BL. ARTALDUS, BISHOP OF BELLEY - 6 OCTOBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER 

Saints celebrated on the 6th 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.

BL. ARTALDUS, BISHOP OF BELLEY 

Blessed Artaldus, Bishop of Belley (Belica) in France, was descended from the noble family of the Lords of Sothnode. 

Early he did he start to despise the world and its vain honours and riches. He joined the order of the Carthusians, were he distinguished himself through his genuine humility and sincere fear of God.

Sent by his superiors to found new cells of his order in the Geneva diocese, he chose to stay there in the  wilderness and laid the foundation for the new cell in Arvières (Arveria) near Geneva. This took place about 1132. 

Following the death of Bishop Raynaldus of Belley, our saint was chosen to succeed the deceased. St Artaldus, however, scarcely informed of it, fled in an attempt to escape this heavy burden. 

He was discovered by a heavenly light that appeared over his whereabouts and was brought back to the city and, to the joy of all, was ordained Bishop around 1184. 

His becoming Bishop did not change the slightest thing in his previous way of life, though, and he lived as if he was still in his lonely cell. 

Bent with age, with the approval of Pope Clement III (1177-1191), he retired about the year 1190 and  withdrew into the monastic solitude, where he died in the Lord in A.D. 1206 at the age of 105 years, of which he had spent 86 in the order.

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