• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Obscure Saints

James_H

And I like to roam the land
Joined
May 18, 2002
Messages
7,626
In honour of Grenadine Gray's now regular contributions to FT and because some of them have good stories, I've started a thread about obscure Saints. I'll start with St. Frideswide, patroness of Oxford. My old school was named after her - funny name for a school.

She blinded one of her suitors because she was so pure and holy, them prayed to god to de-blind him when he was properly apologetic. Here is more from the Catholic encyclopaedia@
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06303b.htm
 
William Dalrymple briefly touches on St Symeon Stylites in his 1997 book From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium.
 
1652468586087.png
 
I spent a long time telling people that there was never a saint Jane but it turns out there was -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Frances_de_Chantal. She seems a good sort - nothing flashy, no fancy miracles, just drudgery and looking after her rellies. I don’t think you can get more obscure than that
 
Our village church was dedicated to St Firmin, 4th century bishop of Amiens. Apparently only 3 churches dedicated to him worldwide.
 
Reverend Coles did also publish two books on obscure saints.
 
Thurstan is obscure no more, an illuminated manuscript shows he was a Saint.

A 15th Century manuscript has helped to prove a former Archbishop of York was a saint, according to English Heritage.

Thurstan, who was archbishop from 1114 to 1140, was previously thought to have been passed over for sainthood, the organisation said. A service book from Pontefract Priory listed him in a calendar of saints' feast days observed at the monastery.

Dr Michael Carter, from English Heritage, said it was "unambiguous proof" that Thurstan was a saint. He discovered the manuscript in the archives at King's College, Cambridge and said it was written in Latin. Translated into English, the entry for 6 February reads: "Death of Saint Thurstan, archbishop of York, year of grace, 1140".

The record is written in red ink, which Dr Carter said was a sign of its importance to the monks at the time.

"Thurstan is well known amongst medieval historians and scholars as a figure of immense political and social significance during the early half of the 12th Century, but all have denied that he ever achieved sainthood," he said. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-68179596
 
In honour of Grenadine Gray's now regular contributions to FT and because some of them have good stories, I've started a thread about obscure Saints. I'll start with St. Frideswide, patroness of Oxford. My old school was named after her - funny name for a school.

She blinded one of her suitors because she was so pure and holy, them prayed to god to de-blind him when he was properly apologetic. Here is more from the Catholic encyclopaedia@
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06303b.htm



obscure????? OBSCURE??????? C'mere and be blinded! :rofl:

Anyway, it wasn't becuase I was pure and holy (although obviously I am) but becuase he was stalkerish and importunate!
 
I am rather fond of St Wilgefortis, although I am not sure she is properly 'obscure'. Actually, she's not an official Saint as such, never having been canonized.

Short version - a devout young woman in Portugal pre-12thC, her Dad tried to marry her off to a Moorish King, she took a vow of perpetual virginity, then sprouted a luxuriant beard overnight to try to put off her intended fiancé. That worked and so her Dad crucified her(!?)


Sainte wilgeforte st etienne beauvais
Chatsam, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
 
Last edited:
her Dad tried to marry her off to a Moorish King, she took a vow of perpetual virginity, then sprouted a luxuriant beard overnight to try to put off her intended fiancé. That worked and so her Dad crucified her(!?)
Harsh but fair.
 
Another Saint that's not so commonly known about outside the ME and N. Africa is 13th C. St. Tekla Haymanot of Ethiopa. He's venerated in the Coptic and Orthodox Churches of Egypt, Ethiopa and Eritrea.

He's commonly depicted with six wings and one of his legs detached. The tale is that when he was living in his mountain top monastery, an angel appeared and told him to go down and live in a cell at the bottom. The monks were lowering him down the mountain on a rope when it suddenly broke, and he began to fall. Suddenly six wings appeared on his body, enabling him to fly safely to the bottom.

He then stood in his spiky-walled cell for 7 years, continually praying and stood up for so long that one of legs fell off. The leg features in many of his depictions as a guest star.


Abune Tekele Haymanot
See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
 
I realise that in this thread we're often discussing deeply religious and perhaps more credulous ages, times when education might not have been widely available, but...why are so many saints' stories so, well, incredible? Even allowing for the apparent necessity of providing accounts of miracles for the masses? I mentioned Saint Mary of Egypt earlier, and how it was related that a lion helped to bury her (seemingly because of its veneration for her holy reputation); to me this sounds at once quaint, charming, and so unlikely as to defy belief. And of course there are numerous other similarly dubious stories. Whyever did the tellers of such tales risk the scorn of sensible people? It's arguably bordering on contempt for their faith's followers and would-be converts.
 
Last edited:
The rules are that you need to have two miracles attributed to you, to be considered a saint.
 
Another Saint that's not so commonly known about outside the ME and N. Africa is 13th C. St. Tekla Haymanot of Ethiopa. He's venerated in the Coptic and Orthodox Churches of Egypt, Ethiopa and Eritrea.

He's commonly depicted with six wings and one of his legs detached. The tale is that when he was living in his mountain top monastery, an angel appeared and told him to go down and live in a cell at the bottom. The monks were lowering him down the mountain on a rope when it suddenly broke, and he began to fall. Suddenly six wings appeared on his body, enabling him to fly safely to the bottom.

He then stood in his spiky-walled cell for 7 years, continually praying and stood up for so long that one of legs fell off. The leg features in many of his depictions as a guest star.


Abune Tekele Haymanot
See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I probably shouldn't laugh but..... Ha ha!
 
Back
Top