SS. GUMESINDUS AND SERVUS DEI, MARTYRS - 13 JANUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY

Saints celebrated on the 13th of January

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.

SS. GUMESINDUS AND SERVUS DEI, MARTYRS

Saint Gumesindus suffered at Cordoba in Spain. He was from Toledo. After receiving Holy Orders in the Campina, he ministered on the left bank of the Guadalquivir. 

A FAITHFUL PRIEST AND A HOLY MONK

After faithful administration for several years he was martyred with his companion Servus Dei (also Servideus), a monk, whose real name is perhaps unknown.

THEY WERE MARTYRED FOR BEING CHRISTIANS

They died of beheading during the persecution caused by Abderrhaman II and his son Mohammed in A.D. 890 (according to Migne in 852). The Spanish translation of his name is Gomez. The Roman Martyrology also contains  his and his companion's names. Some writers list their festival on January 19.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)

PRAYER:

Grant to your Church, we beseech you, O Lord, through the intercession of your holy martyrs Gumesindus and Servus Dei, not to think high-mindedly, but to grow in humility pleasing to you; that, despising what is base, she may with unbounded love diligently do whatever is right. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.