BL. JUVENAL ANCINA, BISHOP - 30 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 30th 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.

BL. JUVENAL ANCINA, BISHOP

One of the holy people that the Church celebrates on August 30 is Blessed Juvenal Ancina. He was born in 1545 into a wealthy family of Fossano, in the Duchy of Savoy, now the province of Cuneo in the Piedmont region of northern Italy.

HE MOVED TO ROME

Blessed Juvenal studied at Monpellier, Padua, Mondavi and Turin; and graduated with degrees in both medicine and philosophy. He became an accomplished musician and a man of letters. Many career options opened up for Blessed Juvenal, but he moved to Rome to attend lectures in theology given by a Jesuit priest. Blessed Juvenal entered the Oratory there in 1578 and four years later was ordained a priest.

HE ESTABLISHED THE ORATORY

Some years after his ordination he was sent to Naples to establish an Oratory there, which he did successfully using his skills in preaching and music, publishing a collection of spiritual songs set to a range of voices. Blessed Juvenal returned to Rome, and when he heard that he was to be made a bishop, he fled the city and hid for five months.

"IT'S TIME TO OBEY AND NOT TO FLY"

However, Pope Clement VIII appointed him Bishop of Saluzzo and Blessed Juvenal concluded, ‘It’s time to obey and not to fly’. He reformed his clergy and laity and set up a seminary to provide a higher level of knowledge for his priests. However, a disgruntled friar, who Blessed Juvenal had advised to change his sinful ways, took exception and poisoned Blessed Juvenal, who died on 30th August 1604.

LIVING SOBERLY AND JUSTLY

Blessed Juvenal was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1890. Blessed Juvenal wrote, ‘Oftentimes, when we least expect it, when there seems no chance of it, we are suddenly snatched out of this life. Why then do we not follow the saving advice of St Paul and devote ourselves to living soberly and justly, looking for the blessed hope and the coming of the glory of the great God?'

(From: Spiritual Thought From Father Chris)