ST OSITH, VIRGIN - 7 OCTOBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER 

Saints celebrated on the 7th 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 OSITH, VIRGIN 

Saint Osith [St Osgyth] was born at Quarendon, and was daughter of Frewald, a Mercian prince, and niece to Editha, to whom belonged the town and manor of Aylesbury, where she was brought up with her pious aunt. 

Osith was married young to a king of the East-Angles; but the same day obtained his consent to live always a virgin. 

That king confirming her in her religious purpose, bestowed on her the manor of Chick, in which she built a monastery. 

She had governed this house many years with great sanctity, when she was crowned with martyrdom in the inroads of Hinguar and Hubba, the barbarous Danish leaders, being beheaded for her constancy in her faith and virtue, about the year 870; for fear of the Danish pirates, her body, after some time, was removed to Aylesbury, and remained there forty-six years; after which it was brought back to Chick or Chich in Essex, near Colchester, which place was for some time called St Osithe’s, as Camden takes notice. 

A great abbey of regular canons was erected here under her invocation, which continued to the dissolution, famous for the relics, and honoured with many miracles. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)