ST ALBERT, BISHOP OF LIEGE, MARTYR - 21 NOVEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN NOVEMBER 

Saints celebrated on the 21st of November

WELCOME!

SAINT ALBERT, BISHOP OF LIÈGE, MARTYR

​Saint Albert, Cardinal, Bishop of Liège, died in 1192 or 1193. He was a son of Godfrey III, Count of Louvain, and brother of Henry I, Duke of Lorraine and Brabant, and was chosen Bishop of Liège in 1191 by the suffrages of both people and chapter. The Emperor Henry VI violently intruded his own venal choice into the see, and Albert journeyed to Rome to appeal to Celestine III, who ordained him deacon, created him cardinal, and sent him away with gifts of great value and a letter of recommendation to the Archbishop of Rheims [Reims], where he was ordained priest and consecrated bishop. 

Outside that city, soon after, he was set upon by eight German knights of the Emperor's following, who took advantage of the confiding kindness of the saintly bishop, and stabbed him to death. The date of his martyrdom is given variously as November 24, 1193 (Moroni), November 23, 1192 (Hoefer), while the Bollandists, placing it in the latter year, give November 21 as its precise date, this being also the day on which the saint's feast is kept. 

His body reposed at Rheims until 1612, when it was transferred by the Archduke Albert of Austria to the church of the Carmelite convent, which he had just founded at Brussels. The relics of this strenuous defender of ecclesiastical liberty were, by permission of the Holy See, shared with the cathedral of Liège, in 1822.

Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Albert may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

➡️ Saint Albert's entry in the Roman Martyrology