ST PANDWYNA, VIRGIN - 26 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 26th 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 PANDWYNA, VIRGIN 

Pandwyna (Pandiania), whose life was written by Richard, rector of Eltisley, from popular tradition, was said to have been the daughter of a petty prince in Ireland or North Britain, who fled to the Cambridge fens to escape from a marriage designed for her by her father.

SHE TOOK REFUGE WITH A KINSWOMAN 

She took refuge with a kinswoman who was prioress of a nunnery at Eltisley. There she lived a godly life, and was regarded as a saint. [She died in 904.] 

SHE WAS BURIED NEAR A WELL WHICH STILL BEARS HER NAME

She was buried near a well which still bears her name, but was dug up and translated to the parish church in the fourteenth century. The nunnery in which Pandwyna lived was destroyed by the Danes. 

(From: S. Baring Gould, The Lives of the Saints)