ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH
Saints celebrated on the 18th 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.
BL. KTASIA, ABBESS
Ktasia, also Ktaxia, Tesia, Tasia, Thesia and Thasia, was the wife of the Lombard king Ratchis or Rachis (Rachisius).
Around A.D. 750, Ratchis became a monk in the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino, while his wife Ktasia founded the women's monastery Plumbariola nearby. She entered the same together with her daughter Rattrudis.
WAS SHE THE MOTHER OF ST EPIPHANIA?
St Epiphania seems to have been a second daughter of Ktasia, while others identify her with Rattrudis; but the Bollandist Jakob Bueus says that St Epiphania perhaps was a niece of King Ratchis, namely a daughter of his similarly named brother Rachait. In any case, she cannot be identical with Rattrudis, since the latter was with her mother Ktasia at the monastery of Plumbariola, while St Epiphania resided in Pavia (Ticinum) at the monastery of St Mary.
THE NUNNERY OF ST MARY
This nunnery had been built by King Rachis. According to the written records, St Epiphania had entered it about the year 749 at the age of 18 and died there about the year 795 at the age of 64. She must have therefore been born around A.D. 731. Besides, there is nothing to prevent the assumption that King Ratchis really did have two daughters with his wife Ktasia, one of whom (Epiphania) went to a monastery in Pavia, and the other (Rattrudis) accompanied her mother to Plumbariola.
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints)
Comments
Post a Comment