Be sure to wear your St. Christopher medal today!
July 25: Feast of St. Christopher
St. Christopher, one of the "Fourteen
Sainted Helpers," has been highly venerated since ancient times in both
the Eastern and Western Churches. The older martyrologies say that he suffered
death for Christ; in more recent centuries piety has woven garlands of legend
about his name. Christopher has become a giant who wished to enter the service
of the most powerful of lords. He first thought that the emperor qualified;
later he selected the devil, and finally he discovered Christ to be the most
powerful Sovereign over all the world. From then on he served Him with greatest
fidelity.
Because Christopher was of giant stature, he practiced charity by
carrying pilgrims across a certain river. Once a child asked to be taken
across. He complied as usual. While carrying the child on his shoulders through
the river, it became heavier and heavier, and finally he could hardly support
it. Then the revelation was made: "You are carrying the Lord of the
world!" It was Christ (Christopher means "Christ-carrier").
The legend has the nature of a symbol. Bishop Vida gives the following
exposition: "Because you, O Christopher, always carried Christ in your
heart, the artists place Christ on your shoulders. Because you suffered much,
they paint you standing deep in the waters. And because you could not
accomplish this without being large of stature, they have made you a giant,
bigger than great temples; therefore do you live under the open heavens during
the greatest cold. And since you conquered all that is difficult, they have
given you a blossoming palm as traveling staff."
Excerpted from The
Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch
Patron: Archers;
automobile drivers; automobilists; bachelors; boatmen; bus drivers;, cab
drivers; floods; fruit dealers; fullers; hailstorms; holy death; lorry drivers;
mariners; market carriers; motorists; porters; Rab, Croatia; sailors; storms;
sudden death; taxi drivers; toothache; transportation; transportation workers;
travellers; truck drivers; truckers; watermen.
Symbols: Giant;
torrent; tree; man with Christ on his shoulders.
Things
to Do:
- Have
you heard the rumor that St. Christopher is no longer a saint? If so you
will find this article by
Fr. Saunders interesting.
- For
children from the Baldwin Project the Story of St. Christopher.
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