ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST
Saints celebrated on the 7th 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.
THE MARTYRS OF COMO
During the persecutions of Maximian, some soldiers of his imperial army had become Christians. When the emperor heard that Carpophorus, Fidelis and Exanthus had become Christians and did desert the army, he asked his most faithful soldiers to find, torture and kill them.
THE PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS
The soldiers came to Silvula where Carpophorus and Exanthus hid. They summoned them to offer sacrifice, otherwise they would be tortured and killed. Carpophorus replied that this is the place where they will rest and that they reject sacrificing. They are ready to suffer and die to earn eternal life, he said, while the persecutors will die and burn forever.
THEY WERE BEATEN WITH STICKS BECAUSE OF THEIR CHRISTIAN FAITH
To make them change their minds, the persecutors severely beat them with sticks, threatening them with further tortures.
The saints exhorted them to continue, as this suffering will earn them eternal life. They can torture their bodies but they cannot touch their souls.
THEY WERE SENTENCED TO DEATH
The persecutors tortured them further with claws and iron-weighted scourges, for the saints’ blood to flow like a stream. The martyrs, however, continued to profess their faith in God, and were sentenced to death.
THEIR MARTYRDOM
The blessed Carpophorus, Exanthus, Cassius, Severinus, Secundus and Licinius kneeled, prayed, were beheaded and earned the eternal kingdom. They were martyred around the year of the Lord 295 on the north side of Lake Como, near Samolaco, in a place called Silvula, on the 7th day before the Ides of August (August 7). Their relics are kept in the church of San Carpoforo, Como, Italy.
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