BL. ADAM, RELIGIOUS - 14 DECEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 14th 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.

BL. ADAM, RELIGIOUS

Adam was a monk and custodian of the church treasures in the monastery on Monte Cassino and administered his office with the most conscientious loyalty. 

HE FEARLESSLY OPPOSED THE DEMANDS

When the greedy Pandulph demanded the delivery of those treasures from Capua, he fearlessly opposed his unjust request. When the brethren suggested that Adam give in for fear of possible worse things be done to the whole community, he placed the church treasures on the altar of St Benedict, speaking the threatening words: "Everyone can try to take what he likes from this particular place." When the robbers really got to work, they were instantly overtaken by God's vengeance. 

HE WAS FAVOURED WITH APPARITIONS

St Benedict often appeared to Adam in visions and once gave him the certainty that his bones did indeed rest on Monte Cassino (as there recently had been an argument about the location of the holy father's mortal remains). On another occasion, Adam had an apparition of SS. Protus and Hyacinth. The feast of those saints was commemorated annually in the monastery with a particularly special festival. 

BLESSED ADAM

Adam's holy death occurred in 1030. This is his feast in the Benedictine order, which, according to Bucelin, counts him among the "blessed". 

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)