Saints celebrated on the 4th 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.
ST ULRICH, BISHOP OF AUGSBURG, CONFESSOR
St Ulric [Ulrich, Udalric, Uldaric] was son of Count Hucbald, and of Thietberga, daughter of Burchard, one of the first dukes of Higher Germany. He was born in 893, and was educated from seven years of age in the abbey of St Gal. Guiborate, a holy virgin, who lived a recluse near that monastery, foretold him that he should one day be a bishop, and should meet with severe trials, but exhorted him to courage and constancy under them.
REGULARITY AND TEMPERANCE
So delicate and tender was the complexion of the young nobleman that all who knew him judged he could not live long. But regularity and temperance preserved a life, and strengthened a constitution which excessive tenderness of parents, care of physicians, and all other arts would probably have the sooner worn out and destroyed: which Cardinal Lugo shows to have often happened by several instances in austere religious Orders. The recovery of the young count was looked upon as miraculous.
HE WAS SENT TO AUGSBURG
As he grew up, his sprightly genius, his innocence and sincere piety, and the sweetness of his temper and manners charmed the good monks; and he had already made a considerable progress in his studies when his father removed him to Augsburg, where he placed him under the care of Adalberon, bishop of that city. The prelate, according to the custom of those times, made him his chamberlain when he was only sixteen years old, afterwards promoted him to the first orders, and instituted him to a canonry in his cathedral.
The young clergyman was well apprized of the dangers, and instructed in the duties of his state, which he set himself with all his strength faithfully to discharge. Prayer and study filled almost all his time, and the poor had much the greater share of his revenues.
HE SHUNNED EVERY SPIRITUAL DANGER
During a pilgrimage which he made to Rome, this bishop died, and was succeeded by Hiltin. After his return he continued his former manner of life, advancing daily in fervour and devotion, and in the practices of humility and mortification. He was most scrupulously careful to shun as much as possible the very shadow of danger, especially with regard to temptations against purity, and it was his usual saying to others: "Take away the fuel, and you take away the flame."
HE WAS CONSECRATED BISHOP
Hiltin dying in 924, Henry the Fowler, king of Germany, nominated our saint, who was then thirty-one years of age, to the bishopric of Ausburg, and he was consecrated on Holy Innocents’ day. The Hungarians and Sclavonians had lately pillaged that country, murdered the holy recluse St Guiborate, whom the Germans honour as a martyr, plundered the city of Augsburg, and burnt the cathedral.
THEY PLUNDERED THE CITY OF AUGSBURG
The new bishop, not to lose time, built for the present a small church, in which he assembled the people, who in their universal distress stood in extreme need of instruction, comfort, and relief: all which they found so abundantly in Ulric, that every one thought all the calamities they had suffered sufficiently repaired by the happiness they enjoyed in possessing such a pastor.
HE DEVOTED HIMSELF ENTIRELY TO HIS SPIRITUAL FUNCTIONS
He excused himself from attending the court, knowing of what importance the presence of a bishop is to his flock, for which he is to give a severe account to God. The levying and care of his troops, which in quality of prince of the empire he was obliged to send to the army, he entrusted to a nephew, devoting himself entirely to his spiritual functions.
HIS DAILY ROUTINE
He rose every morning at three o’clock to assist with his canons at matins and lauds: after which he recited the psalter, litany, and other prayers. At break of day he said in choir the office for the dead, and prime, and was present at high mass. After tierce and long private devotions he said mass. He only left the church after none, and then went to the hospital, where he comforted the sick, and every day washed the feet of twelve poor people, giving to each of them a liberal alms. The rest of the day he employed in instructing, preaching, visiting the sick, and discharging all the duties of a vigilant pastor. He took his frugal meal only in the evening before compline. In this the poor always shared with him, for whom and for strangers meat was served up, except on fast-days, though he never touched it himself. He allowed himself very little time for sleep, lay on straw, and never used any linen. In Lent he redoubled his austerities and devotions. He made every year the visit of his whole diocese, and held a synod of his clergy twice a year.
ST ULRIC OBTAINED THE KING'S PARDON FOR THE REBELS
Upon the death of Henry I, Otho I succeeded in the kingdom of Germany, between whom and his unnatural son Luitolf, a civil war broke out. St Ulric strenuously declared himself against the rebels, who on that account harassed and plundered his diocese. But Arnold, count palatine, being slain before the walls of Ratisbon, St Ulric obtained the king’s pardon for his son and the rest of the rebels.
STRONG WALLS
The saint had fenced the city of Augsburg with strong walls, and erected several fortresses to secure the people from the inroads of barbarians. This was a precaution of the utmost importance; for the Hungarians made a second incursion, and laid siege to Augsburg. The good pastor continued in prayer, like Moses on the mountain, for his people, whom he convened in frequent processions and devotions. His prayers were heard, and the barbarians, being seized with a sudden panic of fear, raised the siege and fled in great confusion. They were met and cut to pieces by Otho, who, in 962, was crowned emperor by the pope.
HE REBUILT THE CATHEDRAL IN A STATELY MANNER
St Ulric rebuilt his cathedral in a stately manner, and dedicated it again to God in honour of St Afra, the celebrated patroness of Augsburg, in which city she received the crown of martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian. She is commemorated on August 5.
HE AGAIN WENT TO ROME
The saint earnestly desired to resign his bishopric, and retire to the monastery of St Gal, sometime before his death; but met with too great opposition. He made a second journey of devotion to Rome, and was received with extraordinary marks of esteem by the pope, and at Ravenna by the emperor and his pious empress.
HIS HEALTH DECLINED
Otho I died in May, 973, and from that time the saint’s health began sensibly to decline. During his last sickness he redoubled his fervour. In his agony he caused himself to be laid on ashes blessed and strewed on the floor in the form of a cross, in which posture he died amidst the prayers of his clergy, on the July 4, 973, being about fourscore years old, and having been bishop fifty years. He was buried in the church of St Afra, which at present bears his name. His sanctity was attested by miracles, and he was canonised by Pope John XV in 993.
RECOMMENDING ONE'S ENTERPRISES TO GOD
The saints living by faith had recourse to God in all their actions, and by that means drew down his blessing on their undertakings. It was the saying of a great man, that persons who expose themselves to many dangers and sins, often meet with temporal miscarriages, like the Israelites when they were deceived by the Gabaonites, because they neglect to recommend their enterprises to God by fervent prayer and to consult his will.
(From: Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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