A Saint and a Savior

Posted by Katrien Vander Straeten Oct 24, 2006

The time is fast approaching for Advent It will begin on 3 December this year.

I vaguely remember this time from my childhood. I went to Catholic school for a long time: from kindergarten until I was 18, and even did a stint at two Catholic Universities. But the liturgical calendar, the procession of the ecclesiastical seasons, punctuated by major and minor spiritual events, was most visible during my primary school years (6 to 12 years). Perhaps that was because that particular school made a point of bringing the church into the classroom. But it is more likely that, as a child, I was more receptive to (organized) religion.

This childish interest is evident in what I remembered of Advent before I researched this week’s article. I recalled the colors and the candles. I also, indistinctly, recollected the feeling of waiting, a strange mix of hopeful expectancy and fearful apprehensiveness.

I am no longer a Catholic, and my kind of Christianity extends to Christ the historical figure. As a philosophy student, I’ve studied religion, atheism, etc. On the issue of the existence of God I am an agnost. I firmly believe in the value of spirituality and morality (just not of the religious kind).

From my childhood and adolescence I have come into a deep respect for religion, an interest in its history, its psychology, its theories, as well as a fondness for its ceremonies and aesthetics.

So Advent speaks to me on several levels. Its psychological holism: there is hope and fear, solemnity and celebration, penitence and joy… Advent has it all! It has breathtaking eschatology as well as intimate joy for the birth of an infant. I love its symbolic appearance: a countdown with candles and fire, the beautiful color purple. And there is a fascinating and complicated history to be discovered…

But first, on 3 November, Catholics celebrate Saint Hubert’s Feast Day. Saint Hubert, who died in 727, is an interesting character: a hunter, a sinner, a priest and a bishop. But in the region of East-Flanders, around the city Ghent in Belgium, Hubert is also the Saint in whose name the priests will bless a special kind of bread called a “mastel”. Upon the blessing it will turn into “Saint Hubert’s Bread” which, especially when eaten on an empty stomach while reciting an "Our Father," will immunize the eater against rabies. No, really. Read all about these miraculous mastellen!