ST OPPORTUNA, VIRGIN AND ABBESS - 22 APRIL

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 22nd of April

WELCOME!

SAINT OPPORTUNA, VIRGIN AND ABBESS 

Saint Opportuna was virgin and Abbess of Montreuil, three miles from Seez, an episcopal see in Normandy, of which her brother, St Chrodegang, was bishop. 

SHE WAS ST CHRODEGANG'S SISTER

This holy prelate, returning from a pilgrimage of devotion which he had made to Rome and other holy places, went to pay a visit to his cousin, St Lantildis, abbess of Almanesches, in his diocese; but was murdered in the way, at Normant, on September 3, 769, by the contrivance of Chrodobert, a powerful relation, to whom he had intrusted the administration of his temporalities during his absence. He is honoured in the Breviary of Seez on the day of his death: his head is enshrined in the abbey of St Martin in the Fields, at Paris, and his body in the priory of Isle-Adam upon the Oise, near Pontoise. 

A MODEL OF HUMILITY, OBEDIENCE, MORTIFICATION, AND PRAYER

St Opportuna did not long survive him, dying in 770, on April 22, having lived an accomplished model of humility, obedience, mortification, and prayer. 

HER RELICS

Her relics were carried from Seez during the incursions of the Normans, in the reign of Charles the Bald, to the priory of Moussy, between Paris and Senlis, in 1009: and some time after to Senlis. In the reign of Charles V in 1374, her right arm was translated to Paris with great devotion and pomp, and deposited in the church which was built in her honour, in the reign of Charles the Bald, to receive a former portion of her relics then brought from Moussy. It was then a small church, built at the entrance of a wood, near an hermitage, called before, Notre Dames des Bois Paris. The town being since extended much beyond this church, it was made parochial and a collegiate of canons. A great part of the head of St Opportuna remains at Moussy; her left arm, with part of her skull, at Almenesches: one jaw in the priory of St Chrodegang, at l’Isle-Adam, and a rib, with her right arm, in her church at Paris. 

SOLEMN PROCESSIONS

In processions, when the shrine of St Genevieve is taken down, and carried, the ancient portion of the relics of St Opportuna, kept in a large shrine, is also carried next the shrine of St Honoratus. 

She is commemorated in the Paris Breviary, and is the titular saint of a parish in that city. 

From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints 

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Opportuna may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.