ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 27th 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 ELZEAR, COUNT, AND DELPHINA
Saint Elzear was descended of the ancient and illustrious family of Sabran, in Provence; his father, Hermengaud of Sabran, was created count of Arian, in the kingdom of Naples; his mother was Lauduna of Albes, a family no less distinguished for its nobility. The saint was born in 1295 at Ansois, a castle belonging to his father in the diocese of Apt.
The first impressions of virtue he received from his mother; but these were perfected by his religious uncle, William of Sabran, abbot of St Victor’s, at Marseilles, under whom he had his education in that monastery. In his tender age he wore a rough knotty cord, which galled his flesh, so that it was discovered by blood issuing from the wounds.
The saint was only ten years old when Charles II., king of Sicily and count of Provence, caused him to be affianced to Delphina of Glandeves, daughter to the lord of Pui-Michel, she being no more than twelve years of age. Three years after, in 1308, the marriage was solemnised at the castle of Pui-Michel; but, at the suggestion of the young lady, they both secretly agreed to live together as brother and sister.
The austerity with which they kept Lent, revived the example of the saints of the primitive ages; and they fasted almost in the same manner Advent and many other days in the year. They lived seven years at Ansois; after which they removed to the castle of Pui-Michel.
The saint was twenty-three years old when, by their deaths, he inherited his father’s honours and estates; but these advantages he looked merely upon as talents and instruments put into his hands to be employed for the advancement of piety, the support of justice, and the relief and protection of the poor. By fervent and assiduous prayer, and meditation on heavenly things, he fortified his soul against the poison of all inordinate love of creatures; he perfectly understood the falsehood and illusion of all those things which flatter and dazzle the senses, and he had a sovereign contempt and distaste for all that can only serve to feed self-love. Eternal goods were the sole object of his desires.
Alasia, sister to Delphina, lived with her, and was her faithful companion in all her pious exercises. It seemed that all who came under the roof of Elzear contracted a spirit of sincere piety; so great is the influence of good examples set by masters and mistresses.
The gate through which the rich must enter heaven is mercy and charity to the poor. St Elzear often visited the hospitals, especially those of lepers, whose loathsome sores he frequently kissed, cleansed, and dressed with his own hands. He every day washed the feet of twelve poor men, and often served them himself, performing the office of a carrier and cupbearer.
In a time of scarcity, in 1310, his alms seemed to surpass all bounds.
In his county of Arian he visited malefactors who were condemned to die, and many who had persisted deaf to priests, were moved by his tender exhortations to sincere compunction, and to accept their punishment in a spirit of penance. When their goods were confiscated to him, he secretly restored them to their wives and children.
Elzear being in the twenty-fifth year of his age, and Delphina, after receiving the communion, pronounced publicly, at the foot of the altar, in the chapel of the castle, mutual vows of perpetual chastity, which Elzear had till then kept unviolated without a vow, though Delphina had before made a secret vow.
In the lives of this holy couple, the world saw pious retirement in the midst of worldly pomp, silent contemplation amidst the noise of public scenes, and in conjugal friendship a holy emulation to out-vie one another in piety, goodness, and charity.
King Robert chose Elzear among all the lords of his dominions to be governor to his son Charles, duke of Calabria.
The Emperor Henry VII invaded Naples with a great army, nor was Pope Clement V. able to divert him from his expedition. King Robert sent against him his brother John, and Count Elzear with as great an army as he was able to raise. Two pitched battles were fought, in both which Henry was defeated, chiefly by the valour and conduct of Elzear, so that the emperor desired a peace, which was readily concluded.
This king sent Elzear ambassador to Paris, attended with the flower of the nobility of Naples, to demand of Charles IV. Mary, the daughter of the Count of Valois, in marriage for the Duke of Calabria. The negotiation was carried on with great success. In the meantime, the holy ambassador fell sick at Paris. He had made his will in 1317, at Toulon, by which he left his movable goods to his wife Delphina, his real estates to his brother William of Sabran, and legacies to his relations and servants, and especially to many convents and hospitals.
When the saint, three years before, made his public vow of chastity, he on the same day enrolled himself in the third Order of St Francis, into which seculars or laymen are admitted, upon condition of their wearing a part of the Franciscan habit under their clothes, and saying certain prayers every day: but these conditions are not binding under sin. St Elzear in his sickness made a general confession with great compunction and many tears, to the provincial of the Franciscans, and he continued to confess almost every day of his illness, though he is said never to have offended God by any mortal sin. The history of Christ’s passion, which mystery had always been the favourite object of his devotion, was every day read to him, and in it he found exceeding great comfort amidst his pains. Receiving the holy viaticum he said with great joy: "This is my hope; in this I desire to die." After extreme unction, and a painful agony, he happily expired on the 27th of September, in the year 1323, the twenty-eighth of his age. His body, according to his orders, was carried to Apt, and there interred in the church of the Franciscan Friars in that town, where it is still kept.
Delphina led the life of a recluse in the castle of Ansois, in the heroic practice of penance, charity, assiduous prayer, and all other virtues. She died at Apt, near that castle, in the year 1369. Her mortal remains were deposited in the same tomb with those of St Elzear.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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