Catholicnews.org Patron Saints

For some time now, I have wanted to choose a patron saint or two or three for this here blog. There are other saints I am fond of, too, but these people seemed the most appropriate for whatever it is I am trying to accomplish here.

OK, here it goes.

St. Thomas More

St. Thomas More used humor to get his message across. He wrote the great work, "Utopia," in an effort to critique the society he lived in, and used humor to do it. He would tell Henry VIII exactly what he thought about things, but was so deadpan about it, the King oftentimes couldn't tell if More was joking or not. Well, in the end I guess Henry VIII figured him out, since he had him beheaded. But, More managed to use humor right until the end, telling a joke right before the blade came down.

Dorothy Day

OK, yeah I know, this person is not a saint, so she will just be one of my patrons. She may never be canonized a saint, but that's OK, too. Although Dorothy Day was not a satirist, she was a writer. She started out as a journalist, and I have seen her described as an agitator, crusader, etc. The thing I like about her and St. Thomas More is that both thought outside the box, and could not be described as cookie-cutter Christians. I don't see either of them as liberals or conservatives. They both tried to authentically follow Christ, and worked their whole lives to make their writings and their deeds "match up." It looks like they both succeeded. One thing I have noticed about both More and Day is that they can and have been easily misunderstood or "adopted" by groups of people who like parts of their messages, but reject other parts. For example, there was a room dedicated to St. Thomas More in the Kremlin because the Communists admired his work, "Utopia." I guess the whole bit about dying a martyr's death wasn't that interesting to them.

Another patron I would add is George Orwell. Although I don't care for some of the harsher things he has said about the Catholic Church, "1984" and "Animal Farm" are two of my favorite books of all time. I have this fantasy that he became Catholic on his deathbed. Don't spoil it for me.

Update: Catholicnews.org reader Al Speegle sent me a satire he wrote about the Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN) and the prosperity gospel. His satire features George Orwell and the Belief Police. Find out what it means when the Man tells you to "Give to Get" by reading 1984,First Draft

God bless, Maureen