Saints celebrated on the 28th 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.
SAINT PLUTARCH AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
The school of Origen at Alexandria was a school of virtue and martyrdom; for the master, notwithstanding his extraordinary reputation in the sciences, made it the first part of his care to train up all his scholars in the most heroic maxims of Christian perfection. Hence it is not to be wondered that out of it came many illustrious martyrs in the persecution of Severus, which raged with great fury from 202, the year before Origen was made catechist, to the death of that emperor in 211.
PLUTARCH
The first of these heroes of virtue was St Plutarch, brother of St Heraclas, afterwards bishop of Alexandria. These two eminent brothers were converted to the faith at the same time by hearing certain lectures read by Origen.
A HOLY LIFE
Plutarch prepared himself for martyrdom by a holy life, and being a person of distinction was soon apprehended. Origen visited and encouraged him in prison, and accompanied him to the place of execution, where he narrowly escaped death himself, from the resentment of Plutarch’s Pagan friends, who looked upon him as the cause of their losing him.
THE COMPANIONS
Serenus, another scholar of Origen, was burnt alive for the faith; Heraclides, a third, yet a catechumen, and Hero, who had been lately baptised, were beheaded: another Serenus, after undergoing many torments, had his head also cut off. Herais, a damsel, being but a catechumen, was burnt, and according to the expression of Origen, baptised by fire; for Origen had among his disciples several illustrious ladies.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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