St. William of Roskilde

St. William of Roskilde was an Englishman who served as a missionary to Denmark in the 11th century. I couldn't find any really reliable sources on him except for the Catholic Encyclopedia which only states that he was bishop of Roskilde in Denmark from 1048-1076.

With so little information, I decided to focus on the location rather than the saint himself, and I incorporated the Danish flag into my outfit. I realize that Denmark wasn't really even a country in the 11th century, much less a country with a national flag, but I had to work with something. Here's a rendering of the Danish flag:

Pretty simple, so my outfit is also pretty simple:

However, it is raining today, so I've had to make a substitute shoe choice for walking around on campus. Those basket weave wedges will not stand up to the rain. So now I get a chance to show off my fantastic new rain boots! All the kids are wearing them. I love that they are pirate boots. Rain some more so I can wear them again!

St. Drithelm

St. Drithelm lived in Northumbria in the late 7th century. He was a nobleman with a wife and family. He fell ill and died, but returned to life the next morning having seen hell, purgatory, and heaven. He then gave all his possessions away to his family and to the poor and became a monk in Scotland.

I've taken my inspiration today from his description of Purgatory as related in Bede's Ecclesiastical History: "it was a vast and delightful field, so full of fragrant flowers that the odor of its delightful sweetness immediately dispelled the stink of the dark furnace, which had pierced me through and through. So great was the light in this place, that it seemed to exceed the brightness of the day, or the sun in its meridian height. In this field were innumerable assemblies of men in white, and companies seated together rejoicing" (Book 5, Chapter XII)

This top is another hand-me-down from my friend Erin and fits the Purgatory bill exactly. White and flowery. When I got it, it had a giant ruffle around the collar. I'm not really a giant ruffle kind of girl, so I took it off. This is a huge step for me. Typically, if a piece of clothing is not exactly right as is, I don't wear it. However, I am learning to be more flexible. If I don't like a certain feature, I can change it. And if I still don't like it even after the change, it's no real loss because it's not like I was going to wear it anyway!

I also wanted to make a special mention of the necklace I'm wearing. It was a gift from my father-in-law who got it for me when he was in China last year. It is a very pretty green jade butterfly. Last summer I was having dinner with Erin and another friend Kelly and both were wearing floral prints with necklaces that had bunny pendants on them. They both told funny little stories about how they imagine their bunnies hopping through the flowers on their shirts. That stuck with me, and all day today I've imagined my little jade butterfly flitting through the flowers on my top. But hopefully not through Purgatory, because that would be sad.

St. Aidan of Lindisfarne

St. Aidan of Lindisfarne was an Irish monk who served as a missionary to the people of Northumbria in the 7th century. He founded the monastery at Lindisfarne and he was buried there in 651. Today is his feast day.

The Venerable Bede, who wrote extensively of St. Aidan in his Ecclesiastical History, relates that during a raid on the monastery, St. Aidan's prayers caused the fires which the raiders had lit to blow back on themselves. Wikipedia claims that because of this incident St. Aidan is the patron saint of firefighters, although I haven't found anyone else who says that.

In any case, I went with it as inspiration for the outfit. Red!