Tuesday, July 25, 2023

It is the 25th of July, 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

From 1995 to 2010, there was a Christian superhero who went by the name “Bibleman." He played boy Willy Aames (that’s Tommy from Eight is Enough and Buddy on Charles in Charge). I’ll let others make aesthetic criticism, but it was an attempt to take our fascination with superheroes and make one explicitly Christian. I was reminded of many a similar medieval endeavor in preparation for today, the feast of St. Christopher. One of the most popular saints in the Middle Ages, a man whose name would become a popular name on account of him and someone we know nothing about, except the superhero-like stories that would make him so popular.

We know there was a Christopher who was a martyr around the 3rd century. No less a name than St. Ambrose praised Christopher as a model saint and martyr, and from the 5th century, we have churches, monasteries, cities, and the like name after him. His name would become a common name in the West. To this day, medallions of St. Christopher are carried by many as a talisman for safe travels. So, why is his popularity despite no reliable historical evidence? His story, however, told could rival the best of Marvel. I’ve taken the various versions of his story and will recount a basic narrative.

He was perhaps a Canaanite named “Reprobus.” Perhaps he was a giant. Perhaps he had the face of a dog. One version has him conceived by a pagan on account of his wife’s prayers to the Virgin Mary. He grew up, big and strong, and decided to bind himself to the most powerful man he could find. Upon finding such a knight, he saw that the knight quivered at the name of the devil. So Reprobus went looking to serve this devil. Upon finding the devil, he noticed the devil became afraid in the presence of a cross. Asking the devil why, the devil told him of Christ, and Reprobus went looking to serve this Christ. Finding a hermit, he was instructed in the Christian religion, baptized, and renamed Christopher. If the story has him with a dog’s head, this is when he transforms into a handsome human-faced person. Unsure how he could serve his new master, the hermit told him that on account of his size, he should help ferry people across a particularly dangerous river, and so he did. Once, he heard his name called by a small child- upon finding the child, he carried him across the river until the weight of the child almost became too much to bear. Asking why this was so, the child revealed that he was bearing Christ and thus the sins of the world. Christopher means “Christ-bearer.”

He ends up going to see a mighty king who wants Christopher to worship his gods, and Christopher refuses. His miracles convert many, and the King has him imprisoned, tortured, and put to death, but he cannot be killed. He sends two women to seduce him, and they end up converting. 40 archers are sent to assail him with arrows, and Christopher defects them, sending one back into the eye of the king, who is blinded. When Christopher sees this, he tells the king that once he kills Christopher, he should mix his blood with some clay and put it on his eye. Christopher is beheaded, and the king mixes his blood with clay, and his eye is healed. The king is thus converted and converts to his kingdom.

Christopher was one of the 14 Holy Helpers in the Middle Ages, who prayed for help in traveling and particularly in the midst of the Black Death. His relics were collected- including a tooth (Saints have many teeth, so they were a particularly popular relic) the tooth was later found to be that of a hippopotamus.

In the 20th century, the Catholic Church tried to downplay his popular feast day, as he was never officially sainted, because, well… we have no such record. His story was one that grew out of legend and the desire to have a saint with the powers of mythical heroes, but one that professed Christ and bore him across a river. But prayers for intercession don’t make him a God- but rather one of those especially pious characters who some Christians believe can also pray with and for you- as might a good friend. And if there’s a friend with this kind of piety and power, why wouldn’t you move him up in the pantheon? At least, this is what happened with the mythic St. Christopher in the Middle Ages, a man assigned to today, the 25th of July, in old Roman Catholic calendars.

The last word for today comes from Galatians 4:

21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. 23 His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.

Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. 30 But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” 31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 25th of July 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. 

The show is produced by another Christopher whose teeth are also mistaken for those of a hippopotamus- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by who thinks Buddy Lembeck was one of the best comedic sidekicks in sitcom history- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.