ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST
Saints celebrated on the 13th 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 CASSIAN, TEACHER AND MARTYR
Saint Cassian was a Christian schoolmaster, and taught children to read and write, at Imola, a city twenty-seven miles from Ravenna in Italy.
A VIOLENT PERSECUTION WAS RAISED AGAINST THE CHURCH
A violent persecution being raised against the church, probably that of Decius or Valerian, or according to some, that of Julian, he was taken up, and interrogated by the governor of the province.
HE CONSTANTLY REFUSED TO SACRIFICE TO THE GODS
As he constantly refused to sacrifice to the gods, the barbarous judge having informed himself of what profession he was, commanded that his own scholars should stab him to death with their iron writing pencils, called styles; for at that time it was the custom for scholars to write upon wax laid on a board of boxen wood, in which they formed the letters with an iron style or pencil, sharp at one end, but blunt and smooth at the other, to erase what was to be effaced or corrected.
HIS ARDENT DESIRE TO DIE FOR CHRIST
They also often wrote on boxen wood itself, as St Ambrose mentions. The smaller the instruments were, and the weaker the executioners, the more lingering and cruel was this martyr’s death. Thus, covered with his own blood, and wounded in every part of his body, he cheerfully bade his little executioners not to be afraid; and to strike him with greater force; not meaning to encourage them in their sin, but to express the ardent desire he had to die for Christ.
HE WAS INTERRED BY CHRISTIANS AT IMOLA
He was interred by the Christians at Imola, where afterwards his relics were honoured with a rich mausolaeum. Prudentius tells us, that in his journey to Rome, he visited this holy martyr’s tomb, and prostrate before it implored the divine mercy for the pardon of his sins with many tears. He mentions a moving picture of the saint’s martyrdom hanging over the altar, representing his cruel death in the manner he has recorded it in verse.
HIS SACRED REMAINS ARE VENERATED AT IMOLA IN THE CATHEDRAL
He exhorts all others with him to commend their petitions to this holy martyr’s patronage, who fails not to hear pious supplications. His sacred remains are venerated in a rich shrine at Imola in the cathedral.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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