ST CARADOCH, PRIEST AND HERMIT - 13 APRIL

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 13th of April

WELCOME!

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 CARADOCH, PRIEST AND HERMIT 

Saint Caradoch was a Welsh nobleman, native of Brecknockshire, who, after he had received a liberal education, enjoyed the confidence of Rees, or Resus, prince of South Wales, and held an honourable place in his court. 

THE INCONSISTENCY OF WORLDLY HONOURS

The prince one day, on account of two greyhounds which were lost, fell into such a fury against Caradoc as to threaten his life. Caradoc, from this disgrace and check, learned the inconstancy and uncertainty of worldly honours, and the best founded hopes, and resolved to dedicate himself altogether to the service of the King of kings, whose promises can never fail, and whose rewards are eternal. 

HE MADE A SACRIFICE OF HIMSELF TO GOD

Upon the spot he made the sacrifice of himself to God, by a vow of perpetual continency, and of embracing a religious life. Repairing to Landaff, he received from the bishop the clerical tonsure, and for some time served God in the church of St Theliau. 

A LITTLE HUT

Being desirous of finding a closer solitude, he afterwards spent some years in a little hut, which he built himself, near an abandoned church of St Kined, in the country in which he made his prayer. The reputation of his sanctity filled the whole country, and the archbishop of Menevia, or St David’s, calling him to that town, promoted him to priestly orders. 

ON THE ISLE OF ARY

The saint hence retired with certain devout companions, to the isle of Ary. Certain pirates from Norway, who often infested these coasts, carried them off prisoners, but, fearing the judgments of God, safely set them on shore again the next day. 

However, the archbishop of Menevia assigned the saint another habitation in the monastery of St Hismael, commonly called Ysam, in the country of Ross, or Pembrokeshire. Henry I., king of England, having subdued the Southern Welsh, sent a colony of Flemings into the country of Ross, who drove the old Britons out of their possessions. The saint and his monastery suffered much from the oppressions of these new inhabitants, especially of Richard Tankard, a powerful Englishman among them. 

HE ASKED FOR ST CARADOC'S PRAYERS

This nobleman was, after some time, struck by God with a dangerous illness, and having recourse to St Caradoc, was, by his prayers, restored to his health. From this time the saint and his monastery found him a benefactor and protector. 

St Caradoc died on Low-Sunday, April 13, 1124, and was buried with great honour in the church of St David’s. We are assured that his tomb was illustrated by miracles, and his body was found whole and incorrupt several years after, when it was translated with great solemnity. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)