ST CASTULUS, MARTYR - 26 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 26th 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 CASTULUS, MARTYR 

Among the holy Martyrs at Rome Saint Castulus is one of the most famous. The Diocletian persecution had just broken out, and Pope Caius did not know where to lodge and hide all the faithful who, despite the persecution, were rushing in droves to the Church of Christ.

HE DID RECEIVE ALL THE CHRISTIANS INTO HIS HOUSE

St Castulus, a very zealous Christian (christianissimus), who was employed at the imperial court and was in charge of the rooms (Zetarius, Diaetarius), suggested to the pope that the religious services should be held at the imperial palace, because they were less sought after here. He did indeed receive all the Christians into his house, which was next to the palace, and assigned them the rooms above as a meeting place. 

MANY CONVERSIONS

In addition to being active in this way for the Christian religion, he also went through the city with his friend Tiburtius and, through the power of his words and the miracles he worked, converted many to Christianity, all of whom he brought to the pope for baptism.

HE WAS BETRAYED

Finally he was betrayed and summoned before the prefect Fabian, by whose order he was thrown into a pit after terrible tortures, which was filled up with sand, and he was killed. He happily gave up the ghost around the year 286. 

HIS FEAST DAY

He is also listed in the Roman Martyrology on March 26 as Zetarius Palatii et hospes Sanctorum. He is also commemorated in the Proper of Munich on March 26, and several churches in the archdiocese are dedicated to his name (e.g. in Landshut, Moosburg, etc.). Cardinal Wiseman has recently glorified him in his Fabiola.

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

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who know how courageously your holy martyr Castulus confessed the faith, may experience his goodness as he intercedes for us with you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.