About Me

My photo
Life is tough. Nuns are tougher.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Let's Get Busy

I have my sleeves rolled up.

Speaking of saint-matching and stockings, Sister, whom do you recommend for a young man who likes to be outdoors and active?


My number one choice would be good old St. Sebastian. I have to admit to being a bit of a tomboy myself as a child. I loved my dolls, but I'd chuck them aside to climb trees or fly kites. My kites would go for miles and when they finally went down, the string would stretch halfway across town.

What was I talking about? Oh yes! The boys and I always loved the holy card of St. Sebastian all shot full of arrows tied to a tree. We would haunt the funerals of old parishoners to get a new one. He was right up there with St. Bartholomew, who was even more gruesome with his skin peeled off.

There's also always St. Hubert, who was a hunter and invented the blood hound. But then his name is "Hubert" pronounced "Hew bear" and no one likes to be saddled with that name as a patron saint. Sorry, St. Hubert, but boys don't care for that name. He really looks like a "Hubert", too. I really think St. Sebastian. He really couldn't have been more active and outdoorsy. Here's his story.

Sister, why are some nuns named after men? It always sounds so odd to my ear.

I hope you've gotten over it. We aren't named after men. We are named after saints...who happen to be men. That's why there's no nun named Sister Mary Abe Lincoln or Sister Benjamin Franklin. Would it make you feel better if we only named ourselves after girl saints? Or stuck an 'ette' on the end, and called ourselves Sister Mary Georgette and Sister Mary Sebastianetta? If that doesn't clang on your ear, I don't know what does.

You know, there used to be a lot more nuns. I'm sure we ran out of girl saints very quickly and moved onto the boys. Sort of like when a city has to add a second area code.

Have you done a post on indulgences? I'm particularly interested in plenary ones, for obvious reasons...


Yes, I have, and very recently, you poor lazy thing. Maybe all the tryptophan in the turkey got to you.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your photoshoping is just hilarious. I need to learn to do that. Abe looks particularly hideous in a habit. My aunt was 'Sr. Dan' for my childhood and then at some point in the 70's they went to their own baptismal name so it took me years to adjust to 'Sr. Eve' even though it was a female name.

Anonymous said...

Hey! No need to get snippy about my indulgences question! It must be my someteimer's kicking in. Just celebrated a nasty birthday...

Do you know the average person consumes 4500 calories on Thanksgiving? Now THERE'S a sin!

Sister Mary Martha said...

Was I snippy? So sorry. Too many years teaching lazy grade school children.

Anonymous said...

Although not yet a saint, I'd argue in favour of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati Sister as the (future) saint of the great outdoors.

Kristin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kristin said...

I agree wholeheartedly with ^elena.^ Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati loved hiking and climbing mountains and stuff. Love him!!