St. Patrick's Day

I'm not a big fan of saints, in general. There's a couple saints I like. I think I mentioned Terese of Lisieux, the Little Flower. I have a few pictures of her and even a statue that I got at a garage sale. The statue was either a quarter or a dollar, and it's very gnarly. That's a bad picture of it. The skin is more white in fact than it appears in the picture.

I'm trying to think how I discovered her. I originally had a card but I didn't think much about it. But at some point I heard the story of her dropping roses on everybody on earth. Then I read her life story and it was very charming, although the discipline seemed very severe.

The other saint I have any idea about (except the biggies like St. Paul, Mary, etc.) is a guy named Sharbel. I don't know much about him either except I bought a book about him on eBay once for some reason. He was a hermit in Lebanon. And it's been a while since I looked at the book, so I can't remember why he ever appealed to me, except he looks crazy with holiness in the artwork that pilgrims made about his apparitions. I should look up Sharbel and see why I like him.

But today is St. Patrick's Day. He's got a lock on March 17, it would seem. No other saint in all of heaven can dislodge him.

We don't normally think of every day as some kind of saint's day. I'm not Catholic so I don't pay any attention to this stuff, virtually. But I got a calendar at a Mexican restaurant, and it tells of the various saints' days. It's in Spanish, so looking at today, that is "San Patricio." But yesterday, March 16, was the day for San Heriberto, the day before was the day for San Raymundo. Tomorrow is the day for San Narciso Ob., and the 19th is the day for San Jose. It goes on like that, apparently everyday. St. Therese's day is Oct. 1. I don't know if Sharbel has his own day. But if he doesn't have one, maybe I'll make one. I'll have to dislodge one of these other unknowns.