BL. PETER ACOTANTO - 23 SEPTEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 23rd 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. PETER ACOTANTO 

Peter, with the surname Acotanto, is venerated in Venice, where he rests in the Basilius Church. Born in 1115 of noble parents, he increased the splendor of his parentage through the sanctity of his customs. He was raised a pious Christian by his father Philip and his mother Agnes.

The boy became seriously ill at the age of seven, so that he could neither sit nor stand. While the father was desolate, the mother took her son to the church of St Jacob in Rivoalto, made pious vows, and the merciful God restored health to the boy.

His father died on the crusade, and Peter married Maria of Crete. All day long, they did good works together, praying and feeding the hungry. Soon after his mother's passing, Peter undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It took him three years to visit all the holy places. When he got home, his wife had died.

He redoubled the works of Christian love. The poor and humble Jesus was the object of his daily contemplation and diligent discipleship. When the poor could not leave their homes to fetch alms, he used to bring them bread and food on a boat. He continued like this until he had nothing more to give. Afterwards he entered the monastery of St George and lived in great piety and mortification.

When the abbot of this monastery, named Paschalis, died, the brothers unanimously elected Blessed Peter to be their abbot. But he steadfastly rejected this dignity. Of the new abbot elected in his stead, he requested and obtained the special favour of being allowed to live as a hermit. As such, he died. Witnesses saw at the same hour that his holy soul was carried into up to heaven in the form of a child by the hands of the holy angels. 

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