ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 23rd 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.
THE THREE CHILD MARTYRS OF TLAXCALA
The three Child Martyrs of Tlaxcala, Cristobal, Antonio and Juan, were the first indigenous people evangelised by Franciscan and Dominican friars upon their arrival in Mexico, after La Conquista (between 1527-1529).
Cristobal was born in 1515 in Atlihuetzia, in the current territory of Tlaxcala, as the eldest son of the cacique Acxotecatl and Tlapaxilotzin, one of his wives. The child embraced the Christian faith and asked to be baptised. Cristobal tried to Christianize his family, exhorting his father and other relatives to leave drunkenness and the worship of idols. He also broke some idols in his town. His father, furious at the evangelising work of his son, hit him with a thick stick and threw into a fire. Cristobal died in 1527, at 12 years of age. His body was rescued by Fray Andres de Cordoba (Franciscan). Cristobal's remains were later transferred to the former convent of San Francisco, currently the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption of Tlaxcala.
Antonio and Juan were born in Tizatlan, Tlaxcala, around 1516 or 1517. Antonio was the grandson of Xicotencatl, Lord of Tizatlan. Juan was Antonio’s servant. Both were educated at the Franciscan school in Tlaxcala. They tried to spread the Gospel in word and deed, which also involved destroying heathen idols. Upon arriving in Puebla, in Cuauhtinchan, Juan was attacked by two indigenous people, who resisted their idols being destroyed. Antonio tried to defend him, but he had already died. Antonio was killed too. The bodies of the children were thrown into a ravine. When they were found dead, they were buried in a provisional chapel.
For centuries, the historians of the Mexican Church have celebrated them as the "protomartyrs" not only of Mexico, but of all Latin America. They had been beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1990.
Cristobal, Antonio and Juan were canonised by Pope Francis, in St Peter’s Square, in the Vatican, on October 15, 2017.
(📷 The three Children Martyrs of Tlaxcala, Cristobal, Antonio and Juan - Google)
Comments
Post a Comment