ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY
Saints celebrated on the 29th 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 AQUILINUS, PRIEST AND MARTYR
Saint Aquilinus was born to noble parents in Würzburg in Franconia and, even as a boy, defended Catholic truth against Arian-minded classmates.
HE STUDIED IN COLOGNE
Sent to Cologne by his parents to study, he joined the bishop there, became canon and subsequently provost at the cathedral church.
THEY WANTED TO HAVE HIM AS THEIR BISHOP
But when, after the bishop's death, the clergy and people of Cologne considered the idea of electing him (Aquilinus) as their bishop, he fled to Paris in order to escape this dignity. At that time, the plague was spreading through the area, which, by his ardent prayer, he caused to cease. The people were so grateful to him for taking the plague away by his prayers, and he won the love of all, so that they wanted him to be bishop as well.
HIS PRAYERS RESTORED THE CITY TO HEALTH
But even here he fled, went to Pavia (Ticinum) to learn the Italian language, and then came to Milan, where he joined the canons of St Laurence. Until to the end of his life he fought the Arian sect with all his might. These his efforts brought many back to the Catholic faith, but also incurred the deadliest hatred of the adherents of the Arian heresy.
THE ARIANS LAY IN WAIT FOR HIM
Once, when he was on his way to St Ambrose's church, they lay in wait for him and attacked with a torrent of blows and afterwards left him half dead. But when he had recovered and continued to make a stand against the sect, utterly undeterred, they attacked him a second time and cut his throat, so that he gave up the ghost.
A DIGNIFIED CHRISTIAN BURIAL
After this shameful deed, the murderers wanted to dispose of his lifeless body secretly, but were prevented from doing so by a very dense fog, whereupon it was eventually buried by the Christians in a chapel in the church of St Laurence with great honour. The year in which he suffered martyrdom, as well as the period in which he lived, is not given. His name is on January 29 both in the general Roman Martyrology and the particular for the Canonici Regulares.
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)
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