ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL
Saints celebrated on the 3rd 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 JOSEPH THE HYMNOGRAPHER
Saint Josephus Hymnographus was born in Sicily to pious parents. Joseph showed early fine abilities and was distinguished by temperance.
THE ICONOCLAST CONTROVERSY
In Thessalonica he became a monk and was also ordained a priest. When the iconoclast controversy broke out under Leo the Armenian, Joseph fled, meaning to go to Rome. On his journey, however, he was taken prisoner by the Saracens. They bundled him up and took him to Crete, where he had to languish in prison for a long time. Finally he humbly offered himself to the intercession of St Nicholas of Myra and was soon rescued from the hands of his enemies.
HE BUILT A CHURCH
On his return to Constantinople he found St Gregory no longer alive. He now collected some relics of saints and prepared to build a church dedicated under the patronage of the Apostle Bartholomew. Thereupon he received in a vision from this saintly apostle, and the gift of poetry. He then started composing various hymns, which the Greeks took up in their Office; hence his nickname "the hymn writer."
THE HYMN WRITER
Saint Joseph's hymns are acrostic, i.e. a certain verse is made up of the initial letters of the whole ode, and as a peculiarity after the verse they also have the name Joseph also acrostic.
HIS HOLY DEATH
His zeal for the veneration of the images brought him persecution and banishment. From the latter he was called back by the patriarch Ignatius to oversee the vessels and holy equipment in the cathedral, a position he held until his death, which occurred at an advanced age, around 883.
HIS FEAST DAY
Miracles glorified him after his death. In the Greek menologies his feast is on April 3 and 4. He is not listed in the Roman Martyrology. The Bollandists mention him on April 3.
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)
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