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The Lord is the king of martyrs: come, let us adore him.

Year: B(II). Psalm week: 4. Liturgical Colour: Red.

Pope St Cornelius ( - 253)

Cornelius was made bishop of the church in Rome in the year 251. He fought against the Novatian schismatics, and established his authority with the aid of Cyprian.

The emperor Gallus sent him into exile, and he died at Civitavecchia in June 253. He is buried in Rome.

See the article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.

St Cyprian (210 - 258)

He was born in Carthage and spent most of his life in the practice of the law. He was converted to Christianity, and was made bishop of Carthage in 249. He steered the church through troubled times, including the persecution of the emperor Decius, when he went into hiding so as to be able to continue looking after the church. In 258 the persecution of the emperor Valerian began. Cyprian was first exiled and then, on the 14th of September, executed, after a trial notable for the calm and courtesy shown by both sides.

Cyprian’s many letters and treatises shed much light on a formative period in the Church’s history, and are valuable both for their doctrine and for the picture they paint of a group of people in constant peril of their lives but still determined to keep the faith.

See the article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.

Other saints: St Ninian (c.360 - 432)

Scotland: 16 Sep

Hexham & Newcastle: 26 Aug

He was born in Cumbria and was ordained bishop in Rome in 394. He landed at Whithorn in Galloway in 397 and built a white-painted stone church there which was called Candida Casa, “White House.” From this centre he preached the Gospel in Scotland.

Liturgical colour: red

Red is the colour of fire and of blood. Liturgically, it is used to celebrate the fire of the Holy Spirit (for instance, at Pentecost) and the blood of the martyrs.

Mid-morning reading (Terce)	Leviticus 20:26
Be consecrated to me, because I, the Lord, am holy, and I will set you apart from all these peoples so that you may be mine.

Noon reading (Sext)	Wisdom 15:1,3
You, our God, are kind, loyal and slow to anger, and you govern all things with mercy. To acknowledge you is indeed the perfect virtue, to know your power is the root of immortality.

Afternoon reading (None)	Baruch 4:21-22
Take courage, my children, call on God: he will deliver you from tyranny, from the hands of your enemies; for I look to the Eternal for your rescue, and joy has come to me from the Holy One at the mercy soon to reach you from your saviour, the Eternal.