ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST
Saints celebrated on the 22nd 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. AGATHONICUS AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
Saints Agathonicus, Boticus, Theoprepius, Acindynus, Severianus, Benon, and a senator of princely rank, suffered under the Emperor Maximinian, partly in Bithynia, partly in Thrace, death for the sake of faith.
A count named Eutolmus was sent by the Emperor Maximinian to the province of Pontus to persecute the Christians.
PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS
When he got there and into the city of Carpen, he found St Boticus and his disciples and had them killed because they did not want to renounce Christ.
When he returned to Nicomedia, he heard that a senator of princely status was letting St Agathonicus convert the heathen, whereupon he immediately dispatched soldiers with orders to seize them along with many other Christians and to bring them all together with him to Thrace to the emperor.
SOLDIERS WERE DISPATCHED
On the way there, because they could not go any further, he had SS. Benon, Theoprepius, and Acindynus killed; but Agathonicus with the other prisoners and the prince were brought before the emperor, who happened to be staying near Byzantium at the time, and there gave the order to behead him and his companions.
A CHURCH WAS BUILT IN THEIR HONOUR
Emperor Justinian had a church built in Constantinople in honour of St Agathonicus and his companions. [These saints are commemorated on November 2 in some calendars.]
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)
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