DOWN TO EARTH: Our CELEBRITY SAINTS this week - the patron said for hernias! Who would have thought there would be one? Well there is: sounding like a member of the Marx Brothers, St. Gummarus is remembered (somewhere, I presume!) this week. He was at one time an official in the court of “Pepin the Short” (King of the Franks…anyone called Frank? He’s your king!) Now, if you were a king don’t you think you’d come up with a more impressive nick-name? Anyway, Gummarus, or Gomer as some call him, married a right old battle-axe (who hasn’t?) so maybe that’s the reason he’s also the patron saint of separated couples. But I have no idea why he’s the patron saint of hernias, but he is. Another saint worth a mention who has his day this week is the genuinely inspiring Jozef Damiaan De Veuster There was a leper colony in Hawaii, and they needed a priest. He volunteered and ministered to the poor souls there for many years until, sadly, he too caught the dreaded disease.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 06:20:11 +0000