I live in Glastonbury. It’s a place full of traditions
concerning saints and historical figures whose details can be considered
downright dubious if not entirely false. Joseph of Arimathea and King Arthur
are the prime examples. We can add saints Patrick, Bridget, and Benignus. There
is something about the atmosphere surrounding these people here that is
nonetheless compelling and beautiful. An attitude of devotion seems to bear
fruit.
Coming from such a background has probably helped me to
appreciate the profoundly mysterious Saint Expedite, revered as a great worker
of miracles concerning money and luck, despite all manner of problems in
establishing his historical credentials.
We have a modest biographical story that is not entirely
dissimilar to that of a number of other saints. Expedite was a Roman soldier
from Armenia, who made the decision to convert to Christianity. The Devil
appeared to him either in the form of a crow or a snake and tried to persuade
him to wait until the following day to finalise his decision. Expedite slew the
animal immediately, affirming that he would be a Christian that very day. This
part of his story is depicted in standard images of him where he has one foot
standing on the dying crow holding a ribbon in its beak with the word Cras written on it, which means tomorrow, and has the Latin word Hodie, meaning today, written on a cross
he is holding up. Expedite is thereby connected with procrastination-busting
and fast solutions to problems. In 303AD, during the time of a persecution of
Christians by the Emperor Diocletian, Expedite was one of the victims of a mass
beheading. April 19th is honoured as the date of this.
The source material for his story is minimal. The fifth
century Martyrology of Jerome lists
saints and martyrs with the dates of their feast days. That this source
contains difficulties is obvious in the case of Expedite who is listed for two
consecutive days, April 18th and 19th, suggesting that the compiler was a tad
slipshod. He has no official relics. It’s difficult to find traces of devotion
to him until recent times. Back in the sixties, the Second Vatican Council
included him among a number of saints whose status was revoked. Nonetheless,
his devotion in some parts of the world has not just persisted but intensified.
His very name is problematical. The details of the
development of his devotion are full of punning and word play that don’t seem
suggestive of historical veracity. A great example of the peculiarities
involved in dealing with him can be found in a number of essentially identical
stories found in France, Brazil, Haiti, and New Orleans. A crate containing the
bones of a saint is delivered to a religious community with a word such as Spedito written on it. This suggests its
delivery was marked as urgent but the recipients take it to refer to the name
of the saint as no other documentation indicates the identity.
His greatest popularity is probably in New Orleans, where he
has been considered to be a kind of patron saint of the city. A variant of the
crate story supposedly dating from around 1900 has Spanish priests ordering a
statue of the Virgin Mary and two crates being received. The second contained a
statue of a male dressed as a Roman soldier and was simply labelled Espedito. Another
version extends back a century and features French nuns. In both versions the
statue becomes venerated and attracts increasing attention due to apparent rapid
answering of prayers. This rapidity is clearly connected with the name
Expedite. There are many cases where the attributes of saints, the kind of
things one might prayer to them for, are developed from their names due to the
paucity of information about them. These are the kinds of figures who might
endure in folk traditions.
New Orleans is a legendary cultural mix. The veneration of
saints crosses over from Catholicism into Voodoo and Hoodoo. Devotion blends
with magic. Expedite is petitioned more on certain days. He is associated with
colours of candles and so on. There is a particular way of arranging an altar
when a request is being made. Novenas and general prayers accompany this. He
has become best known not just for procrastination busting but for rapid
solutions that usually involve money to otherwise intractable life problems.
There is a protocol for thanking him when it is felt he has intervened. Flowers
are offered. Cakes. He is publicly saluted. In the modern age of social media
that might involve a Facebook or Twitter post.
Veneration of St Expedite in such a manner could not persist without the innumerable accounts of those feeling that they have had definite results from their prayers.
This post itself fulfills a promise made to Saint Expedite.
I am indebted to The Conjurer’s Guide to St Expedite by
Denise M Alvarado for a wealth of obscure information and details on how to approach
the saint.
Glory be to St Expedite.
