But, today I'm focusing on St. Christopher -- who has always been and always will be a bona fide saint in our book.
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| Not St. Christopher |
There are a handful of saints whose popularity has catapulted them from the pages of the Missal and into the mainstream maelstrom. Everyone knows who St.Christopher is, right? And you don't have to be Catholic to know about St. Francis of Assisi, or St. Theresa the Little Flower, or St. Nicholas... Poor St. Nicholas. But, unlike holy, but hi-jacked St. Nicholas, the legend of St. Christopher suits the sanctity of a man whose exact
life story may be clouded by the mists of time, but whose eternal story continues in his legendary quest -- of serving Christ, of saving souls. St. Christopher is known as the patron saint of travelers -- and we've depended on him, ourselves, over many miles traveling cross country through the years -- but we can also call on him as a dutiful friend to carry us through troubled waters of the soul. There is a real human heart on the other end of every prayer we send up to our beloved saints, and each of those real human hearts, having reached the perfect happiness of heaven, wants each of us to find our way to that happiness. No kidding, it's a hard road; the saints know it better than anyone, and they know better than anyone how worthwhile a journey it is to tackle. They extend their hands to help...
And I'm grateful for all the help I can get. You can be sure I'll be begging for a little ride on St. Christopher's shoulders when the going gets tough...
And even when it's not so tough, but we need a little temporal reassurance for ourselves and our loved ones. On St. Christopher day this year, we're begging his intercession in all our travels through the end of the summer, and for the continued safe journeys of all our priests on their missions and our teaching Sisters who travel all over the country during the summer providing Catechism Camps for our children.
St. Christopher, pray for us! We're counting on you!
Below: A most popular subjects of artists through the centuries, the story of St. Christopher has been retold on canvas over and over again. Below are some of our favorites works of art. Do you have a favorite? How do you imagine St. Christopher?
(The Durer engravings make awesome coloring pages! I'm taking a bunch of copies for the kids to color on the way to Denver today. :0)
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| Another by Lucas Cranach the Elder |
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14th c. -- panel of of triptych of St. Vincent Ferrar
Couldn't find the name of the artist |
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| Woodcutting; unknown artist, dated 1423 |
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| Unknown Artist, dated 1939 |
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| Albrecht Durer |
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| Albrecht Durer |
And HAPPY, HAPPY NAMEDAY to our stupendous second son,
Kevin Christopher!
We love you, Kevvy!
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| Kevvy as a 4 year old. |
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Kevvy now... with glasses about the same size as the 4 y.o. photo...
(Someday we might actually get a normal smiling picture of this guy
so everyone can see how handsome he is!) |
*repost from 2012
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