the Saints the virgins are always getting into trouble and I dont know
why.The dictionary says,Virgin, woman (usually a young woman) who
is and remains in a state of inviolate chastity.
Now I have to look up inviolate and chastity and all I can find here
is that inviolate means not violated and chastity means chaste and that
means pure from unlawful sexual intercourse. Now I have to look up
intercourse and that leads to intromission, which leads to intromittent,
the copulatory organ of any male animal. Copulatory leads to copula-
tion, the union of the sexes in the art of generation and I dont know
what that means and Im too weary going from one word to another in
this heavy dictionary which leads me on a wild goose chase from this
word to that word and all because the people who wrote the dictionary
dont want the likes of me to know anything.
All I want to know is where I came from but if you ask anyone they
tell you ask someone else or send you from word to word.
All these virgin martyrs are told by Roman judges they have to give
up their faith and accept the Roman gods but they say, Nay, and the
judges have them tortured and killed. My favorite is St. Christina the
Astonishing who takes ages to die.The judge says, Cut off her breast,
and when they do she throws it at him and he goes deaf dumb and
blind. Another judge is brought on the case and he says, Cut off the
other breast, and the same thing happens. They try to kill her with
arrows but they just bounce off her and kill the soldiers who shot them.
They try to boil her in oil but she rocks in the vat and takes a nap for
herself.Then the judges get fed up and have her head cut off and that
does the job.The feast of St. Christina the Astonishing is the twenty-
fourth of July and I think Ill keep that for myself along with the feast
of St. Francis of Assisi on the fourth of October.
The librarian says,You have to go home now, the rain is stopped, and
when Im going out the door she calls me back.She wants to write a note
to my mother and she doesnt mind one bit if I read it.The note says,Dear
Mrs.McCourt,Just when you think Ireland is gone to the dogs altogether
you find a boy sitting in the library so absorbed in the Lives of the Saints
he doesnt realize the rain has stopped and you have to drag him away
from the aforesaid Lives. I think, Mrs. McCourt, you might have a future
priest on your hands and I will light a candle in hopes it comes true. I
remain,Yours truly, Catherine ORiordan,Asst. Librarian.
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