ST IRENE OF THESSALONICA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR - 5 APRIL

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 5th 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 IRENE OF THESSALONICA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR

Today, we also commemorate Saint Irene. The Roman Martyrology states: 

"At Thessalonica, St Irene, virgin, who was imprisoned for having concealed the sacred books, contrary to the edict of Diocletian, was pierced with an arrow, and consumed by fire, by order of the governor Dulcetius, under whom her sisters Agape and Chionia had previously suffered."

***

...Irene was a third time brought before the president. Dulcetius said to her: “Your madness is plain, since you have kept to this day so many books, parchments, codicils, and papers of the scriptures of the impious Christians. You were forced to acknowledge them when they were produced before you, though you had before denied you had any. You will not take warning from the punishment of your sisters, neither have you the fear of death before your eyes, your punishment therefore is unavoidable. In the mean time, I do not refuse even now to make some condescension in your behalf. Notwithstanding your crime, you may find pardon and be freed from punishment, if you will yet worship the gods. What say you then? will you obey the orders of the emperors? are you ready to sacrifice to the gods, and eat of the victims?” Irene. - “By no means: for those who renounce Jesus Christ, the Son of God, are threatened with eternal fire.” Dulcetius. - “Who persuaded you to conceal those books and papers so long?” Irene. - “Almighty God, who has commanded us to love him even unto death; on which account we dare not betray him, but rather choose to be burnt alive, or suffer anything whatsoever than discover such writings.” President. - “Who knew that those writings were in the house?” “Nobody,” said she, “but the Almighty, from whom nothing is hidden: for we concealed them even from our own domestics, lest they should accuse us.” President. - “Where did you hide yourselves last year, when the pious edict of our emperors was first published?” Irene. - “Where it pleased God, in the mountains.” President. - “With whom did you live?” Irene. - “We were in the open air, sometimes on one mountain, sometimes on another.” President. - “Who supplied you with bread?” Irene. - “God, who gives food to all flesh.” President. - “Was your father privy to it?” Irene. - “No; he had not the least knowledge of it.” President. - “Which of your neighbours knew it?” Irene. - “Inquire in the neighbourhood, and make your search.” President. - “After you returned from the mountains, as you say, did you read those books to any body?” Irene. - “They were hidden at our own house, and we durst not produce them; and we were in great trouble, because we could not read them night and day, as we had been accustomed to do.” Dulcetius. - “Your sisters have already suffered the punishments to which they were condemned. As for you, Irene, though you were condemned to death before your flight for having hid these writings, I will not have you die so suddenly: but I order that you be exposed naked in a brothel, and be allowed one loaf a day, to be sent you from the palace; and that the guards do not suffer you to stir out of it one moment under pain of death to them.” 

"DO YOU STILL PERSIST?"

The infamous sentence was rigorously executed; but God protecting her, no man durst approach her, nor say or do any indecency to her. The president caused her to be brought again before him, and said to her: “Do you still persist in your rashness?” “Not in rashness,” said Irene, “but in piety towards God.” Dulcetius. - “You shall suffer the just punishment of your insolence and obstinacy.” And having called for paper, he wrote this sentence: “Since Irene will not obey the emperor’s orders and sacrifice to the gods, but, on the contrary, persists still in the religion of the Christians, I order her to be immediately burnt alive, as her sisters have been.” Dulcetius had no sooner pronounced this sentence but the soldiers seized Irene, and brought her to a rising ground where her sisters had suffered martyrdom, and having lighted a large pile, ordered her to mount thereon. Irene, singing psalms, and celebrating the glory of God, threw herself on the pile, and was there consumed in the ninth consulship of Diocletian, and the eighth of Maximian, on the 1st day of April; but Ado, Usuard, and the Roman Martyrology name St Agape and Chionia on the 3rd, and St Irene on the 5th of April.  

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

PRAYER:

May blessed Irene, 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.