ST MATERNUS, BISHOP OF MILAN - 18 JULY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY

Saints celebrated on the 18th 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.

SAINT MATERNUS, BISHOP OF MILAN 

This holy 4th century Bishop of Milan occupies a prominent place in the Ambrosian Liturgy. 

HE ENCOURAGED AND COMFORTED THE FLOCK

The local records tell us how he was elected by acclamation, both clergy and people insisting on having him for their Pastor; how he was beloved even by the Pagans; how he encouraged and comforted his flock during the persecution under Diocletian; and how he himself set them an example of patience and fortitude in times of trial and calamity, especially when he was singled out as the special object of the fury of the persecutors. 

PATIENCE AND FORTITUDE

Enfeebled by torture and other suffering, he died in the first years of the fourth century, while Maximian Herculeus was still bent on carrying out Diocletian‘s policy of extirpating Christianity. 

(From The Book of the Saints, 1921, by the Monks of Ramsgate)