SS. FUSCIAN, VICTORIUS, AND GENTIAN, MARTYRS - 11 DECEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 11th 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. FUSCIAN, VICTORIUS, AND GENTIAN, MARTYRS

Fuscian and Victorius were two apostolical men who came to preach the faith in Gaul about the same time with St Dionysius of Paris. 

They penetrated to the remotest parts of that kingdom, and at length made Terouenne, the seat of their mission.

Going back to Amiens, where Rictius Varus persecuted the Christians with more than savage barbarity, they lodged with one Gentian, who was desirous to become a disciple of Jesus Christ. 

MARTYRDOM

He informed them that St Quintin had lately glorified God by martyrdom. They were soon after apprehended with their charitable host, and all three died for Christ about the year 287. 

Their bodies were found laid in coffins in the village Sama, now called St Fusieu, (St Fuscian’s), in a garden. St Honoratus, then bishop of Amiens, translated them into the cathedral. Childebert II. at that time king, gave to the church of Amiens the royal village Magie, about the year 580. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)