ST CUTHBURGE, QUEEN, VIRGIN, AND ABBESS - 31 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 31st 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.

SAINT CUTHBURGE, QUEEN, VIRGIN, AND ABBESS 

This saint was sister to king Ina, and was married to Alfred, who was crowned king of the Northumbers in 685. 

At her suit he allowed her to remain always a virgin, and to devote herself to her heavenly spouse in the monastery of Barking in Essex. 

SHE DEVOTED HERSELF TO HER HEAVENLY SPOUSE

She afterwards founded that of Winburn, in Dorsetshire, which she governed, giving herself up totally to fasting, watching, and holy prayer; humble both to God and man, meek and tender to others, but always austere to herself. 

WINBURN

She never ceased to exhort her sisters to live up to the dignity of spouses of the King of heaven, to keep their hearts free from all affection to the things of this world, and ever to sigh after their heavenly home. 

STRENGTHENED WITH THE VIATICUM OF THE PRECIOUS BODY OF CHRIST SHE PASSED TO EVERLASTING BLISS

Being purified by a long and painful illness, and strengthened with the viaticum of the precious body of Christ, she passed to everlasting bliss on August 31, in the beginning of the eighth century. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

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