SAINT FEAST DAY 8 JULY: ST KILIAN

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY

Saints celebrated on the 8th of July

WELCOME!

SAINT KILIAN, BISHOP AND MARTYR

left: Saint Kilian,
right: Würzburg Cathedral

Saints Kilian, Bishop, Colman, Priest, and Totnan, Deacon, Martyrs

Kilian or Kuln was a holy Irish monk, of noble Scottish extraction. With two zealous companions he travelled to Rome in 686, and obtained of Pope Conon a commission to preach the gospel to the German idolaters in Franconia; upon which occasion Kilian was invested with episcopal authority.

HE BECAME BISHOP

The missionaries converted and baptised great numbers at Würzburg, and among others Gosbert, the duke of that name. This prince had taken to wife Geilana, the relict of his deceased brother; and though he loved her tenderly, being put in mind by Saint Kilian that such a marriage was condemned and void by the law of the gospel, he promised to dismiss her, saying that we are bound to love God above father, mother, or wife. 

SHE SENT ASSASSINS

Geilana was tormented in mind beyond measure at this resolution; jealousy and ambition equally inflaming her breast; and, as the vengeance of a wicked woman has no bounds, during the absence of the duke in a military expedition, she sent assassins, who privately murdered the three holy missionaries in 688. 

TRANSLATION OF THE RELICS

The ruffians were themselves pursued by divine vengeance, and all perished miserably. Saint Burchard, who in the following century was placed by Saint Boniface in the episcopal see of Würzburg, translated their relics into his cathedral. 

Source: Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who know how courageously your holy martyr Kilian confessed the faith, may experience his goodness as he intercedes for us with you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.