ST FLORENTIUS, BISHOP OF ORANGE - 17 OCTOBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER

Saints celebrated on the 17th 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 FLORENTIUS, BISHOP OF ORANGE

Florentius was born in the 5th century and received monastic training. He was undoubtedly abbot of the monastery of the Clastre in a suburb of Orange (on the site of the current Convent of the Nativity). 

He was elected bishop of this city after the year 500. He continued the restoration of the diocese, disorganised by the incessant barbarian invasions, and the reconstruction of its churches. 

In 509 the city was taken by the Ostrogoths and its inhabitants deported with their bishop to Fidentia near Piacenza in Italy. But this captivity was short thanks to the intervention of the bishop Cesaire of Arles, who was close to king Theodoric. 

Florentius was present in 517 at the Council of Epaone (Albon) against Arianism as well as at the Councils of Lyon and Arles in 524. He died ca. 526.

The people of Orange have always kept the memory of his holiness and his pastoral zeal, of his kindness, of his selflessness and of his charity, as have the people of Fiorenzuola d'Arda who chose him as their patron. 

(Excerpts from Roman Martyrology)