*** His body is said to be at Valencia, in Spain; one of his arms at Compostella; a jaw-bone at Astorga; a shoulder at St. Peter’s, in Rome; and a tooth and rib at Venice. His day is May 9 in the Greek Church, and July 25 in the Latin. Of course, “the Christ-bearer” is an allegory. The gigantic bones called his relics may serve for “matters of faith” to give reality to the fable.
(His name before conversion was Offĕrus, but after he carried Christ across the ford, it was called Christ-Offerus, shortened into Christopher, which means “the Christ-bearer.”)
St. Clare (Augustin), the kind, indulgent master of Uncle Tom. He was beloved by all his slaves.
Evangeline St. Clare, daughter of Mr. St. Clare. Evangeline was the good angel of the family, and was adored by Uncle Tom.
Miss Ophelia St. Clare, sister of Augustin.—Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852).
St. Distaff, an imaginary saint to whom January 7, or Twelfth Day is consecrated.
Partly worke and partly play
You must on St. Distaff’s Day;
Give St. Distaff all the right,
Then give Christmas sport good night.
Wit Asporting in a Pleasant Grove of New Fancies (1657).
St. Filume´na or Filomena, a new saint of the Latin Church. Sabateli has a picture of this nineteenth-century saint, representing her as hovering over a group of sick and maimed, who are healed by her intercession. In 1802 a grave was found in the cemetery of St. Priscilla, and near it three tiles, with these words in red letters.
| LUMENA | PAXTE | CVMFI |
A re-arrangement of the tiles made the inscription, Pax Te-cum, Fi-lumena. That this was the correct rendering is quite certain, for the virgin martyr herself told a priest and a nun in a dream, that she was Fi[lia] Lumina, the daughter Lumina, i.e. the daughter of the Light of the world. In confirmation of this dream, as her bones were carried to Mugnano, the saint repaired her own skeleton, made her hair grow, and performed so many miracles, that those must indeed be hard of belief who can doubt the truth of the story.