Jesus,

Help us as we walk our

pilgrim way to Heaven.

May St Justin be our guide.

Grant us his strength of faith and wisdom

so we may remain united as one family,

growing in love in our parish of St Justin

St Justin pray for us.

OUR PATRON ST JUSTIN

St. Justin Martyr, (born c. 100, Flavia Neapolis Palestine (now Nablus)—died c. 165, Rome (Italy) ; Feast Day June 1, one of the most important of the Greek philosopher (Apologists) in the early Christian church. His writings represent one of the first positive encounters of Christian revelation with Greek philosophy and laid the basis for a theology of history.

A pagan reared in a Jewish environment, Justin studied Stoic , Platonic and other pagan philosophies and then became a Christian in 132, possibly at Ephesus, near modern Selçuk, Turkey. Soon after 135 he began wandering from place to place, proclaiming his newfound Christian philosophy in the hope of converting educated pagans to it. 

He spent a considerable time in Rome. Some years later, after debating with the cynic Crescens, Justin was denounced to the Roman prefect as subversive and condemned to death with six companions. Authentic records of his martyrdom, by beheading, survive.

Justin’s distinctive contribution to Christian theology is his conception of a divine plan in history, a process of salvation structured by God, wherein the various historical epochs have been integrated into an organic unity directed toward a supernatural end; the Old Testament and Greek philosophy met to form the single stream of Christianity.

Justin’s concrete description of the sacramental celebrations of baptism and the Eucharist remain a principal source for the history of the primitive church. Justin serves, moreover, as a crucial witness to the status of the 2nd-century New Testament corpus, mentioning the first three Gospels and quoting and paraphrasing the letters of Paul and Peter; he was the first known writer to quote from the Acts of the Apostles.