Dom Prosper Guéranger:
At Rome, St. Rasyphus, martyr.
In the same city, the martyrdom of St. Primitiva, virgin and martyr.
Also the holy martyrs Apollonius and Eugenius.
The same day, the birthday of the holy martyrs Trophimus and Theophilus who received their crown of martyrdom by being beaten with stones, scorched with fire, and finally struck with the sword in the time of the emperor Diocletian.
In Bulgaria, many holy martyrs whom the impious emperor Nicephorus, while he was devastating the churches of God, put to death in various ways by the sword, the halter, arrows, long imprisonment and starvation.
At Rome, the saintly virgins Romula, Redempta and Herundines, mentioned by Pope St. Gregory in his writings.
In the same city, the departure from this life of St. Bridget, widow, whose sacred body was taken to Sweden on the seventh of October. Her feast is celebrated on the eighth of that month.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
While Apollinaris adorns holy Mother Church with the bright purple of his martyrdom, another noble son crowns her brow with the white wreath of a Confessor-Pontiff. Liborius, the heir of Julian, Thuribius and Pavacius was a brilliant link in the glorious chain connecting the Church of Le Mans with Clement, the successor of Saint Peter. He came to bring peace after the storm, and to restore to the earth a hundred-fold fruitfulness after the ruin caused by the tempest. The fanatical disciples of Odin invading the west of Gaul had committed more havoc in this part of our Lord’s vineyard than had the pro-consuls with their cold legalism, or the ancient druids with their fierce hatred. Liborius, defender of the earthly fatherland, and guide of souls to the heavenly one, brought the enemy to be citizen of both by making him Christian. As a Pontiff, he laboured with purest zeal for the magnificence of Divine worship which renders homage to God and gives health to the earth. As apostle, he took up again the work of evangelisation begun by the first messengers of the faith, driving idolatry from the strongholds it had reconquered, and from the country parts where it had always reigned supreme. His friend Saint Martin had not in this respect a more worthy rival. Five centuries after the close of his laborious life, his blessed body was removed from the sanctuary where it lay among his fellow-bishops, and scattering miracles all along the way, was carried to Paderborn. Pagan barbarism once more fled at the approach of Liborius, and Westphalia was won to Christ. Le Mans and Paderborn, uniting in the veneration of their common apostle, have thus sealed a friendship which a thousand years have not destroyed.Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Rome, St. Rasyphus, martyr.
In the same city, the martyrdom of St. Primitiva, virgin and martyr.
Also the holy martyrs Apollonius and Eugenius.
The same day, the birthday of the holy martyrs Trophimus and Theophilus who received their crown of martyrdom by being beaten with stones, scorched with fire, and finally struck with the sword in the time of the emperor Diocletian.
In Bulgaria, many holy martyrs whom the impious emperor Nicephorus, while he was devastating the churches of God, put to death in various ways by the sword, the halter, arrows, long imprisonment and starvation.
At Rome, the saintly virgins Romula, Redempta and Herundines, mentioned by Pope St. Gregory in his writings.
In the same city, the departure from this life of St. Bridget, widow, whose sacred body was taken to Sweden on the seventh of October. Her feast is celebrated on the eighth of that month.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
