ST GUARINUS OF PALESTRINA, BISHOP

ST GUARINUS OF PALESTRINA, BISHOP - 6 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)

WELCOME

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BL. LUKE KIRBY, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 30 MAY

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY Saints celebrated on the 30th of May WELCOME! BLESSED LUKE KIRBY, PRIEST AND MARTYR 16th century houses, painted by Auguste Mayer He was born in the bishopric of Durham, according to Raissius ; others say at Richmond, in Yorkshire. He was master of arts in one of our universities; but going abroad to Douay, in Flanders, was received into the English college there, 1576, and made priest in 1577; and the year following sent upon the mission. Where he had not been long before he again went abroad, and travelled to Rome, partly for devotion, and partly for further improvement in learning. Here he remained in the English college till 1580, when he returned into England, and was not long after apprehended: for I find by a printed diary of things transacted in the Tower of London from 1580 till 1585, that on the 5th of December, 1580, Luke Kirby, Thomas Cottam , and other priests, were brought to the Tower from other prisons; and that these two, on the 10th...

BL. RICHARD NEWPORT, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 30 MAY

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY Saints celebrated on the 30th of May WELCOME! BLESSED RICHARD NEWPORT, PRIEST AND MARTYR Richard Newport, alias Smith , was born in Northamptonshire and performed his studies abroad, partly in the college of Rheims (if he be the Richard Smith whom I find in the Douay diary sent to Rome in 1586) and partly in that of Rome, where he was made priest. From thence he was sent upon the English mission, and behaved himself in such a manner as justly to acquire the character of a laborious missionary; being withal remarkably successful in bringing home many strayed sheep to the fold of Christ, to which his apostolical way of living did not a little contribute. He was several times apprehended and cast into prison, and twice banished. His name occurs amongst those who were transported in 1606; at which time, we are told, he took that opportunity of making a pilgrimage to Rome, there to pour forth his prayers at the tombs of the apostles, in behalf of thi...

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