St Christopher
In the wake of the Second Vatican Church Council in the 1960s a number of popular saints, whose historical claims were shaky, had their status downgraded. They were removed from the universal liturgical calendar though local devotion to some of them was still permissible. Among those named in this cull were St Nicholas, St Catherine of Alexandria and St Christopher, who is celebrated on this day by the Eastern Church.
According to legend, Christopher (literally “Christ-bearer”) was a giant who announced that wished to serve the greatest king. He placed himself under a local monarch but noticed that he crossed himself at the mention of the devil and concluded that the devil must be greater. A bandit chief proclaimed himself the very devil and Christopher served him until he noticed that the outlaw avoided a roadside cross, so he sought out Christ. He was converted by a Christian hermit who told him that he could serve Christ by helping travellers ford a dangerous river. The medieval hagiography The Golden Legend continues the story:
And in a time, as he slept in his lodge, he heard the voice of a child which called him and said: Christopher, come out and bear me over. Then he awoke and went out, but he found no man. And when he was again in his house, he heard the same voice and he ran out and found nobody. The third time he was called and came thither, and found a child beside the rivage of the river, which prayed him goodly to bear him over the water. And then Christopher lift up the child on his shoulders, and took his staff, and entered into the river for to pass. And the water of the river arose and swelled more and more: and the child was heavy as lead, and alway as he went farther the water increased and grew more, and the child more and more waxed heavy, insomuch that Christopher had great anguish and was afeard to be drowned. And when he was escaped with great pain, and passed the water, and set the child aground, he said to the child: Child, thou hast put me in great peril; thou weighest almost as I had all the world upon me, I might bear no greater burden. And the child answered: Christopher, marvel thee nothing, for thou hast not only borne all the world upon thee, but thou hast borne him that created and made all the world, upon thy shoulders. I am Jesu Christ the king, to whom thou servest in this work. And because that thou know that I say to be the truth, set thy staff in the earth by thy house, and thou shalt see to-morn that it shall bear flowers and fruit, and anon he vanished from his eyes. And then Christopher set his staff in the earth, and when he arose on the morn, he found his staff like a palmier bearing flowers, leaves and dates.
Christopher is then said to have gone to Lycia in what is now southern Turkey where he converted many before he was martyred, supposedly in the mid-third century persecution by the emperor Decius. Many today still wear St Christopher medals to keep them safe when travelling.