Monday 17 March 2014

Happy St Gertrude`s Day



Today, March 17th, as well as being the feast of that famous Briton, St Patrick, is also the feast of St Gertrude of Nivelles. Many thanks to Francisco de Morande for the splendid art work. St Gertrude is the patron of cats. The story mainly seems to be about the expulsion of mice from the convent. Offerings of mice made of gold and silver were left at her shrine Wikipedia has nothing to say about her connection with cats or mice but then the Gospels don`t say much about St Jude and hopeless cases nor does the life of St Anthony of Padua deal much with his now amazing ability to find things. More cat-centred is this link.

I mention this as my cat Dizzy who was a feature of parish life wherever I went although he did not make that many appearances here at St Joseph`s on my return died two days before his 18th birthday in February. His colleague Arcady is still doing well but is as nervous as ever and not one for making appearances in church like Dizzy who when I was in Forest Hall tried almost every day to get into Mass.

Here`s Dizzy at the Tuesday coffee morning which he rarely missed



3 comments:

  1. Terry Middleton17 March 2014 at 19:22

    We all miss Dizzy

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, Terry, we don't ALL miss Dizzy. I do not like cats and I would certainly have 'persuaded' it to vacate that chair. I must remain anonymous in case the RSPCA or the cat lovers of the world rise up against me but Fr Michael will surely recognise me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous, we all know who and what you are. It's not a pretty picture. You have an ugly soul.

    ReplyDelete

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