ST MARTINA OF ROME, VIRGIN AND MARTYR - 30 JANUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY

Saints celebrated on the 30th 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 MARTINA OF ROME, VIRGIN AND MARTYR

Saint Martina of Rome was a noble Roman virgin, who glorified God, suffering many torments and a cruel death for his faith in the capital city of the world, in the third century. 

HER RELICS WERE DISCOVERED IN A VAULT

There stood a chapel consecrated to her memory in Rome, which was frequented with great devotion in the time of St Gregory the Great. Her relics were discovered in a vault, in the ruins of her old church, and translated with great pomp in the year 1634, under Pope Urban VIII. who built a new church in her honour, and composed himself the hymns used in her office in the Roman Breviary. 

SHE IS ONE OF ROME'S PARTICULAR PATRONS

The city of Rome ranks her among its particular patrons. She is mentioned in the Martyrologies of Ado, Usuard, etc. The history of the discovery of her relics was published by Honoratus of Viterbo, an Oratorian.

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Martina may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.