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
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