Summer Rain

St. Swithun, along with Batman, has a whole new fan club of people new to the bandwagon.

Thanks for that introduction to St. Swithun, Sister! I didn't know anything about him. I also love the picture of him standing in the rain! Any chance the artist would sell more copies of it?

That painting was done by a fellow Esty artist, B Meg Designs. I'm sure she would be more than happy to accommodate you. I told her there were no real pictures of St. Swithun from which to draw and I told her his story. She came up with that wonderful plaque which hangs right by the door so I can at least pretend it might be raining.

I'll bet you could ask her to paint just about any saint you'd like for that matter. What else is she doing with her time? She's an artist!

Dear Sister: Could you tell me who drew the picture of St. Swithin that you posted at the top of this post? The one with the geese. It looks very much like something my son, Ben Hatke, drew. Ben is a pretty well known artist and illustrator and I can usually recognize his work. Thanks! Mrs. Hatke

I'm sorry I can't. Why don't you show it to Ben and ask him. I can't see a signature on there. Your son is very handsome. My father liked breakfast the best, too. When he wouldn't eat we could always tempt him with eggs.


Long time reader, first time petitioner: I'm trying to find a patron saint for camping. A group of friends and I are going camping next week and I wanted to get a head-start looking for assistance for good weather and a happy camping trip.

You could always go with St. Joseph. I'm sure he did plenty of camping on his way from Nazareth to Bethlehem, from Bethlehem to Egypt, and finally from Egypt to Nazareth. I'll bet he has some fabulous camping tips. Oh, the stories he could tell. Scarey Herod stories around the campfire! And he didn't even have a car!

I'd also have to throw in a word for St. Anthony the Hermit. Anthony was the original hermit monk. He invented hermit monking. He found he just couldn't be holy around other people all the time. Back then they weren't even talking on their cell phones all the time or text messaging constantly or any of that superlatively annoying stuff. So he packed up to go live in a cave.

Unfortunately, people followed him. So he moved to a farther cave. And on and on. I don't think the people that followed him were as good at being holy or camping as St. Anthony was. They found it necessary to live a little bit near each other. They formed a hermit monk support group.

The hermit monk support group eventually came to be called a "monastery".

And now you know...the REST of the story. Thank you Paul Harvey. My father loved him, too.



In February 2006, I visited St. Swithun's (or Swithin's, as they spelled it on the historical markers) original burial site and his reconstructed shrine at Winchester Cathedral in England. Unfortunately, during the Reformation, his relics were pulled from his second tomb and thrown into a big pile of other saints' relics that had been in the Cathedral, in the yard outside the Cathedral. After the mob that desecrated the relics had left, monks came back and collected all the bones, placing them in large chests that are now inside the Cathedral. So St. Swithin is still there, but nobody knows where exactly among all the jumbled bones. Some of his relics (head, arms) had also been sent to other places (for example, Canterbury had his head), but I don't know if they were similarly desecrated (probably, the mobs were very thorough) and lost. And, although my visit was in February and in July, it was raining cats and dogs. But only in Winchester. Not raining north of there, or south of there, just in Winchester. I guess he's still upset about all the mistreatment.

Yes, I knew about that. I didn't want to bring it up. It upsets people. Hope your vacation wasn't ruined by all the rain or saint parts.

Holy Batman, Jesus

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 sigh of up adoration and so forth. In any case, it seems good to us that our silly fandom should allow us to learn about a saint.

I hear that!

Isn't that what they say now?

I'm floored, I have to say. I am a colossal fan of St. Swithun, simply because he and I both love it when it rains. Now it turns out the Catholic Church of Gotham City is St. Swithun's. Who knew the Dark Knight and I had anything in common besides a lot of black fabric. Does Batman love it when it rains? Is Gotham City like Seattle?

It turns out there's lots to do over at St. Swithun's in Gotham City. You can go Christmas caroling, for one thing, besides the perpetual adoration. It's good to know they have perpetual adoration there in Gotham City. I'm glad they're watching out for something besides the Bat Signal.

Somebody was not on the ball, though, because the Joker graffitied St. Swithun's Church's literature. Shameful. But then what would one expect from an arch villain. We must pray for his soul.

I'm kidding. There is no Joker. No Batman, no Gotham City. There was a pool hall in Santa Monica called Gotham City but it closed, so no Gotham City.

There was a St. Swithun, however. He died in the early 9th century. He was a bishop. Whatever St. Swithun did while he was alive to earn himself the title of saint, he is remembered most for all the rain he has caused since his death. St. Swithun specifically asked that he be buried in the churchyard and not be moved. He wanted to be outside so he could hear the rain on his 'roof'.

Our house has a big pitched wooden roof. It's just heavenly when it rains. So soothing. Unfortunately, as the song says, it never rains in California. I completely understand Swithun's request.

But the first step on the road to sainthood is to dig up the saint (to make sure the saint is in there) and when Swithun was dug up, he was moved indoors to the fancy saint area.

Ever since the move, if it rains on St. Swithun's Day, it rains and rains and rains. Happily for us, we have yet another saint poem as a result:

St. Swithuns' day if thou dost rain

For forty days it will remain

St. Swithun's day if thou be fair

For forty days 'twill rain na mair.

I suppose 'na mair' means it will rain, NOT.

Poor Swithun must be straining to hear it.

Or maybe he's like Batman, or an actual bat, and hears everything just fine.

To answer your actual question, no, we don't have any prayer cards or medals of St. Swithun. I have a little picture an artist drew for me as a gift hanging on my wall.

When we can't find a medal of the saint we want, we do something like this. There are plenty of obscure saints. As long as we can come up with some image, we're in business. I love the obscure saints. I figure they have more time on their hands to intercede for you, since no one is talking to them.

I do hope you aren't glomming on to St. Swithun just because of Batman. I suppose I should count my blessings that anyone is glomming onto him for any reason. It just doesn't seem right to me that 2000 years of Sacred Tradition is trumped by Batman.