ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN NOVEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 23rd of November
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. MARGARITA OF SAVOY
[Feast day: November 23, December 25, November 27, December 23] Blessed Margarita (Margaret) was born around the year 1382 as the daughter of Amadeus II (not Louis II) of Savoy and his wife Catharina. In 1402 she got married to Count Theodor von Montferrat. The marriage was happy, but it ended on December 20, 1415, as this was the day when her husband died.
The pious countess handed the entire legacy over to her son Jacob and placed all earthly sovereignty in the hands of Jesus, while at the same time she made the vow of constant chastity. Following the advice of St Vincent Ferrer she took the habit of the third order of St Dominic at Alba (in 1420).
NUMEROUS GRACES
As she always advanced in the love of Jesus through works of piety, mortification and charity, undeterred by human and diabolical schemes and persecutions, she also received graces of her heavenly bridegroom. One of those gifts was that she immediately received anything she prayed for.
She reached the age of 82 and died on November 23, 1464 in the monastery of St Mary of the Angels - the same monastery where she had taken her vows.
MIRACLES AT HER TOMB
The Lord performed many miracles on her grave. On December 13, 1484, the first examination of her relics took place. Pius V had already permitted the celebration of her feast at her monastery at Alba, but Clement X ordered that her office and Mass be celebrated by the whole Order on November 27. Bucelin mentions her feast on December 25 (23), Migne on November 23. Migne erroneously states the year of her death as 1487. Pictures of Bl. Margarita often show her pierced by three lances (persecution, disease, slander) in a vision, or they show her receiving consolation in her sufferings from Mary, Mother of God.
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)
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