ST APOLLO, ABBOT IN THEBAIS - 25 JANUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY

Saints celebrated on the 25th 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.

ST APOLLO, ABBOT IN THEBAIS 

After passing many years in a hermitage, Saint Apollo formed and governed a community of five hundred monks near Heliopolis. 

THEY ALL WORE THE SAME COARSE HABIT

They all wore the same coarse habit, all received the holy communion every day, and the holy abbot made them also a daily exhortation with admirable unction. He entertained them often on the evils of melancholy and sadness, saying, that spiritual joy and cheerfulness of heart is necessary amidst our tears of penance; as being the fruit of charity, and requisite to support the fervour of the soul. He was known to strangers by the joy of his countenance. 

HIS HUMILITY

By humility he ranked himself, among the goats, unworthy to be numbered among the sheep. He made it his constant and earnest petition to God, that he might know himself, and be preserved from the subtle snares and illusions of pride. It is said that the devil left a possessed person at his command, crying out, that he was not able to withstand his humility. 

A VISIT FROM ST PETRONIUS

The saint received a visit from St Petronius, afterwards bishop of Bologna, in 393, being then nearly eighty years old, which he did not long survive. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)