ST LEOPARDUS, MARTYR - 30 SEPTEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 30th 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 LEOPARDUS, MARTYR 

Saint Leopardus, one of the companions of Julian the Apostate, was beheaded in Rome and his body was transferred to Aix-la-Chapelle [Aachen] - This is what the Roman Martyrology tells us about him. 

According to the acts given by the Bollandists from an old Aachen manuscript, which they call fabulous, Emperor Julian once saw the boy Leopardus in Rome and was so pleased with him that he asked his father to leave him with him - with the Emperor Julian - which the father also gladly did. 

Julian eventually made Leopardus his chamberlain; Leopardus, however, had been instructed in Christianity by his teacher Valentinus and then baptised. 

Julian now demanded that his housemates worship him like a god and sprinkle him with incense. 

But when Leopardus refused to do so and confessed himself to be a Christian, Julian first had him whipped and then beheaded in front of the city. 

His teacher Valentinus then had him buried in Otricoli near Rome, from where he was transferred to Aachen. 

When and by whom these relics were brought from Otricoli to Aachen is not known; but the Bollandists consider it possible that they were brought there by Emperor Charlemagne. 

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)

Today, St Leopard's relics are kept in Aachen Cathedral together with the mortal remains of St Corona in the Corona-Leopardus-Shrine, which was rebuilt in 1912 to replace the two lead coffins from the early 11th century. Pictured is the former inscription.