ST ANATOLIUS, BISHOP - 3 JULY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY

Saints celebrated on the 3rd of July

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 ANATOLIUS, BISHOP

Saint Anatolius was bishop of Laodicea in Syria, one of the foremost scholars of his day in the physical sciences and in Aristotelean philosophy. There are fragments of ten books on arithmetic written by him, and also a treatise on the time of the Paschal celebration. 

HE BROKE UP A REBELLION IN A PART OF ALEXANDRIA

A very curious story is told by Eusebius of the way in which Anatolius broke up a rebellion in a part of Alexandria known as time Bruchium. It was held by the forces of Zenobia, and being strictly beleaguered by the Romans was in a state of starvation. 

The saint, who was living in the Bruchium at the time, made arrangements with the besiegers to receive all the women and children, as well as the old and infirm, continuing at the same time to let as many as wished profit by the means of escaping. 

SAVING MANY INNOCENT LIVES

It broke up the defence and the rebels surrendered. It was a patriotic action on the part of the saint, as well as one of great benevolence, in saving so many innocent victims from death. In going to Laodicea he was seized by the people and made bishop. Whether his friend Eusebius had died, or whether they both occupied the see together, is a matter of much discussion. The question is treated at length in the Bollandists. [He died July 3, 283.]

His feast, like that of his namesake the Patriarch of Constantinople, is kept on July 3.

(From "Catholic Encyclopedia", 1913)

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