ST SANDRADUS, ABBOT - 24 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 24th 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 SANDRADUS, ABBOT 

Saint Sandradus (Sanderadus) was the first abbot of Gladbach [Germany], who had previously been a monk at St Maximin in Trier, and after others at St Pantaleon in Cologne, and as such had a reputation for great severity.

He died there in the reputation of high piety and virtue on August 24, 985. 

HE BECAME ABBOT OF THE NEWLY BUILT MONASTERY OF ST VITUS

From his life we know about the (unsuccessful) attempt to subject the monastery of St Gallen in Switzerland to a reform, of his elevation to the position of abbot of the newly built monastery of St Vitus in Gladbach, the almost miraculous discovery of his unharmed relics under the old church ruins of Gladbach, his deposition by the Archbishop Waron (Werin) of Cologne, allegedly because of too much attachment to the Bishop Wago (Wiego) of Liege (the monastery was in the area of ​​this diocese), which resulted in the Empress Adelheid appointing him as abbot of the Weissenburg monastery in Alsace, until Archbishop Waron recognised his mistake and called him back.

HE SHONE BY MANY VIRTUES AND SIGNS IN LIFE AND AFTER DEATH

Trithemius calls him a very holy abbot, the greatest promoter of monastic discipline, both to himself and to others, who shone by many virtues and signs in life and after death and is entered in the book of the religious saints of Gladbach. The latter is incorrect; only the anniversary of his death was always celebrated with a festive occasion. Probably for this reason the title "saint" is frequently used. 

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858 - 📷 An 18th c. book of Benedictine Saints)