ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN NOVEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 6th 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 LEONARD OF NOBLAC, HERMIT AND CONFESSOR
The Roman Martyrology says of this Saint as follows: "At Limoges, in Aquitaine, shone Saint Leonard, a disciple of St Remigius, who, of noble parentage, chose a solitary life and became renowned for his holiness and the miracles he wrought. His power, however, was especially manifested in liberating prisoners."
Saint Leonard, a native of France, was of very high lineage. Clovis, the first Christian king of that country, with whom his parents stood in high favour, was his sponsor. St Remigius, Bishop of Rheims, baptised him, and instructed him for several years.
LEONARD HAD CONCEIVED A DISTASTE FOR ALL TEMPORAL THINGS
The king, in course of time, offered him a high office at court; but Leonard had already conceived a disgust for all temporal things and had determined to employ his days only in the service of God and for the salvation of souls.
Hence, he was ordained priest by St Remigius, and began to preach the word of God. His holy conduct gave great power to his words to move the hearts of his hearers.
He travelled through the whole of Gascony, where a great portion of the inhabitants were yet idolaters. God bestowed on him the gift of miracles. He freed the possessed, made the blind see, the deaf hear, and restored health to the sick.
HE RESTORED HEALTH TO THE SICK
It happened, one day, that the king was hunting with his queen, in a forest. The latter, who was with child, was suddenly taken sick, and her life and that of her child were in great danger.
Leonard, not knowing anything of this, was at the same time traversing the forest, on his way to a neighbouring village, where he was going to preach.
Led by Providence, he came to the place where the queen lay ill. Having been informed of the sad circumstances, he sank upon his knees and prayed, and when he arose, the queen was happily delivered. The King expressed his warmest thanks to the servant of the Lord, and offered him some valuable presents, which the Saint refused, telling the king to give the value of them to the poor.
HE ASKED THE KING TO GIVE THE VALUE OF THE PRESENTS TO THE POOR
The king promised to follow the charitable request, but insisted that Leonard should accept as a gift the forest in which the miracle had happened, and use it as he deemed best. The Saint, however, was satisfied with a portion of it, large enough to build a chapel in honour of the Blessed Virgin, and a hut for himself and his companions.
The king had both buildings erected; and Leonard, entering joyfully into his new dwelling, led a strict and holy life.
GOD BESTOWED UPON HIM A PECULIAR POWER TO HELP THE UNFORTUNATE
God bestowed upon him peculiar power to help the unfortunate, as several prisoners especially experienced. It is attested that many who were languishing in dungeons were miraculously restored to liberty when they had heard of the great holiness of St Leonard and had begged of God to be merciful to them for his sake. The same happened to others who regarded Leonard, though still living and far away, as if he had been already one of the Saints reigning in heaven, and who requested him with the greatest confidence, to intercede for them. Many of these brought to the Saint the chains and irons, with which they had been fettered, and thanked him for having released them by his prayers.
This gave him an opportunity to admonish them to free themselves, by true repentance, from the chains of sin, and to make their lives such that they would not one day be imprisoned in that dungeon from which there is no escape.
A HAPPY DEATH
Similar admonitions he gave to others who visited him in his solitude. The inhabitants of the neighbouring villages and hamlets he sought to lead to piety and the fear of God by his sermons.
After having thus lived a holy life for many years, he longed to be relieved from the fetters of life and admitted to the liberty of the children of God. His prayer was accepted; for God called him to heaven by a happy death, in 549.
(From Fr Weninger's Lives of the Saints)
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