Just another writer
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Saint Monica
The normal tradition in the Catholic church is that saints are commemorated on the anniversary of their deaths, which makes the fact that the feasts of Saint Monica and her son Saint Augustine occupy consecutive days seem a bit suspect, although apparently, the day was shifted from May in 1969 so it’s not merely coincidence…
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: St Mary of Częstochowa
The icon of St Mary of Częstochowa¹ is one of a number of black Madonnas, showing both Mary and Jesus with dark skin. Tradition says that it was painted by the evangelist Luke and rediscovered by St Helena during her pilgrimage to Jerusalem, although there is no attestation of its existence before the fourteenth century.…
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage (a day late): Saint Patricia
Saint Patricia is an early saint about whom little is known and much is contradictory. She apparently appealed to Pope Liberius to be allowed to become a nun to escape a marriage arranged by Emperor Constans II and was granted her wish after which she distributed her personal wealth to the poor. Later, she attempted…
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A visit with my younger self: 13 September 1988
Take one young would-be writer, full of himself, who has never undergone any sort of creative writing instruction to speak of, let alone workshop with a professor who not only allows abuse in the workshop, but perpetrates some of it himself and you get some seriously hurt feelings. Well, I’ve undergone the first real criticism of…
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A visit with my younger self: 7 September 1988
The fall of 1988, I enrolled in the only creative writing class I ever took until I started grad school. The class, under the direction of Robert Mezey, focused on writing metric verse. This entry is apparently one of my attempts. The waxen complexion gazes from its berth— A former | person, | bathed |…
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Today’s saint picture: Saint Diomedes of Tarsus
Diomedes was one of the Holy Unmercenaries, an epithet¹ applied to a number of early Christians who did things like care for the sick without charging for their services. He was ordered arrested by the Eastern Roman Emperor Diocletian and along the way, Diomedes stopped to pray and fell dead. The soldiers, being mindful of…
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Assumption
I have a sentimental attachment to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary as my baptismal parish and the church which established my expectations of the norms of Catholicism was Our Lady of the Assumption in Claremont, California. I would guess that these days, three decades after I left Claremont, there’s nobody that I know there…
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: National Shrine of St Maximillan Kolbe
Most of the time when I go to a weekday Mass, it’s no more than a dozen people present, St Rita being the main exception thusfar, but today’s trip to Marytown, home of the National Shrine of St Maximilian Kolbe was the most packed Mass I’ve seen, including Sundays. I arrived just as the Mass…
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Saint Jane de Chantal
At one point in the Renew My Church process, Saint Jane de Chantal and Saint Camillus were united as a single parish taking the combined name of Saint Faustina Kowalska. Then Saint Camillus was closed. The archdiocesan directory still lists Saint Jane de Chantal as the name of the church, but none of the signage…