ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 30th 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 PERPETUUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR
Saint Perpetuus was the eighth bishop of Tours from St Gatian, and governed that see above thirty years, from 461 to 491, when he died on April 8. During all which time he laboured by zealous sermons, many synods, and wholesome regulations, to lead souls to virtue.
THE VIGILS BEFORE GREAT FESTIVALS
St Gregory of Tours mentions his prudent ordinances, prescribing the manner of celebrating vigils before great festivals in the different churches in the city. All Fridays and Wednesdays he commanded to be observed fasts of precept, except during Easter time, from Christmas to St Hilary’s day, that is, January 14, and from St John Baptist’s day to the end of August. He added a third fast day every week, probably Monday, from St Martin’s to Christmas, which proves the antiquity of Advent.
These regulations were all religiously observed one hundred and twenty years after, when St Gregory of Tours wrote his history.
Saint Perpetuus had a great veneration for the saints, and respect for their relics; adorned their shrines, and enriched their churches.
THE TRANSLATION OF ST MARTIN'S RELICS
As there was a continual succession of miracles at the tomb of St Martin, Perpetuus finding the church built by St Bricius too small for the concourse of people that resorted thither, directed its enlargement, causing it to be built one hundred and fifty-five feet in length, sixty broad, and forty-five in height. When the building was finished, the good bishop solemnised the dedication of this new church, and performed the translation of the body of St Martin, on July 4, in 473.
Our saint was of a senatorian family, and possessed very large estates in several provinces; but consecrated the revenues to the service of the church, and the relief of the necessitous.
ALL HE HAD WAS PUT TO USE FOR THE CHURCH AND FOR THE POOR
He made and signed his last will, which is still extant, on March 1, 475, fifteen years before his death. By it he remits all debts that were owing to him; and having bequeathed to his church his library and several farms, and settled a fund for the maintenance of lamps, and the purchase of sacred vessels, as occasion might require, he declares the poor his heirs.
THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
It begins thus: "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. I, Perpetuus, a sinner, priest of the church of Tours, would not depart without a last will and testament, lest the poor should be neglected... You, my bowels, my most beloved brethren, my crown, my joy, my lords, my children, O poor of Christ, needy, beggars, sick, widows, orphans; you I declare, name, and make my heirs. Excepting what is above disposed of, whatever I am possessed of in goods, in fields, in pasturage, in meadows, in groves, in vineyards, in dwellings, in gardens, in waters, in mills, or in gold, silver, and garments, and other things, I appoint you my heirs. It is my will that as soon as possible, after my departure, they be sold, and the money divided into three parts; of which two shall be distributed among poor, men, at the discretion of the priest Agrarius and Count Agilo: and the third among widows and poor women, at the discretion of the virgin Dadolena," etc.
THE MONEY SHALL BE DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS
He adds most pathetic exhortations to concord and piety; and bequeaths to his sister, Fidia Julia Perpetua, a little gold cross, with relics; he leaves legacies to several other friends and priests, to one a silver case of relics of saints, to others gold or silver crosses or chalices, begging of each a remembrance of him in their prayers.
HE BEGGED OF EACH TO REMEMBER HIM IN THEIR PRAYERS
His ancient epitaph equals him to the great St Martin: St Apollinaris Sidonius calls him the true copy of the virtues of that wonderful saint.
St Perpetuus died either on December 30, in 490, or on April 8, 491. In the martyrologies of Florus, and some others, his festival is placed on the first of these days: but in that of Usuard, and in the Roman, on the second.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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