ST LANDELINUS OF ETTENHEIM - 21 SEPTEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 21st 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 LANDELINUS OF ETTENHEIM 

[St Landelin of Ettenheimmünster] Landelinus, also known as Landolinus, was a martyr who was Scottish or Irish by birth, whose parents were descended from the old Scottish kings and were highly regarded. 

He left his fatherland and crossed the Rhine, where he settled in the district of the former Strasbourg diocese, called Ortenau, in order to lead a hermit's life here. 

At that time this place was a gruesome wilderness teeming with robbers and murderers; some claim that this is why it was called Mortinaugia (Mordenau).

Landelinus occasionally stayed with a man by the name of Eduiph at the place where Altorf is situated today (a quarter of an hour from Ettenheim im Breisgau.)

The saint penetrated deeper into the forest and came to a place in the valley which he chose to serve the Lord in holy seclusion. 

There the hunter of a neighbouring landlord came across the holy hermit and thought he was a robber and, despite St Landelinus pleading his innocence, killed him without further ado. 

At the place of his death, a church was built that bears his name. Edutph's wife and three daughters buried the saint in the place where the village of Münchwyr was later built, in which his relics can still be seen behind the high altar of the parish church. 

Immediately after his death, many faithful went there on pilgrimage, as did several hermits. Widegern (Wiggerus, Wigernus), the 20th bishop of Strasbourg, and Hetho or Etho, the 22nd bishop of Strasbourg, contributed to the Benedictine Abbey Ettenheimmünster (Ethonis monasterium), which was erected in the area and completed around the year 763. 

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