ST CASILDA OF TOLEDO, HERMITESS - 9 APRIL

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 9th 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 CASILDA OF TOLEDO, HERMITESS 

A daughter of Yahya ibn Ismail Al-Mamun, Saint Casilda was raised a Muslim. She showed great compassion for Christian prisoners by frequently smuggling bread into the prison, hidden in a basket concealed in her clothes, to feed them. Once, she was stopped by her father and his Muslim soldiers, and asked to reveal what she was carrying in her skirt. When she began to show them, the bread turned into a bouquet of roses.

SHE BECAME A CHRISTIAN AND BEGAN A PENITENTIAL LIFE OF SOLITUDE

When she became ill as a young woman, she refused help from Arab doctors and travelled to northern Spain to partake of the healing waters of the shrine of San Vicente, near Buezo, close to Briviesca. When she was cured, she was baptised at Burgos (where she was later venerated) and lived a life of solitude and penance not far from the miraculous spring. It is said that she lived to be 100 years old. She died on April 9, 1050.

(Information from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casilda_of_Toledo)