Fra Angelico's "Vision of Ezechiel," 1452, showing the Throne of God's "wheel in the midst of a wheel" (Ezech. 1:16) -- a wheel of Apostles and Evangelists within a wheel of Old Testament Prophets, all gazing upon and drawing inspiration from the rays of the Light Divine, but the Apostles and Evangelists have a closer and clearer vision of the Light.
While the sacred observance of Holy Week is now under way in which the Church relives with her Lord that suffering and death He endured to save her, we also may mark the commemorations of the saints and martyrs who showed forth the Lord's salvation in their own lives and deaths. On this day, the traditional Roman Martyrology presents for our veneration another Old Testament saint -- the holy prophet Ezechiel, author of the Book of Ezechiel, one of the three Major Prophets (so called due to their length). Like so many of his fellow prophets, St. Ezechiel traditionally is said to have been martyred by his countrymen. St. Ezechiel (Hebrew
Yehezqel, which means "Whom God strengthens") was an Aaronite priest who in 597 B.C. was carried away from Judah and Jerusalem to Babylon, where over the course of more than two decades God and His angels repeatedly appeared to him in striking visions, revealing to him that Jerusalem would be destroyed but that a new David would arise to restore Israel, and directing him to teach, reprove, and encourage his fellow exiled Jews with his divinely inspired prophecies. St. Ezechiel's name heads the list of saints in the
Roman Martyrology for this date, which says:
This Day, the Tenth Day of April
The prophet Ezechiel, who was put to death in Babylon by the Judge of the people of Israel, because he reproved him for worshipping idols. He was buried in the sepulcher of Sem and Arphaxad, Abraham's ancestors. To his tomb many were wont to resort for the purpose of prayer.
