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 VERENA, VIRGIN
The holy Virgin Saint Verena is venerated throughout Switzerland, but especially around Zurzach on the Rhine and in the city of Solothurn. She lived as a hermitess at Solothurn for a long time, and she died at Zurzach.
Today, not far from Solothurn, one can still see the cave carved into the rock, converted into a chapel, in which she lived.
HER CONNECTION WITH THE THEBAN LEGION
St Verena was originally from Egypt. The holy Bishop Charaemon (of Nilus?) baptised and raised her. When the Theban Legion was called to Gaul to fight, she accompanied them to Milan, where she received the news of the slaughter of the Theban Legion. St Victor, her bridegroom, had been one of them.
She came to Agaunum and kissed the ground on which the Christian heroes had shed their blood. But she was not allowed to stay here, and therefore continued to trace the remainder of the Theban Legion. This quest lead her to Solothurn, where she initially lived with a saintly Theban who had escaped the blood bath.
THE SO-CALLED DEVIL'S STONE IS PRESERVED TO THIS DAY
At certain times she took to the above-mentioned narrow cave, near which lived an elderly Christian woman. Here she occupied herself with prayer, fasting and pious reading (especially in St Cyprian's book of virginity).
Even now, in the forest not far away, is preserved the so-called Devil's Stone, an erratic block that the devil, in a rage, once wanted to throw at our angelic saint. The population of the city and its surroundings, especially the Alemanni settled here, were for the most part still pagan. When various miracles occurred in response to the prayers of St Verena, the place became ever more popular with the locals.
SOME OF THE INDIGENOUS ALEMANNI WERE CONVERTED
Some of the indigenous Alemanni were converted and baptised by an Italian priest who lived here in exile. A while later, the Roman officials captured them and committed all of them to prison.
In prison St Verena saw a youth appearing before her in a bright glow, who comforted and encouraged her. It was St Mauritius. That same night the Roman governor fell ill with a violent fever; he sent a message to prison to ask for prayers for help for him. St Verena did pray fervently, and the fever left him. Therefore he set all of them free.
SHE LEFT SOLOTHURN
After this incident, St Verena left Solothurn, boarded a vessel and came to the region which, from the confluence of the Aar, Limmat and Reuss, was called Confluentia, now Koblenz, where she disembarked.
Here she lived in a cell for a long time, which later was given the name Verena cell, where she stayed for a few years.
From there she moved to Zurzach, where several Christian families lived, and gathered a number of virgins with whom she led a consecrated life. They lived in great poverty.
FORTY SACKS OF BEST FLOUR
Once, when they were suffering from a particularly severe shortage of food, they became aware that forty sacks of the best flour were standing at their door without their knowing who had brought them. The biography, in that context, mentions her and her fellow sisters' great love and devotion to the Holy Mother of God.
After having lovingly admonished her companions, St Verena died of old age in the second half of the 4th century.
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)
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