ST GUARINUS OF PALESTRINA, BISHOP - 6 FEBRUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY

Saints celebrated on the 6th 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 GUARINUS OF PALESTRINA, BISHOP

Saint Guarinus, cardinal bishop of Palestrina, also called Guerrinus by some, was born at Bologna of an ancient and noble family. Pious and God-fearing from his youth, he dedicated himself - against the will of his parents, who had envisaged him to do well in the worldly sphere - to the ecclesiastical profession, first as a diocesan priest and then as a regular priest. 

HUMILITY CAUSED HIM TO TRY TO FLEE TO AVOID THE LIMELIGHT

From the monastic cell at Mortara he was summoned to the episcopal see of Pavia, or rather, more or less dragged, since he had wanted to evade this dignity by fleeing to somewhere where he would have been able to lie low. Later he was appointed Cardinal Bishop of Palestrina Praeneste by Pope Lucius II, a position he accepted out of obedience. Before he set off to take up the appointment, he founded a hospital in his native town, which he gave the name of the pious sufferer Job. 

HUMILITY AND SERVICE

His biographer writes of his episcopal activities: "Through humility and willing service he was, so to speak, a subordinate among his confreres, a teacher in words, a master in examples. He contemplated death incessantly, as if it were a daily occurrence. When he had received from the pope a valuable equipage and other gifts, he sold everything and gave the proceeds to the poor." 

A HOLY LIFE

He devoted himself incessantly to his episcopal duties of prayer and preaching, and actively lived, by mortification and fasting, by patience and active love, what he preached in words. Thus he died, rich in merits, in A.D. 1159 at the age of 70. He was interred in the Church of St Agapitus. His canonisation was done by Pope Alexander III.

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