"St. Christopher", © 1980 Norval Morrisseau

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"St. Christopher", © 1980 Norval Morrisseau
/Click on image to enlarge/
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Before the 1969 reform of the Roman calendar, Christopher was listed as a martyr who died under Decius. Nothing else is known about him. There are several legends about him including the one in which he was crossing a river when a child asked to be carried across. When Christopher put the child on his shoulders he found the child was unbelievably heavy. The child, according to the legend, was Christ carrying the weight of the whole world. This was what made Christopher patron saint of travelers and is invoked against storms, plagues, etc.. His former feast day is July 25.

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Before the formal canonization process began in the fifteenth century, many saints were proclaimed by popular approval. This was a much faster process but unfortunately many of the saints so named were based on legends, pagan mythology, or even other religions -- for example, the story of the Buddha traveled west to Europe and he was "converted" into a Catholic saint! In 1969, the Church took a long look at all the saints on its calendar to see if there was historical evidence that that saint existed and lived a life of holiness. In taking that long look, the Church discovered that there was little proof that many "saints", including some very popular ones, ever lived. Christopher was one of the names that was determined to have a basis mostly in legend. Therefore Christopher (and others) were dropped from the universal calendar.

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Some saints were considered so legendary that their cult was completely repressed (including St. Ursula). Christopher's cult was not suppressed but it is confined to local calendars (those for a diocese, country, or so forth). His name Christopher, means Christ-bearer. He died a martyr during the reign of Decius in the third century.

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Feast: 25 July (West), 9 May (East);

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Attributes: tree, branch, as a giant or ogre, carrying Jesus, spear, shield, as a dog-headed man;

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Patronage: bachelors, transportation (drivers, sailors, etc.), travelling (especially for long journeys), storms, Brunsweik, Saint Christopher's Island (Saint Kitts), Island Rab, Croatia, Vilnius, Lithuania; epilepsy, gardeners, holy death, toothache.
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Source: www.catholic.org; 'Wikipedia', the free encyclopedia

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* The painting in this post: "St. Christopher", © 1980 Norval Morrisseau /Private Collection/