ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 8th 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.
ST CORBINIAN, BISHOP
St Corbinian was a native of France, being born at Chatre, on the road to Orleans, and he lived a recluse fourteen years in a cell which he built in his youth near a chapel in the same place.
THE FAME OF HIS SANCTITY
The fame of his sanctity, which was increased by the reputation of several miracles, and the prudence of the advice which he gave in spiritual matters to those who resorted to him, rendered his name famous over the whole country, and he admitted several fervent persons to form themselves into a religious community under his discipline.
HE SOUGHT SOLITUDE
The distraction which this gave him made him think of seeking some new solitude in which he might live in his former obscurity; and his devotion to St Peter determined him to go to Rome, and there choose a cell near the church of the prince of the apostles.
The pope, whose blessing he asked, becoming acquainted with his abilities, told him he ought not to live for himself alone, whilst many nations, ripe for the harvest, were perishing for want of strenuous labourers, and ordaining him bishop, gave him a commission to preach the gospel.
HE CONVERTED MANY IDOLATERS
Corbinian was affrighted at such language, but being taught to obey, lest he should resist the voice of God, returned first to his own country, preached a while, and on a second journey to Rome converted many idolaters in Bavaria, as he passed through that country.
[On his journey, when he and his companions rested at night in the vicinity of an alpine pass in Tyrol, a hungry bear approached and devoured one of the pack horses. One of the monks, on Corbinian's orders and through his prayers, found the bear so tame afterwards that it carried the dead horse's load for the rest of the journey to Rome.]
HE FIXED HIS SEAT AT FREISING
Pope Gregory II. sent him back from Rome into that abandoned vineyard, commanding him to make it the field of his labours. Corbinian did so, and having much increased the number of the Christians, fixed his episcopal see at Frisingen [Freising], in Upper Bavaria.
HE BOLDLY REPROVED THEM
Grimoald, the duke of Bavaria, who, though a Christian, was a stranger to the principles and spirit of that holy religion, had incestuously taken to wife Biltrude, his brother’s relict. The saint boldly reproved them, but found them deaf to his remonstrances, and suffered many persecutions from them, especially from the princess, who once hired assassins to murder him. They both perished miserably in a short time.
After their death St Corbinian, who had been obliged to conceal himself for some time, returned to Frisingen, and continued his labours till his happy death, which took place in 730.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints - 📷 1. St Corbinian, 2. Coat of Arms of Freising, Bavaria, 3. St Corbinian's reliquary)
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