ST ZACHARY, PROPHET - 23 SEPTEMBER

 

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.

ST ZACHARY, PROPHET 

Zacharias, 1st century prophet [formerly] November 5. The priest Zacharias or Zachary was father of St John the Baptist, whose vision in the Temple is related in the First Chapter of St Luke’s Gospel, and who was inspired to utter the magnificent Canticle, Benedictus.

The Roman Martyrology makes no mention of his having finished his life by dying in the cause of Christianity; but such was the fixed opinion of St Epiphanius, St Basil, St Cyril of Alexandria and other Greek Fathers. 

St Jerome, on the other hand, absolutely rejects the opinion prevalent in his time that this saint is the Zachary spoken of by Our Lord as killed between the Temple and the Altar (Matthew 23:35).

(Information from The Book of Saints, 1921, by the Monks of Ramsgate)