Saturday, October 24, 2015

52 Saints ~ Help Needed

See below if you are having trouble leaving comments.

...but I'm really thinking about it as 52 people who were saints.


As some of you know, I have been contributing to a series on 52 different authors on Maclin Horton's blog, Light on Dark Water. During the year, people have been suggesting different topics that we could write about next year, and two of those topics were 52 Movies and 52 Saints. Then, someone had the idea that we should do movies there, and saints here, so that is what we are going to try to do. Several commenters from that blog have volunteered to write about saints here, but I would like some of the people who read The Three Prayers to contribute also. I know you are out there because you have told me so, and I know that several of you would be more than capable of writing a post about a saint--or two--or three, so I hope you will volunteer.

I've been thinking a lot about this project, and about how we can keep it from becoming just a lot of pious hagiography. If I'm going to do this--if we are going to do this--I would like it to be a bit meatier than that. I've been trying to think of ways that that could happen.

At first I thought that we shouldn't do saints that were really popular like Francis, Theresa of Avila, etc., because there are a million websites out there that have so much stuff about them and everybody knows it all, but then it occurred to me that if you can talk about them from a different angle, one that not so many people are familiar with that could be great. I mean, everybody knows most of what is in Story of a Soul, but if you could write about St. Thérèse's letters, or her correspondence with the young priest, Maurice, that would work well. Or it could be some personal experience you had with the saint, for instance, I could write about the things that happened on our family's trip to visit St. Thérèse's relics. Or you could write about different authors who have written about the saint or a review a book, for instance, Heather King has a very nice book about the year she with Story of a Soul. There are just a lot of different ways to approach the saints.

It would be nice, though, to have some saints we don't know very well. Pope St. John Paul II canonized so many and there ought to be good information out there. And someone asked about Orthodox saints, and that would be great, but not protestants who we think are probably saints.

 I plan to do this on Sundays, so I would need them by Saturday. I will take the first Sunday and I will write about Junipero Serra.

So, if you are willing to give this a try, please let me know in the comments, or contact me any way you know how. Tell me what saints you want to write about, and if you have an idea of when you want to do it, tell me that, too.

 If you are thinking you can't do this, please give it another thought.

 AMDG

For some reason, it's very difficult to leave comments here and I have no idea what to do about it. When you write a comment, copy it before you submit it and then you can paste it and resend if it doesn't appear. It usually works the second time around. I'm really sorry about this.

JTC

33 comments:

  1. By the merest coincidence, there are 52 saints in that picture.

    AMDG

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  2. This morning I think it was I commented that I'd be delighted to contribute but that the more I think about it the more saints come to mind. I'm going to have real trouble picking who to write about.

    And what attitude do you take to blesseds, venerables, servants of God and those who died in odour of sanctity? Would they come in for consideration?

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    1. You mean, you commented this morning the comment didn't show up?

      I'm a bit confused by what you are saying. If there are so many saints that you can't choose, why do you want to enlarge the field? You know you can choose 5 or 6.

      AMDG

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    2. Yes, twice, but no sign of them. Either morning or early afternoon.

      Well, two possibles are Mother Mary Joseph Aubert (servant of God) and Sister Margaret of the Mother of God (died in odour of sanctity). But others that crossed my mind are Edwin, Oswald, Hilda, Bede, Wilfrid, Willibrord, Edmund, Alena, Wivina, Gudula, Lidwina, Pharilda, Anthony the Great, Paul the Hermit, Athanasius, Jerome, Perpetua, Margaret Clitherow, Damien of Molokai and Edith Stein. So yes, 5 or 6. But which? I could just wait and see what's left after a couple of other contributors have taken slots.

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  3. And your mention of reviewing a book suggested the thought of Sigrid Undset's life of St Catherine of Siena, or Elizabeth Goudge's life of St Francis, among other works. But I'll stop now. Excited as I am at the possibility of contributing, I'm even keener to hear what others have to contribute.

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  4. And now another comment has vanished, which mentioned some other options, but mostly just that excited as I am at the possibility of contributing, what I'm even keener on is hearing what others have to contribute.

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  5. You mean there was one besides the one about Mother M. Joseph Aubert, etc.?

    I'm hoping people can actually leave comments.

    AMDG

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    1. On October 25 the 8:08 comment was the one that hadn't shown up by 8:21. It is there now. I've been away for a few days, and think Cuthbert should definitely be one I write about. And Edith Stein. That's two, and I'll be happy to fill any gaps left once everyone else has signed up. I still can't choose between the others.

      It looks as though it might be easier to comment now than it was a week ago.

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    2. Yes, I found that comment in the spam filter which is odd. That's great. I think you will probably have several slots to fill in. Thanks!

      AMDG

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  6. I'd like to participate in this, but I need a couple of days to think about who.

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    1. Sure thing. We aren't even beginning until January. I just posted this now because once December gets here things get crazy.

      AMDG

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  7. Paul, I hope you will write on Edith Stein. You had mentioned doing her in the 52 Authors series and I was looking forward to it.

    I'm wishing now that I had pulled out of Magnificat some of those stories of relatively obscure saints, because now I can't even remember many of their names.

    Let's see if I have any trouble with this comment....

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  8. Apparently not. At any rate I see it now.

    I can't believe it's already October 26.

    2016!!!

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  9. i.e., 50 years since I graduated from high school.

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  10. Oh my! I had not thought about that before. That's unbelievable considering I'm just 2 years behind.

    AMDG

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  11. I'm trying a pop-up box to see if it works better.

    AMDG

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  12. So, I'll remember.

    Janet. I left a comment, but it hasn't shown up. I said I'd be happy to do a few. Not sure who yet apart from St Mary of the Cross (MacKillop), Australia's first saint. And I will write from a wonderful biography, which was written by a sympathetic, non-Catholic journalist. It's lovely, but not in the least saccharine etc. St Mary is portrayed as a very real woman - very easy to relate to. I can probably have that ready in January some time.

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  13. I read Mac's instructions over at his blog and it worked this time. But I feel as if I've been gaslighted, or something, because earlier today when I tried the sequence was different -- I can't remember the difference exactly, but there was a thing where I had to select which pictures looked alike when I hit the "prove you're not a robot" thing. This time that wasn't there.

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  14. Marianne, based on some advice I found on another blog, I was trying different comment forms to see if they would work better. That's why you saw something different. It didn't help.

    AMDG

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  15. I'd like to do Marguerite Bourgeoys and maybe Edmund Campion. I say "maybe" because I'm not sure I'd have anything worth saying beyond what Waugh says in his biography.

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    1. Well, that's fine. I'm sure that there are plenty of people who haven't read his biography and I would find that very interesting.

      AMDG

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    2. Okay!
      Could I also do Elizabeth of Hungary?
      (This is Anne-Marie.)

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    3. Yes! Hopefully Saturday I will have time to gather all this information together.

      AMDG

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  16. I wish that there were more saints whom I feel equipped to write about. My very favourite saints are the big ones: Augustine! Aquinas! Benedict! I'll commit to write something about St Nicholas Owen and St André Bessette. I'll think about writing something about Beato Angelico (though you'd be better for that, Janet).

    I'll keep thinking about whether I could do a few more. Put me in the last half of the year, because I'm not sure how busy I'm going to be once I return to work (next week).

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  17. Thanks, Craig.

    I think it would be GREAT if you would could write about Beato Angelico. I don't know that much about him personally. You could read about him on your phone!

    AMDG

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  18. St Gertrude the Great for me....not too soon though....possibly may or june?

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