Leaving vague and seemingly incomplete voicemail messages is sort of my mom's forte, but perhaps the most infamous message was received a few years ago and went something to the effect of, "Catherine. This is Mom. Happy feast day." However brief, I knew full well what it was referring to. Today, that message came in email form because today is in fact my feast day.
Although there are several St. Catherines, some with "C"s, some with "K"s, some with funny hats, etc., I was named after St. Catherine of Siena, she of the "C" and the stigmata. She is the patroness of Theta Phi Alpha sorority, nurses and Italy. And her feast day is April 29. When I younger, it was not uncommon to find me deeply entrenched in one of the three Lives of the Saints volumes that were housed on our living room bookshelf. I could rattle off the martyrs upon request (occasionally going so far as it include means of death, although lions and fire were usually fail-safe guesses). I was jealous that my sister's namesake was the patron saint of television. And I always had a subconscious feast day countdown rattling in the back of my mind. We usually got Crayola markers of the neon variety, occasionally we got candy.
Today I just got an email, but it warmed my heart nonetheless. Maybe next April 29 I'll get stigmata.
1 comment:
"It's my feast day too, yeah."
Post a Comment