ST ANASTASIUS I., PATRIARCH OF ANTIOCH - 21 APRIL

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 21st 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 ANASTASIUS I., PATRIARCH OF ANTIOCH

Saint Anastasius, whom Nicephorus and many moderns confound with the Sinaite, (which last certainly lived sixty years after the death of the patriarch,) was a man of singular learning and piety. 

HE WAS A MAN OF SINGULAR LEARNING AND PIETY

When any persons in his company spoke of temporal affairs, he seemed to have neither ears to hear, nor tongue to give any answer, observing a perpetual silence, as Evagrius reports of him, except when charity or necessity compelled him to speak. He had an extraordinary talent in comforting the afflicted. 

AN EXTRAORDINARY TALENT IN COMFORTING THE AFFLICTED

He vigorously opposed the heresy which the emperor Justinian maintained in his dotage, that the body of Christ during his mortal life was not liable to corruption and pain; and wrote upon that subject with propriety, elegance, and choice of sentiments.

HE WAS BANISHED

The emperor resolved to banish him, but was prevented by death. However, his successor, Justin the Younger, a man corrupted in his morals, expelled him from his see; which he recovered again twenty-three years after, in 593. He held it five years longer, and, dying in 598, left us several letters and very pious sermons. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)