ST ANTHONY PRIMALDI AND COMPANIONS, MARTYTRS - 14 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 14th 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.

ST ANTHONY PRIMALDI AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS

Saint Antonius [Anthony] Primaldi, martyr at Otranto in southern Italy, was a simple craftsman in this city, but distinguished by his piety and zeal for religion. 

PIETY AND LOVE OF CHRIST

He was already of an advanced age when the Turks under Mohammed II besieged and conquered the city and took the inhabitants prisoner. 

THEY WERE MARTYRED BECAUSE THEY WERE FAITHFUL CHRISTIANS, LOYAL TO OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

When the victor forced them to choose between Islam or death, St Anthony stepped forward and confessed in the name of all to believe in Jesus and encouraged his fellow believers to persevere in their confession. 

The result was that all of them, 800 in number, were mowed down. This happened on August 14, 1480. 

THEIR BODIES WERE BURIED 

When the Duke Alphons of Calabria recovered Otranto in the following year, he arranged for the bodies of the saintly martyrs to be buried in a chapel of the Metropolitan Church of this city, and since many miracles occurred in the course of time at the intercession of St Anthony and his companions, Clement XIV allowed their public veneration in 1771. 

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)

[These martyrs were beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 and canonised by Pope Francis in 2013]