Saint of the day: 18 JULY SAN FEDERICO DI UTRECHT

18 JULY

SAINT FREDERICK OF UTRECHT

he would have been born around 781 from a family probably of English origin, it is not clear whether in England or in Friesland. Elected bishop of Utrecht after Ricfredo's death, between 825 and 828, thanks also to the support of Emperor Lothair, he fought against paganism, risen in Friesland after the Norman invasion, and against the use of marriages incestuous. Having reprimanded the emperor Ludovico il Pio for having married, still living the first Irmingarda wife, Giuditta, he would have been assassinated by this fact on 18 July 838. Others, however, attribute the assassination of the saint to a nobleman of the island of Walcheren by him reprimanded. Buried in the crypt of the Church of the Holy Savior in Utrecht, he was revered as a martyr in various locations in the Netherlands and in Fulda. In 1362 the saint's skull, separated from the body by Bishop Folkert, was enclosed in a gold and silver reliquary and exposed to veneration. Of the rest of the body, however, already in his time nothing was known.

PRAYER

Accept our prayers, O Lord, and grant us the forgiveness of our sins through the intercession of Saint Frederick Bishop. Amen.

O Lord, let humanity return to the practice of the Christian faith through the intercession of your saints, and in particular the Bishop of Frederick of Utrecht, for a new evangelization of this third millennium to the praise and glory of your name and the triumph of Church. Amen.