ST ADJUTOR, CONFESSOR - 30 APRIL

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 30th 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.

ST ADJUTOR, CONFESSOR 

[Saint Adjutor (Ajutre) was a recluse, at Vernon in Normandy.]  He was a Norman gentleman, who, upon motives of holy zeal and piety followed the Christian standards in the holy war in the east. 

HE WAS TAKEN BY THE SARACENS

Being taken by the Saracens, he suffered great hardships and torments, nothing being able to shake his constancy in the confession of his faith, and in the exercises of his religious duties. 

AFTERWARDS, HE LED AN ANCHORETICAL LIFE

Having recovered his liberty, he returned home, where, having consecrated himself and his estate to God, he led an anchoretical life at Vernon upon the Seine, in the assiduous practices of penance and fervent prayer. 

HIS HAPPY DEATH

He consummated his sacrifice by a happy death on April 30, 1131, and is commemorated on this day in the new accurate Martyrology of Eyreux, and in the calendars of many other churches in Normandy.

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

PRAYER:

O God, who gladden us with the annual feast of the blessed Adjutor, mercifully grant that, while honouring the anniversary of his death, we may also imitate his deeds. 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.