Saint of the day

I borrowed a book of saints from the library. Why? I had read such a book once as a child and am still fascinated with the stories of the saints. I love the story of St. Christopher... and I just know that there are all sort of others that I can't recall.

hence borrowing this book.

I couldn't find the exact one I wanted, but this one is pretty fabulous. So good that I might buy a copy.

It is entitled: The Saint-a-day guide: a lighthearted but accurate (and not too irreverant) compendium.

It breaks them down by the day their feast is celebrated.

so, what is today's saint? Well, October 16 is a suprisingly popular saint feast day...

1) Saint Gall - fierce alpine hermit 635 - patron of birds - emblem: bear - hails from Swiss Alps --- the funny thing about Gall, no one knows why he is the bird patron, and he was real crotchedy and the Swiss hated him.

Gall isn't the funniest one that I have read, rather boring actually, so I started getting discouraged that this might not be the best topic for a blog post. But then:

2) Saint Gerard Majella -described as "woman friendly lay brother" 1755. - hmmm, sounds like it might be good. - turns out that Gerard was quite the momma's boy, and although the local order didn't want to accept him for priesthood because "he was tubercular and simpleminded" the leader and founder recognized something useful, Gerard performed miracles more than other people fetched water. The paragraph goes on about Gerard helping people and performing miracles, but then... oh yes, Gerard you bad boy: "Although he was a lay brother, not a priest, Gerard was the spiritual director to several communities of nuns. In 1754 an ex-novice, Neria Caggiano, accused Our Saint (the Patron of mothers!) of having taken scandalous liberties with her person in the course of his ministry. She was lying, of course."

Okay, sex scandals.. this is getting better.

3) Saint Hedwig - Pious Duchess 1243 - at 12 Hedwig got married to a Duke (Henry 1 the bearded), she bore him 6 children. This is a miracle in itself since she had quite an aversion to her husband and sex. She never spoke to him in private and convinced him of the sinfulness of intercourse during Lent, on all Sundays, all holy days and during her pregnancies. after 25 years of marriage she moves to a convent where "she distinquished herself by habitually kissing the seats of chairs, pews and stools. She also enjoyed washing the feet of the nuns, then drinking the dirty water. She herself, as she wandered the dukedone doing good deeds, never wore shoes, and her feet were a mess. Her estranged husband sent her a pair of shoes, commanding her never to appear in public withouth them. Thereafter clever Hedwig carried them everywhere under her arm. On her feast day it is traditional to bake Hedwig's bread. A loaf in the shape of a shoe."

hmmm. couple of things -a) should I be baking bread in the shape of a shoe? would it be sufficient to shape an omelet into shoe form? I might try. b) don't you wonder the story behind the scenes? why did she hate her husband and sex so much? was it really piousness or was it that he was terrible in bed? Did she tell all of her servants about how his do-hicky was mishapen? fun to ponder.

the fourth, and last, of the day is Saint Margaret Mary - she is the French nun to whom Christ exposed His Sacred Heart -1690

so, the story here is that when she was 7 she took a vow of chastity. but she later admits in her autobiography that she didn't know the meaning of vow or chastity... then she is planning on getting married when Christ appears and (quote from her book) "made her see He was the most handsome, the riches, the most powerful, the most perfect and accomplished of lovers" - uh, huh... so, she joins a convent. works there for a bit, but is clumsy and slow. then, Christ invites her out to dinner - in Saint John's place at the lord's side... (quote from this book) "then he continues to appear to her, invariably opening his shirt to expose a flaming, throbbing, crimson organ -His Sacred Heart". the other nuns don't really like this.

more of my thoughts: c) how could you not love a book that includes phrases like: expose a flaming, throbbing, crimson organ? d) the pictures of saints are funny too. e) www.catholic-forum.com has a great icon, a tiny picture of Jesus's face. makes me smile.