ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 17th 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.
ST BEGGA, ABBESS
Saint Begga was daughter of Pepin of Landen, eldest sister to St Gertrude of Nivelle, and married Ansegise, son to St Arnoul, who was some time mayor of the palace, and afterwards bishop of Metz.
SHE DEDICATED HERSELF TO A PENITENTIAL STATE OF RETIREMENT
Her husband being killed in hunting, she dedicated herself to a penitential state of retirement, and, after performing a pilgrimage to Rome, built seven chapels at Anden on the Meuse, in imitation of the seven principal churches at Rome.
There she also founded a great nunnery in imitation of that which her sister governed at Nivelle, from which she was furnished with a little colony who laid the foundation of this monastery, and lived under her direction.
PERFECT PRACTICE OF PIETY
Many holy virgins were trained up by them in the perfect practice of piety. The rich monastery of Anden was afterwards converted into a collegiate church of thirty-two canonesses of noble families, with ten canons to officiate at the altar. It is situated in the forest of Ardenne, in the diocess of Namur.
A HOLY DEATH
St Begga departed to our Lord in the year 698, and is named in the Roman Martyrology.
Note: Many ascribe to St Begga the institution of the Beguines, very numerous at Mechlin, Ghent, and other places in Brabant, the Flemish Flanders, and some neighbouring provinces of the Low Countries. They devote themselves to the divine service under simple vows of chastity, and certain pious rules, which only oblige so long as they remain in that state. But Aegidius Aureae Vallis, and other historians inform us, that the Beguines were instituted by Lambert le Begue or Balbus, a pious priest of Liege, in 1170, and derived from him their name.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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