ST LUPICINUS OF CONDAT, ABBOT - MARCH 21

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 21st of March

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 LUPICINUS OF CONDAT, ABBOT 

St Lupicinus was the brother of St Romanus of Condat of Condat (Condate) who had retired into the forests of mount Jura, between France and Switzerland, and fixed his abode at a place called Condate, at the conflux of the rivers Bienne and Aliere, where he found a spot of ground fit for culture, and some trees which furnished him with a kind of wild fruit. Here he spent his time in prayer, reading, and labouring for his subsistence.

LUPICINUS, HIS BROTHER, JOINED HIM

Lupicinus, his brother, came to him some time after in company with others, who were followed by several more, drawn by the fame of the virtue and miracles of these two saints.

THEY BUILT THE MONASTERY OF CONDATE

Here they built the monastery of Condate, and, their numbers increasing, that of Leuconne, two miles distant to the North; and, on a rock, a nunnery called La Beaume (now St Romain de la Roche) which no men were allowed ever to enter, and where St Romanus chose his burial place.

THE BROTHERS GOVERNED THE MONKS JOINTLY

The brothers governed the monks jointly and in great harmony, though Lupicinus was more inclined to severity of the two. He usually resided at Leuconne with one hundred and fifty monks.

ST ROMANUS' DEATH AND FEAST DAY

Romanus died about the year 460, and is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on February 28. St Lupicinus survived him almost twenty years, and is honoured in the Roman Martyrology on March 21. He was succeeded in the abbacy of Condate by Minaucius, who, in 480, chose St Eugendus his coadjutor.

ST LUPICINUS' AUSTERITIES

Lupicinus, for his own part, used no other bed than a chair or a hard board; never touched wine, and would scarcely ever suffer a drop either of oil or milk to be poured on his pulse. In summer his subsistence for many years was only hard bread moistened in cold water, so that he could eat it with a spoon. His tunic was made of various skins of beasts sown together, with a cowl: he used wooden shoes, and wore no stockings unless when he was obliged to go out of the monastery.

(Information from Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints, 'SS. Romanus and Lupicinus, Abbots, February 28' - 📷 Choir stalls of the abbey cathedral - an engraving from 1826)