ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 29th 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 MARCELLUS, ABBOT OF THE ACAEMETES, CONFESSOR
The Order of the Acaemetes differed from other Basilian monks only by this particular rule, that each monastery was divided into several choirs, which, succeeding one another, continued the divine office day and night without interruption: whence was derived their name, which signifies in Greek, without sleep.
"WITHOUT SLEEP"
This institute was set on foot by a Syrian nobleman, named Alexander, who had borne an honourable command in the army several years; but renouncing the world in 402, built a monastery upon the banks of the Euphrates, in which he assembled four hundred monks.
Coming afterwards to Constantinople, he founded a monastery not far from the city, towards the Euxine sea, in which he governed three hundred monks, whom he divided into six choirs. Alexander died in 430. His successor John removed his community to a monastery which he built at Gomon, a mile from Constantinople.
A DISTASTE FOR THE WORLD'S FOOLERIES
St Marcellus, who was chosen third abbot of this house, raised the reputation of this order to the highest pitch. He was a native of Apamea in Syria, and, by the death of his parents, who were rich and of noble descent, he was left master of a plentiful fortune when he was in the flower of his age.
Considering seriously with what vanities the little interval between a man’s birth and his death is usually filled in the world, he conceived a great distaste of its fooleries, and repairing to Antioch, made sacred studies, and the exercises of devotion, his whole employment. By holy meditation he saw daily more and more clearly the emptiness of all worldly occupations and enjoyments. An infant with all its childish toys about it, thinks itself happy; and what are these, if compared to those fooleries which in manhood are called business or amusements?
HE RENOUNCED HIS WEALTH
From this contempt of earthly things, his love of those which are heavenly, daily grew stronger; and it was not long before he bestowed on the poor his whole personal estate, and settled his real estate upon a younger brother.
Thus disencumbered, he repaired to Ephesus, and there put himself under the direction of certain eminent servants of God. The greatest part of the night he spent in prayer, and the day he employed in copying good books, by the sale of which he gained not only his own subsistence, but also wherewith to relieve the poor. The reputation of the austerity and solitude of the Acaemetes drew him thither; and taking the habit, he ran in a religious course with incredible ardour.
HE BECAME ABBOT
Upon the death of Alexander, the founder and first abbot, Marcellus hade been chosen to fill his place, had he not concealed himself by a timely flight. When he returned, John, who had been chosen abbot, compelled him to be his assistant in the discharge of his office; and upon his demise Marcellus was raised to that dignity.
THE ORDER FLOURISHED
The Order flourished exceedingly under his prudent and saintly administration; and when he was at a loss how sufficiently to enlarge his buildings, he was abundantly supplied with means for that purpose by Pharetrius, a very opulent gentleman, who took the habit with all his sons on the same day.
STUDIUS FOUNDED A GREAT MONASTERY
About the year 465, Studius, a nobleman who had been consul in 463, founded for him and his monks a great monastery within the city, near the golden gate, in which there are said to have been one thousand monks at the same time. This house being called by the founder’s name, the Acaemetes were from that time called Studites.
FROM THAT TIME ON, THEY WERE CALLED STUDITES
St Marcellus assisted at the council of Constantinople, assembled by St Flavian against Eutyches, whose heresy our holy abbot condemned, with the prelates who composed that venerable assembly.
St Marcellus spent sixty years in a monastic state, and his long life was all filled with good works. He died in 485 or 486, and is honoured both by the Latins and Greeks on this day.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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