SS. AURELIA AND NEOMISIA, VIRGINS - 25 SEPTEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 25th 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.

SS. AURELIA AND NEOMISIA, VIRGINS 

SS. Aurelia and Neomisia were two sisters of noble descent in Asia who, after the death of their parents, vowed eternal chastity to the divine Saviour, gave all their wealth to the poor, and thereafter moved on to live a life of the strictest mortification in seclusion. 

As time went on, they also made a pilgrimage to the holy places in Palestine, and upon the encouragement of a heavenly apparition they crossed to Italy, where they went to Rome and there visited the tombs of the holy Apostles.

On the way there they healed many sick people and freed those possessed of the devil; for such divine power worked through them that the sick were healed by the mere touch of their clothes. 

When the Agarenes (Saracens) besieged Capua, the holy virgins were among those captured by them. Our saints had to endure much of their terror for some time, but were miraculously saved.

Finally they withdrew to Anagni (Anagnia), where they led an extremely edifying life. They died at the beginning of the 11th century. They did not suffer martyrdom, as some sources claim, but died a peaceful death. Their names are inserted in the Roman Martyrology on September 25.

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