Saints celebrated on the 14th of June
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.
SS. RUFINUS AND VALERIUS, MARTYRS
Saints Rufinus and Valerius were overseers of the imperial taxes near the river Vesle, in the territory of Soissons. They were Christians, and their fasts and plentiful almsdeeds were proofs of their extraordinary piety.
The emperor Maximian Herculius, having defeated the Bagaudæ near Paris, left the bloody persecutor, Rictius Varus, the praefectus-praetorii, in Gaul, with an order to employ all means in his power to extirpate, if possible, the Christian name.
After much blood spilt at Rheims, he came to Soissons, and gave orders for Rufinus and Valerius to be brought before him. They had hid themselves in a wood, but were discovered, put on the rack, torn with scourges armed with leaden balls, and at length beheaded on the high road leading to Soissons. They suffered in the third age. The ancient Martyrologies mention them on the 14th of June.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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