ST FECHIN, ABBOT - 20 JANUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY

Saints celebrated on the 20th of January

WELCOME!

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 FECHIN, ABBOT IN IRELAND 

An ancient hymn on Saint Fechin is published by Bollandus. He is honoured with singular devotion at Foure, anciently called Fobhar, a village in Westmeath, where he governed a monastery with great sanctity.

AN ANCIENT HYMN

He happily departed to our Lord in the year 664, being carried off in the great pestilence which swept off four kings in Ireland; and which scarcely a third part of the inhabitants survived.

THE GREAT PESTILENCE

Giraldus mentions St Fechin’s mill at Foure, which out of respect it is forbidden for any woman ever to enter. Several churches and some villages in Ireland take their name from this saint.

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints - 📷 St Fechin's well, Omey Island, County Galway, Ireland)