ST ANIANUS, SECOND BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA - 25 APRIL

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 25th 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.

SAINT ANIANUS, SECOND BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA 

[By Eusebius called Annianus.]  The Acts of Saint Mark tell us, that he was a shoemaker in that city, whose hand, wounded with an awl, St Mark healed when he first entered the city. 

HIS FERVOUR AND PROGRESS IN VIRTUE

Such was his fervour and progress in virtue and learning, that St Mark constituted him bishop of Alexandria, during his absence; and Anianus governed that great church four years with him, and eighteen years and seven months after his death, according to the Oriental Chronicle.

"A MAN WELL PLEASING TO GOD"

He died in the year 86, on November 26; but is named in the Roman Martyrology on the same day with St Mark. “He was a man,” says Eusebius, “well-pleasing to God, and admirable in all things.” St Epiphanius mentions a church in Alexandria built in his honour. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Anianus 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.