BL. JOHANNES LOBEDAVIUS - 9 OCTOBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER

Saints celebrated on the 9th 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. JOHANNES LOBEDAVIUS 

Johannes Lobedavius, also Johannes Thorunensis or Johannes Thorunio, Prutenus or Pruthenus ("The Prussian"). 

He was  a Franciscan priest, who was born in Thorn or Tournia (Thorunium, Torunia) on the river Weichsel in the Diocese of Kulm in West Prussia.

The Polish priest Friedrich Schembeck, on whose work the Bollandists draw in a Latin translation, was able to re-establish the veneration through Archbishop Johannes Lipski of Gnesen. It had nearly ceased after Lutheranism contaminated Johannes Lobedavius' place of burial, Kulmsee.

Fr Schembeck was not able to establish a great deal about the Blessed when going through old traditions and paperwork left by some bishops of Kulm. 

The year of his birth is uncertain, but it can hardly have taken place before the year 1231, since this was the year the city of Thorn had been founded by the Knights of the Teutonic Order; unless a smaller place of that name had existed there earlier. 

Raised by his parents in the fear of God, he entered the order of the Franciscans, which had established a convent first in Thorn, in 1239, and later in Kulmsee (Chelmzo). In his religious life, Johannes excelled in all the monastic virtues. 

In Kulmsee he was also the confessor of the holy Widow Jutta (May 5), who was leading a pious life in the neighbouring forest at the time.

Johannes had a very special love for the Blessed Virgin Mary, who once appeared to him with the Baby Jesus. 

After he had made ever greater progress in all virtues and after a life of toil for the salvation of his neighbour, he finally died in Kulmsee. Some sources give his date of death as June 21, 1271, but the overwhelming majority of hagiographers say he died on October 9, 1264. He was buried in the local St Jacob's Church with the Franciscans, where he shone with miracles. This church was turned into a stable under the rule of Lutheranism. 

Blessed Johannes Lobedau is the patron saint of the boatmen. When they called him in danger at sea, he often appeared with a light in the dark and led them into the harbour. Because of this he is often pictured with a burning torch in his right hand while he is holding a book in his left. In the calendar of the third order his feast is on October 9; the Bollandists also have it listed on this day. 

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858 - 📷 1. Church of St Jacob and St Nicholas, Kulmsee, 2. An old map of Prussia)