ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST
Saints celebrated on the 19th 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 LOUIS OF TOULOUSE, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR
St Lewis (Louis of Toulouse, Louis of Anjou) was little nephew to St Lewis, king of France, and nephew by his mother to St Elizabeth of Hungary.
He was born at Brignoles, in Provence, in 1274, and was second son to Charles II, surnamed the Lame, king of Naples and Sicily, and to Mary, daughter of Stephen V., king of Hungary.
A SAINT FROM THE CRADLE
He was a saint from the cradle, and from his childhood it was his chief delight to hear the servants of God discourse of mortification, or the most perfect practices of piety. His modesty and recollection in the church inspired with devotion all who saw him.
HE REMAINED SEVEN YEARS AT BARCELONA IN RIGOROUS CAPTIVITY
In 1284, two years after the general revolt of the two Sicilies, St Lewis's father, Charles II, then prince of Salerno, was taken prisoner in a sea-fight by the king of Arragon. He was obliged to send into Arragon, for hostages, fifty gentlemen, and three of his sons, one of whom was our saint, who was then fourteen years old; and remained seven years at Barcelona in rigorous captivity, where the inhuman usage he met with afforded him occasions for the exercise of patience and all other virtues.
HE WAS SET AT LIBERTY
He was set at liberty in 1294, by a treaty concluded between the king of Naples, his father, and James II, king of Aragon. He took holy orders at Naples. Boniface VIII gave him a dispensation to receive priestly orders in the twenty-third year of his age; and afterwards sent him a like dispensation for the episcopal character, together with his nomination to the archbishopric of Toulouse, and a severe injunction in virtue of holy obedience to accept. He took a journey first to Rome, and to fulfil his vow, made his religious profession among the Friar Minors, in their convent of Ara Coeli, on Christmas Eve, 1296, and received the episcopal consecration in the beginning of the February following.
MODESTY, MILDNESS, AND DEVOTION
He travelled to his bishopric as a poor religious, but was received at Toulouse with the veneration due to a saint, and the magnificence that became a prince. His modesty, mildness, and devotion, inspired a love of piety into all who beheld him. It was his first care to provide for the relief of the indigent, and his first visits were made to the hospitals and poor.
Having taken an account of his revenues, he reserved to his own use a very small part, allotting the rest entirely to the poor; of whom he entertained twenty-five every day at his own table, serving them himself, and sometimes bending one knee when he presented them necessaries. He extended his charities over all his father’s kingdom, and made the visitation of his whole diocess, leaving every where monuments of his zeal, charity, and sanctity.
"I HAVE ARRIVED WITHIN SIGHT OF THE PORT"
Being obliged to go into Provence for certain very urgent ecclesiastical affairs, he fell sick at the castle of Brignoles. Finding his end draw near, he said to those about him: "After a dangerous voyage, I am arrived within sight of the port, which I have long earnestly desired." He received the viaticum on his knees, melting in tears, and in his last moments ceased not to repeat the Hail Mary. He died on August 19, 1297.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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