ST REMACLUS, BISHOP OF MAASTRICHT

ST REMACLUS, BISHOP OF MAASTRICHT - 3 SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 3rd 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.

SAINT REMACLUS, BISHOP OF MAASTRICHT

This holy pastor, who was a native of Aquitaine, leaving the court of king Clotaire, passed some time in the study of the holy scriptures under Saint Sulpitius of Bourges, and was appointed by St Eligius first abbot of the monastery and seminary which he founded at Solignac, two leagues from Limoges, in the year 631.

HE WAS ABBOT OF SOLIGNAC AND COUGNON

He was afterwards obliged to take upon him the government of the abbey of Cougnon, in the duchy of Luxemburg; but was soon after called to the court of king Sigebert, who, in 645, had succeeded his father, Dagobert I, leaving all the rest of France to his younger brother, Clovis II.

Both these brothers were religious, and their reigns peaceable. Sigebert made use of the advice of St Remaclus in founding the royal abbey of Stabuletum, now called Stavelo [Stablo], in the Ardennes, in the bishopric of Maastricht and duchy of Limburg. The same prince founded the abbey of Malmandurium, now called Malmedi, also in the forest of Ardenne.

HE WAS CHOSEN BISHOP OF MAASTRICHT

The direction of both these foundations was committed to St Remaclus, till upon the resignation of St Armand, in 650, he was chosen bishop of Maastricht, in which charge he laboured with great humility and zeal in preaching to his flock, and relieving the poor.

Sighing under the weight of exterior employs, and fearing he should, amidst them, forget himself, he procured the consent of his clergy and of king Childeric II to resign his see to St Theodard, and to retire to Stavelo, which he did in 662.

THE REPUTATION OF HIS SANCTITY MOVED MANY NOBLEMEN TO EMBRACE A PENITENTIAL MONASTIC STATE

The reputation of his sanctity moved many noblemen and others to embrace a penitential monastic state under his direction in that house. Remaclus walked before them in the narrow paths of true Christian perfection, encouraging them, both by words and example, to fervour in all religious exercises. He remitted nothing in his austerities on account of his old age. In his last moments he strongly exhorted his religious brethren to the love and practice of perfect self-denial, obedience, holy poverty, patience in painful employments and labours, assiduity in holy meditation and prayer, the most profound humility, and constant peace and union.

HE WAS BURIED AT STAVELO

He died about the year 664, and was buried at Stavelo. His body is still preserved there, and the church, when rebuilt by St Poppo in 1040, was dedicated to God under the patronage of Saint Remaclus.

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

BL. RICHARD NEWPORT, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 30 MAY

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY Saints celebrated on the 30th of May WELCOME! BLESSED RICHARD NEWPORT, PRIEST AND MARTYR Richard Newport, alias Smith , was born in Northamptonshire and performed his studies abroad, partly in the college of Rheims (if he be the Richard Smith whom I find in the Douay diary sent to Rome in 1586) and partly in that of Rome, where he was made priest. From thence he was sent upon the English mission, and behaved himself in such a manner as justly to acquire the character of a laborious missionary; being withal remarkably successful in bringing home many strayed sheep to the fold of Christ, to which his apostolical way of living did not a little contribute. He was several times apprehended and cast into prison, and twice banished. His name occurs amongst those who were transported in 1606; at which time, we are told, he took that opportunity of making a pilgrimage to Rome, there to pour forth his prayers at the tombs of the apostles, in behalf of thi...

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