SAINT GODARD, BISHOP OF HILDESHEIM, CONFESSOR - 4 MAY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY

Saints celebrated on the 4th 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.

SAINT GODARD, BISHOP OF HILDESHEIM, CONFESSOR  

Saint Godard [Godehard, Gotthard] was a native of Bavaria [South Germany], and abbot of Niederaltaich, in that country, and reformed likewise the abbeys of Hersfeld, in Hesse, of Tegernsee, in the diocese of Freising, and of Kremsmünster, in that of Passau. 

THE FIRST OBJECT OF HIS ATTENTION

In 1021, the episcopal chair of Hildesheim falling vacant by the death of St Bernward, St Godard was compelled by St Henry to take upon him that pastoral charge. The relief of the poor, both spiritual and temporal, was every where the first object of his attention. 

SEVERAL PLACES BEAR HIS NAME

He died on May 4, 1038, and was canonised by Innocent II in 1131. Many places in Germany acknowledge him patron, and several bear his name. See his life by Wolfhert, his disciple in Henschenius, and in Mabillon: and more at large, with long histories of miracles, among the writers of the history of the most illustrious house of Brunswick-Hanover. Several very devout epistles of St. Godard, or Godehard, are given us by Dom. Pez, in his Codex Diplomatico-Historico-Epistolaris.

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Godard, your blessed bishop, 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.