ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY
Saints celebrated on the 13th of February
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.
BL. JORDAN OF SAXONY, MASTER OF THE DOMINICAN ORDER
Blessed Jordanus, in French Jourdain (commemorated on February 13 or February 15), was the second Master of the Dominican Order, successor of Saint Dominic.
Legend has it that Bl. Jordan was born when his parents happened to be on pilgrimage in the Holy Land, and he was given his name because the priest baptised him in the river Jordan when he was a few days old. The Bollandists, however, state that his name is a form of Gordianus or Gordanus and is related to the German word 'gird'.
HE BELONGED TO THE GERMAN NOBILITY
He is said to belong to the German nobility, and according to some he was descended from Count of Ebernstein of the Diocese of Hildesheim; but this cannot be stated with absolute certainty. An old chronicle says that he was born in the village of Botergo in the Diocese of Mainz. Furthermore, when Jordan is called a "Saxon," it should be noted that the Saxons once lived in many places.
HIS STAY IN PARIS
Even more uncertain than the place of his birth is the time of the same. The first time his name is documented is as a bachelor of theology in Paris, whither St Dominic sent Reginald, one of his first disciples, in 1219. It was through Reginald that Jordan got to know St Dominic. On Ash Wednesday of the year 1220 Jordan and his friend Henry received the habit of the monks of the Order of Preachers.
HE LABOURED MUCH TO STRENGTHEN AND EXPAND THE DOMINICAN ORDER
Even as a novice (as Jordan himself tells us in his Life of St Dominic) - when he had not been in the Order for more than two months - he was sent from Paris with three other brothers to the first general chapter in Bologna, then to the following one in 1221, which he did not attend, as provincial of Lombardy and in A.D. 1222, he was, according to the code of St Dominic, elected Magister Ordinis at the third general chapter in Paris, in which role Bl. Jordan laboured much to strengthen and expand the Order.
MANY CONVENTS WERE BUILT
Many convents were erected under him, namely in Regensburg, Constance, Basel, Freiburg, Strasbourg, Worms, etc. During that period of his life, Blessed Diana also received the veil from his hand.
HE GAVE A CHANCE TO OTHERS AS WELL
In addition to many aristocrats, the rich, scholars, finely educated and scientifically trained young people, he also won over 60 young men in Paris at the same time which had such weak literary endowments that several of them were barely able to read a lesson aloud at matins, and this with much effort and repetition. Fiercely accused of recruiting unsuitable people who were not bright enough at a general chapter, he said: "Leave them alone, despise none of these little ones. I tell you, you will see many, yes almost all, as excellent preachers" - words which success proved to be true.
HIS DEVOTION TO THE MOST HOLY NAME OF JESUS
His erudition and piety put him in the favour of Pope Gregory IX and earned him the most universal respect and admiration. In particular, he is counted among the most zealous worshippers of the most holy name of Jesus.
HE WROTE THE ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICE
In 1223 Jordan had the body of St Dominic transferred into a new magnificent coffin. The ecclesiastical office, which the Dominican order recites on the feast of its founder, is said to have been penned by Jordan.
HIS PILGRIMAGE
In 1236 Jordanus undertook a pilgrimage to Palestine, on which he was shipwrecked. His death by drowning occurred in 1237. The floods carried his body to the shore. A wonderful brilliance of light was seen at his funeral at Ptolomais.
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)
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