ST FIDES, VIRGIN AND MARTYR - 6 OCTOBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER 

Saints celebrated on the 6th 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 FIDES, VIRGIN AND MARTYR 

Among those Christians whose invincible constancy triumphed over the malice of Dacian, prefect of Gaul under Diocletian and Maximian, none was more illustrious than St Faith (St Fides). 

She was born at Agen in Aquitaine, and, though of exquisite beauty, was insensible to all the allurements of the world. When she was apprehended and brought before Dacian, making the sign of the cross on different parts of her body, she uttered this prayer: "Lord Jesus, who art always ready to assist thy servants, fortify me at this hour, and enable me to answer in a manner worthy of you." 

Dacian said: "Come, child, have some regard for your youth and beauty; renounce the religion you profess, and sacrifice to Diana who is a divinity of your own sex, and who will bestow on you the most precious gifts." Faith answered: "The divinities of the Gentiles are devils: how then can you advise me to sacrifice to them?" Dacian in a rage, said: "What! do you presume to call our gods devils; you must resolve instantly to offer sacrifice, or expire under torments." The saint calling to mind the courage of the martyrs and the glorious crown promised to those who persevered to the end, far from being terrified at the menaces of the tyrant, felt herself inflamed with a new desire to die for her Lord: "No," cried she, "I not only am prepared to suffer every torment for Christ, but I burn with impatience to die for him." 

Dacian, more enraged than ever, ordered a brazen bed to be produced, and the saint to be bound on it with iron chains. A great fire was kindled under it, the heat of which was rendered still more intolerable by the addition of oil, and other inflammable matter. The spectators, struck with pity and horror, exclaimed: "How can the tyrant thus torment an innocent young virgin only for worshipping God!" Hereupon Dacian apprehended numbers of them; and as these refused to sacrifice, they were beheaded with St Faith. 

St Dulcitius, bishop of Agen, about the middle of the fifth century, deposited the relics of St Faith in a church which he built at Agen, and translated those of her companions, and St Caprais, to another church in that city. The history of this translation, which seems to have been written by an eye-witness, may be seen in the acts of St Faith, published by Surius and Labbe. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)