Today is the Vigil of St. Andrew the Apostle, traditionally a day of fasting on years when November 29th does not fall on a Sunday. In centuries past when Nov 29 fell on a Sunday, the fast would have been anticipated on Saturday.
Today is also the Commemoration of St. Saturninus who is said to have been a priest who came to Rome from Carthage. At an advanced age, he was arrested for the Catholic Faith. After suffering long imprisonment and barbarous tortures, he was beheaded in the year 309 AD. Along with him, his deacon Saint Sisinius suffered martyrdom.
Writing on the two martyrs, the Monks of Ramsgate write in their Book of Saints the following brief account:
Roman Martyrs in the persecution under Diocletian and Maximian (about A.D. 303). They are associated with Pope Saint Marcellus and with Saints Cyriacus, Largus and Smaragdus. They were both very aged; but were not on that account spared the torture before execution. Saint Sisinnius was a deacon.
Father Francis Xavier Weninger in his Lives of the Saints includes the following reflections for St. Saturnine, as he spells his name:
Saint Saturnine accepted the hard work allotted to him with cheerfulness, and performed it as well as he could, without manifesting sadness or impatience; he even praised the Almighty while he labored. God, who has created man for work, has also ordained that each station should have its own task. He graciously promises to recompense this work in the other world, if it is done rightly. Those do very wrong, who neglect what their station requires of them, and who are slaves to idleness. Those also do wrong, who become impatient with their work or even curse it. They lose their merit and the reward which they would have earned, had they performed their work with due patience. Should your task be burdensome, cheer yourself, after the example of Saint Saturnine, and call on God for aid.
St. Saturinus's feastday has the distinction of being the first saint entry in the Proper of the Saints in the Missal, since November 29th is often around the beginning of Advent, when the Church's new liturgical year begins.
Collect:
O God, who fills us with joy at the celebration of Your martyr Saturninus' heavenly birthday, grant that the merits of this saint may help us. Through Our Lord . . .
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