ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 6th 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.
SS. DIONYSIA, DATIVA, AEMILIANUS, BONIFACE, LEONTIA, TERTIUS, AND MAJORICUS, MARTYRS
In the year 484, King Huneric banished the Catholic bishops; and soon after commanded those who refused to comply with certain impious orders which he published, to be tormented and put to death.
Dionysia, a lady remarkable for her great beauty, but much more so for her holy zeal and piety, was so long scourged in the most conspicuous place of the forum, that every part of her body was covered with wounds and blood.
Seeing Majoricus, her only son, tremble at the sight of her torments, she said to him: "Son, remember that we have been baptised in the name of the holy Trinity, in the Catholic church, our mother. Let us not lose the clothing of our salvation, lest the master of the feast, finding us without the nuptial garment, command his servants to cast us into outer darkness."
"LET US NOT LOSE THE CLOTHING OF OUR SALVATION"
The young man being strengthened by her words, suffered a most cruel martyrdom with constancy.
The courageous mother embracing his body, gave thanks to God with a loud voice, and buried him in her own house, that she might frequently pray upon his tomb.
Dativa, sister to Dionysia, Aemilianus a physician, who was her cousin, Leontia, Tertius, and Boniface suffered, with great constancy, horrible torments for the faith.
TORTURED FOR BEING A CHRISTIAN
A nobleman of Suburbis, named Servus, was tortured by the persecutors with the utmost fury. After his body was bruised with clubs, he was hoisted in the air by pulleys, and then let down again, that he might fall with all his weight on the pavement; and this was repeated several times. After this, he was dragged along the streets, and torn with flint stones and pebbles, insomuch, that his flesh and skin hung down in many places from his sides, back, and belly, and his ribs appeared bare. At Cucusa there was an infinite number of martyrs and confessors.
AN INFINITE NUMBER OF MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS
Among these a courageous lady, named Victoria, was suspended in the air whilst a fire was kindled under her. All this while her husband, who had apostised from the Catholic faith, talked to her in the most moving and passionate manner, conjuring her at least to have pity on him and her innocent babes, and save herself by obeying the king. The martyr stopped her ears not to hear his seducing words. The executioners seeing her shoulders dislocated, and several of her bones broken, and not perceiving her to breathe, thought she was dead, and took her down. But she came to herself, and afterwards related, that a virgin had appeared to her, who, touching every part of her body, immediately healed it.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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