Monday, October 6, 2014

Translations of Saints' Names plus Q&A

A couple weeks ago, as I was walking out of daily mass with a few of the other church ladies, I made some comment about the saint's memorial we had just celebrated--Padre Pio.

"What?" excalimed one of my friends, "Are you saying today was Padre Pio's feast? I thought it was some St. Pius something-or-other. Now I feel like I missed it!"

Which got me wondering why the Powers that Be had to call Padre Pio by the English (Latin?) version of his name. I mean, for cryin' out loud, everyone knows who Padre Pio is! Why try to hide his identity with "Pius" thus confusing him with the two sainted popes by that name who are already on the universal calendar.

But looking back through the calendar, I see it is pretty standard to translate names into English. Hence, we didn't see St. Francesco on October 4th, or St. Giovanni Bosco on January 31st. We do have two Frenchmen on our calendar in French: St. Therese (not Theresa)  and St. Andre (not Andrew) Bessette.  And I also notice St. Juan Diego (not St. John James) on December 9th. So what gives with Padre Pio?

End of rant.  I hope you are all enjoying October weather and October saints.

If anyone has any questions or comments related to the Liturgy of the Hours, please use the comments section below.