ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 26th 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 NILUS THE YOUNGER, ABBOT
Saint Nilus was of Grecian extraction, and born at Rossana in Calabria, in 910. From his infancy he was fervent in religious duties, and in the practice of all virtues, and made considerable progress both in profane and sacred learning. He engaged in wedlock with a view to the sanctification of his soul by the faithful discharge of the duties of that holy state, and was careful in it to nourish and improve the sentiments of virtue in his heart by frequent hours of holy retirement. These he devoted to religious meditation, reading, and prayer, lest the seeds of piety should be choked amidst the cares and business of the world.
After the death of his wife, his love of solitude moved him to take sanctuary in his beloved harbour of a monastery, from the embarrassments of a public life, and the glittering temptations of the world.
He therefore retired about the year 940, into a convent belonging to the church of St John Baptist at Rossana, where his mind was entirely employed in conversing with God. The reputation of his extraordinary sanctity was soon spread over the whole country, and many repaired to him for spiritual advice.
Euphraxus, a vain and haughty nobleman, was sent governor of Calabria from the imperial court at Constantinople. St Nilus made him no presents upon his arrival, as other abbots did; on which account the governor sought every occasion of mortifying the servant of God. But shortly after falling sick, he sent for the saint, and falling on his knees, begged his pardon and prayers, and desired to receive the monastic habit from his hands. St Nilus refused a long time to give it him, saying: "Your baptismal vows are sufficient for you. Penance requires no new vows, but a sincere change of heart and life." Euphraxus was not to be satisfied, and continued so urgent, that the saint at length gave him the habit. The governor made all his slaves free, distributed his personal estate among the poor, and died three days after in great sentiments of compunction.
St Nilus refused the bishopric of Capua, and rejected pressing invitations to go to Constantinople; but the Saracens conquering Calabria, Aligern, abbot of Mount Cassino, bestowed on him the abbey of Bright-Valley, where St Nilus took refuge with his community. He spent there fifteen years; then ten years in the monastery of Serperi.
The emperor Otho III coming to Rome to expel Philagatus, bishop of Placentia, whom the senator Crescentius had set up antipope against Gregory V, Saint Nilus went to intercede with the pope and emperor, that the antipope might be treated with mildness, as he was a bishop, and was received with great honour. Otho making a pilgrimage to Mount Gargano, paid a visit to St Nilus, but was surprised to see his monastery consisting of poor scattered huts, and said: "These men are truly citizens of heaven, who live in tents as strangers on earth."
St Nilus conducted the emperor first to the oratory, and after praying there some time, entertained him in his cell Otho pressed the saint to accept some spot of ground, in whatever part of his dominions he should choose it, promising to endow it with competent revenues. St Nilus thanked his majesty: but returned him this answer: "If my brethren are truly monks, our divine Master will not forsake them when I am gone." In taking leave, the emperor said to him: "Ask what you please, as if you were my son: I will give it you with joy and pleasure." The abbot laying his hand upon the emperor’s breast, said: "The only thing I ask of you is, that you would save your soul. Though emperor, you must die, and give an account to God, like other men."
Our saint was remarkable for an eminent spirit of prophecy, of which many instances are recorded in his life. In his old age in 1002, he retired to Tusculum, near Rome, where he died in 1005, being about ninety-six years old. A community was formed in that place after his death, called of Grotto Ferrata, at Frescati, which still follows the rule of Saint Basil.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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