ST COLMAN ELO, ABBOT AND CONFESSOR IN IRELAND - 26 SEPTEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 26th 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.

ST COLMAN ELO, ABBOT AND CONFESSOR IN IRELAND 

This eminent saint, who was born in the province of Heath in Ireland, left his own country very young, in order entirely to devote himself to the divine service. 

The more perfectly his heart was disengaged from the love of creatures the more vehemently he found his soul attracted to God, and inflamed with divine love. 

Hence proceeded his ardour for the exercise of holy contemplation and prayer, and the constant union of his soul with God, whom he made the centre of his heart, and his whole happiness. 

Having lived a considerable time upon Mount Bladin in Leinster, and at Connor in Ulster, he returned into Meath, and built there the great monastery of Land-Elo, (now Lin-Alli, in the King’s County,) in which he trained up many in religious perfection. 

His surname was given him from this place, to distinguish him from several other Irish saints of the same name. 

He was closely linked with St Columkille before that saint left Ireland. St Colman Elo died on September 26, 610.

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)