Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Thomas à Kempis

My day (and night) job is catching up with me, as are my summer writing deadlines, so I give thanks for Grandmère Mimi, who has posted on today's feast, celebrating Thomas à Kempis, whose birth name, I just discovered after all these years, was really Thomas Hammerken. He was born in Kempen, hence the name by which we know him; it was the custom of the day. Thank you, Mimi.

Back to the writings of Mercy Amba Oduyoye and related footnotes and insights and to the Impossible To Plan New Course Which I Have Never Taught Before And Just Inherited From My Predecessor. Oy.

P.S. On that link about Thomas (not Mimi's, the other one) I don't know how the source (which is slightly dubious, or at least not scholarly) knows Thomas was straight. Or what Luiz would say about that photo, though I have my suspicions. I do love that the site describes Thomas as "simple in worldly affairs" and "absent-minded." Glory be to Godde for the diversity of saintly personalities.

2 comments:

June Butler said...

Same saint, different spin. Good for you, Jane, and thanks for the link.

Shannon said...

Jane, in your list of fabulous women in July, you haven't yet me St. Christine the Astonishing? I love her. She hated the stench of sin so badly that at her funeral she flew to the rafters til all the sinners left the church.

I once started a story about her showing up in our modern day wearing pink sneakers. She went around confronting sinners, pointing her finger at them and warning them about the stench of hell. Her followers would make a circle around the sinner and chant, "Pink, pink, you stink!"

I'll write that story one of these days.

Shannon