ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 4th 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 BONIFACE I, POPE AND CONFESSOR
Saint Boniface was a priest of an unblemished character, well versed in the discipline of the church, and advanced in years when he succeeded Zosimus in the pontificate on December 29, 418.
His election was made much against his will, as the relation of it, which was sent by the clergy and people of Rome, and by the neighbouring bishops to the Emperor Honorius, who resided at Ravenna, testifies.
To it concurred seventy priests, some bishops, and the greatest part of the people; but three bishops and some others chose one Eulalius, an ambitious and intriguing man.
A SYNOD WAS ASSEMBLED
Symmachus, prefect of Rome, sent an account of this division or schism to the emperor, who ordered that a synod should be assembled to determine the debate.
The council which met desired that a greater number of prelates should be called, and made certain provisional decrees, to which Eulalius refused to submit. Whereupon he was condemned by a sentence of the council, and the election of Boniface ratified.
HE WAS A LOVER OF PEACE
This pope was a lover of peace, and remarkable for his mildness: yet he would not suffer the bishops of Constantinople to extend their patriarchate into Illyricum or the other western provinces which were then subject to the eastern empire, but had always belonged to the western patriarchate.
HE WAS REMARKABLE FOR HIS MILDNESS
He strenuously maintained the rights of Rufus, bishop of Thessalonica, who was his vicar in Thessaly and Greece, and would allow no election of bishops to be made in those countries which were not confirmed by him, according to the ancient discipline.
In Gaul he restored certain privileges to the metropolitical sees of Narbonne and Vienne, exempting them from any subjection to the primacy of Arles.
THIS HOLY POPE EXERTED HIS ZEAL AGAINST THE PELAGIANS
This holy pope exerted his zeal against the Pelagians, and testified the highest esteem for the great St Austin [Augustine], who addressed to him four books against the Pelagians.
St Boniface in his third letter to Rufus, says: "The blessed apostle Peter received by our Lord’s sentence and commission the care of the whole church, which was founded upon him."
HE DIED IN A.D. 422
St Boniface died towards the latter end of the year 422, having sat somewhat above three years and nine months, and was buried in the cemetery of St Felicitas, which he had adorned on the Salarian Way.
He had made many rich presents of silver patens, chalices, and other holy vessels to the churches in Rome.
Bede quotes a book of his miracles [...] The epistles of this pope are also printed in the collections of the councils, as in Labbe’s edition, 1582 and 1702.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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