ST THEOPHILUS, MONK - 2 OCTOBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER

Saints celebrated on the 2nd of October

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 THEOPHILUS

An 8th century Saint, St Theophilus was a monk in Asia Minor of a monastery in which the community followed the Western Rule of St Benedict. 

He was one of the champions of Orthodoxy against the Iconoclast Emperor Leo the Isaurian. 

Thrown into prison at Constantinople, he was savagely ill-treated, and in the end driven into exile. He died about the middle of the eighth century. 

(From The Book of Saints, 1921, by the Monks of Ramsgate - 📷 Leo the Isaurian)