ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH
Saints celebrated on the 20th 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 WULFRAN, ARCHBISHOP OF SENS
[And Apostolic Missionary in Friesland.] Saint Wulfran's father was an officer in the armies of King Dagobert, and the saint spent some years in the court of King Clotaire III and of his mother St Bathildes, but occupied his heart only on God, despising worldly greatness as empty and dangerous, and daily advancing in virtue in a place where virtue is often little known.
HE GAVE AWAY HIS ESTATE
His estate of Maurilly he bestowed on the abbey of Fontenelle, or St Vandrille, in Normandy. He was chosen and consecrated archbishop of Sens, in 682, which diocese he governed during two years and a half with great zeal and sanctity.
HE JOINED THE MISSIONS
A tender compassion for the blindness of the idolaters of Friesland, and the example of the English zealous preachers in those parts, moved him to resign his bishopric with proper advice, and after a retreat at Fontenelle, to enter Friesland in quality of a poor missionary priest.
THE PAGAN CUSTOM OF HUMAN SACRIFICE
He baptised great multitudes, with a son of King Radbod, and drew the people from the barbarous custom of sacrificing men to idols. The lot herein decided, on great festivals, who should be the victim; and the person was instantly hanged or cut in pieces. The lot having fallen on one Ovon, St Wulfran earnestly begged his life of King Radbod; but the people ran tumultuously to the palace, and would not suffer what they called a sacrilege.
After many words, they consented that if the God of Wulfran should save Ovon’s life, he should ever serve him, and be Wulfran’s slave. The saint betook himself to prayer, and the man, after hanging on the gibbet two hours, being left for dead, by the cord breaking fell to the ground; and being found alive was given to the saint, and became a monk and priest at Fontenelle. Wulfran also miraculously rescued two children from being drowned in the sea, in honour of the idols.
RADBOD'S CHOICE
Radbod, who had been an eye-witness to this last miracle, promised to become a Christian, and was instructed among the catechumens; but his criminal delays rendered him unworthy such a mercy. As he was going to step into the baptismal font, he asked where the great number of his ancestors and nobles were in the next world? The saint replied, that hell is the portion of all who die guilty of idolatry. At which the prince drew back, and refused to be baptised, saying, he would go with the greater number.
This tyrant sent afterwards to St Willebrord to treat with him about his conversion; but before the arrival of the saint was found dead.
St Wulfran retired to Fontenelle, that he might prepare himself for death, and died there on April 20, 720. His relics were removed to Abbeville, where he is honoured as patron.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
Comments
Post a Comment