Whether or not you attended Sunday schoolhouse , keeping track of all the Christian saints is an almost superhuman project : organized religion and culture writer Peter Stanfordestimatesthat there are 10,000 recognized in Catholicism alone . And while stories about the deed of some holy healer and leader remain popular decades or centuries after they were first told , many of the most surprising miracle have been forgotten . Here are just eight you might not know about .
1. ST. DENIS CARRIES HIS OWN HEAD THROUGH THE STREETS OF PARIS.
St. Denis , first bishop of Paris , was reportedly martyr along with his companions St. Eleutherius and St. Rusticus by the local regulator Sissinius ( believably during Emperor Decius ’s persecution of Christians in the tertiary century ) after they converted a number of pagans to the Christian faith . lilliputian is known about the details of the martyrdom other than that the three men were reportedly torment and decapitated near Paris ; their followers recover the bodies , which were laid to rest where the Abbey of St. Denis was progress centuries subsequently .
As Phyllis G. Jestice , scholar and source ofHoly People of the earthly concern : A bad-tempered - ethnic Encyclopedia , Volume 1,points out , however , the legend of St. Denis ’s most far-famed miracle describes his journey to his final resting place as happening rather differently . A late 5th - century school text shew the still - democratic tale of St. Denis carrying his own decapitated head Charles William Post - death penalty several miles from what ’s presently Montmartre to where the Benedictine abbey at Saint Denis presently stands .
2. ST. BLAAN CREATES FIRE WITH HIS FINGERTIPS.
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Believed to have been active in the 6th century , the Scottish bishop St. Blaan is credit with several miracles , include lighting fires on at least one occasion using only his deal . James King Hewison’s1893 textual matter describes the initial fabled incident :
While producing fire from one ’s fingertip is an amazing act in any epoch , for Monk from the Middle Ages — who were tasked with the long process of making a fire — the termmiraculouswas clever . As Paul Burns ' revise version of Alban Butler’sLives of the Saintsobserves , " This and other curious miracles ascribed to Blaan take the stand to the harsh weather condition of the age and place , and to what , under them , was an appropriately surpassing achievement . "
3. ST. BRIGIT ENDOWS WATER WITH THE POWER OF LOVE …
Brigit ( or Brigid ) of Kildare has been a venerated Catholic material body since not long after her death circa 525 CE , harmonise to Jestice , and is one of Ireland ’s three patron holy man . During her life of chastity and Christian service , she reportedly performed or find many miracle — crop from the healing of ailing mendicant to hanging her cold , wet clothes on a sunray — and once assisted a man whose married woman had lost her flicker for the marriage , accord to Lady Gregory Augusta’s1908 collectionof phratry noesis and traditional knowledge regarding saints :
According to the legend , though , this providential change may have come with a toll : Later on , when the man had just embark upon a journeying at sea , he saw that his wife had followed him to the shore and , unable to sweep the fleck of water now differentiate them , say " that if he would not descend back to her , she would go into the sea that was between them . "
4. … AND TURNS HER BATHWATER INTO BEER.
Today , St. Brigit is stillwell knownfor herlegendary appreciation of beer , which pop up throughout accounts of her life and work ( miraculous and otherwise ) . Lady Gregory , for good example , let in the pursual in her list of “ Things Brigit Wished For ” as the saint ’s very first desire : " I would bid a great lake of ale for the King of Kings ; I would wish the kin of Heaven to be booze it through life and clock time . "
fit in to caption , though , she did n’t just bid for beer ; she also produced it by providential agency . Max Nelson’sThe Barbarian ’s Beverage : A History of Beer in Ancient Europenotes that various texts consult to the miracle of St. Brigid turning her bathwater into beer so that she may better host some last - minute visiting clerics , and even a hymnal reference book in which she “ seems to turn water into Margaret Mead . ”
5. DON BOSCO GETS HELP FROM IL GRIGIO, HIS GUARDIAN DOG.
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According to Dr. Charles d’Espiney’s1884 accountof the life and works of Don Bosco , a.k.a . St. John Bosco , the nineteenth - one C Italian non-Christian priest was at times accompanied by a gravid dog that would mostly appear in times of motivation , and whose dark gray coat earned him the nickname Il Grigio . In her1885 re - tellingof d’Espiney ’s narrative of the saint , Elizabeth Raymond - Barker explains that the huge weenie ’s initial show one drear night was as sudden and mysterious as many of its subsequent ones , but that it quick became the priest ’s trusted companion :
Il Grigio come out periodically throughout Don Bosco ’s ulterior life-time , repeatedly keeping him safe on lonely walks home and once help the saint find his way when lost on a late - dark journey . The pup reportedly saved the saint ’s life history from would - be assassins in an escalating series of attacks , too , but Don Bosco ’s power to communicate with and call off Il Grigio ensured that his aggressor never end up as mincemeat themselves .
The detent was n’t all concern , either , and — while he reportedly never took food or drink from the priest ’s grateful follower — he welcomed affection from Don Bosco and from the children of the church ’s resort area , too ; consort to Barker , " At first inclined to be shy of this young conversance , [ they promptly ] hailed him as a playfellow : some mounted his back , some stroke his silken pinna , and they take him thus to the refectory . "
6. ST. MARTIN DE PORRES BROKERS PEACE WITH THE RAT POPULATION.
hold in 1579 , St. Martin de Porres , who theAfrican American Registrycalls “ the first grim saint in the Americas , ” head a very interfering , abstinent , and accomplish lifespan in Lima , Peru . His very hard oeuvre as a handmaiden — the only job he was allow to take at the Dominicans of Holy Rosary Priory — inspired the order to rethink its heathen barriers and even promote him to the un - ordained lieu of lay blood brother , while his prodigious power as a sawbones and healer cause a steady stream of patient close and far to assay his helpthroughout his life .
His reverence for biography did n’t end with human beings , though ; popular legend has it that , when he was asked to place out poisonous substance for a population of strikebreaker that was irksome to the resident prior , the vegetarian and future ideal did as he was asked but then called out for them in the convent ’s garden , told them about the poison , and catch them to agree not to bother the anterior anymore .
7. ST. GUTHLAC EXORCISES A DEMON WITH HIS BELT.
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The medieval monk fought evil in various figure throughout his lifetime in the seventh and former 8th hundred , and was legendarily given a protective whip or scourge by St. Bartholomew for enjoyment on demons . However , he also made use of his own belt ( or “ girdle ” ) when necessary ; the item was “ good against headache,”William George Blackpoints out , and even allowed St. Guthlac to free a adult male from demonic clutch , according toThe Anglo - Saxon Version of the Life of St. Guthlac , Hermit of Crowland :
8. ST. NICHOLAS BEGINS FASTING ON HOLY DAYS AS A BABY.
