ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH
Saints celebrated on the 16th 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 ABRAHAM, HERMIT
Today, we also commemorate Saint Abraham. The Roman Martyrology states:
"In Syria, Saint Abraham, hermit, whose life has been written by the blessed deacon Ephrem."
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St Abramius (Abraham, Abrahamius) was born at Chidane in Mesopotamia, near Edessa, of wealthy parents. According to Bollandus, Papebroch and Pazi, he lived around the middle of the 6th century.
J. Assemani has refuted them by referring to a chronicle from Edessa, according to which our saint was born at Chidan (Chidane) in Mesopotamia and died around the year 356, that is at the same time as St Ephrem - who died in 378 - was still alive.
HE WITHDREW FROM THE WORLD
Betrothed against his will to a maiden of the rarest qualities, he went away secretly on the wedding day and shut himself up in a lonely cell two hours from Edessa. Here his relatives found him after 17 days and did everything possible to bring him back into the world; but he remained adamant and protested that he never wanted to live in community with the world again. After they were gone, he had his cell walled up entirely, except for a small window through which he obtained the necessary provisions, and lived there in complete seclusion for twelve years. Meanwhile the reputation of his holiness spread more and more.
Many came to hear his speeches and to be edified by his example. Near the city of Edessa was a market-town whose inhabitants stubbornly clung to idolatry. Thither he was sent by the bishop of the city, who had ordained him a priest, to preach the gospel. Abramius worked here for three years with much toil and suffering, without particular success, until they were finally converted and turned to Christianity.
ST MARY, HIS NIECE
St Mary is venerated with him on the same day, and who was his brother's daughter. Abramius became her guardian when she was seven years old, and brought her up in the fear of the Lord. But Satan used a wicked man to make her fall, so she escaped and became slovenly. Two years later she was found by St Abramius in a house of shame at Asso in Troas, and he did not rest until she made up her mind to return.
Returning to her uncle's cell, she spent fifteen years in penance and godly practices, and finally died the death of the righteous. St Ephrem, who saw her before her burial, says that her face seemed to radiate with glory, and that a company of heavenly spirits no doubt carried her soul to the blessed dwellings. Abramius survived his niece only five years and died in his 70th year around A.D. 360. Mary is found in the Greek calendar, and St Abramius not only in the Greek, but also in the Latin and Coptic calendars.
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)
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