Greetings from Florida! The weather is great, the house we are staying in = amazing, but unfortunately, when you are on a tame family vacation (as opposed to participating in the extreme revelry of college-aged friends and acquaintances currently scattered south of the Mason-Dixon line), there is little to do when the sun goes down. Yes, we just watched Zombieland (and, in spite of my extreme resistance to this pick by my younger sister, I will admit: it was pretty funny, check it out) and now I am searching for other pre-bedtime distractions.
This leaves me researching the life and times of St. George. Odd? Probably. However, in less than a month, I will be ushering yet another young soul into the Catholic faith as a confirmation sponsor (the first was my sister) and he has chosen St. George as his "confirmation saint." Catholics choose a saint, a saint whose example they respect and to whose "type of holiness" they would like to aspire. The name of this saint becomes the candidate's confirmation name. Now, I chose Teresa. All the women in my family choose Teresa, and I do like having this connection to my deceased grandma, my mom, my aunts, my cousins and my sister.
However, for lack of another word, Teresa is lame. She lived in a nunnery, had religious visions, helped the poor...blah, blah, blah. I don't think this makes her any less worthy of sainthood than the "cool" saints. However, in a religion with great, feminist martyrs like Joan of Arc, and Perpetua (wrote about her incarceration and was torn apart by wild animals in the arena), St. Teresa holds no interest for your typical 8th grader (or 21-year old). Luckily, Jeremy, my 14-year sponsee has more sense than Grandma Lola (who started this whole St. Teresa tradition), and he picked a great saint: St. George. I like his story, and quite frankly, until the sun rises and I resume my attempts to ever-so-slightly bronze my stubbornly pale Irish/English/German/Swedish skin, I have little better to do than relate it to you. So here it is: the legend of St. George.
During the era of the Roman Empire, a dragon plagued the city of Selene in Libya. The creature required a sacrifice of two sheep per day in order to leave the city alone (different versions of the story tell different reasons for the sacrifice: in order for the dragon to stop emitting a daily, deadly poison, to grant the people access to their water supply, etc.). When the citizens ran out of sheep, the dragon demanded a daily sacrifice of one child. With heavy hearts, the townspeople drew lots daily, and those unlucky enough to have their lot drawn had to sacrifice their child. One day, the King drew the lot, forcing him to send out the beautiful young princess to be sacrificed. As the princess waited for the dragon to come forth and devour her, a knight rode up (St. George!). He fought the dragon, defeated it, saved the princess, and converted the city of Selene to Christianity before continuing on his way. Pretty cool saint, right? He is the patron saint for everywhere from England to Barcelona to Greece. Even the non-legend version of his story features a Roman soldier martyr that stood up to the Emperor Diocletian for his Christian faith.
So even though my saint holds little interest for my avid readers (or me), Jeremy is making up for the cool-factor that was missing during my own confirmation, and during my first run as a sponsor. Well done, J: Saint George is awesome.
This leaves me researching the life and times of St. George. Odd? Probably. However, in less than a month, I will be ushering yet another young soul into the Catholic faith as a confirmation sponsor (the first was my sister) and he has chosen St. George as his "confirmation saint." Catholics choose a saint, a saint whose example they respect and to whose "type of holiness" they would like to aspire. The name of this saint becomes the candidate's confirmation name. Now, I chose Teresa. All the women in my family choose Teresa, and I do like having this connection to my deceased grandma, my mom, my aunts, my cousins and my sister.
However, for lack of another word, Teresa is lame. She lived in a nunnery, had religious visions, helped the poor...blah, blah, blah. I don't think this makes her any less worthy of sainthood than the "cool" saints. However, in a religion with great, feminist martyrs like Joan of Arc, and Perpetua (wrote about her incarceration and was torn apart by wild animals in the arena), St. Teresa holds no interest for your typical 8th grader (or 21-year old). Luckily, Jeremy, my 14-year sponsee has more sense than Grandma Lola (who started this whole St. Teresa tradition), and he picked a great saint: St. George. I like his story, and quite frankly, until the sun rises and I resume my attempts to ever-so-slightly bronze my stubbornly pale Irish/English/German/Swedish skin, I have little better to do than relate it to you. So here it is: the legend of St. George.
During the era of the Roman Empire, a dragon plagued the city of Selene in Libya. The creature required a sacrifice of two sheep per day in order to leave the city alone (different versions of the story tell different reasons for the sacrifice: in order for the dragon to stop emitting a daily, deadly poison, to grant the people access to their water supply, etc.). When the citizens ran out of sheep, the dragon demanded a daily sacrifice of one child. With heavy hearts, the townspeople drew lots daily, and those unlucky enough to have their lot drawn had to sacrifice their child. One day, the King drew the lot, forcing him to send out the beautiful young princess to be sacrificed. As the princess waited for the dragon to come forth and devour her, a knight rode up (St. George!). He fought the dragon, defeated it, saved the princess, and converted the city of Selene to Christianity before continuing on his way. Pretty cool saint, right? He is the patron saint for everywhere from England to Barcelona to Greece. Even the non-legend version of his story features a Roman soldier martyr that stood up to the Emperor Diocletian for his Christian faith.
So even though my saint holds little interest for my avid readers (or me), Jeremy is making up for the cool-factor that was missing during my own confirmation, and during my first run as a sponsor. Well done, J: Saint George is awesome.
Very cool about Saint George, 'Chelle! You know how much I love these Catholic facts. But I must admit, you gotta cut St. Teresa some slack! I actually took a class on her and she's wayyyy more progressive than I'd imagined (pleasantly surprised!), and had some pretty freaky visions too. Smart cookie. I can lend you her autobiography over the summer if you want.
ReplyDelete:) Thanks for making my study tim so much more fun! Keep 'em coming!