SS. TIMOTHY AND MAURA, MARTYRS - 3 MAY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY

Saints celebrated on the 3rd of May

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. TIMOTHY AND MAURA, MARTYRS

It was during the early days of the bloody anti-Christian persecution under the Roman Emperor Diocletian (284-305) that Timothy, a young lector in the church of Penapeis (near Antinoe, Egypt), married Maura, a girl who shared his love for studying the Sacred Scriptures.

Only twenty days after their wedding, Timothy was arrested for his faith.

HE REFUSED TO HAND OVER HIS CHURCH'S TEXTS OF THE BIBLE

Summoned before the Roman governor, he was ordered to surrender to the pagans his church’s texts of the Bible. Timothy refused to do so. The Romans thereupon subjected him to a round of tortures, severing his eyebrows and burning his ears.

When these torments failed to shake Timothy’s constancy, the Romans summoned his new bride Maura, assuming that she would change his mind with her tears.

Upon arriving, Maura rejected the command of the governor and declared herself ready to die at her husband’s side.

THEY CONSOLED EACH OTHER

Enraged by her reply, the pagans tore out her hair. The newlyweds were nailed side by side to a wall, where the two consoled each other as their lives slowly ebbed away over the course of nine days. Timothy and Maura are commemorated together on May 3.

“May the God of all grace who calls us to eternal glory in Christ confirm, strengthen and support us. Amen.”