Happy St. Henry of Uppsalla Day

By Cindy Herman
For The Daily Item

Sun, May 18 2008

— St. Patrick was a good man, to be sure. And that bit of ridding Ireland of snakes, now, that’s something. You can’t begrudge him his day. But there are some other lands — Poland, a personal favorite, comes to mind — with equally upstanding patron saints who deserve the same honor as good St. Patty.
Well, let’s just take a look at Poland, now. St. Stanislaus of Cracow preached against sinful living and even excommunicated King Boleslaus the Cruel for his war crimes. The king then murdered Stanislaus while he was celebrating Mass.
All right, now, there’s a saint deserving of a day, although, admittedly, it’d be a little tough to come up with a fun way of celebrating it. What we’d need are some clever tie-ins, like lucky shamrocks and rascally leprechauns, and St. Stanislaus Day would be a big hit.
St. Francis Xavier Day would be a fun one. He walked the streets of India ringing a bell to call the children to their catechism studies. Everyone likes bells. We could get little hand bells and jingle bells and ring them all day, and you can bet some enterprising individual would come up with the St. Francis Xavier bell choir. Everyone would buy the CD to play once a year, and we’d say, “It’s silly, but it’s just not St. Francis Xavier Day without the bell songs.” St. Frumentius of Ethiopia Day has exciting potential, too. He and his brother survived a ship wreck in the Red Sea and were brought before the Ethiopian king and eventually introduced Christianity to the country. No small feat. We could dress in red and decorate the stores with little sailing ships and hold swimming contests every year. Hmm? See? You don’t need green beer to have fun.
But St. Henry of Uppsalla might have the best shot at his own day. He accompanied the king of Sweden into battle against Finnish pirates. Pirates! He offered them friendship but they chose war and lost to the Swedes. Oh, boy, everyone would have a ball swigging rum and brandishing a sword and shouting to each other, “Happy St. Henry of Uppsalla Day!” Sure, and the Irish have a right to their big day. Top o’ the mornin’ to them all. But Patrick wasn’t the only saint worth his salt, and maybe someday soon we’ll be saying, “Happy St. George Day!” Can’t you just see all the little kids slaying their stuffed dragons with a single blow of their toy swords? Why, if we start right now, with a little luck we can get in on the ground floor of the dragon and sword sales, and in no time at all, we’ll have our own little pot o’ gold.
Anyone got a four-leaf clover?
Cindy O. Herman lives in Snyder County. E-mail her at Cindyherman1@yahoo.com.