ST EQUITIUS, ABBOT

ST EQUITIUS, ABBOT - 11 AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 11th 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 EQUITIUS, ABBOT

Saint Equitius flourished in Abruzzo at the same time that Saint Benedict established his rule at Mount Cassino. In his youth he was molested with violent temptations of the flesh, to which he opposed austerities and continual prayer; and at length God was pleased entirely to free him from the stings of that domestic enemy.

HE PEOPLED THE WHOLE PROVINCE WITH FERVENT MONKS

He peopled the whole province of Valeria with fervent monks, who lived dispersed through the woods and fields, and were all employed in prayer and manual labour.

St Equitius visited and instructed them, and sometimes invited and exhorted the people in the towns and villages to the love and service of God.

HE WORKED THE WHOLE DAY IN THE FIELDS

He being only a layman, this was misconstrued by some persons as if the servant of God had thereby usurped an ecclesiastical function; but the pope, after being fully informed, forbade him to be interrupted in giving private exhortations, an office of charity in which the Holy Ghost seemed to be his master.

He worked the whole day in the fields, except when he was taken up in the visitation of his disciples, and only returned to his hermitage in the evening fatigued with his labour.

HIS WHOLE LIFE HE BREATHED THE AIR OF AUSTERE PENANCE

He went in coarse and ragged clothes, and his whole life breathed the air of austere penance and fervent charity and devotion. He took under his direction a numerous monastery of holy virgins, but never allowed any young monk to come near it. He was favoured with the gift of prophecy, and died about the year 540. His remains are kept with honour in the church of St Laurence in Aquila.

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

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