Friday, December 15, 2006

Growing up Catholic. . .scary or fun?

Below is the head of St. Catherine of Siena who died in 1380. Is it just me or is that pretty damn gross? Catholics tend to like relics - which are usually body parts of a saint. For my First Communion, I got a necklace with a bone from St. Elizabeth Seton embedded in the back of the necklace (she was the patron saint of Maryland). I remember thinking that it was kind of gross to wear a bone around my neck.

The Holy Head, as they call St. Catherine's head, was involved in some interesting events. For instance, one time they were parading the head through the streets and some hooligans tried to steal it - but ended up dropping it on the street. There are also many explanations for the head - Catholics are quick to explain how the body was decomposing, so there was no violence in removing the head. Though they have no problems with putting the head on a stick and parading it around the streets. Also, there is of course doubt whether this is actually Catherine's head. That is always true with relics - God forbid you are worshiping some random person's decomposing body.

She is the patron saint of: against fire, bodily ills, diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA, Europe, firefighters, illness, Italy, miscarriages, nurses, people ridiculed for their piety, sexual temptation, sick people, sickness, Siena Italy

It's ironic that she is the patron saint of people ridiculed for their piety - will she strike me dead for questioning the practice of decomposition worship?

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