August 28, 2022: ST. HERMES

August 28, 2022: COMMEMORATION OF ST. HERMES, MARTYR

“This saint fought even unto death for the law of his God, and feared not the words of the wicked; for he was founded on a firm rock.”
(Office Anthem)

Prayer (Collect).

O God, who didst give to blessed Hermes, thy martyr, strength and constancy in his sufferings: grant, by his example, that we may despise, for the love of thee, all this world esteems great, and be afraid of none of its terrors. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

(A famous Roman citizen, Hermes freed 1200 slaves upon becoming a Christian. He was beheaded during the reign of Emperor Hadrian toward the middle of the 2nd century. - Saint Joseph Daily Missal, Imprimatur 1957)

According to the most ancient monuments of the Roman Church, another saint has always been honoured on this same day, viz: Hermes, a Roman magistrate, who bore witness to Christ under Trajan. The crypt constructed, less than half a century after the death of the apostles, to receive this martyr’s relics, is remarkable for its majestic and ample proportions not usually found in the subterranean cemeteries. It was his sister Theodora, who received from Balbina, daughter of the tribune Quirinus, the venerable chains of St. Peter.

Taken from: The Liturgical Year - Time after Pentecost, Vol. V, Edition 1910; and
The Divine Office for the use of the Laity, Volume II, 1806.

August 28, 2022: St. Augustine, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church.

St. Hermes, pray for us.