Skip to main content

BL. ROLAND, HERMIT - 15 SEPTEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 15th 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.

BLESSED ROLAND, HERMIT 

Blessed Rolandus (Orlandus) - who was descended from the noble family of the Medici - lived for 26 years as a hermit in the groves of Bargoni, Buffeto, Tabbiano and Salso, in what would later become the Duchy of Parma (Emilia). 

HIS CLOTHING AND FOOD

Since his threadbare black robe became completely useless with time, he wove a skirt out of straw and leaves, which he later exchanged for a raw, unworked goatskin that he had found by chance. 

His food consisted of herbs and fruits. If he could not find those in winter (since he had imposed on himself constant silence), he used signs whenever he had to go into the neighbouring villages to beg as much bread as he needed. 

HE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE OPEN AIR

In wind and rain, snow and hail, heat and cold, he always lived in the open air, day and night. 

One day the wife of Margrave Nicolaus Pallavicini and her companion found him in the forest, quite exhausted and near death. When the noble woman asked him whether he wanted a confessor, he asked her to send him the Carmelite priest, Dominicus de Dominicis. 

HE MANAGED TO GO FOR CONFESSION AND RECEIVED HOLY COMMUNION

With difficulty he dragged himself to the church outside Bargoni, where he confessed the following day and also received Holy Communion. 

At the persuasion of his pious confessor, the hermit still enjoyed some nourishment in order to preserve his life, consisting of meat broth, which kept him alive for 26 days. On September 15, 1386 he gave up his ghost. 

When he died, the bells of Bargoni rang out of their own accord. 

MANY MIRACLES HAPPENED AT HIS GRAVE

His body was solemnly taken to Busseto, a town not far from Fiorenzuola, and buried in the church there.

Many miracles happened at his grave and already in 1464, 78 years after his death, he was venerated as "Blessed".

His body was raised and buried in a chapel bearing his name. 

HIS BIOGRAPHY

His biography, which was written by a contemporary and is kept in the Medicean Archives, is given above in short form (based on the Bollandists). Another "Life", published in Parma in 1784 (vita del beato Orlando de 'Medici, eremita), by Affo, contains his portrait, engraved from an old bas-relief: he is shown in prayer, clothed with animal skins.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

WELCOME

  Please pick your saints: January - Saints by date  1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17   18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29    30    31   February - Saints by date  1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17 18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29   March - Saints by date: 1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17   18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29    30    31   April - Saints by date: 1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17   18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29    30   May - Saints by date: 1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17   18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29    30   

ST JOHN BERCHMANS, RELIGIOUS - 13 AUGUST

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST Saints celebrated on the 13th of August WELCOME! SAINT JOHN BERCHMANS, RELIGIOUS   (Patron Saint of Altar Servers.) The eldest boy of a poor cordwainer, in a small Belgian town, John was ever a dutiful, prayerful, and studious child. Our Lord called him when but young to leave his father and his father’s house, to serve Him in the Society of Jesus.  And because he was so good a son, it cost his father much to give him up to God; but he was too good a Christian to refuse outright.  HE WAS SENT TO ROME John had hardly taken his religious vows when he was sent to the centre of Christendom, the holy city of Rome. His modesty, his purity, shone out as great virtue always does; and the young laymen who attended the lectures would come to gaze upon his beautiful and holy face, and go away the better for the sight. GREAT VIRTUE Three short years, and his last sickness found him sighing for heaven, and three days before the great feast of Mary’s Assumption in 1

ST LAURA OF CORDOBA, WIDOW AND MARTYR - 19 OCTOBER

  WELCOME! SAINT LAURA OF CORDOBA, WIDOW AND MARTYR   Laura, a widow and martyr of Cordoba in Spain, is mentioned in the Spanish martyrology of Tamajode Salazar, who refers to Luitprand, where it says the following: St Laura is said to have been of a noble family, and  according to the wishes of her parents she married an equally noble man and gave birth to two daughters.  After the death of her husband and her daughters, she went to the monastery of St Aurea, named St-Maria de Cuteclara, and after her martyrdom led the same for nine years as her successor.  After she had made wonderful progress in all virtues, she was finally summoned to renounce the faith before a Saracen judge. But since she remained steadfast, she was first beaten very cruelly and then thrown into a bath of boiling pitch, where she remained in praise of God for three hours and then flew to heaven on October 19, 864.   St Laura is of the 48 Martyrs of Cordoba. PRAYER: Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who