ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 9th of September
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.
BL. ANTOINE-FREDERIC OZANAM
Born at Milan, April 23, 1813; he died at Marseilles, September 8, 1853. His father, settled at first in Lyons as a merchant, after reverses of fortune decided to go to Milan. Later he returned to Lyons and became a physician.
"GOD GAVE ME THE GRACE TO BE BORN IN THE FAITH"
Frederic studied law in Paris, and lived for eighteen months with the illustrious physician Ampere. Meanwhile he became a prey of doubt. He said, 'God gave me the grace to be born in the Faith. Later the confusion of an unbelieving world surrounded me. I knew all the horror of the doubts that torment the soul. It was then that the instructions of a priest and philosopher (Abbe Noirot) saved me. I believed thenceforth with an assured faith, and touched by so rare a goodness. I promised God to devote my life to the services of the truth which had given me peace.'
Rarely was a promise more faithfully fulfilled.
In 1836 he was appointed to the bench at Lyons, but two years later returned to Paris to submit his thesis on Dante for his doctorate in letters. His defence was a triumph. He was given the chair of commercial law, just created at Lyons.
The following year he competed for admission to the Faculties at Paris, and was appointed to substitute for one of the judges of the Sorbonne, Fauriel, philosopher and professor of foreign literature. At the same time he taught at Stanislas College, where he had been called by Abbe Gratry. On Fauriel’s death in 1844, the Faculty unanimously elected Ozanam his successor.
OZANAN WAS ELECTED HIS SUCCESSOR
Like his friend Lacordaire he believed that a Christian democracy was the end towards which Providence was leading the world, and after the Revolution of 1848 aided him by his writings in the Ere Nouvelle. In 1846 he visited Italy to regain his strength, undermined by a fever. In 1849, he published the greatest of his works: La civilisation chretienne chez les Francs.
HE MADE A JOURNEY TO SPAIN
In 1852 he made a short journey to Spain. In the beginning of the next year, his doctors again sent him to Italy, but he returned to Marseilles to die. When the priest exhorted him to have confidence in God, he replied "Oh why should I fear God, whom I love so much?" Complying with his desire the Government allowed him to be interred in the crypt of the "Carmes".
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE ST VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY
When but twenty, Ozanam with seven companions had laid the foundations of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, in order, as he said to "insure my faith by works of charity". During his life he was an active member and a zealous propagator of the society.
[He was beatified on August 22, 1997, Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris by Pope John Paul II.]
(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)
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