ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER
Saints celebrated on the 13th 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.
SS. FAUSTUS, JANUARIUS, AND MARTIALIS, MARTYRS
These saints are called by Prudentius The three crowns of Cordova, in which city they, with undaunted constancy, confessed Jesus Christ before a judge named Eugenius, in the year 304.
First Faustus, then Januarius, and lastly Martialis, who was the youngest, was hoisted on the rack. Whilst they were tormented together, Faustus said: "How happy is this union in our sufferings, which will unite us in our crowns!"
Eugenius charged the executioners to torment them without intermission, till they should adore the gods. Faustus hearing these orders, cried out: "There is one only God, who created us all." The judge commanded his nose, ears, eye-lids, and under lip to be cut off, and the teeth of his upper jaw to be beaten out. At the cutting off each part, the martyr returned thanks to God, and fresh joy sparkled in his countenance.
Januarius was then treated in the same manner. All this while Martialis prayed earnestly for constancy whilst he lay on the rack. The judge pressed him to comply with the imperial edicts; but he resolutely answered: "Jesus Christ is my comfort. Him I will always praise with the same joy with which my companions have confessed his name in their torments. There is one only God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to whom our homages and praises are due."
The three martyrs being taken from their racks, were condemned to be burnt alive, and cheerfully finished their martyrdom by fire at Cordova in Spain, in the reign of Diocletian.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints - 📷 Roman Bridge of Cordoba)
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