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Kościół i Katolicyzm » Doktryna, wierzenia, nauczanie » Święci i poświęceni
Bottoms Up to St Goncalo, the Saint of Hemorrhoids Autor tekstu: Bernard Katz
Fresh
from the fertile imagination of the Portuguese comes this illumination and boon
to mankind: Saint Goncalo.
In
its infinite wisdom the Catholic Church has assigned certain curative powers to
yet another saint, this time assigning the power to cure hemorrhoids to Saint
Goncalo. Yes, that's right, piles. People are flocking to a church in Murtosa,
Portugal, the Saint' birthplace. For maximum efficacy, people are exposing
their behinds to a statute of the saint. The statute is also considered a cure
for pimples. One badly afflicted woman wanted to pray naked in the church, but
the local priest stopped it.
Goncalo
is not the only saint which the Church had endowed with miraculous curative
powers. St. Apollonia, for example, whose jaw had been smashed by her
executioner, became the proper saint to approach with a toothache. Similarly,
St. Blaise, who had been beheaded under the reign of Licinius, was seen as the
intercessor for sore throats. St. Bartholomew, who had been flayed alive, became
the protector of tanners. St. John, who had been plunged in boiling oil, became
the patron of candlemakers. And Mary Magdelene, who had washed Christ's feet
with aromatic oils, became the patroness of perfumers!
There's
more. From the fifth to the thirteenth centuries, the cult of the saints grew to
extraordinary proportions. Indeed, by the millennium, more than twenty-five
thousand saints had been canonized! The staggering increase came about because
local bishops were given the right on their own authority to proclaim any
departed believer a saint after a mandatory investigation into the character of
the person's life and proof of his/her wonder-working ability. For this reason,
many saints were canonized on the basis of spurious evidence-some merely as a result of folklore.
Take
the example of St. Christopher. Was he a product of folklore? To a great extent,
yes. The real St. Christopher was an obscure martyr from Asia Minor who died
during the reign of Roman Emperor Diocletian (245-313). Medieval authors
developed the scant facts of this martyr's life into a full-blown fiction
concerning a cannibalistic giant named Reprobus who became converted to
Christianity and labored for the rest of his days as a pious and mild-mannered
ferryman. One day a child appeared at the stream, and when Reprobus hoisted him
onto his shoulders to carry him across, he almost buckled under the child's
tremendous weight. Later, it was revealed to the ferryman that the child was
Christ himself, burdened by the sins of the world. Hence, the name of Reprobus
was changed to Christophorus or „Christ-bearer." Another legend held that a drop of Christopher's blood healed the wound of a king who was attempting to
execute him. This story gave rise to the belief that anyone who beheld the image
of Christopher would be free from harm that day, and so Christopher became the
patron saint of travelers. After researching such accounts, the Church
authorities deemed them legendary and, in 1968, removed Christopher's feast
day from the Christian calendar.
Another
example, this one as bizarre as you could find, is that Buddha was canonized as a Christian saint. The story of Buddha was carried by Crusaders and merchants
from the East and passed into the tradition of the medieval Church as the life
of St. Josaphat (not to be confused with the seventeenth century Polish bishop
by that name who was canonized in 1867). The name of the medieval Josaphat is
probably a corruption of bodhisattva, an attribute of a future Buddha.
The
calendar of saints got so out of hand that in the seventeenth century, the
Church commissioned a remarkable group of Jesuit scholars called the
„Bollandists" to separate fact from fiction in the lives of saints. Due to
their efforts-efforts which persist to this day-thousands of bogus saints,
including most recently St. Philomena, were removed from official hagiographies
(lives of the saints).
The
legend of Philomena actually dates from the early nineteenth century. A glass
vial that was said to have contained the blood of a martyr was found in a catacomb. The vial bore the inscription: Lumena-paxte-Fi.
This was mistranslated to read „Philomena, peace be with you." Almost
overnight, an elaborate biography of this newly found saint was concocted out of
thin air. Devotion to St. Philomena ran high and her cult became extremely
popular.
In
1968, Bollandist scholars, relying on the findings of archaeologists, were able
to convince the Vatican that the word lumena
did not refer to a person but was a conventional expression such as „beloved
one" found on ordinary tombs. The vial, they argued, was also a commonplace
object, used to adorn a final resting place.
Oh,
by the way, did you know that St. Vitus is the patron saint of comedians? I wonder if he's still laughing at the Church for all this pious nonsense?
Published in the 2003 September/October issue of the
American Rationalist ©
« Święci i poświęceni (Publikacja: 12-09-2003 )
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