BL. JOSEPH MARCHANDON, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 22 SEPTEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 22nd 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.

BL. JOSEPH MARCHANDON, PRIEST AND MARTYR 

Born on August 21, 1745 in Benevent, France, Fr Marchandon was a priest in Limoges. In 1790 the Anti-Catholic French Revolutionary authorities passed a law requiring priests to swear allegiance to the civil constitution.

Because he refused, and stayed loyal to the Church, Fr Marchandon was - with other holy priests and religious - imprisoned on the prison hulk Deux-Associes at Rochefort. 

The persecuted priests and religious were neither provided with fresh water, nor with food; hygienic conditions were difficult to maintain, and medical care nonexistent. 

Fr Marchandon passed to his eternal reward on September 22, 1794 aboard the prison hulk. Pope John Paul II beatified Fr Marchandon and other martyrs of the French Revolution on  October 1, 1995. 

(📷 An early Victorian prison hulk)

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who know how courageously your holy martyr Joseph confessed the faith, may experience his goodness as he intercedes for us with you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.