The miracle by the window

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo

 

LOVERS all over the world celebrate St. Valentine’s Day on February 14. He is the patron saint of lovers, epileptics, and beekeepers. The Roman Catholic Church continues to recognize St. Valentine as a saint of the church, even when he was removed from the General Roman Calendar in 1969 because of the lack of reliable information about him.

But he is not the only saint that lovers pray to for intercession in finding true love. There was a time when my female friends would recite prayers to St. Anthony on his Feast Day, June 13. It was said that if someone puts the statue of St. Anthony in a place of honor and pray daily starting on this date, he will intercede to find him/ her a life partner. Some place the statue on its head, turning it upright whey they find love. Others looking for a life partner also “put 13 identical coins around the base of St. Anthony while praying and walking around the statue 13 times.”

And then, there is St. Dwynwen, the patron saint of lovers whose Feast Day is celebrated in Wales on January 25. Dwynwen’s father arranged her marriage to someone other than her true love, Maelon Dafodrill.  She begged God to make her forget him, and God sent an angel carrying a sweet potion to erase all memory of Maelon and turned him into a “block of ice”. God also granted her three wishes which were all fulfilled: first, that Maelon be thawed; second, that God meet the hopes and dreams of true lovers; and third, that she should never marry. In gratitude, Dwynwen devoted herself to God’s service for the rest of her life.

“She founded a convent on Llanddwyn, off the west coast of Anglesey, where a well named after her became a place of pilgrimage after her death in 465AD. Visitors to the well believed that the sacred fish or eels that lived in the well could foretell whether or not their relationship would be happy and whether love and happiness would be theirs. Remains of Dwynwen’s church can still be seen today.”

So many saints to pray to and so many prayers hanging in the air and only three saints. I am sure there are other “saints” out there willing to divine a love life.  But my experience tells me, that love will always find me, in the same way that a book falls on the shelf every time I need to read it.

 

The miracle by the window

22 July 2020 1:04 a.m.

I should always sit
close to the window each night
for a miracle
that I breathe life into your nostrils
and you will rise
from the moon dust in the wind
and the impetuous spirit of night blooms

 

I would, if I could use the lightning
to heat the air till it explodes
and from the thunder you will incarnate
to become the miracle
a Michelangelo’s David
walking through the grills
by the window.

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