ST ADELPHUS OF METZ, BISHOP - 29 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 29th 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.

ST ADELPHUS OF METZ, BISHOP 

Saint Adelphus, successor of St Rufus in the episcopal chair at Metz, lived towards the end of the 4th and beginning of the 5th century. 

HE WAS THE SUCCESSOR OF BISHOP RUFUS

No one knows any more details about him. His life was indeed written some time after his death, but it is full of anachronisms and fairy tales - it bears the mark of ignorance.

According to some, St Peter Chrysologus is said to have praised him, but this is undoubtedly an error, which may have been caused by a mix-up with another saint. 

HIS RELICS

His relics remained in the Abbey of St Clement, where they had been transferred from the original place of burial - the Catacombs of Metz - until the year 826. At that time, Bishop Drogo of Metz arranged for them to be brought to the Abbey Church of Neuweiler in Alsace through his suffragan Bishop Landfried. 

THE BISHOP AUTHORISED THEIR VENERATION

Bishop Robert of Strasbourg, of the Bavarian princely house, had the coffin, in which the saint's relics are encased, opened in 1488, declared them to be genuine and allowed them to be exposed for public veneration. 

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