Friday, September 26, 2014

SAINT LICINIUS OF ANGERS

St. Lezin
Licinius of Angers
Also known as Lesin, Lucinus

Feast day: February 13

Birth: 540

Death: 609 OR 618



French bishop. A member of the Frankish aristocracy, he gave up worldly Concerns and entered the Church. Known for his sanctity, he later became bishop of Angers.



Feast day formerly November 1. When Licinus was about 20, he was sent to the court of his cousin King Clotaire I. His prudence and valor distinguished him both in the court and in the army, and he carried out all his Christian duties with diligently. Fasting and prayer were familiar to him, and his
heart was always raised to God. After King Chilperic made him count of Anjou, about 578, Licinus consented to take a wife. On their wedding day, the lady contracted leprosy. He immediately decided to renounce the world and entered holy orders two years later.

 Licinus found true joy within a community of ecclesiastics, engaging in the exercises of piety, austere penance, and meditaton on the holy scriptures. The people, clergy, and the court of Clotaire II all concurred that Licinus should assume the episcopacy of Angers when Bishop Audouin died. Overcoming his own humility, he was consecrated by Saint Gregory of Tours.  As bishop, his time and his substance were divided in feeding the hungry, comforting and releasing prisoners, and curing the bodies and souls of his people. Though he was careful to keep up exact discipline in his diocese, he was more inclined to indulgence than rigor, in imitation of the tenderness which Jesus Christ showed for sinners. He won souls, not simply by strong preaching, but more through an exemplary life, miracles, and daily prayer for the souls in his care. He longed for greater solitude, and tried to resign his bishopric, but his priests, people, and fellow bishops refused to entertain such a thought. So he spent the rest of his life tending his flock--doing God's will and not his own. His patience
was perfected by continual infirmities in his last years.
 Licinus was buried in the monastery church of St. John Baptist, which he had founded for his frequent retreats. It is now a collegiate church, and enriched with his relics. At Angers he is commemorated on June 8 the day of his consecration and on June 21 when his relics were translated or taken up, 1169, in the time of Henry II, king of England, count of Anjou. His vita, based on the
testimony of his disciples, was written soon after his death; and again by Marbodius, archdeacon of Angers, afterwards bishop of Rennes, both in Bollandus .





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