ST FAUSTA AND ST EVILASIUS, MARTYRS - 20 SEPTEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 20th of September

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 FAUSTA AND ST EVILASIUS, MARTYRS 

Saint Fausta and Saint Evilasius were 4th century martyrs. Their feast day is September 20. 

St Fausta, a girl about thirteen, was brought up in the Faith. Having lost her parents at a young age, she led a virtuous and prayerful life. Following accusations that she was a Christian, she publicly answered in the affirmative. Thereupon she was dispatched to Evilasius, a pagan priest, for him to persuade her to change her mind and to sacrifice to the pagan idols. 

Coaxing and threats having been in vain, they locked her up in a wooden box, but no amount of trying to saw it did damage the box. St Fausta remained unharmed, guarded by divine power. The pagan priest Evilasius was shaken by the evident and manifest power of God. He believed in the Saviour and confessed himself a Christian.

Because he believed, he was also crowned for Christ. Both of them were put to death in a cauldron containing boiling water. They suffered at Cyzicum in Pontus under Diocletian, in the year 305.