ST NICOMEDES, MARTYR - 15 SEPTEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 15th 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 NICOMEDES, MARTYR 

Saint Nicomedes was a martyr of unknown era, whose feast is observed on September 15. 

The Roman Martyrology and the historical Martyrologies of Bede and his imitators place the feast on this date. 

The Gregorian Sacramentary contains under the same date the orations for his Mass. 

A MARTYR OF THE ROMAN CHURCH

The name does not appear in the three oldest and most important manuscripts of the "Martyrologium Hieronymianum", but was inserted in later recensions. 

The saint is without doubt a martyr of the Roman Church. He was buried in a catacomb on the Via Nomentana near the gate of that name. 

Three seventh century Itineraries make explicit reference to his grave, and Pope Adrian I restored the church built over it. 

HIS GRAVE

A titular church of Rome, mentioned in the fifth century, was dedicated to him (titulus S. Nicomedis).

Nothing is known of the circumstances of his death. The legend of the martyrdom of SS. Nereus and Achilleus introduces him as a presbyter and places his death at the end of the first century. 

Other recensions of the martyrdom of St Nicomedes ascribe the sentence of death to the Emperor Maximinianus (beginning of the fourth century.)

(From "Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)