Tag: saints

#1443 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn saints, SerendipityLeave a comment

A holiday with only small things to be achieved, in a timely way can be very liberating . Two catch ups with friends and a midpoint Airbnb are all we have. Except a trip to a fortified city that has featured in an enjoyed Netflix series. It was the anchor to our first week, Concarneau was our tick box. A little tricky as there was a sea mist making everything a little grey but exploring the fortified city was very atmospheric. Not quite as Netflix has depicted it, but hugely enjoyable. Cinematographers can do wonders with lighting and the hard work of scenery professionals. Except the hard work should actually have been done at home because the filming was actually done in  Saint Malo!

Google is a wonderful thing.

So Saint Malo goes on the list for another time and a location, Saint Cado, gets elevated to this current trip. Not only for the Netflix error but also to escape inclement weather.

So far it has worked, better weather and another Saint to ponder. Saint Cado allegedly fought with Satan over the rebuilding of a bridge between two fishing communities and then hoodwinked him by giving him the soul of a cat. The contractual price for the bridge rebuilding was the soul of the first living thing to cross the bridge. Anticipated to be a human it turned out to be a cat. Obviously St Cado’s saints tale has the tissue thin plausibility of many a saints origin story. The bridge however exists and we crossed it today. Nobody lost a soul.

#1350 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Spring1 Comment

St David’s Day.

As many blog readers know I have a fascination with lesser known saints and the often flimsy accounts of how and why they became Saints. Today I discovered that even the big hitters in the Saints world have their Saintliness based, in part on less than credible miracles or all but pointless selfless acts.

Growing up in a non-religious household, St David was the first saint of my acquaintance. On my first day at primary school I was put into St David’s House (Team). Good behaviour and Sporting prowess were rewarded by points awarded to  St Davids House, one of four Saint led groups that every child in the school belonged to.

St David is a Welsh Saint and by pure co-incidence my genetic make up includes a lot of Welshness mixed up with East Saxon. ( North East Essex)

Back to Primary School. On Sports Days and Celebratory Days I wore a yellow sash or yellow badge. On March the 1st the ‘ Yellows’ led the school assembly. Sport dominated the House system at my school, the good behaviour points largely forgotten about by the competitive types.

Diligent and nerdish, and a natural loner. I only gained house points for good behaviour, reading and creative writing. I turned up for sport, never excelled, but I was loyal to St David.

Every March the first I give a little nod to St David. This morning I sent a Happy Saints Day message to a partial Welshman. And for the first time ever I googled St David…

You might think for a big hitter in the Saints World there would be something  fabulous about him.

He is as flimsy as any other saint. His bones are contested and his miracle! I am surprised anyone ever noticed.

When St David was addressing an outdoor audience, preaching perhaps or just doing stand-up . Who could possibly know? A small hill appeared beneath his feet. Now if there is one thing Wales does not need it is another small hill. Apart from all the big and small hills that litter the land there are the industrial piles of slag, left over from a highly successful mining industry.

Happy St David’s Day. Do not read the P.S if you are squeamish.

P.S

My small obsession with Saints started when I discovered my grandparents collection of encyclopaedias. To be honest I have always read anything  and retain the oddest things.

St Christopher the Patron Saint of Travellers caused me an awkwardness when I was about 14 or 15.

A girl in my class was missing from school for a few days following the death, in a road accident, of her sister. She returned to school wearing her sister’s St Christopher charm necklace. Not exactly a boast but among her close cohort of friends it was said that you could still see the blood on the charm. I was not in her inner circle but commented that surely that was a sign that St Christopher was not very effective on that occasion. Maybe not my finest hour of being intrigued, but not in awe of Saints…

Happy St Davids Day

#876 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity2 Comments

The rain stopped, and the sun came up so we packed up the van and had a night away in Tintagel. It’s not just humans exhausted by our long winter/spring of rainfall. The countryside looks wrecked and any farm animals’  lucky enough to have a dry patch of field are muddy from the boggy areas . Things are going to need a few more days of sunshine and dry weather before Spring can properly assert itself. The South West Coastal path is a treacherous, slippery place to walk right now but just doing a little bit to get a view like this was lovely.

Rainwater pouring down cliffs from the fields above illuminated rocks beautifully. I love this picture because it looks badly photoshopped.

Mosses have had a very good winter.

Soon enough this part of Cornwall will be buzzing with tourists, which is vital to the local economy but yesterday there was a gentler buzz of local(ish) people just getting out into the fresh air unencumbered by wet weather clothing. Everyone wearing smiles in honour of a dry day. My day peaked with some discarded fishing gear.

Texture pleasures.

Beyond nature I found a new Saint. Not one of the big hitters in Saintliness, it seems, but a popular woman locally with a church and a village hall. A quick google fails to find any evidence of her good works, just three churches that venerate her.

Her name,  St Materiana, works well with our contemporary consumerist society perhaps she is ripe for a rebrand.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Materiana

https://www.celticglory.com/spiritual/materiana-church-minster-cornwall

” Materiana, my darling what is it you actually did to become a saint”

” Oh, I understand. You were an influencer. Oh well done “