ST. LIVINUS OF GHENT (NOV. 12TH)

St. Livinus (Center), Adoring the Glorified Lamb in Heaven, from the Ghent Altarpiece,
by Herbert and Jan Van Eyck

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West)

St. Livinus (D. AD 650), Bishop and Martyr, “The Apostle to the Flemish People.” The Saint was born in Ireland, but was raised in England. As a young man, St. Livinus became a priest under St. Augustine, Archbishop of Canterbury. He was renowned as a great preacher and was highly respected in the parishes surrounding Canterbury. 

After a time, St. Livinus was made a Bishop and sent to Ireland as a missionary. After a time in the land of his birth, St. Livinus heard of the work being done by Celtic and English Monks in Flanders, and he heard God’s call to evangelize in Northern Europe. 

A Page from St. Livinus’ Illuminated Celtic Gospel Book, Originally Kept at the Ghent Cathedral, Now Preserved in the National Museum  

In Flanders, St. Livinus was highly successful in winning souls for Christ, establishing many churches, and working with other missionaries sent by St. Augustine, such as St. Boniface and St. Lebuinius. In his old age, he undertook the evangelizing of the pagan hinterlands, undertaking long and arduous journeys surrounded by fierce worshipper of bloodthirsty and demonic gods. 

One day, after preaching in the village of Esse, he was attacked by outraged pagan tribesmen, who tore out his tongue with pinchers in order to stop him from exorcising their demons and chopped off his holy head. 

After his disciples found his body, his relics were transferred to Ghent, where they healed many sick and suffering and became a famous site of a cathedral in the newly blossoming Flemish Church. They continued incorrupt until the Reformers destroyed them in AD 1578, burning the body and spreading the ashes, destroying the shrine that had stood in Ghent for almost one thousand years as a testimony to the power of Christ’s Holy Gospel! 

St. Livinus in an Inlaid Reliquary from the Late Middle Ages

COLLECT

ALMIGHTY GOD, Who gavest St. Livinus the grace to live in Thy holiness and to die in suffering for the Name of Christ; come, in Thy divine mercy, we pray, to the help of our own weakness; that, as Thy Saint did not hesitate to die for Thy sake, we, too, may live bravely in confessing Thee. Through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Our Lord, Who livest and reignest with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen. 

 The Ghent Altarpiece by Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, AD 1432, Showing Christ Enthroned, Flanked by the Holy Theotokos, St. John Baptist, Choirs of Angels, and Adam and Eve. Below Christ, Adoring “the Lamb Who Was Slain”, St. Livinus Joins Sts. Boniface and Lebuinius and a Host of Other Northern European Saints Whose Lives Were Commemorated as Witnesses to Christ in Ghent.