ST CALIMERIUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR - 31 JULY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY

Saints celebrated on the 31st 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 CALIMERIUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR 

Saint Calimerius was a second century Bishop and Martyr. A Greek, educated in Rome by Pope St Telesphorus, who, having joined the clergy of Milan, governed that Church as Bishop for more than fifty years, and suffered imprisonment, tortures, and exile under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. 

HE MADE INNUMERABLE CONVERTS TO CHRISTIANITY

St Calimerius made innumerable converts to Christianity, devoting himself wholly to the service of his flock. 

HIS MARTYRDOM

Towards the close of the reign of Commodus (A.D. 191) he was called upon to die for Christ, and was cast headlong into a deep well. He is buried under the High Altar of his church at Milan. 

(From The Book of Saints, 1921, by the Monks of Ramsgate)