BL. BENNO, BISHOP OF METZ - 3 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 3rd of August

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. BENNO OF METZ 

Blessed Benno of Metz (Bl. Benno of Einsiedeln) was born in Swabia, Germany. He came from a noble family, but left to become a canon in Strasbourg. In 906 he settled as a hermit on Mount Etzel in the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland. He settled in the hermitage where St Meinrad had lived, restored a sanctuary of Mary, and soon as his reputation for holiness spread, spiritual students gathered around him. In 924 he was joined by Eberhard ((Everard), rector of Strasbourg Cathedral, and Benno's hermitage developed into a monastery which eventually became the famous Einsiedeln, which still exists.

HIS HERMITAGE DEVELOPED INTO A MONASTERY

In 927, Benno was appointed bishop of Metz in France by the German king Henry I the Fowler (919-36). Both the way he had been proclaimed over a local favourite and his reforms made him many enemies, and two years later they attacked him and blinded him.

Deprived of his sense of sight, he then gladly resigned from the office and returned to Einsiedeln, which had already grown into a community of many monks.

HE RETURNED TO EINSIEDELN

Benno died on August 3, 940. His relics are still in Einsiedeln, and he has long been honoured as blessed, although his cult has never been formally recognised. His memorial day is the day of his death, August 3.