ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN NOVEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 13th 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.
ST DIDACUS, CONFESSOR
Didacus or Diego (that is, in Spanish, James) was a native of the little town of St Nicholas, in the diocess of Seville, in Andalusia, [he was born in 1400] of mean condition, but from his childhood fervent in the love of God, and the practice of all virtues.
Near that town a holy priest led an eremitical life, and Didacus in his youth obtained his consent to live with him.
Though very young he imitated the austerities and devotions of his master, and they cultivated together a little garden; and also employed themselves in making wooden spoons, trenchers, and such like mean utensils.
After having lived thus a recluse for some years, he was obliged to return to his parents: but desiring most ardently to walk in the footsteps of his divine Redeemer, he soon after betook himself to a convent of the Observantin Friar Minors, called St Francis’s of Arrizafa, and there took the habit among the lay-brothers who belong not to the choir, but serve the convent in humble offices, and are much employed in manual labour.
HE WAS SENT TO THE CANARY ISLANDS
After his profession he was sent with a priest of his order into the Canary islands, where he did wonders in instructing and converting many idolaters, and though only a lay-brother, was appointed by his superiors the first guardian or warden of a convent which was erected in one of those islands called Forteventura.
By the mortification of his flesh, and of his own will, and assiduous prayer, he offered himself a continual sacrifice to our Lord, and by this long martyrdom prepared himself to shed his blood for the faith amongst the barbarians, if such had been the will of God.
After some time he was recalled into Spain, and lived in divers convents about Seville with great fervour, simplicity, austerity, and recollection: he seemed so much absorbed in God as scarcely to be able to speak but to him or of him; and the humility, ardour, and lively sentiments with which he always discoursed of heavenly things, discovered how much he was dead to himself, and replenished with the divine Spirit.
THE GREAT JUBILEE AT ROME
In the year 1450, a great jubilee was celebrated at Rome; and St Bernardine of Sienna being canonised at the same time, three thousand eight hundred religious persons of the Order of St Francis were assembled there, in their great convent, called Aracaeli.
Didacus went thither with F. Alfonsus de Castro. In this journey our saint attended his companion during a dangerous illness with such fervour of spirit, and such an ardent charity, that it was easy to see how much God aided and favoured him, and how wonderfully he was animated with his spirit in all the pains he took night and day for his love. This appeared still more in the charity and devotion with which he waited on many others of his Order that were sick at Rome, during thirteen weeks that he staid there.
From Rome the servant of God returned back to Seville, and lived thirteen years longer in the convent, first of Saussaye, and chiefly of Alcala of Henares, in Castile, shining in all kinds of virtue, going forward every day in perfection, and moving wonderfully all who conversed with him to aspire to the same.
HE WAS SHINING IN ALL KINDS OF VIRTUE
Not content punctually to keep the rule of his holy father St Francis, he endeavoured with all his strength to draw in himself the most perfect portraiture of his heavenly life.
His admirable humility by which he put himself under the feet of every one, was a great source of the constant peace of mind which he enjoyed; for so perfect was the mastery which he had gained over his passions, and his soul was so much raised above all earthly things, that nobody ever saw him troubled, heard from his mouth an angry or unbeseeming word, or discerned any thing in his conduct which did not seem to breathe an air of perfect virtue.
HE ACCEPTED EVERYTHING WITH EQUAL CHEERFULNESS
Having no other will but that of our Lord, in whose cross he gloried, he accepted every thing with equal cheerfulness from his hand, and equally praised him in adversity and prosperity.
He treated his body very rigorously; his habit was always mean, and his attire and whole exterior deportment was an image of the interior mortification of his soul. With the perfect spirit and practice of penance he joined her good sister, continual prayer, and the elevation of his soul to God. In contemplation his body was sometimes seen raised from the ground, whilst his soul was ravished and absorbed in God.
HE CONSTANTLY MEDITATED ON THE PASSION OF OUR DIVINE REDEEMER
The passion of our divine Redeemer was the ordinary object on which his thoughts and affections were employed; he often meditated on it with a crucifix in his hand, and with frequent raptures. When he passed from the contemplation of the bloody sacrifice of the Son of God to the unbloody sacrifice in which the same sacred victim continues daily to be offered on our altars, his love and fervour were redoubled. A God in the holy eucharist made the spiritual food of our souls, was the object of his admiration, and the nourishment of his love; and the oftener he received this God of love in his breast, the more were the flames of his love increased. His tender devotion to the Son extended to the mother, whom he honoured as his advocate.
A HOLY DEATH
In 1463, he was taken ill at Alcala, where he had spent the last years of his life. His distemper began by an imposthume in his arm. During this illness his preparation for his last hour was most fervent and edifying. In his agony he called for a cord (such as the friars wear) and put it about his neck, and holding a cross of wood in his hands, with tears in his eyes he begged pardon of all his religious brethren that were assembled about his bed in prayer. Then fixing his eyes on the crucifix he repeated with great tenderness the words of the hymn on the cross: Dulce lignum, dulces clavos... and calmly expired on November 12, 1463.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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