ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 20th 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 PHILOGONIUS, BISHOP OF ANTIOCH, CONFESSOR
(A.D. 322.) Saint Philogonius was brought up to the law, and made a considerable figure at the bar, being admired for his eloquence, and still more for the purity of his manners and sanctity of his life. This was a sufficient motive for dispensing with the canons, which require some time spent among the clergy before a person be advanced to the highest station in the Church.
BISHOP OF ANTIOCH
Philogonius was placed in the see of Antioch, upon the death of Vitalis in 318, and St Chrysostom mentions the flourishing state of that church in his time, as an authentic proof of his zeal and excellent administration.
When Arius broached his blasphemies at Alexandria in 318, St Alexander condemned him, and sent the sentence in a synodal letter to St Philogonius, who strenuously defended the Catholic faith before the assembly of the council of Nice.
THE COUNCIL OF NICE
In the storms which were raised against the Church, first by Maximin II. and afterwards by Lucinius, St Philogonius deserved the title of Confessor; he died in the year 322, the fifth of his episcopal dignity.
HE DIED IN A.D. 322
His festival was celebrated at Antioch on December 20, in the year 386, in which St Chrysostom pronounced his panegyric, touching lightly on his virtues, because, as he says, he left the detail of them to his bishop, Flavian, who was to speak after him.
THE STATE OF BLISS
St Chrysostom extols in the most amiable terms the overflowing peace which this saint now enjoys in a state of bliss, where there are no conflicts, no irregular passions, no more of that cold word, "Mine and Thine," which fills the whole world with wars, every family with broils, and every breast with restless disquiets, gnawing pains, and prickling thorns.
HE HAD FREE ACCESS TO THE ALMIGHTY
St Philogonius had so perfectly renounced the world and crucified its inordinate desires in his heart, that he received in this life the earnest of Christ’s spirit, was admitted to the sacred council of the heavenly king, and had free access to the Almighty. A soul must here learn the heavenly spirit, and be well versed in the occupations of the blessed, if she hope to reign with them hereafter: she must beforehand have some acquaintance with the mysteries of grace, and the functions of divine love and praise. Persons are not called to the palace of an earthly king without having been fashioned, and for a long time exercised in the manners of the court, that they may not come thither utter strangers to the proceedings of the place, says St Macarius.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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