ST WANDO, ABBOT - 17 APRIL

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 17th of April

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 WANDO, ABBOT 

This holy priest and abbot of the Fontenelle monastery is mentioned in the hagiographies of Mabillon with the title "saint". In the same source there can be found a  short life story from an almost contemporary chronograph of the said monastery.

His place of birth was Tellau (now le Tallon); his father was called Baldricus. The leadership of the abbey was transferred to him in 716. The choice was a good one, because the monastery immediately received new endowments from the rich patrimony of the new abbot, including mills, vineyards and larger plots of land in eight different villages. In addition, the monastery church received various valuable ornaments and the library a large number of books. Among those the letters of St Jerome and St Augustine, the Benedictine Rule and various exegetical writings  deserve a special mention.

He was very attached to churches. There he loved to constantly meditate on the law of the Lord. After three (or some say five) years he was banished to Utrecht, but was able to take over the abbey once more in 742. Due to advanced age, St Wando went partially sighted and later blind. He therefore resigned his dignity in favour of Austrulfus, whom he wanted as his successor, and from then on lived exclusively in pious practices, spending almost all his time in prayer, fasting and vigils at St Peter's Church. It must have pained him greatly that he could no longer say Mass, which he used to do every day.

He died godly in 756 at the age of 80, after having spent around 60 years in the monastery. The martyrology of his abbey mentions him on April 17, but without giving him the title "saint" or "blessed".

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858 - 📷 Fontenelle Abbey)