ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL
Saints celebrated on the 26th 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 RICHARIUS, ABBOT
Saint Richarius (Riquier) was born in the village of Centula, in Ponthieu. His pious parents had no worldly riches to leave him; but he was sensible how great an inheritance that of grace and virtue is.
HIS YOUTH
His youth was spent in the laborious occupations of a country life, which he sanctified by the motives of religion, and the practice of moral virtues: but God, by the following occasion, taught him its most perfect lessons.
THE MAXIMS OF PERFECT VIRTUE
Two pious Irish priests, named Cadoc and Frichor, passing through that country, and being ill-treated by the people, Riquier entertained them and did them all the good offices in his power. They in requital taught him the maxims of perfect virtue; and God, in recompense of his charity, spoke, at the same time, inwardly to his heart in sentiments with which he had been unacquainted whilst he did not so seriously consider the great truths of religion.
AUSTERITIES AND PRAYER
From that time he began to fast on barley bread strewed with ashes, drinking only water, which he often mingled with his tears, which he shed abundantly. He joined watchings to manual labour, and passed both the nights and days in prayer and holy meditation. Having prepared himself for holy orders, he was promoted to the priesthood.
EXTRAORDINARY ZEAL
From that moment he considered himself as bound to live no longer to himself; and began to preach and to instruct the faithful with extraordinary zeal. He came over into England to perfect himself in the science of the saints; but returned to preach the word of God in his own country. God every where crowned his zeal with wonderful success.
HE PREACHED ABOUT THE VANITIES OF THE WORLD
King Dagobert I desired to hear him preach; and the saint spoke so pathetically on the vanities of the world, that the king was exceedingly moved, and bestowed on him many presents.
THE MONASTERY OF CENTULA
The saint employed them in the relief of the poor, and in founding the monastery of Centula, in the diocese of Amiens, which he began in 638.
FOREST-MONTIER
He some time after built a second, called to this day Forest-Montier, three leagues and a half from Abbeville. He lived an anchoret in the forest of Cressy, with one only companion, in perpetual contemplation and prayer; and in so great austerity, that he seemed almost to forget that he had a body.
HIS HOLY DEATH
He died about the year 645. His relics are the chief treasure of his great monastery of Centula, now called St Riquier. His name is famous in the French and Roman Calendars.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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