> Today, 25 July, is the feast of ...
>
> * Christopher, martyr (date unknown) - patron of travellers - does
> anyone know any liturgical or popular prayers dedicated to St
> Christopher?
Johan Huizinga mentions St Christopher in The Autumn of the Middle
Ages (Chicago, 1996), pp. 197-98, as one of the 14 (sometimes 5, 8,
10 or 15) Holy Helpers. Although not a prayer, he cites, Eustache
Deschamps on the belief in the thaumaturgical efficacy of invoking
Christopher:
Ilz sont cinq sains, en la genealogie,
Et cinq sainctes, a qui Dieu octria
Benignement a la fin de leur vie,
Que quiconques de cuer les requerra,
En tous perilz, que Dieu essaucera
Leur prieres, pour quelconque mesaise.
Saiges est doc qui ces cinq servira,
Jorges, Denis, Christofle, Giles et Blaise.
He also claims that various late medieval missals contain the office
of the 14 holy martyrs. From a Bamburg missal of 1490 (in Uhrig, Die
14 hl. Nothelfter (XIV. Auxiliatores), Theol. Quartalschrift, LXX,
1888, p. 72) he cites the following:
Deus qui electos sanctos tuos Georgium etc. etc. specialibus
privilegiis prae cunctis aliis decorasti, ut omnes, qui in
necessitatibus suis eorum implorant auxilium, secundum promissionem
tuae gratiae petitionis suae salutarem consequantur effectum.
He also refers to a Utrecht Missal of 1514 and a Dominican Missal of
1550 (cited in AASS, Aprilis, t. III, p. 149).
I seem to recall, as well, that some of the many 15th-century woodcut
images of St Christopher have prayers printed with them.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
PS. Is there any coincidence behind the fact that the feast of the
patron of travellers would fall on the same day as that of St James
the Great, on which the maximum number of pilgrims would be visiting
Santiago de Compostella?
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|