Happy Thais Day!

St. Thais' Feastday is October 8

The 4th century Egyptian penitent, according to legend, was a wealthy woman raised in Alexandria, Egypt, as a Christian.   However, she decided she'd rather be a courtesan. Repenting through the influence of St. Paphnutius, she entered a convent where she was walled up for three years to perform extreme penance. Finally she was released and joined the other women of the convent. She died fifteen days later. [Per Catholic Online Saints (Slightly differing story in the East)] This pretty good story was retold in many folk and literary forms over the years. Anatole France produced a great novel, Thaïs in 1890 which showed the darker side of human behavior. Jules Massenet's opera, Thaïs, (debut 16 March 1894) was based on the novel.   The film, Never on Sunday is generally supposed to be based on the Pygmalion story but I believe it owed much more to Thais.

        One time in Alexandria, in wicked Alexandria,
          Where nights were wild with revelry, and life was but a game,
          There lived, so the report is, an adventuress and courtesan,
          The pride of Alexandria, and Thais was her name.
  
                  "Thais" (One time in Alexandria) words by Newman Levy;
                  printed in Opera Guyed, 1923; tune: Anon.
                  A pretty accurate summary of the opera and a catchy tune, too.

ALSO:
Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock born 10/8/1882 in Knoxville, Tenn (d.4/24/1957)

Copyright © 2005, Abby Sale - all rights reserved
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