ST ANDEOLUS, MARTYR - 1 MAY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY

Saints celebrated on the 1st of May

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 ANDEOLUS, MARTYR 

Saint Andeolus was a disciple of St Polycarp, preached the gospel in Gaul, and received the crown of martyrdom at Bergoiate upon the Rhone, his head being sawn asunder with a wooden saw, by an order of the emperor Severus, in his march through Gaul for Britain, in the year 208. 

HIS RELICS

The town of St Andeol, in Vivarez, is possessed of the treasure of his relics. 

NOTE:

At the request of St German, bishop of Paris, King Childebert founded at Paris the chapel of St Andeol, which he subjected to the abbey of St Vincent, now St Germain-des-Prez. This chapel afterwards became a great parochial church, under the title of St Andrew’s Des Arcs, in Latin De Arcubus, because it was built with arches, a thing formerly very extraordinary. It is sometimes corruptly called St Andre des Arts. St Andeol is still honoured in it as primitive titular patron. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)