ST SOLA, HERMIT - 3 DECEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER 

Saints celebrated on the 3rd 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 SOLA, HERMIT

Saint Sola was an Englishman, who, following St Boniface into Germany, became his disciple, and the faithful imitator of his virtues, and was ordained priest by him. 

PENANCE AND HOLY PRAYER

Called by the sacred impulse of the Holy Ghost into the desert, the more securely to find the narrow way that leads to life, by the advice of his experienced master, he retired into the wilderness of Solenhoven upon the banks of the river Altmona, near Ayschstat, where, in a little cell, remote from man, he passed his days with God, making penance and holy prayer his only business. 

THEY OFTEN VISITED HIM

After the martyrdom of St Boniface, the holy brothers, Willibald, the bishop, and Wunebald, the priest, were his patrons, and often visited him to kindle in their souls the flame of his heavenly desires by his spiritual conversation. 

King Charles bestowed on him a considerable piece of land; but the saint transferred it on the abbey of Fulda. 

HE WAS DEAD TO ALL HUMAN HONOURS

That prince took every occasion of testifying the highest esteem for his sanctity; but the man of God was dead to all human honours and applause, and showed by his conduct that the whole world is nothing to one who seeks God alone. 

He departed to our Lord on December 3, in 790. 

A chapel was built where his oratory had stood, and his body was taken up and enshrined by the authority of Pope Gregory IV, about the year 830. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)