Part 1: Why read all the saints names in EP I?

     On Sundays and feast days I always prefer the Roman Canon (also known as Eucharistic Prayer I), for its sublimity, it's rhetorical beauty, and its antiquity.
     For some this causes consternation, and I can't imagine why, unless it's because they're in a great hurry, and prefer the more abbreviated other Eucharistic prayers. Well, if they want to hear those, they should come more frequently to weekday Mass.
     Another complaint I have gotten is that I always take the time to recite the names of all the saints, which optionally may be removed from the recitation of the Roman Canon. Again, I think this is because of a case of the hurries. I would guess that omitting their names curbs 20 seconds off the Mass. I include their names, because they are there with us, and because their holiness, intercession and example are extremely powerful for making the grace of the Eucharist in us more effective, especially when we receive communion.
     A series of panegyrics will follow praising the saints who are mentioned in the Roman Canon. One by one, I'll offer a brief biography of the saint, or hagiography, then some exhortations to follow said saint in his or her virtues. I hope to put one or two up weekly at the slowest.
     All of this will hope to encourage my Gentle Readers to live the year of the Eucharist with greater interior relish, especially when, at the Holy Mass, they hear the first Eucharistic Prayer, or the ancient Roman Canon.