BL. ANTHONY OF PAVONA, MARTYR - 9 APRIL

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 9th of April

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.

BL. ANTHONY OF PAVONA, MARTYR 

While yet a young religious, Blessed Anthony attracted the faithful to the Church and edified them by his preaching, his modest manner and by his zeal in the confessional, and even by the agreeable and religious way in which he executed his monastic chant, making it, according to the recommendation of St Bernard, serve to bring out the sense of the words, rather than to obscure it. 

The Bishop of Turin confided to him the task of defending the faith against the heretics called the Vandois. 

CALUMNY AND CORRUPTION

Calumny and corruption being the means by which they best succeeded in propagating their false doctrines, this good soldier of Jesus Christ undertook to unmask their deceit by a clear, popular and convincing refutation, such as could be understood by the people, and to reform their ways by promoting the practice of evangelical virtues. 

GOD REVEALED TO HIM THAT HIS ZEAL WOULD COST HIM HIS LIFE

God revealed to him that his zeal would cost him his life, and he said to the man who was shaving him: “Shave me with great care, as you would one going to a wedding.” “But there is no wedding going to take place here,” the man objected. “I Speak the truth, do not doubt it,” said Blessed Anthony. And after he had spent the night in prayer, said Mass with fervour and preached the truth for the last time, seven heretics attacked him as he was coming out of the church and killed him. (1374)

(From Saints and Saintly Dominicans, Reilly, Thomas a Kepis, 1915)