St. Elzear and Blessed Delphina
May 23rd, 2007Whenever I want to sent an e-card… which is pretty frequently… I always rush over to CatholicGreetings.com because they have the best ones.
Religious art, specifically Catholic art, from a historical perspective was the benchmark of terrific back in the Renaissance but it’s been on a slippery slide since then and in fact, is almost completely sucky. Saints Cards (used to great effect in Santería and Voudou) have a certain retro-tacky wonderfulness (even the Go-Gos agree), but post-1950 it’s a lot of lazy stock images of out-of-focus nature and painfully sincere colored-pencil drawings of prostrate tow-headed children.
Anyway, back to CatholicGreetings… aside from the dozens of John Paul II e-cards (the best!) they link to a saint-of-the-day archive and I was clicking through and found this:
September 26
Blessed Delphina (St. Elzear and Blessed Delphina)
(1283-1358)This is the only Franciscan couple to be canonized or beatified formally.
Elzear came from a noble family in southern France. After he married Delphina, she informed him that she had made a vow of perpetual virginity; that same night he did the same. For a time Elzear, Count of Ariano, was a counselor to Duke Charles of Calabria in southern Italy. Elzear ruled his own territories in the kingdom of Naples and in southern France with justice.
Elzear and Delphina joined the Secular Franciscans and dedicated themselves to the corporal works of mercy. Twelve poor people dined with them every day. A statue of Elzear shows him curing several people suffering from leprosy.
Their piety extended to the running of their household. Everyone there was expected to attend Mass daily, go to confession weekly and be ready to forgive injuries.
After Elzear’s death, Delphina continued her works of charity for 35 more years. She is especially remembered for raising the moral level of the king of Sicily’s court.
Elzear and Delphina are buried in Apt, France. He was canonized in 1369, and she was beatified in 1694.
These people sound like a total drag. I’ve bolded the relevant sections. First off, she waits until they’re married to tell him about her “perpetual virginity,” what a tease! He swears too… sure, buddy. Now, on to their holy lives… they sound like first rate nags and nagging specifically those lower in station and in fact, in their total control, to do what they want—poor people eating their food and their servants.
Finally, the wife is the one who started this “let’s be virgins” thing and then does “works of charity” for 35 years after his death… he gets made a saint right away and 300+ years later she’s only “beatified” (For my non-Catholic homies, there’s three levels to being canonized: venerable, blessed and then, saint). Anyway, perfect case of sexism in the workplace… work harder, longer and make 2/3 the paycheck.