Saint Christopher

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Saint Christopher

Saint Christopher is a saint

Saint

A saint in Christianity is a human being who has been called to holiness. The term is used differently by various denominations, with some, such as the Anglicans, Methodists, and Lutherans distinguishing between Saints and saints....
venerated

Veneration

In Christianity, veneration , or veneration of saints, is a special act of honoring a saint: a dead person who has been identified as singular in the traditions of the religion....
by Roman Catholics

Catholicism

Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its Theology and doctrines, its Catholic liturgy, Ethics, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
and Orthodox Christians

Orthodoxy

The word orthodox, from Greek language orthodoxos "having the right opinion," from orthos + Doxa , is typically used to mean adhering to the accepted or traditional and established faith, especially in religion....
, listed as a martyr

Martyr

The term martyr is most commonly used today to describe an individual who sacrifices his or her life in order to further a cause or belief for many....
killed in the reign of the 3rd century Roman emperor

Roman Emperor

The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin language titles such as imperator , Augustus , Caesar and princeps were all associated with it....
Decius

Decius

Gaius Messius Quintus Decius was the Roman Emperors from 249 - 251. In the last year of his reign, he co-ruled with his son Herennius Etruscus until both of them were killed in the Battle of Abrittus....
(reigned 249–251).

The Eastern Orthodox Church

Eastern Orthodox Church

The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian communion in the world with an estimated 225 million members worldwide. It is considered by its adherents to be the Four Marks of the Church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles nearly 2000 years ago....
venerates Saint Christopher on May 9th. The Tridentine Calendar

Tridentine Calendar

The Tridentine Calendar is the calendar of saints to be honoured in the official liturgy of the Roman Rite during the course of the liturgical year....
allowed a commemoration of Saint Christopher on 25 July only in private Masses

Mass (liturgy)

The Mass is the Eucharistic celebration in the Latin liturgical rites of the Roman Catholic Church. The term is used also of similar celebrations in Old Catholic Churches, in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of Anglicanism, and in some largely High Church Lutheranism Lutheranism regions, including the Scandinavian and Baltic states countries....
. This restriction was lifted later (see General Roman Calendar as in 1954). While the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church is the world's largest Christianity Ecclesia , representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world population....
still approves devotion to him, listing him in the Roman Martyrology

Roman Martyrology

The Roman Martyrology is the official Martyrology of the Roman Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. It provides an extensive but not exhaustive list of the saints recognized by the Church....
among the saints venerated on 25 July, it removed his feast day from the Roman Catholic calendar of saints

Roman Catholic calendar of saints

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Legends of St. Christopher

Although the Catholic Church suggests that almost nothing certain is known about the life and death of St. Christopher, there are several legends attributed to him. These include the story in which Christopher carries a small, yet almost unbearably heavy, child across a river. The child is later revealed to be Jesus Christ. It is this popular story from which Christopher became the patron saint of travelers, and it is the source for the derivation of his name. The Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
word Christophoros translates into "bearer of the anointed one." He is also known as Offerus, although this may simply be a back-formation

Back-formation

In etymology, back-formation refers to the process of creating a new lexeme by removing actual or supposed affixes. The resulting neologism is called a back-formation, a term coined by James Murray in 1897....
of (Christ)ophorus.

Martyrdom

According to legend, during the reign of the Emperor Decius

Decius

Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
and was assigned to the numerus Marmaritarum or "Unit of the Marmaritae", which suggests an otherwise-unidentified "Marmaritae" Berber

Berber people

Berbers are the indigenous ethnic groups of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are discontinuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River....
tribe of Cyrenaica. He was of enormous size and terrifying demeanor, being a cannibal with cynocephaly

Cynocephaly

The condition of cynocephaly, having the head of a dog — or of a jackal— is a widely attested legendary phenomenon existing in many different forms and contexts....
(the head of a dog instead of a man), like all the Marmaritae. Reprebus accepted baptism

Baptism

In Christianity, baptism is the ritual act, with the use of water, by which one is admitted as a full member of the Christian Church and, in the view of some, as a member of the particular Church in which the baptism is administered....
and began to preach the faith. Eventually, the governor of Antioch

Antioch

Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the nearer East and was a cradle of gentile hi...
(or in some versions, the Emperor himself) decreed that Reprebus was to be executed for his faith. He miraculously survived many attempts at execution, eventually permitting himself to be martyred after converting multitudes. His body was then taken back to Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports....
by Peter of Attalia.

The Golden Legend - The Life of Saint Christopher

Christopher was a Canaanite 12 cubits (18 ft) tall and with a fearsome face. While serving the king of Canaan, he took it into his head to go and serve the greatest king there was. He went to the king who was reputed to be the greatest, but one day he saw the king cross himself at the mention of the devil. On thus learning that the king feared the devil, he departed to look for the devil. He came across a band of marauders, one of whom declared himself to be the devil, so Christopher decided to serve him. But when he saw his new master avoid a wayside cross and found out that the devil feared Christ, he left him and enquired from people where to find Christ. He met a hermit

Hermit

A hermit is a person who lives to some greater or lesser degree in solitude and/or isolation from society.In Christianity the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Catholic spirituality#Desert spirituality of the Old Testament ....
who instructed him in the Christian faith. Christopher asked him how he could serve Christ. When the hermit suggested fasting and prayer, Christopher replied that he was unable to perform that service. The hermit then suggested that because of his size and strength Christopher could serve Christ by assisting people to cross a dangerous river, where many were perishing in the attempt. The hermit promised that this service would be pleasing to Christ.

After Christopher had performed this service for some time, a little child asked him to take him across the river. During the crossing, the river became swollen and the child seemed as heavy as lead, so much that Christopher could scarcely carry him and found himself in great difficulty. When he finally reached the other side, he said to the child: "You have put me in the greatest danger. I do not think the whole world could have been as heavy on my shoulders as you were." The child replied: "You had on your shoulders not only the whole world but him who made it. I am Christ your king, whom you are serving by this work." The child then vanished.

Christopher later visited the city of Lycia and there comforted the Christians who were being martyred. Brought before the local king, he refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods. The king tried to win him by riches and by sending two beautiful women to tempt him. Christopher converted the women to Christianity, as he had already converted thousands in the city. The king ordered him to be killed. Various attempts failed, but finally Christopher was decapitated.

Historical verifiability

The first hurdle is the idea that he was a dog-headed cannibal. This can be understood in the light of the practice of the time, which was to describe all people outside the "civilized" (Greco-Roman-Persian) world as cannibals, or dog-headed albeit metaphor

Metaphor

Metaphor is language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. It is a figure of speech that compares two or more things without using the words "like" or "as." More generally, a metaphor describes a first subject as being or equal to a second object in some way....
ically. A later generation could then mistake a metaphor or hyperbole

Hyperbole

Hyperbole comes from ancient Greek "?pe?????" and is a figure of speech in which statements are exaggerated. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is rarely meant to be taken literally....
for a literal statement.

The man in question is also said to have been assigned to a military unit made up of Marmaritae. The Marmaritae were the independent tribes of Marmarica (now in modern Libya

Libya

Libya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
), who would have been pushed to the frontier region after Roman settlement. Since he was from a frontier tribe, describing him as being from the land of dog-headed people would have been a literary convention of the day.

The various miracles attributed to him could be explained as ordinary embroidering typical of hagiography

Hagiography

Hagiography is the study of saints. A hagiography, from Greek ' and ' , refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically the biography of ecclesiastical and secular leaders....
, especially regarding saints of the early centuries of Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
.

Finally, we have the statements that St. Christopher was killed in Antioch and his body taken elsewhere by a bishop. St. Christopher could not have been killed in the fourth year of the Emperor Decius, as Decius only reigned for two years. However, before ascending to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire, Maximinus

Maximinus

title = Roman Emperor of the Roman Empire|name=Maximinus Daia|full name =Gaius Valerius Galerius Maximinus Daia| image =...
was known as "Daza" before rising to power. Unfortunately, there is no record of a visit to Antioch by Maximinus in the fourth year of his reign (308). It is, of course, possible that St. Christopher was executed in Antioch during this year by the order of a lower authority; a personal trial before one of the Caesars

Caesar (title)

Caesar , Latin: Caesar , is a title of emperor character. It derives from the Roman naming convention#Cognomen of Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator....
could be a later embellishment.

Unfortunately, none of this information permits identification of the actual man. Christopher is simply Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
for "Christ

Christ

Christ is the English language term for the Greek meaning "the anointing", which is a title given to the Reigning Messiah in the given age of the Zodiac....
-bearer", and it can refer, as in the Eastern tradition and in Jacobus de Voragine's explanation of the name, to St. Christopher's willingness to "take up the cross" - a common metaphor for converting to Christianity. Reprobus simply means "wicked person", so saying that Reprobus became Christopher amounts to saying "A wicked person became a Christian." Furthermore, no place claims to be the burial site of St. Christopher, which would be very unusual for a martyr.

It has been speculated that St. Christopher could be the same man known as Saint Menas

Saint Menas

Saint Menas , the Martyr and Wonder-worker, is one of the most well-known Egyptians saints in the East and the West, due to the many miracles that are attributed to his intercession and prayers....
among the Copts

Coptic Christianity

||-The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria is the official name for the largest Christianity church in Egypt. The Church belongs to the Oriental Orthodoxy family of churches, which has been a distinct church body since the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, when it took a different position over Christology theology from that of the E...
, for whom a 4th century burial site is known but has no verifiable details about his life or martyrdom attached to him. However, there is no conclusive link.

Veneration and patronage

Eastern Orthodox liturgy

The Eastern Orthodox Church

Eastern Orthodox Church

The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian communion in the world with an estimated 225 million members worldwide. It is considered by its adherents to be the Four Marks of the Church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles nearly 2000 years ago....
's hymn for the 9 May feastday of St Christopher refers to elements of his story found also in the Western Golden Legend

Golden Legend

The Golden Legend, Legenda Aurea, or Legenda Sanctorum by Jacobus de Voragine is a collection of fanciful hagiography or lives of the saints, that became a late Middle Ages bestseller....
:

Christopher, Great Martyr (Kontakion Tone 4): Your physique was overwhelming and your face horrifying. / You willingly suffered trauma from your own people. / Men and women tried to arouse consuming fires of passion in you, / but instead they followed you to your martyrdom. / You are our strong protector, o great martyr Christopher!

Relics and medals

After having been held in Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
, the relic

Relic

A relic is an object or a personal item of Religion significance, carefully preserved with an air of veneration as a tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of some forms of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, shamanism, and many other religions....
s and the head of the saint were moved to the island of Rab

Rab

Rab is an island in Croatia and a town of the same name located just off the northern Croatian coast in the Adriatic Sea.The island is 22 km long, has an area of 93.6 km? and 9,480 inhabitants ....
in Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a Central European country at the crossroads of Pannonian Plain, Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea....
. When Normans

Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their names to Normandy, a region in northern France. They descended from Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of mostly Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock....
tried to invade the islands and besieged the city, its inhabitants placed the saint's relics on the city walls. Miraculously, the winds changed and the bows and ships were blown away from the city. One of the city's largest medieval squares is named after the saint.

Christopher is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers

Fourteen Holy Helpers

The Fourteen Holy Helpers are a group of saints veneration together in Roman Catholicism because their intercession was thought to be particularly effective, especially against various diseases....
, and the patron saint

Patron saint

A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, or person. Patron saints, because they have already transcended to the metaphysical, are able to intercede effectively for the needs of their special charges....
of travelers. Medal

Medal

A medal is usually a coin-like sculpted object of metal or other material that has been engraved with an insignia, portrait or other artistic rendering....
lions with his name and image are worn to show devotion to a certain saint and ask for that saint's prayers. They are frequently displayed in automobile

Automobile

An automobile or motor car is a wheeled motor vehicle for transportation passengers, which also carries its own car engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally f...
s. In French a widespread phrase for such medals is "Regarde St Christophe et va-t-en rassuré" ("Look at St Christopher and go on reassured"); Saint Christopher medals and holy card

Holy card

Holy cards are small, Catholic devotions pictures Mass production for the use of the faithful. They typically depict a religious scene or a saint in an image about the size of a playing card or collectible card....
s in Spanish have the phrase "Si en San Cristóbal confías, de accidente no morirás" ("If you trust St. Christopher, you won't die in an accident"). In Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
an annual collection for providing vehicles for the use of missionaries is taken up on a Sunday close to the feast of Saint Christopher, asking people to contribute a very small sum of money for every kilometre that they have traveled safely during the year.

General patronage

Christopher has always been a widely popular saint, being especially revered by athletes, mariners, ferry

Ferry

A ferry is a form of transport, usually a boat or ship, used to carry passengers and their vehicles across a body of water. Ferries are also used to transport freight and even railroad cars....
men, and travelers. He is revered as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers

Fourteen Holy Helpers

Lightning

File:Blesk.jpgLightning is an Earth's atmosphere discharge of electricity usually accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcano or dust storms....
; against pestilence

Pestilence

A pestilence is any virulent and highly infectious disease that can cause an epidemic or even a pandemic. The word can also be used about parasites causing large scale sickness and death, such as Guinea worm....
; archers

Archery

Archery is the art, practice or skill of shooting with Bow and arrow. Archery has historically been used in hunting and combat and has become a precision sport....
; bachelor

Bachelor

A bachelor is a man above the age of majority who has never been marriage .The term is sometimes restricted to men who do not have and are not actively seeking a spouse or other personal partner....
s; boatmen; bookbinders; epilepsy

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizure s. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain....
; floods; fruit dealers; fuller

Fuller

Fuller may refer to:* People with the surname Fuller * Fuller, a worker who cleanses wool through the process of fulling* Fuller's earth a clay used for filtering and purifying...
s; gardeners; for a holy death; mariners; market carriers; motorists and drivers; sailors; storms; surfers; toothache

Toothache

A toothache, also known as odontalgia or, less frequently, as odontalgy, is an aching pain in or around a tooth. In most cases toothaches are caused by problems in the tooth or jaw, such as Dental caries, gingivitis, the emergence of wisdom teeth, a cracked tooth, infected dental pulp , jaw disease, or exposed root canal....
; and transportation workers.

Patronage of places

Christopher is the patron saint of the following places: Baden, Germany

Baden

Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine River in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-W?rttemberg of Germany....
; Barga, Italy

Barga

Barga is a medieval town and comune of the province of Lucca in Tuscany, central Italy. It is home to around 10,000 people and is the chief town of the "Media Valle" of the Serchio....
; Brunswick, Germany

Braunschweig

Braunschweig , known as Brunswiek in Low German, is a city of 245,810 people , located in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....
; Mecklenburg, Germany

Mecklenburg

Mecklenburg is a region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwerin, and Neubrandenburg....
; Rab, Croatia

Rab

Saint Kitts

Saint Kitts The island is situated at , about 1,300 miles southeast of Miami, Florida, Florida, in the United States. It has a land area of about 68 sq....
); Toses in Catalonia, Spain

Girona

Girona is a city located in the northeast of Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the rivers Ter River and Onyar. It is the capital of the Spanish Girona and of the Catalan comarca of the Giron?s....
; Agrinion, Greece; Vilnius, Lithuania

Vilnius

Vilnius is the largest city and the Capital of Lithuania, with a population of 555,613 as of 2008. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality....
;Havana, Cuba

Havana

Havana is the capital city, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city is one of the 14 Provinces of Cuba. The city/province has 2.1 million inhabitants, and the urban area over 3.5 million, making Havana the largest city in both Cuba and the Caribbean....
; and Paete, Laguna, Philippines.

External links

A site with information on St. Christopher, St. Menas, and many other "soldier-saints" of the ancient era.
by Jacobus de Voragine (Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
) at The Latin Library
The Latin Library

The Latin Library is a website that collects public domain Latin texts. The texts have been drawn from different sources. Many were originally scanned and formatted from texts in the Public Domain....
from Caxton's edition of the Golden Legend (Middle English
Middle English

Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman conquest of England of 1066 and about 1470, when the #Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the introduction of the printing press into England by William...
)
depicting St. Christopher in the traditional Eastern manner.
of the saint.
With Orthodox and Western icons.