Recognizing Your Saints

This month's Bright Maidens blogging prompt is about saint stories. The Communion of Saints is one of my favorite things about being Catholic. As an historian, I love this personal connection to the past. (Who wouldn't want to communicate with their personal heroes from past centuries?) The holy people we hear about in scripture and Church history aren't just distant, foreboding role models of unattainable perfection. They're our brothers and sisters who root for us and want to be our friends.

Finding your patron saints is an unpredictable process.Sometimes you're naturally drawn to someone whose personality is like yours or whose story excites you. At other times someone unknown collides with your life in an unexpected way. There are too many saints to know them all, however, and you can't force a patron connection. Just because a friend has a fanatical devotion to St. Anthony doesn't mean you must, too. Believe me, I have tried many times to make St. Therese of Lisieux happen, but we just don't seem destined to be BFFs. Instead, my journey through life has brought other interesting holy people into my path.

When I was a 14 year old confirmandus, I decided to be an ornery hipster and pick an underdog saint no one else had ever heard of. Cecelia, Teresa, and Mary were waaay too played out. An obscure Catholic coloring book led me to St. Philomena, an early virgin martyr so obscure she doesn't have a feast day anymore. But her execution story was epic, the stories of miracles surrounding her relics were exciting, and more mainstream St. John Vianney was a fan. Looking back, she was actually the perfect choice for my future career. Contested historical narratives, 19th century archaeological finds, and popular cults surrounding artifacts are some of my favorite research topics. Whether Diocletian really had the hots for her or not, the spiritual significance of her intercession can't be denied.

Since then I've found new favorite saints in a way that suggests they have chosen me, or at least that Divine Providence has led me to them. St. Vincent de Paul meant nothing to me until a Methodist friend of a friend in college told me about the Vincentian Service Corps and got me started on my service year in Missouri. While I was there I gained new affection for not only the Vincentian family of saints, but also St. Louis, King of France. This summer I got married in a church that happened to be named after St. Veronica, whose name means "true image." This could make her the patron of photography, a hobby my husband and I have shared since our earliest dates.

Lately I've been on the lookout for saintly role models who were married women, not teenage girls who swore off boys and then met violent ends. Ironically, this has brought me back to the very beginning of my patron saint history - the ones who share my name. My middle name is Elizabeth. When I was a little girl, I liked St. Elizabeth of Hungary of best since she was a queen, and therefore had the prettiest clothes. Recently I've realized that she, and Mother Seton, and even John the Baptist's mother, were all married women who loved their husbands and children. As I embark on a new phase of life living my vocation as a wife, I feel like these women are reaching out to their namesake, offering their support.

 Domenico Ghirlandaio,  Zacharias Writes Down the Name of his Son
1486-90, Fresco Cappella Tornabuoni, Santa Maria Novella, Florence

7 Christmas Season Quick Takes

Happy New Year! And Merry Christmas too - if you want to get super traditional about it the Christmas season doesn't end until Candlemas on February 2. So don't feel bad if you don't get around to taking the tree down for a couple weeks. 

1. I've mentioned before how Christmas and I sometimes don't get along. Repetitive sappy music makes me stabby, and I'm weary of drumming up outrage for the annual  tradition of freaking out over the content of public decorations.
   Little did I know Christmas is my husband's favorite holiday. He's listened to annual my holiday rants without a peep, focusing on the Incarnation and patiently suggesting a few new festive activities each year. And it worked! As we spent our first December together, I found myself actually looking forward to firing up our Advent playlist and seeing all the decorations in the city.
   
2. That being said, Christmas caught us a little off guard. Oh shoot, we don't own stockings. Or lights. Don't you need a stand for a live tree? I really should have started gift shopping earlier. Fortunately buying a few strands of lights and a 3 foot artificial tree was enough to make our apartment look festive. Then my best friend surprised me with personalized stockings from Etsy!






Working in the development world means the December end-of-year fundraising push is about as busy as the finals season that stands between college students and Christmas break. I have new empathy for the employees of different charities who have filled my email account and mail box with their own donation appeals. Still, I am grateful that I work with a great team of people.  Especially when we take breaks by discussing how Queen Victoria basically invented the modern Christmas.

Even though we held back on full-out Christmas until Gaudete Sunday, I was very grateful for the onslaught of decorations in New York City that started even before Thanksgiving. Leaving work in the dark and cold is always depressing, so it was wonderful to have colorful lights greeting me everywhere. Even ugly old Penn Station. I really liked my friend Kelly's insightful post about how early festivity shouldn't trouble us too much - even the Blessed Mother celebrated Jesus' arrival before He was actually born! 

Outside the Stock Exchange after some frantic gift shopping at the Wall Street TJ Maxx
Christmas shopping crowds in the city were another story. While we didn't try to cram into Rockefeller Center for the tree lighting, we ended up tangled in the road closures and packed sidewalks anyway. But we survived, and it was worth it to attend a young adult mass at St. Patrick's celebrated by Cardinal Dolan himself! Seeing New York's archbishop in person has been on my bucket list for a  long time, and his down-to-earth preaching about St. Augustine did not disappoint.

Fun fact: my old Nicest Boss in the World in St. Louis was once a seminary classmate with "Tim." (Nicest Boss went on to be a happily married social worker instead of a priest.) I was pleased to note that you can still detect a hint of the STL in the Cardinal Archbishop's accent - his "Lord" sounds a little like "Laaard." Southern Baron noted Dolan's active personality - at one point he was actually fidgeting with his pectoral cross. Adorbs.



This was my first Christmas I haven't spent with my parents and siblings, but it was still joyful in my little apartment with only two people unwrapping gifts. The Southern Baron and I enjoyed actually celebrating traditions like Midnight Mass together. We also continued older ones, like buying Christmas cards on sale from museum gift shops.


The parish down the street on Christmas Day
For now, 2014 looks less eventful than last year, and that is fine with me. Starting a new job, moving to a new state, planning a wedding, and starting married life all in 6 months was an exhausting whirlwind. My goal this year is to get the most out of where I am right now, before the next big transition hits.
Our resolution as a couple is to pray together more - grace before meals doesn't count too much. Right now we're figuring out how to use the copy of Shorter Christian Prayer we got for Christmas. The Magnificat Magazine training wheels have been removed, and it's confusing.

Visit Jen Fulweiler at Conversion Diary for more quick takes!