ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST
Saints celebrated on the 26th 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.
SS. ABUNDIUS AND IRENAEUS, MARTYRS
August 26 is also the memorial of SS. Irenaeus and Abundius. The latter was a Roman sewer keeper. During the persecutions under Emperor Valerian, he always looked out for bodies of Christian martyrs who were at times thrown into the sewers. He then arranged for them to have a Christian funeral.
HIS MISSION WAS TO BURY THE DEAD
One day in 258, St Abundius, with the help of St Irenaeus, recovered the body of St Concordia from the polluted waters. Being caught "red-handed", both were pushed into the sewer by officials. The martyrs, in return for their corporal works of mercy (to bury the dead), died of suffocation.
THEIR BODIES WERE RETRIEVED
Their bodies, in turn, were later pulled out by the priest Justin and buried next to the church of St Laurence. In the proprium of the choir of the cathedral church in Augsburg there is a separate office for the feast of St Abundius.
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858 - 📷 A Roman sewer)
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