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ST LEUCIUS, BISHOP OF BRINDISI - 11 JANUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY

Saints celebrated on the 11th 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 LEUCIUS, BISHOP OF BRINDISI 

Saint Leucius, Bishop of Brindisi (Brundusium) in Italy, was born in Alexandria to very pious Christian parents at the time of Emperor Theodosius the Great. His father's name was Eudecius, his mother Euphrodisia, and their only son Euprescius. 

HIS MOTHER DIED

When he was ten years old, his mother died, and now his father went with him to the monastery of Blessed Hermes, where he devoted himself to the sciences and at the same time practiced all monastic virtues. 

HIS FATHER'S VISION

One day, at the celebration of Mary Queen of Heaven at a neighbouring church, his father had a vision in which he was told that he would soon die, but that his son would become bishop. On the same occasion he was also informed that in future he would be called Eudeclius, i.e. "Mildest comforter," and his son no longer Euprescius, but Leucius, i.e. "The Spirit of God came into him".

HE WAS ELECTED ARCHBISHOP

He related the vision to his son, officially changed the names, and later his son was indeed first ordained archpriest of the Church of Alexandria by the archbishop. In that position, he worked many miracles on the possessed and the dead, and converted many pagans and Jews to Christianity. After the death of the head of the Alexandrian Church, he was elected archbishop.

When the prefect Saturninus wanted to kill him, he went to Brindisi, as his father had once predicted, only to learn about the heresy there (specifically idolatry, which still ruled there), which would require utmost efforts to suppress. 

Foretelling the imminent death of the tyrannical Saturninus, who would die as a result of the collapse of his house, he departed from the clergy and the people who accompanied him in large numbers to the seashore. 

THE PEOPLE DID NOT WANT HIM TO LEAVE

The people pleaded with him and urgently asked him to stay instead of taking up his appointment in Brindisi, until at last a voice rang out from heaven: "Leucius, do not disdain what the Lord has commanded you, but get on the ship and go in peace." Thereupon he blessed everyone, he boarded the ship and finally came to Brindisi. 

HE FINALLY ARRIVED AT BRINDISI

When he stepped ashore at his destination, he straight away converted 67 pagans with his welcome sermon, among them the tribune Armaleon, who, summoned to the prefect Antiochus, narrated the sermon of Leucius, whereupon the prefect welcomed the saint and told him, that he, too, wanted to believe in Jesus Christ.

He also asked Leucius to ask God for the rain that had been lacking in the area for a long time, which soon happened through the fervent prayer of the saint, thus bringing to an end the prolonged period of drought.

THE POPULATION EMBRACED THE FAITH

At this miracle, the Prefect Antiochus and the whole city, about 27,000 inhabitants, were baptised.

When Leucius had fallen asleep in the Lord at a later stage, Antiochus had an apparition of St Zeucius, telling him to bury the saint's his body in the place where he went ashore and to built a beautiful church over it in his honour. Many miracles have been known to have occurred at his grave.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)

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