BL GUILLAUME ARNAUD AND 11 COMPANIONS, MARTYRS - 29 MAY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY

Saints celebrated on the 29th 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.

BL  GUILLAUME ARNAUD AND 11 COMPANIONS, MARTYRS

It was in 1234 when Pope Gregory IX sent out the Dominicans to preach the gospel in Toulouse and its environs, and to seek out those suspected of heresy. They incurred much persecution and the extreme hatred of the Albigensians. They were expelled from the city. As they departed, they prayed the Apostles' Creed aloud and sung the Salve Regina. In Narbonne and elsewhere, the Dominican preachers fared similarly.

In the year 1242, during the night before Ascension Day, Blessed Guillaume (Guilielmus Arnaldus), a pious and gentle man (devotas atque mitissimus), who bore the surname Arnaldi, (of the Dominican monastery in Montpellier, at Avignonet, south-east of Toulouse), was murdered at the house of Count Raymond VII. 

With him were slain Bernard of Rochefort (de Rupe forti) and Garsias of Auray, Diocese of Vannes. Likewise, two Minorites, Stephen of Narbonne and another Raymond, and seven other clergymen won the martyr's crown on this occasion.

All these were put to death by order of Count Raymond VII of Toulouse for their belief in Christ and for their obedience to the Church. They sung the Te Deum while they were being slaughtered.

Shepherds who grazed nearby saw their souls go up to heaven in bright splendour. Sick people who commended themselves to her intercession were miraculously healed. 

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)