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Life is tough. Nuns are tougher.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Sticks and Stones Will Break Your Bones


Dear Sister, I have a good one for you! I have been teaching sunday school this year. We started the yr with one kiddo in a cast for a broken arm. Then we had another kiddo who fell- this time a broken wrist! Right before Christmas we had another boy fall and break his elbow! Well I did warn the parents we were the broken arm class, but I certainly didnt expect to be the next one (and the first of the "girls"). On Saturday I fell and broke my wrist. So what we need here in gr 4 at OLG is a patron saint for prevention of falls resulting in broken arms! Help us out. I'll link your blog in my classroom newsletter if you answer! They'll get a kick out of that, I bet. Get their 15 minutes of internet fame out of the way early and before they join myspace and disgrace us all. Thanks!

Oh dear! Poor babies! Poor teacher!

Of course, there is a patron saint for broken bones. There is a patron saint for everything, even coffee drinkers and hangovers.

I'm just not thrilled with the answer. He's not very exciting for children is all.

Not that there's anything wrong with St. Stanislaus Kostka. Stanislaus was a pious Polish boy. He was so pious that he would head off to piety dreamland in the middle of Easter dinner. He was a model of humility and obedience and he was a cheery lad.

This didn't sit well with his older brother Paul. Paul had very nice things to say about his little brother when St. Stanislaus was beatified, about how pious and holy little Stanislaus had been.


But Paul is the reason St. Stanislaus is the patron saint of broken bones. All that piety got on his last nerve and he beat up Stanislaus to the point of broken bones. He better say nice things at the party!

Stanislaus desperately wanted to become a Jesuit priest but his father wasn't very happy with the Jesuits. Stanislaus knew he'd have to sneak out of town to join the order and made an elaborate plan to run away and make the long journey. He told his brother Paul that he wouldn't be back for dinner and by the time Paul realized that Stanislaus wouldn't be back at all, Stanislaus had a whole day head start. Stanislaus had left the city in disguise, Paul searched on the wrong road, and ten months later, Stanislaus was in Rome with the Jesuits.

He was a model of piety there, too.

He had always been a sickly boy, and the arduous trip hadn't helped that. When he was in school before leaving for the Jesuits, St. Barbara came over with two angels to administer Holy Communion to him in his sick bed.

Wasn't that nice of her?

At any rate, Stanislaus didn't last long as a Jesuit. Within a year Stanislaus knew his number was up. He wrote a letter to the Blessed Mother asking if he could join her in Heaven to celebrate the feast of the Assumption and his wish was granted. He was 18.

St. Stanislaus is the patron saint of broken bones because his brother broke his.

I like to think of him when I eat perogis and glumki. I'm not sure I've spelled glumki correctly. It's what the old Poles call stuffed cabbage. I think they should call it "Stuffed Cabbage" because "glumki" doesn't sound appetizing at all.

But I digress.

I think you might want to look into St. Ignatius Loyola. He is much more exciting!

His leg was broken by a cannonball! Isn't that much more exciting for children that getting beat up by your brother? On the other hand, perhaps the children can completely relate to getting beat up by one's brother.

St. Ignatius was a knight who got hit in the leg by cannonball. The cannonball shattered one leg and broke the other. He was taken to the nearest castle to recuperate. He had to endure many surgeries with no anesthetic because they didn't have that type of thing back then. What a tough guy he must have been!

It took months and months for his leg to heal and while he was there all that time there was absolutely nothing to do but read. Unfortunately for him, there were only two books in the whole castle, so he had to read them over and over again.

But fortunately for us, the two books were the Bible and La Vita Christi, an elaborate treatise on the Life of Christ. St. Ignatius left his knightly days behind and founded the Jesuit order.

Which was also fortunate for St. Stanislaus Kostka.



Hi Sister. I was wondering what type of necklace she was talking about when she said "She's the one with hair loss due to Alopecia, for whom you made the necklace with St. Agnes and company." What type of necklace was it? I have hair loss and I have tried everything and am looking for desperate help. Please let me know. Thank you

I made her a custom necklace.

5 comments:

Feisty Irish Wench said...

I was born on the feast of St Agnes.

berenike said...

gołąbki :-)

goh-womp-kee

Rosebud said...

Hi Sister Mary Martha!
After following your blog for a very long time, I'm venturing into the fray of comments and questions.

We are in the long, dull, paperwork filled waiting period before we get to bring our two or three children that we are adopting home from Ukraine. I've read that St. Thomas More is the patron of adoption, but I haven't been able to figure out why. (Not that I mind, since Tommy More and I have been good buds since I lived in St. Thomas More Hall dorm in college.) Got any other good patrons for us? Whether of Ukraine, paperwork, international travel, or just the patron saint of impatience. Since we have two children at home who are excitedly waiting for their younger siblings to come home, patrons of parenting a large brood or blended families would probably come in handy, too.

RogerGarcia said...

Google: St. Theophilus of Corte

Thanks for the article. I went to Saint Stanislaus grade school in a Polish community in East Chicago, IN. I always wondered of what he was the Patron Saint.

Anonymous said...

Dear Sister.
It is not "glumky" it is GOH-WHOMP-KEE (phonetically). They are EXTREMELY tasty if well seasoned and made of nice fresh cabbage, good minced meat and cooked rice, with tomato sauce! :D
I like St. Stanislaus Kostka very much. I saw a beautiful video about him in 2001, in Polish. My friend who is a religion teacher showed it to children (they were in fact teens, 13-years old) and they liked it very much. In fact, it was made so much interesting like a crime-story or a sensation-movie.
I can't find it on Youtube. Warsaw's church of St. Stanislaus Kostka is beautiful and it is the place where Blessed Father Popieluszko, the Martyr (tortured and killed by Communist Secret Police in October 1984) worked for years. I knew Father Popieluszko myself when I was a kid. He was a very good, kind and courageous man. He even used to give warm coffee and tea to the agents standing by his house next to the Sait Stanislaus Kostka's Church who watched him all the time. The grave of the Blessed Martyr Father George Popieluszko is next to that church.
If whenever in Warsaw, St. Stanislaus Kostka Church with the Grave of Blessed Martyr Father George Popieluszko is surely a "must-see"! :D
God bless You Sister.
I Hope one day You'll find some Pole who can make really tasty stuffed cabbage (GOH-WHOMP-KEE, which means "little pigeons" in Polish) which doesn't taste so dull like "glumky" :D
Movie about Blessed Martyr Father Popieluszko in Polish (maybe some Polish friend can translate it):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN54mtm9SNU
Best wishes, a reader from Warsaw