ST AGAN, ABBOT - 16 FEBRUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY

 Saints celebrated on the 16th 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.

 ST AGAN, ABBOT 

Saint Agan (Aganus) was abbot at the monastery of St Gabriel in Airola, in the diocese of Agatha-Gothi, and was very highly favoured by God. 

THE DEVASTATING PLAGUE

How much this was the case was once witnessed by heaven itself; for when once a terrible plague swept the land, and Agan ordered a procession to beg it to be averted, a voice audible to all rang out from heaven: "Aganus, thou art heard," whereupon the sickness immediately ceased. 

"THOU ART HEARD"

St Agan died about the year 1100. His body was rediscovered in 1608 and exposed for veneration with the permission of the Congregation of Rites. The writer Vucelin mentions him among the "blessed" on February 16. Mabillon, however, assigns to Agan the title "Saint" - although he entered his name among the Prætermissi without stating his feast day.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of the blessed Agan may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.