Sunday, 24 April 2022

World Cup of Patron Saints of England

A bit of a new venture here - usually we go for Bad Hymns, Bad Cardinals, Ugly Churches, Instruments from Hell, etc. (and some of these contests will be due for a repeat soon, as they were last held in 2018). But here we're going for something GOOD.

I have 32 candidates to be patron saint of England. All are English except George, Augustine of Canterbury, and Joseph of Arimathea. Will George hold onto his title, or will someone else be more popular? The Twitter poll begins tomorrow.

George and dragon

Very few of our entrants have slain dragons.

Meanwhile a plug for an old piece I wrote about St George.

Our candidates (did I forget anyone obvious?) are: 
Aelfflaed of Whitby
Aethelbert of Kent
Aidan
Alban
Aldeberge of Kent
Augustine
Bede
Boniface
Chad
Cuthbert
Dunstan
Edmund
Edmund Campion
Edward, king and martyr
Edward the Confessor
Etheldreda
George
Gilbert of Sempringham
Hilda
Hugh of Lincoln
John Fisher
John Henry Newman
Joseph of Arimathea
Margaret Clitherow
Nicholas Owen
Odo of Canterbury
Patrick
Swithin
Thomas Becket
Thomas More
Wilfrid of York
Wulfstan
Newman

"A dragon outside, you say? On my way..."

N.B. It seems that the hashtag #WCPSE has also been used by the Western Canada Paranormal & Spiritual Expo, but I am sure they won't mind. They probably saw it coming anyway.

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11 comments:

  1. geoff kiernan24 April 2022 at 14:47

    James Duckett...?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lily4924 April 2022 at 15:43

    St. Herbert of Derwentwater. Hermit priest of England and friend of St. Cuthbert. Wonderful story!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mary K24 April 2022 at 22:44

    Was Fiacre English, before his move to France?
    Also, my youngest grandchild is named for St. Isan, who was a friend of St. Patrick and also preached throughout England. Hard to believe there are so many saints from the northerners. We weren't all barbarians, after all!

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  4. Romulus25 April 2022 at 02:50

    Alban. As Augustine, Bede, Becket, and Campion would have agreed.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Father Stephen Schumacher25 April 2022 at 04:05

    Anselm, perhaps? (Not English of course, but worthy of consideration, I think.)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Father Stephen Schumacher25 April 2022 at 04:06

    Anselm, perhaps? (Not English of course, but worthy of consideration, I think.)

    ReplyDelete
  7. JabbaPapa25 April 2022 at 06:02

    The only obvious candidates you've missed, as far as I can tell, are :

    Alfred the Great
    Edgar the Peaceful
    Mildred/Mildrith

    ReplyDelete
  8. Pulex25 April 2022 at 07:05

    Gildas?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Gael éigin26 April 2022 at 03:09

    G K Chesterton; just a minor detail of Vox Populi ...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous30 April 2022 at 11:33

    Alcuin?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Zephyrinus30 April 2022 at 13:59

    Mrs. Trellis from North Wales ?

    ReplyDelete