ST URBAN I., POPE AND MARTYR - 25 MAY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY

Saints celebrated on the 25th of May

WELCOME!

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 URBAN I., POPE AND MARTYR 

⬅️ Saintly Popes - Index

Saint Urban succeeded St Calixtus in the year 223, the third of the emperor Alexander, and sat seven years. Though the church enjoyed peace under that mild reign, this was frequently disturbed by local persecutions raised by the people or governors. 

HE IS SAID TO HAVE ENCOURAGED THE MARTYRS

In the acts of St Cecily this zealous pope is said to have encouraged the martyrs, and converted many idolaters. He is styled a martyr in the sacramentary of St Gregory, in the Martyrology of St Jerome published by Florentinius, and in the Greek liturgy. It appears from Fortunatus and several ancient missals, that the festival of St Urban was celebrated in France with particular devotion in the sixth age. 

HIS RELICS

A very old church stood on the Appian road dedicated to God in honour of this saint, near the place where he was first interred, in the cemetery of Praetextatus. His body was there found together with those of SS. Cecily, Tiburtius, and Valerian in 821, and translated by Pope Paschal into the church of St Cecily. Papebroke shows that it is the body of another martyr of the same name, famous in ancient records, which Nicholas I sent in 862 to the monks of St Germanus of Auxerre, and which now adorns the monastery of St Urban in the diocese of Challons on the Marne, near Joinville. It is exposed in a silver shrine.

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)