ST BARADAT, CONFESSOR - FEBRUARY 22

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY

 Saints celebrated on the 22nd 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.

ST BARADAT, CONFESSOR - FEBRUARY 22

Saint Baradat [Baradates] lived in a solitary hut, made of wood in trellis, like windows, says Theodoret,  exposed to all the severities of the weather. He was clothed with the skins of wild beasts, and by conversing continually with God, he attained to an eminent degree of wisdom, and knowledge of heavenly things. 

HIS HUMILITY

He left his wooden prison by the order of the patriarch of Antioch, giving a proof of his humility by his ready obedience. He studied to imitate all the practices of penance, which all the other solitaries of those parts exercised, though of a tender constitution himself. 

INCREDIBLE LABOURS

The fervour of his soul, and the fire of divine love, supported him under his incredible labours, though his body was weak and infirm. It is sloth that makes us so often allege a pretended weakness of constitution, in the practice of penance and the exercises of devotion, which courage and fervour would not even feel. 

WINDOWS OF TRELLIS OR WICKER

Note 1. This passage of Theodoret shows that the windows of the ancients were made of trellis or wicker, before the invention of glass; though not universally; for in the ruins of Herculaneum, near Portichi, were found windows of a diaphanous thin slate, such as the rich in Rome sometimes used. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)