MASSA CANDIDA - 24 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 24th 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.

MASSA CANDIDA

At Carthage, of three hundred holy martyrs in the time of Valerian and Gallienus. Among other torments, the governor ordering a lime kiln to be lighted and live coals with incense to be set near by, said to these confessors of the Faith: "Choose whether you will offer incense to Jupiter or be thrown down into lime." 

ARMED WITH FAITH

And they, armed with faith, confessing Christ, the Son of God, with one swift impulse hurled themselves into the fire, where in the fumes of the burning lime, they were reduced to a powder. Hence this band of blessed ones in white raiment have been held worthy of the name, White Mass.

THE BAND OF BLESSED ONES IN WHITE RAIMENT

The date of this event may be placed between A.D. 253, when Gallienus was associated with his father in the imperial office and A.D. 260 when Valerian was entrapped and made prisoner by Sapor, King of Persia.

THE "WHITE MASS OF UTICA"

As to the exact place, Saint Augustine calls these martyrs the "White Mass of Utica", indicating that there they were specially commemorated. Utica was only twenty-five miles from the city of Carthage, which was the capital of a thickly populated district, and the three hundred may have been brought from Utica to be judged by the procurator, Galerius Maximus. 

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)

THE SAINTS' ENTRY IN THE ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

"At Carthage, three hundred holy martyrs, in the time of Valerian and Gallienus. Among other torments inflicted on them, a pit filled with burning lime was prepared by order of the governor, who, live coals with incense being brought to him, said to the confessors: “Choose one of these two things; to offer incense to Jupiter on these coals, or to cast yourselves into the lime.” Armed with faith, and confessing Christ to be the Son of God, they quickly precipitated themselves into the pit, and amidst the vapours of the lime were reduced to dust. From this circumstance this blessed troop obtained the appellation of White Mass."