ST MENNA, VIRGIN - 3 OCTOBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER 

Saints celebrated on the 3rd 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 MENNA, VIRGIN 

All we know of St Menna is based on legends, and partly on a biography of the holy Martyr Eliphius.

Her place of birth is sometimes given as Soulosse (Solimariaca), and at other times as Toul (Tullum). Her parents are said to have been called Bactius and Lientrudis. 

Some claim that the saint lived in the fourth century. The Martyrs Eliphius and Eucharius (who suffered under Emperor Julian), and the holy Virgins and martyrs Libaria and Susanna are named as her siblings. 

(In the breviary of Toul, however, St Menna is listed on February 16 alongside the holy Virgins Gentrudis and Odda. Calmet reckons that St Menna is the same saint as St Ama, Amea or Imma. He names her father as Sigmar, whose daughters he lists as follows (all of them are saints): Menna, Lutrudis, Pussinna, Francula, Hoildis, Menehoildis, Ama and Liberata.)

The legend says that she was beautiful in body and excellent in spiritual gifts and that she was baptised by St Mennius, Bishop of Chalons. St Menna had many offers for marriage, but she rejected them all for Christ's sake. 

Because her father insisted that St Menna should marry, and the Bishop, in turn, did not want to blatantly go against the wishes of her father, St Menna ended up receiving the Virgin veil through the mediation of an angel. She died as a hermitess in great holiness. 

St Menna is often represented as a princess, with a crown at her feet, surrounded by angels who hold her veil, or in prayer, with hands raised to heaven, with the symbols of earthly majesty, which she did renounce for Christ's sake.

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