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.
SAINT SADOTH, BISHOP OF SELEUCIA AND CTESIPHON, WITH 128 COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
(A.D. 342.) Sadoth, as he is called by the Greeks and Latins, is named in the original Persian language, Schiadustes, which signifies “friend of the king,” from schiah, king, and dust, friend.
His unspotted purity of heart, his ardent zeal, and the practice of all Christian virtues, prepared him, from his youth, for the episcopal dignity, and the crown of martyrdom.
ST SADOTH WAS CHOSEN TO FILL THE VACANCY
St Simeon, bishop of Selec, or Seleucia, and Ctesiphon, then the two capital cities of Persia, situate on the river Tigris, being translated to glory by martyrdom, in the beginning of the persecution raised by Sapor II, in 341, Saint Sadoth was chosen three months after to fill his see, the most important in that empire, but the most exposed to the storm.
This grew more violent on the publication of a new edict against the Christians, which made it capital to confess Christ. To wait with patience the manifestation of the divine will, St Sadoth, with part of his clergy, lay hid for some time; which did not however hinder him from affording his distressed flock all proper assistance and encouragement, but rather enabled him to do it with the greater fruit.
During this retreat he had a vision which seemed to indicate that the time was come for the holy bishop to seal his faith with his blood. This he related to his priests and deacons, whom he assembled for that purpose.
"I SAW IN MY SLEEP A LADDER..."
“I saw,” said he, “in my sleep, a ladder environed with light and reaching from earth to the heavens. St Simeon was at the top of it, and in great glory. He beheld me at the bottom, and said to me, with a smiling countenance: ‘Mount up, Sadoth, fear not. I mounted yesterday, and it is your turn to-day:’ which means, that as he was slain last year, so I am to follow him this.”
He was not wanting on this occasion to exhort his clergy, with great zeal and fervour, to make a provision of good works, and employ well their time, till they should be called on in like manner, that they might be in readiness to take possession of their inheritance.
“A man that is guided by the Spirit,” says St Maruthas, author of these acts, “fears not death: he loves God, and goes to him with an incredible ardour; but he, who lives according to the desires of the flesh, trembles, and is in despair at its approach: he loves the world, and it is with grief that he leaves it.”
SADOTH WAS APPREHENDED
The second year of the persecution, King Sapor coming to Seleucia, Sadoth was apprehended, with several of his clergy, some ecclesiastics of the neighbourhood, and certain monks and nuns belonging to his church, to the amount of one hundred and twenty-eight persons.
THEY WERE THROWN INTO DUNGEONS
They were thrown into dungeons, where, during five months’ confinement, they suffered incredible misery and torments. They were thrice called out, and put to the rack or question; their legs were straight bound with cords, which were drawn with so much violence, that their bones breaking, were heard to crack like sticks in a faggot.
"ADORE THE SUN... IF YOU WOULD SAVE YOUR LIVES"
Amidst these tortures the officers cried out to them: “Adore the sun, and obey the king, if you would save your lives.”
Sadoth answered in the name of all, that the sun was but a creature, the work of God, made for the use of mankind, that they would pay supreme adoration to none but the Creator of heaven and earth, and never be unfaithful to him; that it was indeed in their power to take away their lives, but that this would be the greatest favour they could do them; wherefore he conjured them not to spare them, or delay their execution.
The officers said: “Obey! or know that your death is certain and immediate.”
The martyrs all cried out with one voice: “We shall not die, but live and reign eternally with God and his son Jesus Christ. Wherefore inflict death as soon as you please; for we repeat it to you that we will not adore the sun, nor obey the unjust edicts.”
THE SENTENCE OF DEATH
Then sentence of death was pronounced upon them all by the king; for which they thanked God, and mutually encouraged each other. They were chained two and two together, and led out of the city to execution, singing psalms and canticles of joy as they went. Being arrived at the place of their martyrdom, they raised their voices still higher, blessing and thanking God for his mercy in bringing them thither, and begging the grace of perseverance, and that by this baptism of their blood they might enter into his glory. These prayers and praises of God did not cease but with the life of the last of this blessed company.
ST SADOTH WAS SEPARATED FROM THEM
St Sadoth, by the king’s orders, was separated from them, and sent into the province of the Huzites, where he was beheaded. He thus rejoined his happy flock in the kingdom of glory. Ancient Chaldaic writers quoted by Assemani say, St Schiadustes, or Sadoth, was nephew to Simeon Barsaboe, being son to his sister. He governed his church only eight months, and finished his martyrdom after five months imprisonment, in the year 342, and of King Sapor II. the thirty-third. These martyrs are honoured in the Roman Martyrology on this day.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
THE ENTRY IN THE ROMAN MARTYROLOGY
"In Persia, in the time of king Sapor, the birthday of St. Sadoth, bishop, and one hundred and twenty-eight others, who refused to adore the sun, and by a cruel death purchased for themselves bright crowns."
Comments
Post a Comment