ST PRISCUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR - 1 SEPTEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 1st 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 PRISCUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR 

According to legend, Priscus was one of the 72 disciples of Jesus and that householder in whose house Christ celebrated the Last Supper. 

HE ACCOMPANIED ST PETER WHEN THE LATTER WENT TO ROME

He accompanied St Peter when the latter went to Rome and was ordained by him first bishop of Capua to preach the gospel in that city. 

Full of the Holy Spirit and inflamed with apostolic zeal, he presided over his office with such care that he converted a large part of the people devoted to the service of Diana from idolatry to the Christian faith. 

HE PREACHED EFFECTIVE SERMONS TO THE PEOPLE

Responsible for the preaching of the divine word, he had set up his apartment with two servants not far from the Albanian Gate on the road that leads to Benevento, where he often preached effective sermons to the people, which added greatly to the numbers in the Christian Church. His words were authenticated by numerous miracles and signs, especially by miraculous cures: giving sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, casting out devils and raising the dead. 

HE HAD HIM CAPTURED

The idol priests complained against him to the proconsul, who had him captured, tied up and tortured in various ways in order to force him to sacrifice to idols. 

HE ENDURED THE TORMENTS WITH STEADFASTNESS

But the courageous warrior of Christ endured the threats and torments with steadfastness. Pierced with daggers on the Via Aquaria, he adorned the episcopal chair of Capua, on which he sat, with his glorious martyrdom. His death for Christ happened during the reign of Emperor Nero. 

HIS PLACE OF BURIAL

It can be assumed that the holy martyr received his burial at the place of his martyrdom, where the village of St Prisco stands today, about 2500 paces from today's Capua. 

HIS SUCCESSOR WAS ST RUFUS

His successor was St Rufus. The exact date on which St Priscus' relics were transferred from the old church of St Priscus to the cathedral church is uncertain. Some of the relics were left in the altar of the parish church of St Priscus. A second elevation of the same in the cathedral took place in 1712. St Priscus' name can also be found in the Roman Martyrology.

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