Saints, and other days [S. Worthen | Weblog]

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Approximately a year ago, I visited

double0hilly in Paris and took photos of windmill-related things there as part of the

easterbunny 2007 LJ Collection Challenge. I have a new project this year, involving documenting things related to a particular saint. As I want to stand a chance at actually being able to do the challenge, I've gone with the most obvious saint-of-the-day for July 25th, St. James Apostle.

[Poll #1203157]

Bonus factoids:
- Ilyap'a kept his rainwater in a jug, which he topped up by dipping into the Milky Way.
- St. Julian mystically created a fresh-water spring for the drought-ridden Gauls, which converted them to Christianity.
- Eupraxia was accident-prone, falling down wells, getting a splinter in her eye, and cutting herself in the leg with an axe.

Correction: Cougat had pepper, not salt, apparently.

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There are 26 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

Please, what is the connection between Le Mans and kitchen design? You cook in a racetrack fashion, for twenty-four hours at a stretch...?

http://www.cleverstorage.co.uk/lemans.html

A Le Mans corner unit is shaped like the race track at Le Mans, thus the name. Since our kitchen-to-be will have two corners, we've been looking long and hard at how to best manage the space. Our current plan is to have one Le Mans unit, and one normal blind corner cabinet with baskets to make things easier to retrieve from the back.

Edited Date: 2008-06-11 11:32 am (UTC)

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Fiendishly clever and also apt: the confluence of science and culture. Or something. Thank you!

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We're hoping it's built to last. It's so elegant and the installations I've seen of it thus far in kitchen stores seem fairly robust. We'll see....

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The story about St. Cucufas reminds me of the old legend that St. Lawrence's last words were something like "turn me over, I'm done on this side."

Yes! Although St. Cucufas never finished roasting. It didn't work. He was eventually martyred by getting his throat slit or his head cut off or the like.

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Seasoning with salt and vinegar seems to be as British as you can get - embrace your newly adopted land! Or something ;)

It was an unconscious substitution on my part when I wrote the poll. It was really pepper and vinegar. But! There could have been salt as well, so therefore I think my substitution apt. Really, salt would have been more painful, if they were after torture rather than marinade.

I like your logic.

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Pepper and vinegar would probably taste nicer...like buffalo wings. Maybe that's what he should be the saint of?

Salt would suck out all the juices if used to marinate long-term, though, right? Maybe they were concerned that he'd be too dry if they used salt rather than pepper.

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The postmortem travel idea is awesome, but I'm also a fan of St. Christopher because of the Cynocephali. Have you ever heard any of those versions of the St. Christopher story? Apparently according to some versions, he went to missionize to this group of dog-headed people living somewhere in the Mysterious East; according to other versions, he had a dog's head himself! I love it :)

I hadn't heard the bit about him being 18 feet tall,though - that's even better!

Edited Date: 2008-06-11 01:38 pm (UTC)

That makes St. Christopher a whole lot more entertaining. Great story. (Technically, 12 cubits tall.)

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I was just about to drop in that St Chris story- he's fabulous :)

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Cucufas! A salt-and-vinegar crisp saint has to be celebrated! A saint in a box of Pringles no less!

There are some astonishing options here. St James is sorta safe by comparison, isn't he?

Yes, but what are the odds of me happening to spot ANYTHING on the streets of London pertaining to Cucufas (unless crisps?), Olympiada, Eupraxia, or most of the others?

St.s Anne and Christopher I stand a chance with, it's true.

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Indeed, my (currently) local church is dedicated to St. Anne!

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You could collect packets of crisps in intriguing locations, I suppose!

Anne and Christopher would be doable too. Christopher is officially a Non-Person now isn't he?

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I don't know if he is or isn't. I wonder what the easiest way to check on current judgement is?

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Well, I looked here and found this:

"Whatever happened to St. Christopher? Is he still a saint?"

Before the 1969 reform of the Roman calendar, Christopher was listed as a martyr who died under Decius. Nothing else is known about him. There are several legends about him including the one in which he was crossing a river when a child asked to be carried across. When Christopher put the child on his shoulders he found the child was unbelievably heavy. The child, according to the legend, was Christ carrying the weight of the whole world. This was what made Christopher patron saint of travelers. His former feast day is July 25.

Before the formal canonization process began in the fifteenth century, many saints were proclaimed by popular approval. This was a much faster process but unfortunately many of the saints so named were based on legends, pagan mythology, or even other religions -- for example, the story of the Buddha traveled west to Europe and he was "converted" into a Catholic saint! In 1969, the Church took a long look at all the saints on its calendar to see if there was historical evidence that that saint existed and lived a life of holiness. In taking that long look, the Church discovered that there was little proof that many "saints", including some very popular ones, ever lived. Christopher was one of the names that was determined to have a basis mostly in legend. Therefore Christopher (and others) were dropped from the universal calendar.

Some saints were considered so legendary that their cult was completely repressed (including St. Ursula). Christopher's cult was not suppressed but it is confined to local calendars (those for a diocese, country, or so forth).

So he is and he isn't...

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The LeMans thing looks really cool. We went for a different type of carousel, based on this or this.

It's easier to show than to describe. It looks like normal cupboards till you push the handles inwards.

Then the whole thing revolves through 360 degrees, giving easy access to everything inside.

This is the whole corner of the kitchen; the other side has a similar carousel. It takes Le Creuset pans and casseroles as well as all our other saucepans etc. with no evidence of strain. (This photo was taken when it was new and much tidier!)

Kitchen gadgets can be extremely cool!

Edited Date: 2008-06-11 02:18 pm (UTC)

Thank you so much for posting these! I posted my questions about corner cupboards to eGullet rather than here. I'm really interested in the different available solutions for corners.

We've pretty much discounted L-shaped corner cupboards for now, even though those make getting back into corners much, much easier. The problem is that the wall in the middle of the U of the kitchen-to-be is logically the place to put sink and dishwasher - which between them leave no room for anything else on that wall. As is, the cupboard for the sink, i.e. the limiter on how big the sink can be, is small than I'd like. But it's the obvious wall for it, as there's a lovely picture window looking out into the garden there.

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When we were planning our kitchen we were agog to see other people's solutions. I agree the window is the obvious place for the sink. It's quite a narrow kitchen, then?

Here's the other side of the kitchen - again, much tidier than the norm. The "cupboard" under the draining board is the dishwasher in disguise.

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Yes, it's somewhat narrow. 10x14 maybe?

What do you like about your kitchen? What would you do differently if you were to do it again? (And what kind of range cooker do you have, and would you recommend it? We're aiming for a 90 cm one.)

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I'd like to nominate St. Wilgifortis, patroness of bearded ladies.

Alas, I was not given July 20th to work with.

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It's all about the Incas.

Edited Date: 2008-06-12 09:26 pm (UTC)

It's about time that the guy with the Milky Way jug got a vote.

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October