The martyrdom of saints Kosmas and Damian.
Fra Angelico (1395 – 1455)
Collect: Almighty God, every good thing comes from you. Fill our hearts with love for you, increase our faith, and by your constant care protect the good you have given us. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. According to tradition today is the feast of St. Regina (Reine) who after undergoing many cruel torments, was beheaded for the faith at Aliza, formerly a large town called Alexia, famous for the siege which Caesar laid to it, now a small village in the diocese of Autun in Burgundy. Her martyrdom happened in the persecution of Decius, in 251, or under Maximian Herecleus in 286, as some Martyrologies mention. She is honored in many ancient Martyrologies. Her relics are kept with great devotion in the neighboring abbey of Flavigni, a league distant, whither they were translated in 864, and where they have been rendered famous by miracles and pilgrimages, of which a history is published by two monks of that abbey. — Butler's "Lives of the Saints"
St. Regina When he learned of this fact, the father flew into a rage and repudiated his own daughter. Regina then went to live with her nurse who possessed little means. The girl helped out by tending sheep, where she communed with God in prayer and meditated on the lives of the saints. In 251, at the age of fifteen, she attracted the eye of a man called Olybrius, the prefect of Gaul, who determined to have her as his wife. He sent for the girl and discovered that she was of noble race and of the Christian Faith. Chagrined, he attempted to have her deny her faith, but the saintly maiden resolutely refused and also spurned his proposal of marriage. Thereupon, Olybrius had her thrown into prison. Regina remained incarcerated, chained to the wall, while Olybrius went to ward off the incursions of the barbarians. On his return, he found the saint even more determined to preserve her vow of virginity and to refuse to sacrifice to idols. In a rage, he had recourse to whippings, scorchings, burning pincers, and iron combs - all to no avail as the grace of God sustained the saint. All the while, she continued to praise God and defy Olybrius. In the end, her throat was severed and she went forth to meet her heavenly Bridegroom. Excerpted from the Lives of the Saints by Rev. Thomas J. Donaghy Patron: Depicted as experiencing the torments of martyrdom; or as receiving spiritual consolation in prison by a vision of a dove on a luminous cross. Symbols: Against poverty, impoverishment, shepherdesses, torture victims.
Daily Readings for: September 07, 2011
(Readings on USCCB website)
ACTIVITIES
PRAYERS
7th Wednesday of the Twenty-Third Week of Ordinary Time Old Calendar: St. Regina, virgin & martyr (Hist)
The life of this saint is shrouded in obscurity; all that we know about her is found in the acts of her martyrdom which are considered rather unreliable in their details. She was born in the 3rd century in Alise, the ancient Alesia where two hundred years earlier Vercingetorix had fought so valiantly against Caesar. Her mother died at her birth, and her father, a prominent pagan citizen, entrusted the child to a Christian nurse who baptized her.