ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 21st of September
SAINT CASTOR, BISHOP OF APT
Castor, Bishop of Apt (Aptae Juliae) in Provence, came from a noble family from Nismes (Nemausum), and was distinguished from early youth by his love for devotion and the poor.
He allied himself with a virtuous wife who, like him, strived for perfection and with whom he lived in constant abstinence according to mutual agreement, but soon withdrew completely from the world in order to be able to serve God the Lord even more undivided in solitude.
He donated a religious house at Manancha (Manancuegno), two hours from Apt, of which he became the first Abbot. But he was not to enjoy the good fortune of serving God in solitude for long; for he was unanimously chosen by the clergy and the people to be bishop of Apt.
As reluctantly as he was to submit to this dignity, he still had to surrender to the higher call and take up the shepherd's crook.
With all his zeal for his flock, he never let his monastery out of his sight and asked the famous Abbot Johannes Cassianus of Marseilles (July 23) for the same rules of life, which were also prepared by him under the title "Monastic Instructions" in 420.
Our saint finally died - according to Butler, on September 2, 420, and according to the Bollandists between 410 and 426 - and is venerated at Apt and Nismes on September 21. He is the patron of the cathedral church at Apt, and at Nismes there is a large parish church that bears his name. [Some sources give his feast day as September 2]
Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints
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