Saints celebrated on the 12th of June
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 ESKIL, BISHOP AND MARTYR
Saint Eskil was an Englishman by birth. St Ansgar, archbishop of Bremen, having by his zealous labours laid the foundation of a numerous church in Sweden, was obliged to return into Germany. After his departure some Swedes returned to their paganish superstition, and expelled Simon, whom St Ansgar had left bishop of that church.
A MISSION TO RESCUE SOULS
The news of this apostasy afflicted the servants of God who inhabited the northern provinces of England, and St Sigefride, archbishop of York, resolved to undertake a mission in person to rescue so many souls that were running upon the very brink of perdition.
Eskil, his kinsman, desirous to have a share in this laborious and dangerous enterprise, accompanied him thither, and behaved in that country with so much zeal and prudence that, at the request of the king and people, St Sigefride, before his return to England, consecrated him bishop at a place called Nordhan’s Kogh.
THE EXAMPLE OF HIS LIFE
By his zealous labours, which were supported by the example of his apostolic life, the church was exceedingly propagated, till good King Ingon was slain by the infidels, and the wicked Swejn, surnamed the Bloody, placed on the throne. Upon this revolution they revived their most impious and barbarous superstitions, with which they celebrated a most solemn festival at a place called Strengis.
HE STRONGLY EXHORTED THE IDOLATERS TO RENOUNCE THEIR IMPIOUS WORSHIP
St Eskil's zeal was enkindled at such abominations, and attended by several of his clergy and of the faithful, he hastened to the place of the sacrilegious assembly. There he strongly exhorted the idolaters to renounce their impious worship. Finding them deaf to his remonstrances, he addressed his prayers to the Almighty, beseeching Him by some visible sign to give evidence that He alone was the true God.
THEY STONED HIM TO DEATH
Instantly a violent storm of hail, thunder, and rain fell upon the spot, and destroyed the altar and sacrifices. This prodigy the infidels ascribed to art or magic, with which they charged the saint, and by the king’s orders they stoned him to death.
His sacred body was buried in the spot upon which he suffered martyrdom, and soon after a church was there built, in which his sacred remains were exposed to the veneration of the faithful, and were honoured with miracles. He glorified God by martyrdom in the eleventh century.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
Comments
Post a Comment