Categories: uncategorized
Date: 23 April 2008 12:49:16
Today is St George's Day. The patron saint of England, Russia, Georgia, Catalonia etc was about as English as David, Andrew and Patrick were Welsh, Irish and Scottish.
I don't understand why we need to celebrate saints' days anyway. What did George do apart from, alledgedly, killing a dragon? Should we really celebrate him for killing off a Welsh native? Patrick rid Ireland of snakes but didn't introduce Christianity. I'm not sure what David and Andrew actually contributed - I suppose that St Andrew was martyred and diagonally crucified.
So why do we have this arcane celebration? Why do we have a patron saint of each country? As a protestant I don't see what the fuss is about. Do we really need to have a patron saint of lost causes, haberdashers or anything else?
I'd like to know what a saint actually does. The problem that I've had understanding Catholicism/Orthodoxy is that I don't see where Mary and the saints fit into my faith. I was told that they all intervene for us with God but I can't see any biblical basis for this. As a protestant I thought that we were able to go direct to the top for our requests and pleas for forgiveness.
Maybe they are God's Call Centre. I mean he must be very busy dealing with all 6 billion odd sinners down here. I know that he's ominipresent but who takes over when He has a day's test every week? (This is said tongue in cheek - just in case Christian Voice, or some other bunch of fanatics are reading!)
Today in history:
1014 : Brian Boru, High King of Ireland - he stood on a box - is killed defeating the Vikings at Clontarf, destroying Irish unity.
1838 : Brunel's "Great Western" - not the railway - and "Sirius" become the first ships to cross the Atlantic using steam power alone.
1984 : The US government announced the discovery of the HIV virus. Sex would never be the same again.