Saints celebrated on the 4th of November
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. VITALIS AND AGRICOLA, MARTYRS
Saint Ambrose informs us that Saint Agricola was a gentleman of Bologna, whose behaviour in the world had engaged the affection of the idolaters amongst whom he lived. Saint Vitalis, his slave, learned from him the Christian religion, and first received the crown; for the servant and the freeman are one and the same thing in Christ, nor is there any difference from their condition in their reward.
THEY WERE BOTH SEIZED FOR BEING CHRISTIANS
They were both seized, probably in the year 304, and Vitalis first put to the torture. He ceased not to praise God so long as he had the use of his tongue; and seeing no part of his body left which was not covered with wounds and blood, he prayed Jesus Christ to receive his soul, and to bestow on him that crown which his angel had shown him. His prayer was no sooner ended than he gave up the ghost.
Agricola’s execution was deferred out of a cruel compassion, that time and the sight of the sufferings of his faithful servant might daunt his resolution. But he was animated and encouraged by such an example. Whereupon the affection of the judges and people was converted into fury; and the martyr was hung on a cross, and his body pierced with so many huge nails that the number of his wounds surpassed that of his limbs.
ST AMBROSE DISCOVERED THEIR RELICS
The bodies of the martyrs were laid in the burial place of the Jews. St Ambrose flying from the arms of the tyrant Eugenius, came to Bologna in 393, and there discovered these relics.
Juliana, a devout widow of Florence, invited him to dedicate a church she had built in that city, and begged of him this treasure, which he was not able to refuse her, and the value of which he much extols to her three daughters, bidding them receive with respect these presents of salvation, which were laid under the altar.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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