ST HILARIUS, BISHOP OF MAINZ AND MARTYR - 26 FEBRUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY

 All Saints celebrated on the 26th of February

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 HILARIUS, BISHOP OF MAINZ AND MARTYR 

Saint Hilarius [Hilary], bishop of Mainz [Germany] and martyr, is inserted in the Mainz proper, where the third lesson says about him that he held the episcopal see of Mainz in the year 150.

After wisely and prudently guiding his flock through difficult times and leading a glorious, tried and tested life, he died a martyr's death under Pope Pius I and Emperor Antoninus Pius.

The traditional devotion to him led to a church being founded on the spot where the first episcopal dwelling and the tomb of the first bishop Crescens are said to have been. This church used to tell the story of his martyrdom in murals. The Bollandists also in their account addthat the first cathedral church in old Mainz bore his name.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858 - 🎨 Famous Mainz churches, including the famous cathedral)

PRAYER:

May the intercession of the blessed Bishop and Martyr Hilarius commend us to you, so that through his merits we may obtain that which we cannot accomplish by our own. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.