ST ROUIN, ABBOT - 17 SEPTEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 17th 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 ROUIN, ABBOT 

Saint Rouin (Chrodingus) was a native of Ireland, where he embraced the monastic state, and received priesthood. Having afterwards left his own country, he retired to the monastery of Tholey, in the diocese of Treves, and became a perfect model of all virtues to the monks, who, according to some writers, elected him their superior. 

HE TOOK UP RESIDENCE IN THE FOREST

He resolved to settle in the forest of Argonne. Being refused permission, he went to Rome with his disciples. Upon his return to France he obtained the consent he wished for, and taking up his residence in the forest, he there laid the foundation of the abbey of Beaulieu, which still subsists and is dependant on the congregation of St Vannes.

THE COMMUNITY SOON BECAME VERY NUMEROUS

The church was dedicated under the invocation of St Maurice and his companions; and the new community soon became very numerous. The holy founder was honoured with the protection of King Clovis II and his queen, St Bathild. 

HE RETIRED INTO A SOLITARY PLACE

The saint having governed his monastery thirty years, called for a successor, and retired into a solitary place in the neighbourhood, out of which he never went, except on Sundays, or when his presence was necessary in the community. 

HE WAS BURIED IN THE CHURCH OF HIS ABBEY

He died on the September 17, about the year 680, at the age of eighty-six, and was buried in the church of his abbey. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)