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Life is tough. Nuns are tougher.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Happy Trails




We're still on the patron saint trail today. Wonderful for me! My favorite hobby.

My other favorite hobby is reading non fiction. I don't have anything against fiction, there is just so much I still need to find out about and so little time to read. Right now I'm reading "Ben Franklin" by ....the guy who wrote "Ben Franklin".

I should say I WAS reading "Ben Franklin" until I received a gift copy of "My Cousin the Saint". It starts off with quite a bang, I'll tell you. I'll be back with a full book report one of these days.

Today's saints:
Do you have a patron saint for my friend Anne? She is still terribly angry at her exhusband of 20 years and the woman he married 20 years ago. She's livid, not just peeved. She is losing her relationship with her daughter over her attitude, as she wouldn't go to the daughter's wedding since he would be there. He was a pig 20 years ago, but she has to move on at some point. Who can help her with this? Also, have you ever heard of the Crosiers or St. Odillia? I was at a retreat there last week and it just didn't feel "right". Thanks for your advice!

Poor Anne. Though I will never discount the power of saints to move mountains, and I indeed have a couple of saints in mind for her, has anyone thought of ....therapy? Festering bitter anger with no attempt at forgiveness is actually a sin. Has anyone mentioned that to her? Poor thing. Here she is blaming two people for ruining her life and the truth is she is doing it all by herself and taking everyone down in flames with her--and not just figuratively.

Ah well. I suggest two saints: St. Rita, the patron saint of rotten marriages for starters. St. Rita was married to a real winner. She didn't have to worry about getting an annulment, though, because the Mafia took care of her problem for her. Not actually for her, but...no more husband. St. Rita was really worried that her two sons would try to avenge their father's death and just end up getting themselves killed. She prayed and prayed that they wouldn't do that and her prayers were answered. They both died of illness.

At that point, St. Rita was free to fulfill her lifelong ambition of becoming a nun. The nuns would have none of it. Rita did everything she could think of to get herself into the convent, but a widow with two sons, even dead ones, was not acceptable nun material back in those days. She finally parked herself outside the convent walls. Angels lifted her over them.

The nuns did everything they could think of to get rid of her, making her life miserable to prove to her that she was not acceptable nun material. When St. Rita received the stigmata, they had to back down. They still didn't have much to do with her, though, because her stigmata wound, which consisted of a single thorn from the crown of thorns, festered and smelled to high Heaven. She had to stay in a room by herself. After her death, and even now, her former room smells of roses. St. Rita herself is incorrupt and on display. She is said to move around in there from time to time, float up and down, look at people, that sort of thing.

I would also suggest, for poor bitter Anne, St. John the Baptist, patron saint of a fresh start. Even though I'm sure John wasn't so fresh himself out there on the desert, he offered freshness to everyone else.

You could also try St. Paul. There's a great example of a 180 degree turn.

And St. Peter, for anger management.

And maybe St. Lazarus, in the hope that someday soon Anne, too, will be back from the dead.

As for the Crosiers and St. Odillia, yes, I have heard of them. I can't think why they bugged you. Although... St. Odillia was the companion of St. Ursula, as in St. Ursula and the thousand, ten thousand, whatever number goes with whateve version of her story, martyrs. We don't really know how many martyrs there were or what exactly happened there as the story has gotten all out of hand. The Crosiers veneration of St. Odillia is based on private revelation and we are not required to go along with any private revelation.

Dear Sr. Mary Martha, Here is another patron saint match request. My adopted daughter was born deaf and she now has cochlear implants which enable her to hear at some level. We are trying to teach her to speak, but it is a difficult process. How about a patron saint of the deaf or speech impaired? By the way, do you think it is coincidental that my children have similar behaviors or qualities (not always good) as their patron saints? Thanks, Regina

The real question is, "do we believe in coincidence at all?"

The patron saint of the speech impaired is St. Raymond Nonnatus. That's because he had his mouth padlocked shut. St. Raymond spent all his time ransoming captives until he was finally taken captive himself. Then he spent all his time preaching and railing against people who take other people captive. Hence the padlock.

I'm sure it is a difficult process. But also such an exciting one!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you sister. I can think of quite a few folks who might like a Saint Rita holy card and medal. I'll get to it right away.

Do you have any advice for the Presidential race? Just kidding. I always go for the prolife person.

Thanks again for the saint advice!

Anonymous said...

Thank you Sister!
St Raymond it is. It will also work for my 5 year old who spends half his life in a time out chair. He thinks he is a prisoner. I just tell him that I am giving all his other siblings a chance to practice the corporal work of mercy of visiting the imprisoned! Maybe I'll consider a padlock when he rails against me (slightly kidding).
Blessings,
Regina

Anonymous said...

I'm curious and looking for a patron saint as I finish out my high school career. I will be perusing through hundreds of college viewbooks and will need to narrow it down to one by next spring. I am discerning a vocation and plan on studying philosophy in college. Any ideas.

Sister Mary Martha said...

I'd go with St. Thomas Aquinas. Not only is he the patron saint of teachers and students, he had to fight his parents about his choice of religious order.

Also, St. Raphael the Archangel is the patron saint of young people leaving home for the first time.

Anonymous said...

Dear Sister Mary Martha,

I found your blog and I thought that you might be interested in the musical act called The Priests. What separates this classical trio from others is that they really are catholic priests, who have recently signed a recording contract with Sony BMG. They are currently recording an album of classic hymns from the Latin Mass but you can find them on their
website
and even on youtube If you like what you hear it would be great if you could help them become better known to the public by mentioning them in one of your blog posts one day.

Thank you

Fouquette Racing said...

Read "Big Russ and Me" by Tim Russert. He was a good Catholic boy and it's a good book.

Anonymous said...

Dear Sister,
Last week you recommended The Infant Jesus of Prague to me for my husband's business concerns. I just finished a novena, and wanted you to know that while not 100% signed, sealed and delivered, we had movement in a very positive direction. I am deeply, sincerely grateful to our Lord. I also wanted to write back to tell you thank you for the direction toward this devotion, and to encourage anyone else who may read this.

Thank you, sister, for being a resource for us, and thank you Infant Jesus of Prague for your assistance!

goatgirl said...

Thank you for the answer about the bitter Anne. My mother is doing the exact same thing and it has caused many problems for me. I wonder how she will feel when I point out what she is doing is a sin? In a nice way of course.

bill7tx said...

Today is the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, who is one of my late mother's patron saints. (Mom's first name was Wilhelmina, but that was for the new Queen of the Netherlands -- in 1909 -- not for St. William especially.) Today makes me happy, remembering Mom.

PraiseDivineMercy said...

For Regina:
Our own American saint, Katherine Drexel, was canonized after the curing of two deaf people: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/colleges/20080304_Drexel_-_St__Katharines_2_living_miracles_pay_tribute.html


I've a question for you Sister: Do you have any prayer cards for St. Swithun?
My friend and I are curious about him for an amusing reason: He is patron saint of Gotham City, Batman's home. That is, the marketers for the new film set up several websites and telephone numbers for different places in Gotham, and there is even a site for St. Swithun's asking people to sign up for adoration and so forth.
In any case, it seems good to us that our silly fandom should allow us to learn about a saint.

Anonymous said...

Hello Sister,
You were so right on for me in your St. Rita post when you asked "do we belive in coincidence at all?" Well, yesterday I came to your site to use your saint finder as I have just this month begun to have migraine headaches and have been to the doctor twice in a week with them. I was planning to look for the patron saint of headaches. It just about took my breath away to see the post was St. Rita. It didn't say in your post that she was the patron saint of headaches, but I sure took it as a directive from heaven to begin asking for her intercession. With the thorn in her head, she is undoubtably able to help! Truly, there are no coincidences.