Saintly Almanac- Exploring the stories of Saints: Saint Expedite

Whenever we think of the word expedite one might be inclined to image a process or service what quickens up for our benefit, to speed things up essentially, but perhaps one might even conjure the image of a certain saint which could do the same. This thought would be a forgiving one as the saint we will talk about this month performs such a miracle with both speed and efficiency, that saint in question being Expedite.

Saint Expedite origins

Saint Expedite (or Expeditus if you want to be all roman about it) was a roman centurion who lived sometime before the 4th century in the Roman Empire. Little is known about his upbringing, with our earliest evidence of his worship occurring during the middle ages. Even his name "Expeditus" was just a vague term used to describe a solider who carried very little or marches without his pack during campaigns, but another interesting detail about his name is that he is also sometimes called Elpidius. Some religious scholars like Hippolyte Delehaye even believe that Expeditus was a mistranslation of the roman name Elpidius, however this could be debated. Another theory as to how he got his name was through packages labeled as "expedite" (to perform quickly) which carried unidentified christian relics to churches all across Europe. Without any further context to these packages some people naturally assumed that the contents inside the package belonged to a person named Expedite instead, but this again is conjecture.

There exists a famous tale of his that recounts his conversion to Christianity. The story goes that he was debating about becoming christian one day and wasn't sure how to go about it, suddenly the Devil appeared as a nearby crow and shouted "cras, cras, cras" (which if you didn't know cras means 'tomorrow' in latin). Expeditus then said "NO! I will convert HODIE" (which meant TODAY in latin), and then caught the bird and stepped on it. In most of his depictions you'll see him stepping on a crow while he holds a cross that says hodie, representing his faith to Jesus and all that good stuff.

Now it was said that he was martyred around April 303 during the Diocletianic Persecution, which was the last and most severe christian prosecution in the empire's history. Despite even being removed from the Vatican's official list of martyrs by Pope Pius X in 1905, he still lives on in the catholic faith and we'll talk about some of his attributes and associations in the following list below:

• Saint Expedite is known as the patron saint of urgent cases, procrastinators, revolutionaries, merchants, sailors, and students during exams.

• Some of his symbols include a palm leaf in his left hand and his cross saying 'hodie' in his right, he also steps on a crow yelling 'cras' which in hindsight I think is a sound all crows shout?

• Some offerings you can give Saint Expedite are a slice of pound cake and a glass of wine, but conversely you could also give him a piece of bread and a glass of water. When lighting a candle in his name it is traditional to burn a red or yellow candle, as red represents his utility while yellow represents his success.

Conclusion:

Overall Saint Expedite is a powerful and excellent choice when it comes to quickening things up in your life, I would even argue that beyond Saint Michael and Saint Anthony he is among one of the most used saints in our shop! Perhaps someday you too may be able to witness his miraculous intervention by stopping in for a spell!