The Saint-a-Day Guide: A Lighthearted but Accurate (and Not Too Irreverent) Compendium

by Sean Kelly, Rosemary Rogers

An intriguing, witty calendrical listing of the saints’ “Heavenly Birthdays”—which coincide with our earthly ones.

Everyone knows that February 14 is Valentine’s Day—or the Feast of Saint Valentine, the Patron Saint of lovers—but in fact, every day of the year is the Feast (or “heavenly birthday”) of not just one but many Saints. The Saint-a-Day Guide is a humorous, accurate listing of each Saint’s particular “Patronage”: his or her divinely assigned, eternal interest in such earthly matters as jobs, hobbies, romances, medical problems, neuroses, and lifestyles.

All of us, Catholic or not, need to know that there is someone looking out for us. So you will be pleased to meet Saint Germaine Cousine, Patron Saint of unattractive people; Saint Fiacre, who helps hemorrhoid sufferers; and Saint Eugene de Mazenod, the Patron of dysfunctional families. And don’t forget Saint Christina the Astonishing, who watches over psychiatrists. The Saint-a-Day Guide also discloses your other birthday—the annual Feast of your Name Saint, on which you are entitled to throw yourself a huge party and no one can ask your age.
Profusely illustrated with fine art, kitsch, icons, photographs, movie stills, and drawings, The Saint-a-Day Guide provides spiritual comfort and diversion for both the faithful and the faithless.

Genres: Humor

416 pages, Paperback

First published November 18, 2003

About the author

Kelly previously wrote From The Faculty Lounge - the story of London Central High School, the Department of Defense Dependents School which closed in 2007 (and also avaiable through Bayberry Books). The school had been located on the bases at Bushy Park, Bushey Hall and Daws Hill, High Wycombe.

Reviews

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great to read when you're feeling blue. An entertaining glance into Catholic mythology and its, um, rationale, if you can call it that. It never really explains why, for instance, a saint who died of a snakebite is supposed to protect supplicants from the same menace, but we may never get the answer to that one. It has the major selling point of not being overly reverent about saints who were obviously just schizophrenics followed by the gullible, horrid criminals whose acts were totally misinterpreted later on, or ordinary good-hearted people with great publicists.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally interesting guide to saint's days. Excellent etchings and engravings and paintings of some intense iconography.