ST AVA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR - 29 APRIL

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 29th 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 AVA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR 

Saint Ava (Avia) was a 9th century Virgin Martyr. A holy nun, niece of King Pepin, who became Abbess of Dinant in Hainault. In her childhood and youth she was blind, but her eyesight was miraculously restored to her through the prayers of St Rainfrede, sometimes said to have been her sister. We have no exact date given of her death.

(From The Book of Saints, 1921, by the Monks of Ramsgate)

PRAYER:

May blessed Ava, Virgin and Martyr, who was ever pleasing to you by the merit of her chastity and by her trust in your power, implore for us your forgiveness, we beseech you, O Lord. Through our Lord.