Conversion of St. Paul

When I was fielding all the comments about my equestrian outfit today, I was like, "It's the conversion of St. Paul. He was on horseback when it happened." And, then, when I actually read the part of the Bible that describes it, no horse is mentioned at all. For all we know, he could have been walking. Chagrin :(. Then, I found this picture from a 15th century manuscript, and St. Paul is totally on horseback. Aha! In fact, in most of the art depicting his conversion, Paul is on horseback which must be how I got that idea.

The story is that before he converted to Christianity, Paul (then called Saul) was a huge persecutor of Christians and even participated in martyring them. Then, as he was traveling to Damascus, a great light appeared and blinded him, and he heard a voice asking, "Saul, why are you persecuting me?" Paul fell to the ground and asked what he should do. The voice told him to go into the city, which he did. He remained blind for several days until he met a Christian man who healed him. Paul remained there a while, converted to Christianity and changed his name from Saul to Paul, then went on to become one of the most influential people in Christianity.

So, here's the outfit:

St. Timothy

The entry for St. Timothy in the Golden Legend is very short. It basically just says that under the Emperor Nero he was martyred by having quicklime poured down his throat. Yikes. Ouch. The Catholic Encyclopedia mentions that he had a pious grandmother named Lois who was praised by the apostle Paul.

So, I had those two elements in mind when I put together this outfit. I only have office hours on Mondays, so I am going more casual than usual. I decided jeans were OK if I was just in the office and not teaching. So, jeans at work! Plus a choker to call attention to the throat. Also, while Timothy had a pious grandmother named Lois, I have a pious mother-in-law named Lois, and she gave me this T-shirt as a present. So, there you go: