ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST
Saints celebrated on the 25th 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 THOMAS HEREFORD, BISHOP
Saint Thomas Hereford was born in Lancashire. His father’s office obliged him to reside chiefly at court to attend the king. When his son Thomas was capable of learning, he placed him under the care of his near kinsman, Walter Cantelupe, bishop of Hereford, and afterwards under that of Robert Kilwarby, a learned Dominican, archbishop of Canterbury, afterwards cardinal and bishop of Porto, and founder of the Black Friars in London.
HE BECAME DOCTOR OF LAWS IN OXFORD
St Thomas, resolving to consecrate himself to God in an ecclesiastical state, learned at Orleans the civil law, which is a necessary foundation to the canon law. He became doctor in laws at Oxford, and was soon after chosen chancellor of that famous university; in which office he shone in such a bright light, that king Henry shortly after appointed him high-chancellor of the kingdom.
HE WAS CALLED TO THE SECOND GENERAL COUNCIL OF LYONS
St Thomas never ceased to solicit king Henry for leave to resign his office, but in vain. However, he obtained it of his son Edward I. upon his accession to the throne; yet on condition that he should remain in his privy council; which he did till his death.
In 1274 he was called by Pope Gregory X to the second general council of Lyons, assembled for the union of the Greeks, etc. In 1275 he was canonically chosen bishop of Hereford by the chapter of that church, and all his opposition having been fruitless, consecrated in Christ-Church in Canterbury.
HIS RELICS WERE ENSHRINED WITH GREAT HONOUR
God was to him all in all; and he maintained his heart in perpetual union with him by prayer and holy meditation. He subdued his flesh with severe fasting, watching, and a rough hair-shirt which he wore till his death, notwithstanding the colics and other violent pains and sicknesses with which he was afflicted many years for the exercise of his patience. He died returning from a visit to Pope Nicholas IV, at Montefiascone in Tuscany. He received the last sacraments with incredible cheerfulness and devotion, and calmly gave up the ghost, in the sixty-third year of his age, on August 25, 1282.
His relics were soon after carried to Hereford, and enshrined with great honour in the chapel of our Lady, in his cathedral.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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