BL. GUIDO OF VICOGNE - 31 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 31st of March

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. GUIDO OF VICOGNE

A native of the Brittany region of northwestern France, Blessed Guido (Guy) had already consumed the years of his youth in frivolity and self-gratification when he experienced a profound conversion.

A PROFOUND CONVERSION

Filled with remorse for his past, he journeyed to the Premonstratensian monastery of Premontre, where he received spiritual direction from its founder, Saint Norbert. After being ordained a priest by Norbert, Guy withdrew into the forest of Artois to live as a hermit, making a home for himself at the foot of an old tree.

SAVING SOULS BY PREACHING

While undertaking a life of solitude, poverty, and restored innocence, Guy exercised his priestly zeal to save souls by preaching.

THE NEW MONASTIC COMMUNITY

Ultimately he decided to found a new monastic community, Vicogne, in the diocese of Arras. The monks of Vicogne were to be known for their humility, charity, obedience, silence, patience, and constancy in prayer. 

In addition to founding two other monasteries and a hospital for the poor, Guy completed two pilgrimages to the Holy Land. It was while setting out to make the third pilgrimage that he fell ill and died in 1147.