ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY
Saints celebrated on the 14th 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. ISAIAS, SABBAS, AND COMPANIONS - MARTYRS OF SINAI
Saints Isaias, Sabbas, and thirty-eight other holy solitaries on mount Sinai, martyred by a troop of Arabians, in 273; likewise Paul, the abbot; Moses, who by his preaching and miracles had converted to the faith the Ishmaelites of Pharan; Psaes, a prodigy of austerity, and many other hermits in the desert of Raithe, two days’ journey from Sinai, near the Red Sea, were massacred the same year by the Blemmyans, a savage infidel nation of Ethiopia.
PRAYER AND FASTING
All these anchorets lived on dates, or other fruits, never tasted bread, worked at making baskets in cells at a considerable distance from each other, and met on Saturdays, in the evening, in one common church, where they watched and said the night office, and on the Sunday received together the Holy Eucharist. They were remarkable for their assiduity in prayer and fasting.
Also, many holy anchorets on mount Sinai, whose lives were faithful copies of Christian perfection, and who met on Sundays to receive the Holy Eucharist, were martyred by a band of Saracens in the fifth century.
ANGELIC MODESTY
A boy of fourteen years of age led among them an ascetic life of great perfection. The Saracens threatened to kill him, if he did not discover where the ancient monks had concealed themselves. He answered, that death did not terrify him, and that he could not ransom his life by a sin in betraying his fathers. They bade him put off his clothes: “After you have killed me,” said the modest youth, “take my clothes: but as I never saw my body naked, have so much compassion and regard for my modesty, as to let me die covered.” The barbarians enraged at this answer, fell on him with all their weapons at once, and the pious youth died by as many martyrdoms as he had executioners.
ST NILUS LEFT US AN ACCOUNT OF THE MASSACRE
St Nilus, who had been formerly governor of Constantinople, has left us an account of this massacre in seven narratives; at that time he led an eremetical life in those deserts, and had placed his son Theodulus in this holy company. He was carried away captive, but redeemed after many dangers.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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