ST DEOGRATIAS, BISHOP OF CARTHAGE - 22 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 22nd 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 DEOGRATIAS, BISHOP OF CARTHAGE, CONFESSOR  

Genseric, the Arian king of the Vandals, took Carthage in 439, filled the city with cruelties, and caused Quodvultdeus, the bishop, and many others, to be put on board an old leaky vessel, who, notwithstanding, arrived safe at Naples. 

THE VACANCY WAS FILLED

After a vacancy of fourteen years, in 454, St Deogratias was consecrated archbishop. Two years after, Genseric plundered Rome, and brought innumerable captives from Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, into Africa, whom the Moors and Vandals shared among them on the shore, separating without any regard or compassion weeping wives from their husbands, and children from their parents. 

DEOGRATIAS PROVIDED THE IMMIGRANTS WITH FOOD AND SHELTER

Deogratias sold everything, even the gold and silver vessels of the church, to redeem as many as possible; he provided them with lodgings and beds, and furnished them with all succours, and though in a decrepit old age, visited those who were sick every day, and often in the night. 

WHEN THE BISHOP DIED, THE PRISONERS WERE HEARTBROKEN 

Worn out by these fatigues, he died in 457, to the inexpressible grief of the prisoners, and of his own flock. The ancient calendar of Carthage, written in the fifth age, commemorates him on January 5; but the Roman on March 22. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

HIS ENTRY IN THE ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In the same place, Saint Deogratias, bishop of Carthage, who ransomed many captives taken from that city by the Vandals, and performed other good works, after which he went to rest in the Lord.