BL. MARGARET OF LOUVAIN, MARTYR - 2 SEPTEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 2nd 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. MARGARET OF LOUVAIN, MARTYR 

Blessed Margaret [who lived in the reign of Henry I. duke of Brabant, who died near Cologne, in 1235] was martyred on the banks of the Dyle or Deel, by certain ruffians, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, because she would not consent to sin; for St Thomas teaches that all Christian virtues, being protestations of our faith, and proofs of our fidelity to God, they are a true motive of martyrdom. 

SHE WOULD NOT CONSENT TO SIN

She was buried first on the bank of the river where she suffered, and was honoured with miracles. Her body soon after was translated to the church-yard of the collegiate church of St Peter, in Louvain, and deposited in a chapel contiguous to it, built on purpose, first of wood, since of stone, which, by piercing the wall, is now united to that church. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)