Along the lines of St. Serendipity, Dorothy Sayers published
a wonderful volume (whose title I can't recall) including one
St. Supercilia whose eyebrows went up so high she floated to
heaven.
meg
> Dear listmembers,
> While still in a suspended state, I should like to take the liberty
> to launch a new saint. Discussions with my learned friends Graham
> Jones and Miriam Gill have revealed that, although there is St Zita
> to pray to if one has lost one's keys and St Anthony of Padua for any
> other lost objects, there is as yet a hiatus. During my research for
> my (recently obtained) doctorate I had great help from an as yet
> little known saint who helped me find things (esp. books and
> articles) which I never even knew existed. As this saint may prove
> helpful to others as well, I should like to launch her on the
> medieval-religion list for 29 February and propose the following
> vita.
> * St. Serendipity (martyr, died 362 AD, f.d. 29 February) *
> It was during the reign of Julian the Apostate that a young maiden,
> who lived in poverty and obscurity somewhere in the swamps of
> northern Italy, was converted by a passing bishop (exiled during the
> reign of the emperor Constantius) who found himself lost in the
> swamps. Hearing about the glory of Christian martyrdom, the girl was
> desperate to follow the example of other famous martyrs but her
> location in the desolate swamps seemed to offer little opportunity.
> Another problem was that Julian, although apostate, did not believe
> in creating yet more martyrs. So the poor converted girl seemed
> doomed to continue her life in obscurity, when one day she happened
> to meet a Roman centurion who had lost both his legion, his sword and
> his way. Although a pagan, he was inclined to leave our would-be
> martyr in peace but when she insisted on telling him about her new
> faith rather than just the way out of the swamps, his patience ran
> out and, hoping to curry favour with the emperor Julian, he looked
> round for a way to silence her when his eye happened to fall on the
> axe which the girl used to chop wood. The end is obvious.
> By sheer coincidence, the bishop who originally converted the girl
> found her martyred remains on his way back and buried her in a tomb,
> which was, however, only rarely found by pilgrims. This explains the
> lack of a proper cult, up to now.
> For those sceptics who feel that Julian the Apostate should not be
> blamed for the girl's death, I must point out that this is a
> MEDIEVAL-Religion list and Julian's reputation was extremely poor in
> the Middle Ages so to credit him with having indirectly created yet
> another Christian martyr is not too far fetched; in fact, it was St
> Mercurius or Mercury (how appropriate!) who was credited with having
> killed Julian in his final battle.
> As for all the other coincidences in this vita - well, it is only
> serendipity, after all! That is why 29 February seems such a good
> feastday - just one of those odd unexpected days ...
> N.B. George Ferzoco felt that she ought to be Italian so you may
> prefer 'St Serendipita'.
> I hope you will all find your prayers to this newly discovered saint
> very effective.
> Sophie Oosterwijk
> Dept of the History of Art
> University of Leicester
Margaret Cormack [log in to unmask]
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion fax: 843-953-6388
College of Charleston tel: 843-953-8033
Charleston, SC 29424-0001
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