St.Patrick's Day is Crowded

Turns out there are patron saints for almost everything! Every one of them has a feastday too. So many things have a patron saint that almost every day of the year is jam packed with reasons for feasting and carrying on (or solemn contemplation I suppose, depending on what floats your particular catholicism-inspired party boat).

March 17th for example is of course best known for Saint Patrick who, among other things, is the reason why the Irish are associated with clovers (apparently he used the shamrock to explain the Trinity). But he shares his day with St. Gertrude of Nivelles , St. Jan Sarkander , St. Joseph of Arimathea , St. Paul of Cyprus, and Bl. Peter Lieou . Somehow "Happy Saint Patty's Day" seems to roll off the tongue a little better than "Happy Saint Gertrude of Nivelles Day". But maybe I'm just used to it.

More importantly though, did you know archaeologists have a patron saint? It's true: Pope Saint Damasus I (the happy character to the right who looks remarkably like St.P above, hmmm). His feastday is December 11 (mark it on your calendars). Damasus was the pope who commissioned Saint Jerome to translate the Scriptures into Latin, so "everyone" (read: upper class/educated) could read it. This website: http://www.catholic.org/saints/ has some blah blah blah to say about him but I wasn't really sure why he would be the patron saint of arkys until I got to the prayer part. A prayer to him is: "Saint Damasus, instead of worrying about the short term of life on earth, you took God's view and looked to the things that last. Pray for me that I may be able to look beyond immediate popularity and fleeting favors, and choose to do the things that God wants me to do."

I guess that's why, because he was concerned with things that endured the test of time (and various taphonomic factors)? Ah, those wacky catholics eh?