Travelling Saint
This afternoon, shortly after lunch, there is a saint's procession in town. The entire town. It's motorized. The church isn't trying to force religion upon us with that, it's simply that the saint being honored is the patron saint of travellers, and by extension, of drivers. This midday there'll be a Mass and then the priest will come out and sprinkle holy water on all the cars participating, blessing them. Then the cavalcade will set out all over the township, with Saint Christopher in the lead.
The Church took Saint Christopher off the liturgical calendar in 1970 because his veneration only dates from around five hundred years ago, not from Roman times, which is when he was supposed to have lived and been martyred. Despite that he is still venerated locally in different parishes throughout the world. And drivers are loath to stop believing in him. In fact, many cars and trucks have little statues or medals of Saint Christopher on the dashboard. Our car is second-hand, and one of the last actions of its former owner was to take out a little statue of the saint.
The cars that participate in the procession will be decorated. Some will have flowers, others balloons, some will have a stuffed animal strapped to it somehow. And others will have something of everything. One year there was even a car that looked like it was camouflaged as a moving bush. Trucks and tractors also participate, as well as motorcycles. Flat bed trucks will carry passengers in the back from where they'll throw candy to spectators along the roads. As they wander through the township from one village to another, they'll announce their arrival by honkings of different tones. We'll be able to hear them coming from a kilometer down the road. It's one procession that I would love to participate in someday, just for the fun of it, but I never seem to be free on that day.
The Church took Saint Christopher off the liturgical calendar in 1970 because his veneration only dates from around five hundred years ago, not from Roman times, which is when he was supposed to have lived and been martyred. Despite that he is still venerated locally in different parishes throughout the world. And drivers are loath to stop believing in him. In fact, many cars and trucks have little statues or medals of Saint Christopher on the dashboard. Our car is second-hand, and one of the last actions of its former owner was to take out a little statue of the saint.
The cars that participate in the procession will be decorated. Some will have flowers, others balloons, some will have a stuffed animal strapped to it somehow. And others will have something of everything. One year there was even a car that looked like it was camouflaged as a moving bush. Trucks and tractors also participate, as well as motorcycles. Flat bed trucks will carry passengers in the back from where they'll throw candy to spectators along the roads. As they wander through the township from one village to another, they'll announce their arrival by honkings of different tones. We'll be able to hear them coming from a kilometer down the road. It's one procession that I would love to participate in someday, just for the fun of it, but I never seem to be free on that day.
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