refer to St Clare)