ST MONAN, MARTYR - 1 MARCH

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 MONAN, MARTYR IN SCOTLAND

Saint Adrian, bishop of St Andrew’s, trained up this holy man from his childhood, and when he had ordained him priest, and long employed him in the service of his own church, sent him to preach the gospel in the isle of May, lying in the bay of Forth. 

HE EXTERMINATED SUPERSTITION

The saint exterminated superstition and many other crimes and abuses, and having settled the churches of that island in good order, passed into the county of Fife, and was there martyred; being slain with above 6000 other Christians, by an army of infidels who ravaged that country in 874. 

HE WAS SLAIN BY THE DANISH INVADERS

His relics were held in great veneration at Innerny, in Fifeshire, the place of his martyrdom, and were famous for miracles. King David II. having himself experienced the effect of his powerful intercession with God, rebuilt his church at Innerny of stone, in a stately manner, and founded a college of canons to serve it. (See King’s calendar, and the manuscript life of this martyr in the Scottish college at Paris, and the Breviary of Aberdeen.)

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints - 📷 St Monan's Church, Burnside, Fife, Scotland. Miracles happened at St Monan's grave, and in 1346 David II was wounded by two barbed arrows at the battle of Neville's Cross. After he had made a pilgrimage to the shrine of St Monan's, he was healed. To give thanks he built this church to house the saint's relics.)