MEMORIAL OF THE QUEENSHIP OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY AND SAINTS TIMOTHY, HIPPOLYTUS AND SYMPHORIAN, MARTYRS AND SAINT JOHN KEMBLE, PRIEST ~ FEAST DAY – AUGUST 22ND:
THE QUEENSHIP OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY: Today, we celebrate Mary as the Queen of Heaven and Earth. August 22nd is the Feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This title of Our Lady, Queen of Heaven (Regina Caeli), is rooted in biblical history where the mother of Israel’s king had the royal title of Queen Mother. Church Tr0adition holds that once Mary, the Mother of God, was assumed body and soul into heaven at the end of her earthy life, she was crowned as Queen of Heaven and Earth to reign alongside her Son, Jesus the King of Kings. During the Middle Ages Mary was venerated as Queen of the angels and saints. On October 11, 1954, His Holiness, Pope Pius XII, in his encyclical letter, “Ad Ceali Reginam”, decreed and instituted the Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary to be celebrated throughout the world every year, giving sanction thus to a devotion that was already paid by the faithful throughout the world to the sovereign Mother of heaven and earth. Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Queenship of Mary as a memorial of the universal church at the close of the Marian Year of 1954. The memorial is placed on this date, August 22, to stress its connection with the feast of the Assumption, a week earlier. He declared that the Church has believed in Mary’s Queenship from the earliest centuries and that this belief rests on Holy Scripture and Tradition.
Mary is Queen of all “since she brought forth a Son, Who at the very moment that He was conceived, was, by reason of the hypostatic union of the human nature with the Word, even as Man, King and Lord of all things”. Further, “as Christ is our Lord and King by a special title because He redeemed us, so the Blessed Virgin [is our Lady and Queen] because of the unique way in which she has cooperated toward our redemption by giving of her own substance, by offering Him willingly for us, and by desiring, praying for, and bringing about our salvation in a singular manner”.
PRAYER IN HONOR OF THE QUEENSHIP OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY (Feast: August 22)
O Mary Immaculate Queen, look down upon this distressed and suffering world. You know our misery and our weakness. O thou who art our Mother, saving us in the hour of peril, have compassion on us in these days of great and heavy trial. Jesus has confided to you the treasure of His grace, and through you He wills to grant us pardon and mercy. In these hours of anguish, therefore, your children come to you as their hope.
We recognize your Queenship and ardently desire your triumph. We need a Mother and a Mother’s Heart. You are for us the luminous dawn which dissipates our darkness and points out the way to life. In your clemency obtain for us the courage and the confidence of which we have such need.
Most Holy and Adorable Trinity, You Who did crown with glory in Heaven the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Savior, grant that all her children on earth may acknowledge her as their Sovereign Queen, that all hearts, homes, and nations may recognize her rights as Mother and as Queen From Heaven, God does not take this from her. Rather, she is made our Mother and our Queen. And a worthy Mother and Queen she is!
Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears! Turn, then, O most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Mary Immaculate Queen, triumph and reign! Amen🙏
PRAYER: God, You have given us the Mother of Your Son to be Mother and Queen. Through her intercession, grant that we may attain the glory destined for Your adopted children in Your heavenly Kingdom… Amen🙏
SAINTS TIMOTHY, HIPPOLYTUS AND SYMPHORIAN, MARTYRS: Sts. Timothy, Hippolytus and Symphorian are three Christian martyrs who though were unrelated and were killed in different places and at different times, share a common feast day (Feast: August 22). During the pontificate of Melchiades (311-314), St. Timotheus (Timothy) of Antioch came from Antioch to Rome in 310, where he preached for fifteen months and lived with Sylvester, who later became pope. The prefect of the city, Tarquinus Perpenna, threw him into prison, tortured, he was cruelly beaten and quicklime was sprinkled over his torn flesh and finally beheaded him in 311. A Christian woman named Theon buried him in her garden, This is related in the legend of Sylvester. The name of Timotheus occurs in the earliest martyrologies. Martyred in 311.
On the same day at Ostia, St. Hippolytus, bishop of Porto, was thrown into a hole filled with water and received the crown of martyrdom about A.D. 225.
Again on the same day, about A.D. 178, under the reign of Aurelian, St. Symphorian, was martyred. According to a legend of the early fifth century, St. Symphorian of Autun was beheaded, while still a young man, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. His mother, the Blessed Augusta, encouraged him on his way to execution, August 22, 178. While he went to execution his mother said to him: “My son, my son, remember eternal life; look up to heaven and see the One who reigns there; life is not taken from thee, it is exchanged for a better one.” His body lies at St. Paul’s-Outside-the-Walls, near that of the great Apostle. Bishop Euphronius (d. 490) built a handsome church over his grave, connected with a monastery, which belonged to the Congregation of Sainte-Geneviève from 1656 until its suppression in 1791. Abbot Germanus later became Bishop of Paris, where he dedicated a chapel to the saint. St. Symphorian is the patron saint of Autun. His veneration spread at an early date through the empire of the Franks. His cult was especially popular at Tours; St. Gregory relates a miracle wrought by the saint. St. Symphorian is one of the great saints of Gaul and several churches were built in his honor.
PRAYER: Deny us not, O merciful Lord, Thy help: but listening to the prayers of Thy blessed martyrs Timothy, Hippolytus and Symphorian, stretch forth over us the right hand of Thy merciful forgiveness. Amen 🙏
SAINT JOHN KEMBLE, PRIEST: St. John Kemble (1599-1679) was an English Roman Catholic martyr born in England, Saint Weonards, United Kingdom to a prominent Catholic family when Catholicism was outlawed in the country. He was ordained a priest in 1625 and ministered in England as an itinerant priest for fifty-three years. Although persecution of Catholics was rampant, in his particular region Catholics were generally not harassed. In the infamous “Popish Plot” of 1678, Protestant politicians began a violent crackdown on Catholics, particularly on priests. Although 80 years old at the time, Father John Kemble was arrested. He was warned in advance but declined to leave his flock, saying, “According to the course of nature, I have but a few years to live. It will be an advantage to suffer for my religion and, therefore, I will not abscond.”
Although he was found innocent of any involvement in the “Popish Plot,” he was condemned for being a Catholic priest and sentenced to death by being hanged, drawn, and quartered on August 22, 1679, Hereford, United Kingdom. His last words, addressed to the crowd were: “The failure of the authorities in London to connect me to the plot makes it evident that I die only for profession of the Catholic religion, which was the religion that first made this Kingdom Christian.” He was canonized by Pope Paul VI on October 25, 1970. St. John Kemble is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. His feast day:August 22; 25 October
Saint John Kemble, Priest ~ Pray for us 🙏