ST ADALBERT, CONFESSOR - 25 JUNE

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JUNE

Saints celebrated on the 25th of June

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.

ST ADALBERT, CONFESSOR

Saint Adalbert was a prince of the royal blood of the kings of Northumberland; but having forsaken the world to devote himself to the service of God, he joined St Willibrord in his apostolic labours in Lower Germany about the year 700. 

HE CONVERTED A GREAT PART OF HOLLAND AND FRIESLAND

He converted great part of Holland and Friesland, was chosen Archdeacon of Utrecht, and having happily finished his course about the year 740, died at Egmond, which town is thought to have been so called from Eggo, lord of the place, and the great patron of our saint.

HIS TOMB AT EGMOND BECAME FAMOUS FOR MANY MIRACLES

The tomb of St Adalbert at Egmond became famous by many miracles. Thierry, count of that country (which was shortly after called Holland) founded in honour of St Adalbert, in that place, in the beginning of the tenth century, a Benedictine abbey, which was first built of wood, as were most churches before the tenth century, according to the remark of the author of Batavia Sacra. The name of St Adalbert stands in the Roman Martyrology. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)