ST PELAGIUS, BISHOP OF LAODICEA - 25 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 25th 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 PELAGIUS, BISHOP OF LAODICEA 

Saint Pelagius was bishop of Laodicea in Syria. About the year 360, although married (having solemnly vowed to live with his wife in perpetual chastity, with her consent) he was elected bishop of Laodicea. 

THE COUNCIL OF ANTIOCH A.D. 363

In 363 he attended the council at Antioch, at which the resolutions passed at Nicaea in 325 were re-enacted, and in 365 at Tyana in Cappadocia. The latter council dealt with the reinstatement of the Arian Eustathius of Sebaste into the church community, which was granted to him after he had promised to submit to the Council of Nicaea. 

HIS EXILE

Our holy bishop was generally a staunch defender of the unity of faith. For this reason he was exiled to Arabia by the Arian emperor Valens in 374, but was recalled by Gratianus after his death in 378. 

THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE A.D. 381

He also sternly and zealously defended the election of St Gregory of Nazianzen as Patriarch of Constantinople. 

At the general Council held in Constantinople in 381, he faithfully helped to combat and refute the opponents of the Council of Nicaea, who were still numerous enough, to deny the divinity of the Holy Spirit, to whom the same worship is due as to the Father and the Son. He helped to ensure that the patriarchal throne of Constantinople was occupied by an orthodox shepherd. 

HIS FEAST DAY

The Emperor Theodosius therefore also names him in his letter to Auxonius - the proconsul of Asia - as one of the bishops with whom one must be in communion in order to be recognised as an orthodox Christian. It has not been handed down to us what year Pelagius died.  The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on March 25.

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

HIS ENTRY IN THE ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Laodicea, Saint Pelagius, bishop, who having endured exile and other afflictions for the Catholic faith under Valens, rested in the Lord.

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Pelagius, your blessed bishop, 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.