ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 8th 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 SERGIUS I., POPE
Pope Saint Sergius reigned from 687-701. His date of birth is unknown; he was consecrated probably on December 15, 687 and died on September 8, 701.
HE WAS ORDAINED BY LEO II.
Sergius, the son of Tiberius, was a native of Antioch; he was educated in Sicily, and ordained by Leo II.
The new pope had numerous relations with England and the English. He received Caedwalla, King of the West Saxons, and baptised him (689); and, as he died in Rome, caused him to be buried in St Peter’s.
HE ORDERED ST WILFRID TO BE RESTORED TO HIS SEE
He ordered St Wilfrid to be restored to his see, greatly favoured St Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury, and is credited with endeavouring to secure the Venerable Bede as his adviser. Finally he consecrated the Englishman [St.] Willibrord bishop, and sent him to preach Christianity to the Frisians.
The cruel Emperor Justinian wanted him to sign the decrees of the so-called Quinisext or Trullan Council of 692, in which the Greeks allowed priests and deacons to keep the wives they had married before their ordination, and which aimed at placing the Patriarch of Constantinople on a level with the Pope of Rome.
THE PEOPLE PROTECTED THE POPE
When Sergius refused to acknowledge this synod, the emperor sent an officer to bring him to Constantinople. But the people protected the pope, and Justinian himself was soon afterwards deposed (695).
Sergius succeeded in extinguishing the last remnants of the Schism of the Three Chapters in Aquileia. He repaired and adorned many basilicas, added the Agnus Dei to the Mass, and instituted processions to various churches.
(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)
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