The fast track to sainthood

Ye non-Catholic socks may have missed this little news item, so I'll throw it in the dryer for you.

The pope has waived the standard 5-year waiting period to put the late John Paul II on the road to sainthood.

The last time this was done, at least as far as yours truly can recall, was back in 2002 when JP2 himself waived the waiting period for the late Mother Theresa.

Typically, it takes quite a long time for someone to be declared venerable, get beatified, and become sainted.

Sometimes, this takes centuries.

But, the world we live in seems particularly hungry for (maybe, starving for) icons of modern virtue.

And, I suppose that great need is why waiting periods are being waived.

I'm all for it.

The Man Who Led Columbus to America

That's the title of a book written by Paul H. Chapman back in 1973 (ISBN 0914032011) about St. Brendan the Navigator.

Brendan was an Irish monk who led 60 pilgrims on a voyage to find the Garden of Eden, some time between 512 and 530 AD (almost a thousand years before Columbus). After sailing west from the emerald isle, they survived a battle with a sea monster of some sort to discover a previously-unknown land covered with lush vegetation.

Several accounts of the expedition were recorded and spread throughout medieval Europe, including one manuscript that an Irish scholar named Dougal carried with him to Italy when he founded the University of Pavia.

The U of P was old Chris Columbus's alma mater, by the way.

Starting to see the connection?

If you wanna be more "in the know," yours truly would encourage a persual of Chapman's book . . .

My patron saint

I suppose it's appropriate that this Sunday has yours truly contemplating the life of his patron saint: Righail.

For ye socks who have difficulty pronouncing ye olde Gaelic, the modernday Scots have simplified things by spelling his name the way it sounds to modern English-speakers: Rule.

Anyway, I'd always known St. Righail was the fellow who lived in a hermitage on Dundrum Bay in Western Ireland. That's where he supposedly predicted the Great Famine of the 1840's about a millenia and a half before it actually happened. Way back in the 4th Century, he wrote of a vision he had of a great broom that swept away three-quarters of the island's population.

But, what I just learned today was the connection between St. Righail and the Apostle Andrew.

Apparently, 'twas himself that carried the remains of the apostle from their original resting place in Patras, Greece, all the way to Scotland in or about the year 327.

Don't know what took him from Scotland to Ireland, though.

Any ideas? Anyone? Bueller?

Contemplating St. Paul

My regular Thursday morning group discussion has me contemplating the work of St. Paul.

No, I'm not referring to his missionary work, though that is understandably why he is best remembered by most folks.

Instead, today I keyed-in to the fact that he continued to ply his trade as a tentmaker even as he took up that missionary work.

No, I'm not just speaking in the allegorical sense. He literally kept on making tents.

Anyway, that's reminded me it's not necessary to drop everything when you pursue a new path.

Something to contemplate, anyway . . .

Drop the apostrophe and move the "s"

Ok, I don't want to engage in the debate over whether or not today is a holiday manufactured by Hallmark and the candy industry. Truth be told the Roman Catholic Church kinda invented it themselves to supercede the ancient pagan fertility festivals. Whatever.

But, the grammarian in me must tell all ye socks not to call it St. Valentine's Day.

It should be "Saints Valentine Day."

That's because the day traditionally celebrates not one but TWO early Christian martyrs named Valentine.

The first is St. Valentine of Terni was persecuted by the Emperor Aurelius and died in 197.

The second St. Valentine of Rome is my favorite. He died in 269, and his relics (at least some of them) ended up at the Carmelite Church on White Friars Street in Dublin, Ireland. It's the Irish connection I like.

Anyway, there are NINE other Saints Valentine. But, their feast days come later in the year, I guess.

History and grammar lessons over. Enjoy your VD, and spread it around. (Disgusting pun intended.)