ST EUGENIUS, BISHOP OF TOLEDO - 13 NOVEMBER

 

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 EUGENIUS, BISHOP OF TOLEDO

Saint Eugenius was born of distinguished Gothic descent. He was a cleric at the church in Toledo, afterwards a monk in the monastery of St Engratia in Saragossa, where he trained particularly in science.

Following the death of Archbishop Eugenius I, our saint was raised by King Chindaswinth to the archbishopric of Toledo in 647 as the second of this name.  

HE SHOWED GREAT ZEAL IN HIS EPISCOPAL ADMINISTRATION

Though small in stature and in poor health, he nevertheless showed great zeal in his episcopal administration, presided over the ninth and tenth councils of Toledo, improved the chants and the ecclesiastical offices, and wrote several works in prose and verse which show his extensive knowledge, his richness of thought and his pious zeal. 

HE WROTE SEVERAL WORKS IN PROSE AND VERSE

He died in the year 658, on the day mentioned above, on which he is also remembered in the Roman Martyrology. The author of Bucelin's supplements mentions an Eugenius on July 1 and says of him that he was Bishop of Toledo and provides the "II.", but as he gives 647 as the year of his death - he seems to have confused Eugenius I with his successor. 

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)