Saint Giles

Martyrdom

SAINT GILES
Abbot

TWELVE HOLY BROTHERS
Martyrs

SIMPLE / WHITE
Tradition tells us that in the seventh century the Athenian Giles left his native Greece for a rough hermitage in far-distant Gaul. Hunters of a local ruler accidentally wounded Giles as he was shielding a fleeing deer. The ruler, Flavius said to him, "This must be the holy Giles! Come out of your hermitage, servant of God, and teach my Franks about heaven. They need you more than this forest does." Flavius built a monastery on the site of the hermitage; and under Giles' leadership it became a center of civilization and Christianity for all that sector of Gaul.

Mass of an ABBOT, except
COLLECT
Let the blessed abbot Giles intercede for us, O Lord. May his prayers win us Your help, since our own actions cannot merit it. Through our Lord . . .

Commemoration of the TWELVE HOLY BROTHERS
These fourth-century apostles refused to offer sacrifice to pagan gods. After imprisonment in an African jail, they died for Christ in pagan spectacles at various places along the Italian coast.
O Lord, may the martyrdom of these brothers warm our hearts with joy, enliven our faith by an increase of virtue, and comfort us by the added number of intercessors we have in heaven. Through our Lord . . .

SECRET
May the offerings we lay upon Your sacred altar, O Lord, bring us closer to our salvation through the intercession of the blessed abbot Giles. Through our Lord . . .

Commemoration of the TWELVE HOLY BROTHERS
O Lord, grant that we may celebrate these sacred mysteries with devotion to honor Your holy martyrs, so that through this sacrifice we may have new help and a deeper joy. Through our Lord . . .

POSTCOMMUNION 
May the Sacrament we have received and the prayers of the blessed abbot Giles protect us, O Lord. Grant also that we may imitate the virtues of this saint who is our intercessor with You in heaven. Through our Lord . . .

Commemoration of the TWELVE HOLY BROTHERS
O Almighty God, grant that we may grow in grace by emulating the faith of these martyrs whose memory we honor by the reception of Your Sacrament. Through our Lord . . .

SAINT ANNA THE PROPHETESS

[Historical]

Saint Anna the Prophetess was the daughter of a man named Phanuel who was of the tribe of Aser, one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. She was one of the very, very few faithful Jewish girls who believed with all her heart in the revelations of God in the Old Testament, and who awaited their fulfillment in the New Testament. Saint Anna was married when she was fourteen. She became a widow at twenty-one. She was the one in charge of the Blessed Virgin Mary from the time Mary was presented in the Temple at the age of three until she was betrothed at the age of fourteen. Saint Anna was seventy-two years old when she first met Our Lady. She was eighty-four years old when Mary presented Jesus in the Temple. All other Jewish women in the Temple at that time ignored Jesus. Only Anna greeted Him. All the Jewish priests ignored Jesus. Only Simeon greeted Him and held Him in his arms, and declared while Anna was listening, “Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word in peace.” Anna was the name of Mary’s mother. Anna was the name of Mary’s teacher in the Temple. The name Anna means grace. Mary was not only full of grace, but was companioned by grace all during her childhood.