The Catholic Weekly 12 April 2020

28 NEWS 12, April, 2020 Saints for trouble THE CATHOLIC Church has had a long tradition of calling on saints and praying for their intercession in sickness and difficult times. This plea for saintly help for protection from disease and healing was particular- ly evident when the bubon- ic plague, or Black Death, spread throughout Europe in the 14th century killing one- third of the population. At the time, where medical knowledge was limited, cities and villages often adopted a plague saint to protect them. In Florence, Italy, the bish- op had an altar built in hon- our of St Sebastian as a means to stop the Black Death and after the plague was over, he built a church dedicated to the saint in thanksgiving for his intercession. Artwork depicting the plague shows that St Sebas- tian seemed to be the go-to saint at the time. He was martyred around the year 288 during the reign of the Roman emperor Di- ocletian. He was shot by arrows, which is how he is portrayed in paintings where the arrows are also said to be symbolic of the arrows of the Black Death. But the special appeal of St Sebastian has a lot of layers. He is said to have converted to Christianity after seeing the bravery of Christian martyrs and he then drew others to become Christian, including a Roman officer who was said to have been cured of a plague at his conversion. This particular action caught the attention of Di- ocletian, who sentenced St Sebastian to death by arrows. But the saint, according to tra- dition, is said to have survived the arrows and returned toDi- ocletian to have strong words with him, which caused the emperor to again, and suc- cessfully this time, have St Se- bastian executed. The saint’s prayers for the Roman soldier and the sol- dier’s cure made him associ- ated with the cure of plagues, especially in Italy. St Roch also is portrayed in paintings of the plague, but he is shown among victims, often praying to Mary, since he too was a victim of the disease. The same holds true for St Aloysius Gonzaga, who contracted a different plague, which hit Rome in 1591, and died of it after catching the disease while caring for vic- tims. There also is a whole group of saints who were called on for prayers during the plague, starting in 1348 in Munich. This group goes by the name the Fourteen Holy Helpers. The group of 14 – each with individual feast days and in- itially one day for the whole group until 1969 – is hon- oured in a German chapel that is a pilgrimage site. There also are churches in Italy, Austria, Hungary and other European countries named after these 14 and one parish in West Seneca, New York, in the Diocese of Buffalo. Twelve of this specialised group are martyrs and three are women. Perhaps most known now among the group is St Blaise, patron saint of throats, who is invoked each 3 February on his feast day, for blessing of the throats. The names of the other 13 – and what people pray to them for protection from or inter- cession for – follow: • St Achatius, head- aches; • St Barbara, fever or sudden death • St Catherine of Alex- andria, sudden death • St Christopher, plagues, sudden death • St Cyriacus (Cyriac), temptations • St Denis (Dionysius), headaches • St Erasmus (Elmo), abdominal maladies • St Eustachius (Eus- tace), family trouble • St George, protection of domestic animals • St Giles (Aegidius), plagues, good confes- sion • St Margaret of Anti- och, safe childbirth • St Pantaleone, physi- cians; • St Vitus (St Guy), epi- lepsy. During this current time of coronavirus pandemic, some have called on St Corona as a possible patron, but the con- nection seems to be in name only. A CNS article about her said little is known about the young woman who was killed for her Christian faith, pre- sumably in the second centu- ry AD. St Corona also is not the namesake for the virus. The Latin word “corona” means “crown,” an indica- tion that the young saint had achieved the “crown of eternal life” because of the steadfastness of her faith. The connection with the coronavi- ruses, named because of their crown-like structure, is just a coincidence. Over the centuries, St Coro- na was often prayed to by peo- ple seeking her help in times of trouble, be it heavy storms or livestock diseases. People believed she had a positive influence regarding money matters since “coro- nae” (crowns) was the name given to coins. As a result, treasure-hunt- ers often invoked her name and in light of how COVID-19 has triggered an economic crisis, she could be called on again. In the listing of church saints there are at least 100 saints that can be invoked for protection or healing of nearly every possible ailment from eye troubles, headaches and toothaches to cancer, rabies and epilepsy. When asked about saints that would be good interces- sors during this time of the coronavirus pandemic, Jesuit Father James Martin, editor at large at America magazine and author of the 2006 book, My Life With the Saints , told In times of sickness or difficulties, plenty of saints can be asked to intercede CNS that three saints he men- tions in his book would be good to start with. At the top of his list is St Aloysius Gonzaga, the Jesu- it saint who died as a result of working with victims of a plague in Rome. The second is St Therese of Lisieux, “who also had to deal with illness at a young age.” Last on his shortlist is St Bernadette Soubirous, the visionary of Lourdes, France, who contracted cholera in the epidemic of 1854 and also suf- fered from asthma and other ailments throughout her life. She is invoked as a patron for the millions who go to Lourdes each year seeking healing. Father Martin, on a person- al note, said that when he was undergoing treatment for a benign tumour and radiation last summer, his own prayers were to St Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes. - CNS In the listing of church saints there are at least 100 saints that can be invoked for protection or healing of nearly every possible ailment from eye troubles, headaches and toothaches to cancer, rabies and epilepsy.” St Corona comes into her own again SHE HAD become nearly forgotten. Little is known about the young wom- an who was killed for her Christian faith, presum- ably in the second cen- tury AD. But now, a pan- demic is shedding light on her: St Corona. The German Catholic news agency KNA reports the church’s martyr records put the year of her death at 177 AD. It is not certain where she lived. A Greek ac- count put it in Syria, while a Latin one said it was Marseilles, France, and Sicily. What is proven is that she began to be hon- oured starting in the sixth century in northern and central Italy. All the rest is the stuff of legend – propagated above all by monks in the Alpine region. “This has nothing to do with the real history of Corona, but instead with stories aimed at deepening the faith,” said Manfred Beck- er-Huberti, a German theologian known in the Rhineland as an expert on folklore and customs. The St Corona legends are bloody. One account is that, as a 16-year-old, she was forced to watch her husband, St Victor, being murdered because of his faith. She died in a gruesome manner: Her persecu- tors tied her between two palm trees that had been bent to the ground. Her body was then torn apart when the trees were set loose to snap back into standing position. She is above all revered in Germany’s southern state of Bavaria and in Austria. A chapel is dedi- cated to her in Sauerlach, near Munich. In the Ba- varian Diocese of Passau, two churches recall her name, while in the prov- ince of Lower Austria and outside of Vienna there are two towns named “Sankt Corona.” In the cathedral of Munster in northwestern Germany, there is a St Co- rona statue, currently dec- orated with flowers placed at its base. Some relics of the martyr were taken to the Prague cathedral in the 14th century. - CNS ¾ ¾ Carol Zimmermann French artist Josse Lieferinxe depicts an intercession by St Sebastian during the plague. IMAGE: CNS/COURTESY THEWALTERS ART MUSEUM A restorer cleans a reli- quary with the relics of St Corona in Aachen, Germa- ny. PHOTO: CNS,REUTERS St. Margaret of Antioch and St. Blaise are among the Fourteen Holy Helpers who were called upon during the plague. IMAGES: CNS NEW