BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick

Subject: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Sep 09 - 12:51 AM

It struck me how many Catters have been or are ill lately. Having just finished a hagiography, I thought that perhaps it was time to get the Saints (or those considered such) involved. If there is more than one illness listed there's still only one Saint. So, who would you call on if you were afflicted with:

1. Carbuncles
2. Hemorrhoids and/or venereal disease
3. Myopia
4. Impotence (no, there is no St. Viagra)
5. Ergotism
6. Seasickness
7. Sneezing
8. Sciatica
9. Worms
10. Hangover

Extra points if you know the date of the Saint's feast day -- and may St. Cecilia, patron of music and musicians, help you.

Answers after 6 p.m. MDT tomorrow.

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: Ebbie
Date: 13 Sep 09 - 02:41 AM

I do use Mother Cabrini quite often.

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: Paul Burke
Date: 13 Sep 09 - 05:38 AM

Hangover has got to be Blessed Mary Aikenhead. Her feastday is January 1st.

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Sep 09 - 09:38 AM

St vitus for seasickness? Or maybe st. Elmo? I know (or think I do) that both St. Vitus' Dance and St. Elmo's Fire are nautical phenomena...

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: Alice
Date: 13 Sep 09 - 03:38 PM

patron saint for hangovers
St. Vivian (my mother's name was Vivian)
she refused to become a prostitute
Dec 2 I think is her feast day.
also called St. Bibiana (Spanish)

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: Alice
Date: 13 Sep 09 - 03:50 PM

St. Vitus is the patron against oversleeping
he was boiled in oil, martyred along with his tutor and nanny
Germans started a tradition of dancing in front of St. Vitus on his feast day, connecting his name to St. Vitus Dance disorder, and he is also patron of dancers. Feast day June 15.

He is patron for many things, including these illnesses or injuries:
beast and snake bites
epilepsy
lightning strikes
Rheumatic chorea
and is patron of actors, comediennes and dancers
June 15 feast day
I know those things aren't on your list, but many people connect St. Vitus to illnesses, but those are the specific ones he is historically connected to.

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: Alice
Date: 13 Sep 09 - 03:54 PM

seasickness
St. Erasmus, also known as St. Elmo
Lots of digestive type disorders connected to St. Elmo, as he was martyred by disemboweling. June 2

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: curmudgeon
Date: 13 Sep 09 - 04:08 PM

Ergotism = St. Anthony's Fire

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: Paul Burke
Date: 13 Sep 09 - 04:32 PM

Carbuncles- St. Charles
Worms- St Martin of Wittenberg

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: Don Firth
Date: 13 Sep 09 - 04:58 PM

I didn't know that sneezing is regarded as a sickness.

After all, a good window-rattling sneeze, provided it doesn't give you whiplash, is like hitting the reset button on your brain.

GESUNDHEIT!!!!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: Jack Campin
Date: 13 Sep 09 - 05:09 PM

On reading that report about Tommy Peoples having his fiddle stolen with two medals of St Martin in the case, I couldn't help making a guess as to why. (He specializes, inter alia, in alcoholics; I know nothing whatever about Peoples's personal life but booze is one of the major occupational hazards of the folk music industry).

The first saint's medal I ever saw was one of St Christopher. It was lying in a pile of debris after a car crash.

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Sep 09 - 10:58 PM

The Answers (verified by "Butler's Lives Of The Saints"):

1. Carbuncles: St. Cloud, September 7
2. Hemorrhoids and/or venereal disease: St. Fiacre, September 1
3. Myopia: St. Clarus, Jauary 1
4. Impotence (no, there is no St. Viagra): St. Guignole, March 3
5. Ergotism: St. Anthony the Great, January 17
6. Seasickness: St. Elmo, June 2
7. Sneezing: St. Quentin, October 31
8. Sciatica: St. Dometius the Persian, August 7
9. Worms: St. Benen, November 9
10. Hangover: St. Bibiana (Viviana), December 2

Guignole is, yes, who the theatre in Paris was named after. St. Quentin has a prison in California named after him. St. Fiacre is also the patron of Parisian taxi drivers. There is another prison in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

If all of these bother you at once you could try St. Jude, patron of the impossible. Go for St. Christina the Astonishing if you think you have all of them at once -- she's the patron saint of psychiatrists (if you read about her you'll understand why).

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: Alice
Date: 14 Sep 09 - 08:11 AM

St. Rita is also a patron saint of impossible cases, which is why I chose her as my confirmation name saint when I was 14. I figured it would cover all bases.

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Sep 09 - 08:43 AM

Not "impossible cases" but only "desperate cases." By the way, Adrian is the patron saint of arms dealers and butchers.

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: RangerSteve
Date: 14 Sep 09 - 02:29 PM

Guignole lends his name to "Grand Guignole" - the theater of the grotesque. This stems from a rather grotesque statue of him in Paris in which he has a huge HUGE penus. According to legend, people have been chipping pieces of Guignole Jr. off for years in an attempt to cure their impotency and it's still the same size as when it was sculpted.

Viviana, an Italian, had nothing to do with drinking. In Spanish, there's no "V" sound, so Bibiana is the closest they could get in pronunciation. Bibiana is close to the Latin for drink. Quite a few other saints are patrons for reasons that call for a stretch in imagination. St. Clare, in her last days, couldn't make it to church services and saw the services on the wall of her room. She is, therefore, the patron saint of television workers. St. Lawrence was roasted to death. He's the patron of chefs.

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: olddude
Date: 14 Sep 09 - 02:35 PM

St. Jude, my go to guy for a lot, that and my rosary ...

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Sep 09 - 02:41 PM

St jude is also the patron saint of lost things, I think.

Can't believe I was kind of right about St. Elmo!

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Sep 09 - 02:57 PM

Nah, St. Anthony (or Antony) of Padua is one of those for lost things. That's why, I'm sure, that my middle name is Anthony, my brother's first name is Anthony, and my other brother's second middle name is Anthony -- and my sister middle name is Antoinette.

My parents had foreknowledge, I guess.

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: Alice
Date: 14 Sep 09 - 03:06 PM

True about St Vivian. Just the sound of Bibi, Bibiana, for the Spanish, connected her to drinking.

As far as St. Rita, it depends on which source you read about her to say she is a patron of either/and desperate or impossible cases.

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: Alice
Date: 14 Sep 09 - 03:09 PM

She was abused by her husband and sons, so she is also the patron of abused women. Metals with St Rita on one side and a baseball player on the other are being marketed now, because in The Rookie movie, Dennis Quaid asked for help from St. Rita.

Subject: RE: BS: Quiz: Saints For the Sick
From: Alice
Date: 14 Sep 09 - 06:34 PM

LOL "Metals"... that should be "Medals", as in the ones you wear on a chain. - Alice