Saint Placid & Companions, Martyrs
Ss. Placidi et Sociorum Martyrum
Saint Placid was a disciple of Saint Benedict, entrusted to him as a child and brought up in the monastic life; with companions he is venerated among the martyrs.
Saint Placid is remembered above all as one of the boyhood disciples of Saint Benedict, the father of Western monasticism. Saint Gregory the Great, in his life of Saint Benedict, relates that Placid was given to the holy patriarch as a young child by his father, a Roman of rank, to be raised and instructed in the service of God, and that he grew up under Benedict’s care at Subiaco and afterward at Monte Cassino.
The disciple of Saint Benedict
One incident concerning Saint Placid is recorded by Saint Gregory and has always been dear to monastic memory. The boy, having gone to draw water, fell into the lake and was carried out by the current; whereupon Saint Benedict, perceiving the danger in spirit, sent the monk Maurus, who at his master’s word ran out upon the water and drew the child to safety. The deed was attributed to the obedience of Maurus and the prayer of Benedict, and is told as a testimony to the power of holy obedience and of a father’s intercession.
Beyond this, the certain history of Saint Placid is slight. Later accounts that describe him as the founder of a monastery in Sicily and as martyred there with many companions by sea-raiders rest upon writings now generally judged to be unreliable, and the Church does not propose their particulars as certain. Where the record is doubtful it is honest to say so, and to honour what is sure: that Placid was a true disciple of Saint Benedict, formed from childhood in the love of God, and that he and his companions are venerated as martyrs.
Their veneration
The collect of the feast is that of the common of several Martyrs, in which the Church, mindful of the day on which the holy martyrs bore their witness, asks that the prayers of these her saints may commend her to God. In this prayer the faithful honour Saint Placid and his companions among the noble army of martyrs, without pressing beyond what is known of them.
Their feast is kept on the fifth of October. In Saint Placid the Church remembers one of the first fruits of the Benedictine school, a child given wholly to God; and in his companions, the multitude of the early witnesses who, in places and circumstances now largely hidden from us, laid down their lives for Christ.
The Collect
Patronage
Saint Placid is venerated among the early disciples of Saint Benedict and within the Benedictine family; he and his companions are honoured among the martyrs.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar this commemoration is no longer kept on the universal calendar.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saint Placid and his Companions?
Their feast is kept on 5 October in the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal, as a Fourth Class feast.
Who was Saint Placid?
He was one of the boyhood disciples of Saint Benedict, given to the holy patriarch as a child to be raised in the monastic life, and is named in Saint Gregory the Great’s life of Saint Benedict. He is venerated, with companions, among the martyrs.
How much is reliably known about him?
What is certain is that he was a young disciple of Saint Benedict, remembered in Saint Gregory’s Dialogues, including the account of his rescue from drowning through the obedience of the monk Maurus. Later stories of his founding a monastery in Sicily and being martyred there rest on writings now generally regarded as unreliable, so the Church honours him soberly, holding to what is sure.
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