ST MELANIUS, BISHOP OF ROUEN, CONFESSOR - 22 OCTOBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER

Saints celebrated on the 22nd 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.

SAINT MELANIUS, BISHOP OF ROUEN, CONFESSOR 

Saint Melanius (Mello, [Mellonius]) is said to have been a native of Great Britain; his zeal for the faith engaged him in the sacred ministry, and God having blessed his labours with wonderful success, he was consecrated first bishop of Rouen, in Normandy, which see he is said to have held forty years. 

In the early ages, the surprising light of the gospel breaking in at once upon minds before clouded with darkness, men were startled at such great and infinitely important truths, and at the wondrous works and dispensations of the divine mercy, and the incomprehensible mysteries of love: their hearts were filled with a contempt and loathing of earthly things, totally disentangled from the world, and perfectly replenished with the spirit of their holy faith, of which, in our dregs of time, so little marks appear in the lives of Christians. Hence those early ages produced so many saints. 

St Mello died in peace about the beginning of the fourth age; for Avitian, his immediate successor, assisted at the council of Arles in 314. The relics of St Mello were removed to Pontoise, for fear of the Normans, in 880; and remain there in a collegiate church, of which he is titular saint or patron. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints - 🎨 Rouen Cathedral by Monet)