Saints

For a few weeks I`ve been reading through the available biographies of just about every half-interesting looking saint for the week ahead to write something for a parish newsletter. There`s three locations which regularly turn up martyrs in the church calender: the old Roman Empire; 17th-century Japan, where the Church saw initial success followed by persecution more thorough and appalling than the Caesars ever tried; and islamic Cordoba, which produces a steady trickle or martyrs through the calendar. Yes, that Cordoba, the town which the proposed 9/11 islamic centre is named after. Apparently the people who were in charge then remember their rule as a golden age of interfaith harmony and friendship, and didn`t stop to ask whether everyone else involved saw things the same way. (Not that Christian Spain was better, as it wasn`t; but the Church has enough sense not to go around setting up Tomas de Torquemada Interfaith Dialogue Centres.) (...actually I almost want to see that just for the trainwreck value.)

(I seem to remember a similar effect at work in a poll of Americans about how racist their society was towards blacks. There was a massive discrepancy - whites underrated the impact of racism significantly compared to blacks, who were something like three times more likely to think it a serious problem in modern America.)

(From what little I know, the Jews seem to regard islamic Cordoba as having been a nice place to live initially, if you didn`t mind the infidel-taxes, but going downhill a bit after a while.)

And saint-wise, this week is Michaelmas, the Feast of Michael and All the Angels. Also the saints` days of the physicians Sts. Cosmas and Damian, twin brothers martyred under Diocletian, nicknamed the silverless ones because of their habit of serving people for free); and of St. Jerome, St. Theresa of Lisieux, St. Vincent de Paul (a priest, for a while a slave, and a man dedicated to helping the poor and those consigned to galley-slavery for committing crimes), and some English priests and laymen hung, drawn and quartered under the reign of Elizabeth II.