ST ARTEMIUS, MARTYR - 20 OCTOBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER

Saints celebrated on the 20th 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.

ST ARTEMIUS, MARTYR 

[A.D. 362] Augustus, not being willing to entrust the government of Egypt, which was a rich and powerful country, from which the city of Rome was in part supplied with corn, to a senator, like other great provinces of the empire, passed an order that, instead of a proconsul, it should be governed only by a Roman knight, with the title of Augustal prefect. 

The government of the troops was committed to a general officer with the title of duke, or general of Egypt. Artemius was honoured with this command under Constantius, after Lucius and Sebastian. If, in executing some commissions under Constantius, he appeared against St Athanasius, by various contrivances he afforded him means and opportunities to make his escape. If he betrayed too great weakness in obeying his prince at that time, he never approved his heresy. 

At least that he was orthodox in his faith in the reign of Julian, is evident from Theodoret, the Paschal Chronicle, and the ancient Greek Calendars. The idolaters in Egypt accused him before that emperor of having demolished their temples, and broken down their idols. Julian summoned him to appear before him at Antioch in 362, and upon this indictment condemned him to be beheaded in that city, about the month of June in 362.   

Artemius engaged in the service of impious Arians, who embrued their hands in the blood of the saints, and placed on the pinnacle of worldly honours, stands upon the brink of the precipice, in imminent danger of being tumbled down headlong into everlasting flames; yet the omnipotent hand of God rescues him from these dangers, and leads him to bliss by a glorious martyrdom. 

The view of the many imminent dangers of perishing eternally, to which our souls have been often exposed, must fill us with the deepest sentiments of gratitude, love, and praise, for the infinite and most undeserved mercy by which we have been preserved. Should not we burst forth into incessant hymns of praise and thanksgiving? singing with the royal prophet: Unless the Lord had helped me, my soul had long ago dwelt in hell. Should not we, in a transport of gratitude, implore, without interruption, the divine grace, and resolve to serve God with all our strength, that the fruit of so great mercies may not perish through our malice?

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)