ST REGULUS, 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 REGULUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR 

This holy bishop was among the 220 bishops who were forced to leave their seats and flee to Italy because of the persecution caused by the Arian Vandals against the Catholics under King Thrasimund. 

THE REPUTATION OF HIS HOLINESS REACHED TOTILA

His companions were Cerbonius and Felix. The saint climbed ashore in what is now Porto Baratto, where the city of Populonia was formerly located, and lived for some time in a wasteland, until the reputation of his holiness reached Totila, the king of the Goths, who asked the saint to be brought to him. 

HE WAS BEHEADED

When he refused, the henchmen cut off his head. Since he holds his bleeding head in his own hands in later illustrations, the legend arose that he had tried to carry it to the two bishops named above, whom an angel had informed about his death. They buried him with many tears. 

THEY BURIED HIM WITH MANY TEARS

In addition to this legend, there was another version, after a painting over a door of the St Martin's (Metropolitan) Church in Lucca, which seems more credible. The saint is there in disputation with the Arians, to whom he explains his orthodox creed. This faithfulness and the confession of the divinity of Jesus were therefore the cause of his martyrdom. 

THE FIRST CHURCH BUILT IN HIS HONOUR

The first church built in his honour was that of Sarzana, the former Etrurian Luna. The body of the saint remained here until Bishop John of Lucca, about A.D. 788, arranged for his relics to be transferred to Lucca, to the church of St Martin, which from now on received the name St Martin and Regulus. Here he is kneeling in front of the henchmen on a bas-relief, with the mitre at his feet. 

HIS DEATH MAY HAVE OCCURRED IN A.D. 540

The death of St Regulus may have occurred in A.D. 540. The Roman Martyrology does not call him bishop, but martyr who, coming from Africa to Populonia in Toscana, completed the martyrdom under Totila.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858 - 📷 Giovanni Coli and Filippo Gherardi, Glory of St Regulus, 1681, Lucca Cathedral)