BL. MAURICE TORNAY, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 11 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 11th 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. MAURICE TORNAY, PRIEST AND MARTYR 

A member of the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine, Hospitallers of Saint Nicholas and Grand-St-Bernard of Mont Joux, Blessed Maurice, a Swiss citizen, made his solemn vows in 1935, and in 1936 was sent to the mission in Yunnan in China on the border of Tibet. 

HE WAS SENT TO THE MISSION IN YUNNAN

After his studies, which he continued there, he was ordained a priest in Hanoi in 1938. He began teaching at the local seminary and in 1945 he was sent to the Yerkalo mission in Tibet. The ruling Dalai Lama Gun-Akhio hated Christians and actively fueled anti-Christian persecutions. 

THEY WERE RECOGNISED AND SHOT

Bl. Maurice had to escape to China, and for the time being he saw to the faithful there. In July 1949 he set off to Lhasa to plead with the Dalai Lama for religious freedom for Christians. Although he and his assistant travelled in local garb to disguise themselves, they were recognised and shot by paid Tibetian hitmen. 

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who celebrate the anniversary of the death of your holy martyr Maurice may by his intercession be delivered from all evils that threaten us. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.