ST APER, BISHOP OF TROYES - 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.

ST APER, OR EVRE, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR 

He was born at Troyes in Champagne, as was his sister, the holy virgin Apronia, honoured at Troyes and Toul on July 15.

Upon the death of St Auspicius, sixth bishop of Troyes, in Champagne, about the year 486, he was chosen to fill that chair, for which he was prepared by a life devoted to the divine service from his infancy. 

Baronius, F. Peter Chifflet, and F. Longueval think him the same with Aper, who was married, had been a judge, and, after having led for some years a worldly life, was converted to God, and served him with great fervour, as we learn from three letters of St Paulinus to him. 

THREE LETTERS OF ST PAULINUS GIVE US SOME ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

But the authors of the new Gallia Christiana, and Calmet, in his history of Lorraine, show, that this Aper must have been above one hundred years old before he could have been bishop, which is incredible. 

Nor does it appear that the bishop had ever been married; on the contrary, he had served God in continency from his youth. He might, however, be the same to whom Sidonius Apollianaris wrote with respect. 

ZEAL, AUSTERITY, DEVOTION

In the history of his life, his zeal, austerity, devotion, and miracles are set forth. He governed that diocese seven years, and was buried in the new church which he had begun to build in the suburbs, and which was finished by his successor. 

A NEW MONASTERY WAS BUILT TO THE CHURCH

This church was dedicated under the title of St Martin, but very soon after bore the name of St Aper, whose relics and miracles rendered it famous. A monastery was soon after built to this church; and, in the decline of the sixth century, the abbot Apollinaris governed both this church and that of Agaunum. 

MIRACLES ASSOCIATED WITH HIS RELICS

St Leo IX, bishop of Toul, afterwards pope, carried certain relics of St Mansuetus (first bishop of Toul in the reign of Constantine the Great) and of St Aper with him, and by them cured many of his attendants of the pestilence on the road, as is related by Wibert, archdeacon of that holy pope, in his life. The chief parts of the relics of St Aper are to this day kept with veneration in his church.

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)