ST SEVERUS, BISHOP OF RAVENNA - 1 FEBRUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY

Saints celebrated on the 1st 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 SEVERUS, BISHOP OF RAVENNA 

Saint Severus was born in Ravenna and worked in the wool weaving trade. His wife Vincentia, a godly woman, bore him a daughter whom he named Innocentia. 

A DOVE LANDED ON HIS HEAD

After the death of Bishop Agapitus he was chosen as his successor. A dove, which landed three times on the weaver's head during the elections was regarded as a divine symbol. Upon St Severus' election as bishop, wiife and daughter took the veil. 

THE COUNCIL OF SARDICA

When St Severus attended the Council of Sardica in the first year after his elevation, his knowledge of scripture and all necessary knowledge seemed to the learned fathers present to be divinely infused rather than acquired through study. In addition, he shone through all the pastoral virtues right to the end of his life. 

THE LEGEND OF HIS DEATH IS WONDROUS

The legend of his death is wondrous. For on the day on which he blessed the temporal, he had the tomb of his wife and daughter opened, celebrated the holy Sacrifice, then climbed into the crypt, stood between the two coffins that had given way to him at his word, and gave up the ghost in prayer. According to other reports he is buried in Classe (in the vicus salutaris) where a beautiful church was subsequently built in his honour by Bishop Peter in 568. Nevertheless his tomb is still venerated at Ravenna to this day. His death is said to have occurred in A.D. 389. 

"A DEVOUT PREACHER OF THE DIVINE WORD"

In church prayer he is invoked as a "devout preacher of the divine word". His name is in all older martyrologies. In pictures he is easily recognisable by the weaver's shuttle he is holding in his hand. Young men who want to learn a trade invoke him with good success. 

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