Sadie Hawkins Day

Now that we're all full of ham and deviled eggs we're finally able to come up for air and answer some questions. Before we begin, let me point out one important truth: You'll sweep up remnants of Easter grass until Christmas, and you'll sweep up remnants of pine needles until Easter.

Dear Sister My brother has an unusual problem. 20 years ago, he gave up on finding love and a wife and is now perfectly happy as a single man. He is 63 years old and there is a 41 year old woman, divorced with kids who has decided he is the love of her life and she will give him no rest. She is being aided and abetted by another woman, happily married who just can't stand to see someone happily single. When he was in high school, my brother wanted to be a monk, or a hermit but joined the Marines instead. He has had 2 very painful "love relationships" and has seen so many marriages fail or people who are miserable in their marriage, including our parents that he wants to remain single forever. Is there a saint for that?

A saint for what, exactly?  Getting rid of the pushy divorcee? Telling the abetter to mind her own garden? Having your brother find love in his twilight years?  Not so twilight, really. 60 is the new 40.  So they tell me.

There are some people who are not cut out for marriage.  And there are no end of saints that agreed. The one who springs to mind this minute is St. Celestine V, the first Pope (and the only other Pope) to abdicate. (He was also the Pope who made the decree that a Pope could abdicate.)  Peter Morrone was a monk extraordinaire. Lived in a cave. Ate bread and water. That kind of monk.

He was very involved in the world around him, however, starting up other monasteries, founding an order, and writing a scathing letter to the cardinals of the day who had let two years lapse without coming together to elect a Pope.

His letter alarmed everyone so much that they decided to make Peter the Pope, which is how he became Pope Celestine V for a couple of months. 

They actually had to form a posse and climb up the mountain to his cave to haul him out to come and be Pope.  

Pope Celestine and Pope Benedict, Comrades in Abdication

While he was Pope, he built a chamber in the basement of the castle in which he stayed (he refused to go to Rome) and pretty much just sat there. Then he wrote a decree saying that the Pope could quit.  Then he quit.  Two months and 8 days later.

Another good saint for your brother is St. Rita.  She always had wanted to become a nun, but she had to wait until her family died to give that a try. Even then, the convent didn't want her because she was older and had been married.  She persevered and angels flew her over the convent wall. This is back when being a nun meant being behind a wall.

Even the saints who are the patron saints for finding love, like St. Agnes, were actually people who wanted to remain celibate. I've always found that slightly ironic.

Perhaps what your brother should do is pray for the intercession of St. Agnes for the divorcee to find love...somewhere else. And take her nosy friend with her.  

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