Sainthood...

[fajrdrako]

Happy All Saints Day!

It isn't a day I've ever understood in terms of religious observance, but I do enjoy saints: so many of them are medieval. I have my favourites, including St. Bathildis, variously known as St. Bathhildis of Neustria or Bathild of Ascania, whom I chose to use as a prepresentative saint in my picture here. She was a slave who became Queen of France, who fought against slavery and child abuse - how could I not like her?

There are other saints I like, some because they did good things, some because they are grotesques. For example:

1. St Cuthbert, who made his monks carry him around for a century after his death
   
2. St Columba, because he was at the right time and place - among Picts and Vikings and Scots - and how could I not like a man called both "Black Bear" and "Dove"?
   
3. St Brendan, because he maybe sailed the Atlantic - and who, wherever it was he went, liked boats
   
4. St Sebastian, because of his arrows.
   
5. St Francis, who went on Crusade and tried to convert the Sultan.
   
6. St George, because he was a warrior and a dragon-slayer, and because of his involvement in the Crusades
   
7. St Agnes of Assisi, because she looks better eight hundred years after her death than most of us ever look
   
8. St Joan of Arc, because she was such a warrior and such an innocent
   
9. St Simeon Stylites, because he was so strange, and such a hit in his time - living on a pillar is just so strange.
   
10. St Michael the Archangel, because he was a mighty warrior and dragon-slayer, and because he is an angel of battle and death. (And it remains to be seen what his relationship with Dean Winchester will be.)