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ST HERMAS OF ROME - 9 MAY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY

Saints celebrated on the 9th 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 HERMAS OF ROME, AUTHOR

Saint Hermas was a Christian of distinction in Rome, whom St Paul salutes. Origen believes him to have been the author of the book entitled Pastor, and certain modern writers fall in with this conjecture. 

ST HERMAS' BOOK

But that seems rather to have been the work of a later Hermas. Some, indeed, with Tillemont, Ceillier, etc. conclude from the contents, that it was compiled before the persecution of Domitian in 95. Du Guet and others think it was only written about the year 142, against the Montanists and their false prophets. It is quoted by St Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian, Eusebius, St Jerome, etc. 

It is divided into three books; the first contains revelations; the second precepts; and the third similitudes, which resemble the revelations of the first.

"THE SHEPHERD" 

The author entitles his work Pastor, or the Shepherd, from the angel his monitor, who assumed the appearance of a shepherd, and whose dictates he professes to write. He assigns to every one not only an angel guardian, but also a devil who is his tempter; he recommends prayers, alms-deeds, and other good works on fast days: mentions a state of continency with approbation; says that penance, which is followed by frequent relapses, is generally fruitless. 

THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Bishop Wake published an English translation of this work, together with the epistles of St Clemens, St Barnabas, St Ignatius, and St Polycarp, in 1693, and republished the same in 1710.

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

➡️ Saint Hermas' entry in the Roman Martyrology

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