ST GALACTORIUS OF LESCAR, BISHOP AND MARTYR - 27 JULY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY

Saints celebrated on the 27th 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 GALACTORIUS OF LESCAR, BISHOP AND  MARTYR 

Saint Galactorius is the second bishop of the ancient see of Lescar, in the province of Bearn. According to tradition, the founder and first bishop was St Julian I at the beginning of the fifth century.

St Galactorius signed the Acts of the Council of Agde of 506 with the name: "Galactorius, episcopus de Bernardo".

GOING TO THE RESCUE OF KING CLOVIS I

In the Lescar Breviary of 1541 it is related that Bishop Galactorius fought, at the head of a group of Christians, the Visigoths in Mimizan, going to the rescue of King Clovis I.

In 506, St Galactorius was taken prisoner and martyred for refusing to renounce the Catholic faith.

HE WAS PUT TO DEATH BY VISIGOTH SOLDIERS

It is assumed that, St Galactorius, finding himself in Mimizan to meet the bishop of Bordeaux around 507, was put to death by Visigoth soldiers, defeated by the Franks, hostile to Catholic doctrine, and who wanted to avenge themselves in some way.

In the sixth century, a church was erected in honour of St Galactorius on the site of his martyrdom.

THE RELICS

Until the Reformation, the relics of Galactorius were kept in a chest located on the main altar of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption in Lescar. After the Reformation, his relics disappeared, probably because they were destroyed or hidden.

The Roman Martyrology has placed the feast and remembrance of St Galactorius, bishop and martyr, on July 27.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)