ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 23rd 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 DAGOBERT II., KING AND MARTYR
King Dagobert of Austrasia, the second of that name, patron of Stenay (Satanacum) in Lorraine, and martyr, was the son of St Siegbert, King of Austrasia and of Hymnehilde. He succeeded his father, who died on February 1, 636, when he was still a child - initially without objection from the government.
HE SENT HIM TO IRELAND - OUT OF SIGHT
Just a few months later, however, the major domus (Hausmaier) Grimoald, a son of Pipin of Landen, enforced an injunction which he claimed had been issued by Siegbert in favour of his son Childebert at the time when this prince had no heirs. He snatched the sceptre from King Dagobert and, spreading the rumour that Dagobert had died, sent him to Ireland, where he remained hidden for a long time.
But when at length it became known that Dagobert was still alive and was in Ireland, the nobility of Austrasia seriously considered the idea of bringing about the return of their king.
HE HAD CHURCHES AND MONASTERIES BUILT
The wise Hymnehilde took advantage of the death of the usurper, who was assassinated in 673, and proposed their son Dagobert to be king. Dagobert used the tranquility that Austrasia initially enjoyed for the execution of pious purposes: he had churches and monasteries built, founded abbeys, among them the famous Weissenburg Abbey, and gave the church of Strasbourg, which owed most of its possessions to him, two godly and enlightened bishops: St Arbogast, who miraculously raised his son from death to life and St Florentius.
During his stay in Ireland he had married a Saxon princess, named Bathildis or Mathildis, and with her had a son, named Siegbert, and four daughters, two of whom, Irmina and Adela, were to become saints.
A CONSPIRACY
The rest which Austrasia enjoyed was short-lived, as a war arose between Dagobert and King Theodoric III. from Neustria and Burgundy. The two kings advanced against each other at the head of their armies on the borders of Lorraine and Champagne, and it would perhaps have been the victory on the side of our saint, had not the bloodthirsty major domus of Theodoric, Ebroin by name, instigated a conspiracy among the Austrasians against Dagobert - as a result of which this prince was suddenly attacked in the district of Noivre, five hours from Stenay, and murdered by Grimoald on December 23, 679.
MARTYR
Because of his piety and virtue he was placed among the number of saints and given the title "martyr," as was generally given at that time to all those who were saintly and died an unjust and violent death.
His body was initially brought to Rouen and around the year 872 to Stenay on the Maas. St Dagobert's name does not seem to be listed in the Roman Martyrology.
Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)
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