Sunday, March 14, 2010

Fun With Saints!

So, the reason I was in the clinic the other day was because I have an extremely painful plantar wart on my foot. These are notoriously difficult to get rid of, but I'm trying. My last ditch solution is to have it removed, which is usually no simple task because they can grow quite deep. I'm not thrilled with the idea of spending my last few weeks of pregnancy hobbling around with this thing as I try different remedies. I'm not wanting to have it cut out. But I can't even tolerate walking on it at all unless I have sneakers on, and I'm just picturing myself in active labor, limping around the birthing center in my pajamas and sneakers. So, it seems like a small and petty thing, but I'm praying for divine intervention and asking for the prayers of St. Podiatrus, the patron Saint of foot disorders. He was an ancient Roman martyr, and before he was killed he had his feet cut off and had to watch as they were fed to the lions.

I'm totally kidding. Haha! John and I made that up this morning after wondering who the patron Saint of foot disorders is. Because one thing we knew for sure, there definitely would BE one. There's a patron Saint for *everything*! So, I looked it up and found.....

...there are TWO! Bonus!

St. Peter the Apostle


and St. Servatus


I have put some time into researching why these two are the patron Saints of foot issues, and I have not come up with much! St. Servatus, especially, I've never even heard of. He was a Bishop in the early church in what is now Belgium. As with many very early Saints, there is a wide overlap of historical fact and legend. But I found nothing about feet, hehe. It's hard to say how some early Saints, especially, became patrons of different things...many times it started out as a tradition based on some little known fact about their life or death, so something related to a miracle attributed to them. Anyone know? Because now I'm just curious!

3 comments:

J.C. said...

Well, if I remember correctly, according to tradition, St. Peter did have his feet cut off after being crucified upside down. In fact, I think this was corroborated not too long ago, when archeologists excavated the bones of a man, minus feet(presumably St. Peter),under St. Peter's Basilica. I'm sure a little googling will get you better information than my poor memory.

mel said...

Did he really? I didn't read that! But I only read on one site about St. Peter,,,mostly I was trying to find info about St. Servatus since I'd never heard of him before. Thanks for telling me that!

Kelly said...

Yep, St. Peter's feet were cut off after he was crucified upside down.

I have never heard of St. Servatus though...