ST ELINED, VIRGIN AND MARTYR - 1 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 1st 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 ELINED, VIRGIN AND MARTYR 

Saint Elined (Almedha), virgin and martyr, flourished c. A.D. 490. 

According to Bishop Challoner, she was a daughter of Bragan (Brychan), a British prince, after whom the present province of Brecknock is named, and her memory was kept in Wales. 

"...WHO, REJECTING THE MARRIAGE OF AN EARTHLY PRINCE, AND ESPOUSING HERSELF TO THE ETERNAL KING..."

Giraldus Cambrensis, in his "Itinerarium Cambr.", the chief authority for Elined, speaks of the many churches throughout Wales named after the children of Bragan, and especially of one on the top of a hill, in the region of Brecknock, not far from the castle of Aberhodni, which is called the church of St Almedha, "who, rejecting the marriage of an earthly prince, and espousing herself to the eternal King, consummated her course by a triumphant martyrdom". 

THRONGS OF PILGRIMS VISITED THE CHURCH

Her feast was celebrated on August 1, on which day throngs of pilgrims visited the church, and many miracles were wrought. William of Worcester says that she was buried at Usk. 

The church mentioned by Giraldus was called, says Rees, Slweh chapel. The Bollandists (August 1) express themselves satisfied with the evidence of her cultus. This saint is the Luned of the "Mabinogion" and the Lynette of Tennyson’s "Gareth and Lynette". She is also supposed to be identical with the Enid of the "Mabinogion" and Tennyson’s "Idylls". 

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)