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ST THEODOSIA OF TYRE, VIRGIN AND MARTYR - 2 APRIL

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 2nd 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 THEODOSIA OF TYRE, VIRGIN AND MARTYR

Saint Theodosia was a native of Tyre. Having been educated in the Christian faith, she had, by vow, consecrated her virginity to God. 

SHE EARNESTLY EXHORTED THEM TO PATIENCE AND PERSEVERANCE

She was not eighteen years of age when, in 308, being at Caesarea, and beholding there the cruelties exercised by the barbarous governor upon the servants of God, her zeal prompted her to address the confessors who stood bound in the square before the governor’s court to be interrogated. She congratulated them on their happiness, and besought them to remember her in their prayers when they should be with God, and earnestly exhorted them to patience and perseverance. 

THE GUARDS APPREHENDED HER AS IF GUILTY OF A CRIME

The guards apprehended her as if guilty of a crime on account of this action, and presented her to the governor, who for three years and a half had sought in vain, by every invention of cruelty, to extirpate the Christian name out of his province; but finding the blood of martyrs to be a seed which served to further the propagation of Christianity, he was no longer master of his fury. 

PERCEIVING THE UNDAUNTED AIR ABOUT HER, HE CAUSED HER TO BE TORTURED

Seeing the undaunted air with which this tender virgin appeared before him, he took it for an insult of his power, and caused her to be stretched on the rack in the most cruel manner; and her sides and breasts to be torn with iron hooks and pincers, and at length her breasts to be cut off with the utmost barbarity. Nothing could draw from her the least complaint or sigh: but she suffered these tortures with an amiable cheerfulness painted on her face, and sweetly said to the judge: “By your cruelty you procure me that great happiness which it was my grief to see deferred. I rejoice to see myself called to this crown, and return hearty thanks to God for vouchsafing me such a favour.” 

"THANKS TO GOD FOR VOUCHSAFING ME SUCH A FAVOUR"

She was yet alive when the governor, finding it impossible to add to his cruelty, ordered her to be thrown into the sea. The other confessors he condemned to the mines in Palestine; but was himself shortly after beheaded by his master for his crimes. St Theodosia received her crown on April 2, on which day her name occurs in the Roman, Greek, Russian, and other calendars. Her memory is honoured with particular devotion at Venice, and in many other places. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

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