ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH
Saints celebrated on the 25th 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.
SS. BARONTUS AND DESIDERIUS, HERMITS
Saints Barontus (Barontius) and Desiderius were hermits at Pistoia (Pistorium) in Italy.
THE VANITY OF EARTHLY THINGS
St Barontus (French Baront), who is called Barontius in the Roman Martyrology, was of a noble family in Berry, and entered into marriage and had a son, named Aydoaldus (Agloald). After realising the vanity of things, he left the world and entered the monastery at Lonrey (Longoretum), also called St-Cyrane en Brain, as a monk.
From there he and his son, who had also entered the Order, went with approval of his abbot to Italy and settled in a solitude of Tuscany. Here he was joined by the holy hermit Desiderius and four others. They started a community.
THEIR HOLY DEATHS
Barontus had a strange vision in which he saw heaven and hell open. According to Mabillion, Barontus died first, in 685; he was followed by St Desiderius who passed away a few years later. The Bollandists, however, assume that Barontus lived to see the year 700, and that his companions died in the first years of the 8th century. They were all buried in the same place (in a church at Pistoia), and many miracles took place at their tombs.
THE 11th CENTURY MONASTERY
Around the year 1018 a monastery was built in the same place under the patronage of St Barontus. His remains, as well as those of his fellow monks, were solemnly buried in the new church. Finally it should be noted that the Roman Martyrology (February 25) only speaks of St Barontus and St Desiderius, without mentioning any of their companions.
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)
THEIR ENTRY IN THE ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Pistoia, the holy confessors Barontius and Desiderius.
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