Our Morning Offering – 24 January – Feast of Saint Timothy, Bishop and Martyr
O Fathers of Our Ancient Faith
O Fathers of our ancient faith, With all the heav’n, we sing your fame Whose sound went forth in all the earth To tell of Christ and bless His Name.
You took the Gospel to the poor, The Word of God alight in you, Which in our day is told again, That timeless Word, forever new.
You told of God, Who died for us And out of death triumphant rose, Who gave the Truth which made us free and changeless through the ages goes.
Praise Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Whose gift is faith that never dies, A light in darkness now, until The Day-Star in our hearts arise.
O Fathers of Our Ancient Faith is written by the Benedictine Nuns of Stanbrook Abbey. In the Divine Office it is sung at Morning Prayer in the Common of Apostles. It is set to the anonymous tune associated with the 7th century Latin hymn, Creator Alme Siderum.
St Filip Geryluk St Guasacht St Ignacy Franczuk Bl John Grove St Julian Sabas the Elder St Macedonius Kritophagos Blessed Marcolino Amanni of Forli OP (1317-1397) Priest and Friar of the Order of Preachers, the Dominicans, Mystic.
St Projectus St Sabinian of Troyes St Suranus of Sora St Thyrsus Bl William Ireland
Martyrs of Asia Minor – 4 Saints: A group of ChristiansMmartyred together for their faith. The only details to survive are four of their names – Eugene, Mardonius, Metellus and Musonius. They were burned at the stake in Asia Minor.
Martyrs of Podlasie – 13 Beati: Podlasie is an area in modern eastern Poland that, in the 18th-century, was governed by the Russian Empire. Russian sovereigns sought to bring all Eastern-rite Catholics into the Orthodox Church. Catherine II suppressed the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine in 1784. Nicholas I did the same in Belarus and Lithuania in 1839. Alexander II did the same in the Byzantine-rite Eparchy of Chelm in 1874 and officially suppressed the Eparchy in 1875. The Bishop and the Priests who refused to join the Orthodox Church were deported to Siberia or imprisoned. The laity, left on their own, had to defend their Church, their liturgy and their union with Rome. On 24 January 1874 soldiers entered the village of Pratulin to transfer the parish to Orthodox control. Many of the faithful gathered to defend their parish and Church. The soldiers tried to disperse the people but failed. Their commander tried to bribe the parishioners to abandon Rome but failed. He threatened them with assorted punishments but this failed to move them. Deciding that a show of force was needed, the commander ordered his troops to fire on the unarmed, hymn-singing laymen. Thirteen of the faithful died, most married men with families, ordinary men with great faith. We know almost nothing about their lives outside of this incident. Their families were not allowed to honour them or participate in the funerals and the authorities hoped they would be forgotten. Their names are:
Anicet Hryciuk
Bartlomiej Osypiuk
Daniel Karmasz
Filip Geryluk
Ignacy Franczuk
Jan Andrzejuk
Konstanty Bojko
Konstanty Lukaszuk
Lukasz Bojko
Maksym Hawryluk
Michal Wawryszuk
Onufry Wasyluk
Wincenty Lewoniuk Martyrdom:
shot on 14 January 1874 by Russian soldiers in Podlasie, Poland
buried nearby without rites by those soldiers.
Martyrs of Antioch: Babylas Epolonius Prilidian Urban
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