BL. SEBASTIAN AB APPARITIO - 26 FEBRUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY

 All Saints celebrated on the 26th 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. SEBASTIAN AB APPARITIO 

Blessed Sebastian ab Apparitio (February 26), a lay brother of the Order of St Francis, was born at Gudina in the Kingdom of Galicia (Spain) in 1502, the son of pious peasants. 

HE SENT HIS SAVINGS TO HIS PARENTS TO SUPPORT THEM IN THEIR OLD AGE

As a wage labourer in Salamanca, he sent his savings to his parents to support them in their old age. Afterwards, he went to Mexico, switched to trading and acquired a significant fortune. 

HE BECAME A FRANCISCAN

He was married twice but without children. When he was 70 years old, he distributed all his wealth among the poor and entered a Franciscan monastery of the Strict Observance, where he made his profession as a lay brother and died on February 25, 1600 at the age of 98. 

EXTRAORDINARY GRACES WERE OBTAINED BY HIS INTERCESSION

He was beatified by Pope Pius VI on May 17, 1786. Extraordinary graces were obtained by his intercession. Many miracles were wrought by him, both in life and after his death. 

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858 - 📷 "Opusculum vitae, virtutum et miraculorum... Fr. Sebastiani ab Apparitio Ordinis Min. de Obseruantia...")