The St. Crispin Crisp, and Other Funny Phrases

Since I'm doing a lot more cooking and baking lately, and because I like learning more about the saints, I thought I'd briefly share another kitchen adventure with a lesson about faith.

And this adventure involves ice cream, so stick around.

Yesterday, October 25, was the feast of the French evangelist, St. Crispin. I learned this from one of my favorite blogs, Waltzing Matilda, who posted a delicious-sounding recipe on Catholic Cuisine. This post of hers featured a St. Crispin Apple Crisp.



Which it is. It absolutely is. This is the crust you have been waiting for, the crust you thought you could never recreate, the crust that haunts your dreams. All pies, tarts, crumbles, cobblers and pastry-like items that I can try to make with this crust will be made.

...

(Thanks for sticking with me after that awkward last sentence.)



The faith lesson you ask? Well, only a world that our good Lord has designed could allow you to apply flour, dairy and a little heat to this:



And get this:



(This is your cue to be upset that you don't live in my house.)

A Look at St. Maximilian Kolbe

Saturday (August 14) is the feast day of one of my favorite saints, St. Maximilian Kolbe.

I say favorite like when parents say they have a favorite child, or rainbows have a favorite color, or me picking a favorite food.

Ok, glad to have cleared up how I feel.

Seriously, St. Maximilian is probably one of the coolest, best examples of saintly living in the last century. He is the patron saint of journalists (which makes him inherently awesome), so I have had a special connection to him for years.

In brief, he was born in Russia-occupied Poland, grew up to be a Franciscan priest, created and published the magazine Militia of the Immaculata (on a prayer and zero capital), took his missionary work to Japan and India, returned to Poland, and was arrested alongside his brother priests--twice.

The second time, 1941, he ended up in Auschwitz.

Truly, the most awe-inspiring element of his life is his death: In July 1941, one of the prisoners in Auschwitz escaped one evening. It was not until the next morning that both the other prisoners and the guards discovered that he was gone. To scare the other prisoners out of doing the same, and as a projected punishment, the Nazi guards selected ten men from the camp to be locked away and starved to death. One of the men selected had a wife and children, and begged to live.

Father Kolbe asked to take the man's place.

While the ten men, weakened from work at the camp, should have died within a few days, they remained alive for much longer (up to two weeks) by singing hymns and praying the Rosary. Father Kolbe was the last to die. He didn't starve to death, but rather was killed by lethal injection by the guards.

There is so much to admire about a man like this. Instead of thinking things like, "I could never be that good. I could never do all that," I like to think more about achieving what I can through the same route: a service of love. St. Maximilian lived to serve our Lord and His people. And really, there isn't a better way to live.

Like so many other topics that make their way to this blog, I cannot begin to do St. Maximilian Kolbe justice here. I highly recommend reading more about him here and here, learning about the Militia of the Immaculata here, and learning a bit more about martyrdom in general here and here.

A Look at St. Thomas More

A few years back, I was part of a college-age church group that studied the saints. Being in that group allowed me to realize that I really liked learning about the people who have walked on this earth and, despite personal and social challenges, offered everything they could to Christ.

We studied some pretty cool people in that group, and one of those cool people's feast day is today. That is St. Thomas More.

I can't truly begin to highlight all the awesome things about this saint (scholarly, witty, faithfully married, defended the Church, wrote "Utopia"), so I'm leading you to some sources should you be so inclined. I'll definitely be sharing more in the future about certain saints that have been a big inspiration to me.

St. Thomas More Wikipedia (but fairly accurate) bio here and some awesome excerpts and notes here. For a more (ha!) in-depth look at the saint, click here.

Enjoy!