Here’s a good question for the sports-minded. An Austrian journalist and (of course) the Salesian News Agency are promoting Saint John Bosco. It’s probably not lofty enough for John Paul II, who still awaits official sainthood. He was a very athletic-minded and outdoors guy, well into his papacy. Don’t know if he played soccer. Probably, eh?
Saints Christopher and Sebastian are called upon to watch over athletes, but I think soccer is significant enough for its own special patron.
Whom would you suggest?
21 July 2010 at 10:00 pm
Pope JP II played soccer when he was young. He was a goalkeeper and apparently a good one according to those who knew him back then. Probably played a little on the field too.
22 July 2010 at 5:52 am
Found in a church in Mexico City:
http://tiny.cc/mo1tx
22 July 2010 at 6:49 am
I would think the answer is obvious: St Jude the Apostle. For the losers.
On a more ghoulish note (though not quite as gruesome as people who were actually martyred by kicking), St Irenaeus of Lyon, whose body was disinterred from its shrine during the French Wars of Religion and the head was kicked about in the streets….
22 July 2010 at 1:51 pm
Ew!!
22 July 2010 at 2:27 pm
Yeah, but it’s actually pretty consistent with the way patron saints have been popularly adopted over the centuries. I mean, St Lawrence as patron of cooks (being martyred via roasting on a gridiron), and St Sebastian as patron of archers, et cet. This species of ghoulishness is a pretty ancient Catholic expression of bravado.
22 July 2010 at 2:39 pm
These guys stick with Ss. Christopher and Sebastian:
http://www.catholicsupply.com/christmas/soccer.html
15 November 2010 at 4:09 pm
John Paul II! He was a goalkeeper in Poland as a boy