Copyright © Louise Bostock 2007-2013. Please give credit where credit is due.

Thursday 17 January 2008

St Anthony Abbot

Three degrees at 8:30am, with blinding sunshine and a brisk breeze. Clear blue skies above, snow on the hills, including on Monte Giove, and a line of translucent white clouds slowly trekking their way south along the lake. Why have I never seen them trekking north?

Today is the feast day of St Anthony Abbot, a 3rd century AD Egyptian anchorite who is credited with being the father of the monastic tradition (long story). His sister, I read, directed an early community of nuns, but my sources don't even mention her name. I guess I don't have to ask why.

St Anthony is the patron saint of pigs (someone has to be). He takes care of other domestic animals too, but is also, interestingly, the patron saint of butchers (chickens take note). He looks after gravediggers too, and is prayed to for deliverance from all sorts of skin conditions and from the plague.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your blog is fasinating. how do you do it ?

The reason you seem to get North winds is because that is the prevailing wind direction where you are in the winter. Otherwise it could be North easterly or easterly but that's very cold from Russia. You should get north westerly winds sometimes which are the tail end of the UK's Atlantic depressions, these of course bring a lot of rain but are fast moving.

Thursday 17 January 2008

St Anthony Abbot

Three degrees at 8:30am, with blinding sunshine and a brisk breeze. Clear blue skies above, snow on the hills, including on Monte Giove, and a line of translucent white clouds slowly trekking their way south along the lake. Why have I never seen them trekking north?

Today is the feast day of St Anthony Abbot, a 3rd century AD Egyptian anchorite who is credited with being the father of the monastic tradition (long story). His sister, I read, directed an early community of nuns, but my sources don't even mention her name. I guess I don't have to ask why.

St Anthony is the patron saint of pigs (someone has to be). He takes care of other domestic animals too, but is also, interestingly, the patron saint of butchers (chickens take note). He looks after gravediggers too, and is prayed to for deliverance from all sorts of skin conditions and from the plague.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your blog is fasinating. how do you do it ?

The reason you seem to get North winds is because that is the prevailing wind direction where you are in the winter. Otherwise it could be North easterly or easterly but that's very cold from Russia. You should get north westerly winds sometimes which are the tail end of the UK's Atlantic depressions, these of course bring a lot of rain but are fast moving.