ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH
Saints celebrated on the 1st 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 LEO LUCAS, ABBOT
The holy abbot Luke, commonly called Leo Lucas, was born at Corleone (Corilio), Sicily, of respectable Christian parents at the time when the Vandals were ravaging Sicily. But the Sicilians continued to call their African neighbours Vandals, even when they no longer ruled there, but, in fact, the Saracens had already taken over.
HE WAS SENT TO CALABRIA
Our saint enjoyed a pious upbringing and as a young man tended his father's flocks like David once did. After the death of his parents he went to the monastery of St Philip in Argiria (S. Filippo d'Argiro), but because of the frequent raids of the Saracens he was sent to Calabria by an elderly monk of the said monastery. Following the holy father's advice, he set out on a journey and came to Calabria.
HE ARRIVED AT THE MONASTERY
He arrived at the monastery on Mount Mula, whose devout abbot Christopher received him with joy. Here for six years his life was a wonderful example for his brothers. God gave him the miracle gift. When the Abbot Christopher felt his death approach, he summoned the monks and recommended Brother Luke as their abbot, whom they gladly chose.
HIS REPUTATION OF HOLINESS HAD SPREAD FAR AND WIDE
After he had honourably buried his pious predecessor, he eagerly took care of the flock that had been entrusted to him. Many men came and asked to be admitted to the monastery, so that he had over 100 monks to command; for the reputation of his holiness and miraculous powers had spread far and wide.
HIS HOLY DEATH
Having appointed his successor in the person of a certain Theodore at the end of his life, he slept godly in the Lord, strengthened by the reception of Holy Communion, on March 1, about the year 900, after having reached almost 100 years of age. A testimony of the public veneration of the saint in Corleone is documented; it was issued at Corleone in 1596.
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)
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