MEMORIAL OF WOLFGANG, BISHOP AND SAINT QUENTIN, APOSTLE OF AMIENS, MARTYR: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Wolfgang, Bishop and Saint Quentin, Apostle of Amiens, Martyr at Rome. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for God’s Divine Grace and Mercy upon us all. We pray for the poor, the needy and the most vulnerable in our communities and around the world. We pray for peace, love, justice and unity in our marriages, our families and our world. We pray for the sick and dying, especially those who are mentally and physically ill, strokes, respiratory and stomach diseases and those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. We pray for the souls in Purgatory and the repose of the souls of the faithful departed. We pray for all widows and widowers. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, the Bishops, the Clergy, for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Church, for persecuted Christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world…. Amen🙏
VIGIL OF ALL SAINTS DAY (ALL HALLOWS’ EVE): On this day, we mark All Hallows’ Eve, which is the vigil of All Saints (All Hallows) Day, a major feast on the liturgical calendar and a Holy Day of Obligation. Hallows’ Eve (October 31st) is connected with All Saints Day (November 1st) and All Souls Day (November 2nd). These three days are the “Days of the Dead,” a triduum also known as Allhallowtide or Hallowmas, reminding the faithful of the reality of heaven and hell; the communion of Saints; and our obligation to pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. May all the Saints intercede for us and may the gentle repose of the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in perfect peace with our Lord Jesus Christ… Amen 🙏
SAINT WOLFGANG, BISHOP: St. Wolfgang (934-994 A.D.), also known as the Great Almoner, was a Benedictine monk, reformer, and Bishop of Regensburg, Bavaria from Christmas 972 until his death. He’s regarded as one of the three great German saints of the 10th century, the other two being Saint Ulrich of Augsburg and Saint Conrad of Constance. The Benedictine monk and bishop, who served as a missionary to pagans and a reformer of the Church in southeastern Germany, was born around 934 in the historic southwestern German region of Swabia. St. Wolfgang came from a family of nobility and was privately tutored as a child and received an excellent education. Later on, the future monk was educated at the renowned Monastery of Reichenau, and at Wurtzburg. St. Wolfgang showed intellectual prowess and found companionship during his years of study, but was also dismayed by the petty jealousies and moral lapses he observed in Wurtzburg’s academic environment. In 956, his school companion Henry was chosen to lead the Archdiocese of Trier. Though St. Wolfgang had become interested in monastic life, he chose to go with Henry to Trier, where his service to the Church included a teaching position in the cathedral school. After Archbishop Henry’s death in 964, St. Wolfgang left Trier, became a monk of the Order of Saint Benedict, and settled at a monastery in the diocese of Augsburg. Its school prospered under his direction, and the local bishop – the future St. Ulrich – ordained him to the priesthood in 968. In his youth, St. Wolfgang had envisioned a secluded life of contemplation; but things turned out differently, as he was sent east to evangelize the Magyars in 972.
By Christmas of that year in 972, St. Wolfgang had been chosen as the new Bishop of Ratisbon (present-day Regensburg in Bavaria). But he continued to live out his monastic vocation, retaining his distinctive Benedictine habit and dedicating himself to the same ascetic lifestyle. Amid the work of preaching and reform, St. Wolfgang remained a man of prayer, silence, and contemplative solitude. Not surprisingly, the Bishop of Ratisbon made monasticism a focus of his church reforms, reviving religious life in places where it had fallen into disorder. Wolfgang also showed extraordinary care for the poor in his diocese, to such an extent that he was called “the Great Almoner.” On the other hand, he was also involved in affairs of state at a high level, and tutored the children of the Duke of Bavaria, including the future Holy Roman Emperor St. Henry II. St. Wolfgang, despite being one of the great bishops and saints of his time, still encountered serious difficulties in his leadership of the Diocese of Ratisbon. On one occasion, a political conflict caused him to withdraw from his diocese to a hermitage for a period of time. St. Wolfgang is also said to have struggled with the great geographical extent of the diocese, parts of which were eventually entrusted to the Bishop of Prague. In 994, while traveling in Austria, St. Wolfgang became sick and died in the village of Puppingen near Linz Austria on October 31, 994 AD. Miracles associated with his tomb, including many healings, led to his canonization on October 8, 1052 by Pope St. Leo IX (r. 1049-1054). Several of St. Wolfgang’s devotees experienced relief from stomach ailments, and he remains a patron saint of such troubles today. His intercession is also sought by victims of strokes and paralysis, and by carpenters, therefore, St. Wolfgang is the Patron Saint of apoplexy; carpenters and wood carvers; paralysis; Regensburg, Germany; stomach diseases; strokes.
PRAYER: God, Light and Shepherd of souls, You established St. Wolfgang as Bishop in Your Church to feed Your flock by his word and form it by his example. Help us through his intercession to keep the faith he taught by his word and follow the way he showed by his example. Amen 🙏
SAINT QUENTIN, APOSTLE OF AMIENS, MARTYR: Saint Quentin († 287) also known as Quintinus was a Roman, descended from a senatorial family. According to legend, he was born in Rome, Italy, son of a Roman senator named Zeno. He was a convert to Christianity. Full of zeal for the kingdom of Jesus Christ, he left his country and went into Gaul, accompanied by eleven other apostles sent from Rome. They separated to extend their campaign of evangelization to the various regions of France. Saint Quentin remained at Amiens and endeavored by his prayers and labors to make that region part of Our Lord’s inheritance. By the force of his words and works he preluded the glory of his martyrdom. He gave sight to the blind, vigor to paralytics, hearing to the deaf, and agility to the infirm, in the name of Our Lord, simply by the sign of the Cross. At all hours of the day he invoked his God in fervent supplications. But this apostolate could not escape the notice of Rictiovarus, the Roman prosecutor who at that time represented Maximian Herculeus in Gaul. Saint Quentin was seized at Amiens, thrown into prison, and loaded with chains. Rictiovarus asked him: How does it happen that you, of such high nobility and the son of so distinguished a father, have given yourself up to so superstitious a religion, a folly, and that you adore an unfortunate man crucified by other men? Saint Quentin replied: It is sovereign nobility to adore the Creator of heaven and earth, and to obey willingly His divine commandments. What you call folly is supreme wisdom. What is there that is wiser than to recognize the unique true God, and to reject with disdain the counterfeits, which are mute, false and deceiving?
When the holy preacher was found to be invulnerable to either promises or threats, the prosecutor condemned him to the most barbarous torture. He was stretched on the rack and flogged. He prayed for strength, for the honor and glory of the name of God, forever blessed. He was returned to the prison when the executioners who were striking him fell over backwards, and told Rictiovarus they were unable to stand up, and could scarcely speak. An Angel released the prisoner during the night, telling him to go and preach in the city, and that the persecutor would soon fall before the justice of God. His sermon, a commented paraphrase of the Apostles’ Creed, has been conserved. To his profession of faith in the Holy Trinity, he added that Our Lord Jesus Christ, whom he adored, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, health to the sick and even life to the dead. At His voice, the lame leaped up and ran, paralytics walked, and water was changed into wine… He has promised to be forever with those who hope in Him, and He never abandons those who place their hope in Him; by His omnipotence He delivers them, whenever it pleases Him, from all their tribulations. His guardians discovered that he had disappeared, though all doors were barred, and found him in the city preaching. They were converted by the prodigy. But Rictiovarus was furious and said to them: You, too, have become magicians? Brought back before the tribunal as a sorcerer, Saint Quentin said: If by persevering in my faith, I am put to death by you, I will not cease to live in Jesus Christ; this is my hope, I maintain it with confidence. He was again placed on the rack and beaten, and tortured with other demoniacal means; his flesh pierced with two iron wires from the shoulders to the thighs, and iron nails were thrust into his fingers, his skull and body. Finally, this glorious martyr was decapitated, after praying and saying: O Lord Jesus, God of God, Light of Light…, for love of whom I have given up my body to all the torments… ah! I implore Thee, in Thy holy mercy, receive my spirit and soul, which I offer Thee with all the ardor of my desires. Do not abandon me, O most kind King, most clement King, who livest and reignest with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, forever and ever! His death occurred on October 31, 287. His body was twice buried secretly, and twice it was rediscovered miraculously — in the years 338 and 641, first by Saint Eusebie of Rome, on a marshy island, where it had remained intact; later near the city of Augusta, by Saint Eloi. Saint Quentin remains in great honor in France above all, where more than fifty-two churches and as many localities were, at the beginning of the 20th century, dedicated to his memory; he is honored also in Belgium and in Italy. Charlemagne and the kings of France have gone to venerate the relics of Saint Quentin. He is the Patron Saint against coughs
Saint Quentin, Apostle of Amiens, Martyr ~ Pray for us 🙏