ST TARSITIA, VIRGIN - 15 JANUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY

Saints celebrated on the 15th of January

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 TARSITIA, VIRGIN 

Saint Tarsitia was descended from an ancient noble family in Aquitaine. Her father, called Ambert, was one of the ancestors of the early French kings. Her mother was a daughter of the Frankish king Clothaire I and was called Blitildis. 

SHE LEFT THE WORLD TO LIVE IN SOLITUDE

As a teenager she left the world and went into solitude. A forest cave in what is now Rouergue was her home. Her food was the milk of a hind, which allowed St Tarsitia to milk her. 

A HEAVENLY LIGHT

After her death, a heavenly light proclaimed her extraordinary sanctity to the people around, whereupon she was buried with great solemnity at Rodez. 

HER RELICS

Not far from the grotto that used to be her abode in in the Rodelle forest, there is a spring, the water of which is used for eye diseases. At present, the relics of the saint - which survived the revolutionary period - are kept in the Rodez Cathedral. Her death may have occurred around the year 600. Some sources give her feast day as January 14, others as January 15.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints)