ST CONSTANTINE, MARTYR - 11 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH 

Saints celebrated on the 11th 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 CONSTANTINE, MARTYR 

Saint Constantine [St Constantine II] is said to have been a British king, who, after the death of his queen, resigned the crown to his son, and became a monk in the monastery of St David.

HE JOINED ST COLUMBA

It is added that he afterwards went into North Britain, and joined St Columba in preaching the gospel amongst the Picts, who then inhabited a great part of what is now called Scotland. 

HE FOUNDED A MONASTERY AT GOVANE

He founded a monastery at Govane, near the river, Cluyd, converted all the land of Cantire to the faith of Christ, and died a martyr by the hands of infidels, towards the end of the sixth century. 

HE DIED A MARTYR

He was buried in his monastery of Govane, and divers churches were erected in Scotland under his invocation. But it seems most probable that the Scottish martyr is not the same person with the British king. Colgan supposes him to have been an Irish monk who had lived in the community of St Carthag, at Rathane. 

NOTE:

Note: See the Lives of Scottish Saints, compiled by a Jesuit, who was nephew of Bishop Lesley, kept in the Scottish College at Paris. Several Scottish historians give the title of saint to Constantine III. king of the Scots, who, forsaking his crown and the world, entered himself amongst the Culdees, or religious men of St Andrew’s, in 946.

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Constantine may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. 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.