ST LEO, BISHOP OF CATANIA - 20 FEBRUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY

 Saints celebrated on the 20th 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 LEO, BISHOP OF CATANIA 

(Saint Leo Thaumaturgus.) Already around the year 600 there was a bishop Leo at Catania (Catana) on the island of Sicily. Leo, Bishop of Catania is mentioned from time to time in Pope Gregory the Great's correspondence.

"LEO II., BISHOP OF CATANIA"

About 170 years later, our bishop was on the scene in the same place, in the same position, with the same name: Leo II, as he came to be known, who was also nicknamed Thaumaturgus (Wonder Worker), because of his gift of miracles.

HE WAS OF NOBLE PARENTAGE

St Leo II was born of very noble and pious parents in Ravenna. Distinguished by piety, science and miraculous powers, he was first ordained a priest in the Church of Ravenna and later promoted to the episcopal see of Catana. 

HIS SPECIAL CARE FOR WIDOWS AND ORPHANS

As bishop he devoted special care to the poor, widows and orphans and yet again shone especially through his miraculous gift: he subdued and finally burned the notorious magician Heliodorus or Liodorus, of whom all kinds of magical arts are narrated. By his mere prayer the idols collapsed. 

BY HIS PRAYER, IDOLS COLLAPSED

He built a magnificent church for the sublime martyr Lucia according to an architectural plan he had designed himself. 

HIS HOLY DEATH

The reputation of his holiness spread far and wide and even the emperors Leo and Constantine called him and asked him for their prayers. He died on February 20 about the year 780. A senator's wife, who suffered an issue of blood, had been travelling to see him and ask him for healing prayers. When she arrived, the senator's wife learned that Bishop Leo had died. She was healed by touching his corpse. 

The Roman Martyrology has got his name on February 20 with the addition that he shone in Sicily with virtues and miracles. 

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