When the saints come marching in...

May 1, 2007 2:13 PM

HagiographyFilter: Looking for a reference for Catholic Saints' Days in Hispanic cultures.

Deep into novel research, I find myself needing to know more about the Catholic saints (and specifically, saints' feast days or other honored days) in Hispanic cultures. Ideally, I'm looking for a calendar or other resource that tells me the saint, a little about them, and the day that they're celebrated.

My roadblocks are that a) I speak no Spanish myself, and b) I know nothing about Catholicism (let's not discuss how I came up with this character then, sigh).

Love me some Google, of course, but when I look at general listings of Catholic saints like this: List of Saints, I have no idea if one/some/all of these would resonate to a new friend from Mexico, or Cuba, or El Salvador. I know that some regions have their own saints, and we all love Our Lady of Guadalupe, but... then what?

I guess what I really need is either (a) confirmation that a nice all-encompassing list (like the one linked above) is good enough, and it's not that different from culture-to-culture within the Catholic tradition, or (b) a pointer to a resource that's better, if I were from Latin/Central/South America and Catholic, and wondering which feast-day it was today. If the resource is in Spanish, that's ok - I have friendly translators standing by.

posted by nkknkk to religion & philosophy (10 comments total)

1) Books called Lives of the Saints (Vida de los Santos) will have the saint's day, some description of their life, a list of who they're patron of, and frequently where they are most celebrated (and how)

2) If you've got a particular location in mind, look up the names of churches in that locale -- the most common/beloved saints tend to have more churches. Near Palermo, in Sicily, there are lots of San Giuseppes and San Nicolas -- Joe and Nick being two of the major patrons of the region.

3) If you live near a Mexican grocery store, go there and find the devotional candles. They're pillar candles in glass and they have pictures of a particular saint, along with a prayer to that saint. There's usually only a few of them, not the whole megillah, so you can get a sense of which saints are particularly beloved.
posted by katemonster at 2:35 PM on May 1, 2007

Also, googling "popular saint days Mexico" got me this link. Similarly for Ecuador, this link. According to this site, the Argentines are quite fond of St. Martin , although I can't tell which Martin from that page. Martin de Porres was from Peru, and considered by some to be one of the first Black saints, so he's probably got himself a decent following down there.
posted by katemonster at 2:43 PM on May 1, 2007

Oh, and (I'll stop talking after this...I think) -- picking from an all-encompassing list will probably not resonate with most Catholics. We can be pretty provincial with our saints. I can place family origins to within about 5 miles based on certain Sicilian saints whose names are used in their families. St. Brigid means nothing to us, and probably very little to most Salvadoreans. Your chances of happening onto a saint that would be meaningful to your character wouldn't be that great, without some more specific guidance.
On the other hand, some saints have extremely wide followings -- Saint Francis of Assisi being one of the most popular. I doubt many people would question anyone's devotion to him, no matter where the person was from.
posted by katemonster at 2:48 PM on May 1, 2007

What katemonster said: Try to be more culturally-specific than just the word "Hispanic". Are your characters and situations from a particular country? Even Mexico, Cuba, and El Salvador, which you mentioned, are different places with a separate history hundreds of years in the making.
posted by Robert Angelo at 3:19 PM on May 1, 2007

One more thing: I'm old enough to remember saints being "decommissioned" in the 1960s. You may find that particular Catholic have devotion to a saint (Christopher? Jude?) who is not necessarily part of the current pantheon (if that's the right word).
posted by Robert Angelo at 3:21 PM on May 1, 2007

Also, depending on what the charachteristics are, you might consider looking at patron saints of certain occupations/groups/countries. this is a pretty good listing of patron saints - it contains both places, and just about everything else (who knew there was a patron saint for ulcers? typhoid? fish dealers?)
posted by dpx.mfx at 3:32 PM on May 1, 2007

Also, that link contains the "memorial day" for each saint.
posted by dpx.mfx at 3:33 PM on May 1, 2007

Sorry -- here's a link to a calendar of saints. both links can be translated into spanish. I would think that if you find a particular day, you could find a saint on the list that could be connected to your charachter somehow. Good luck!
posted by dpx.mfx at 3:39 PM on May 1, 2007

To find out what saint's day it is today, search for "santoral mexicano" (substitute any country you want). You could also search for "santoral de octubre" or whatever month you need. The first result for "santoral mexicano" seems pretty good to me, based on my experience.

In my grandmother's generation and before, someone's 'santo' is more important than their birthday. For example, today is Santa Teresita del Niño Jesus and San Remigio's day. Anyone called Teresita or Remigio will expect to receive a congratulations call and maybe have a party. You don't have to be named like the saint that corresponds to your birthday, but it used to be (may still be in some places) common.

Most (almost all) towns have a patron saint, and a week long carnival takes place around the saints day. If you need information about a specific towns parties, search for something like "fiestas patronales sahuayo" (sahuayo is the first town that comes to mind), if you want to know a town's patron saint, search for "santo patron de sahuayo". You will find out that in Sahuayo, the celebrate San Santiago on July 25.

Something to keep in mind is that in most of Latin America, Catholic and pre Catholic traditions are mixed in interesting ways. For example, some people become Tastoanes on San Santiago's day. Look at the image and tell me how Catholic that looks to you :) I have seen people sacrificing chickens after mass in front of the altar in some major Mexican cathedrals.
posted by Dataphage at 4:38 PM on May 1, 2007

Excellent, thoughtful responses - thanks! To expand for the curious, I have some flexibility as to where my character is from, hence the overgeneralization of "Hispanic" - if I can find a definitive Saintly source I can adjust her citizenship easily. Fundamentally, she just needs to be from a toasty, non-English-speaking place (fish-out-of-water-factor in a frosty New England family), and have an expanded idea of the 'holy,' which I think the Saints can help accomplish. I just don't want to get my background egregiously wrong - and thanks to the HiveMind, I won't! Thanks again, from this longtime lurker but recent member...
posted by nkknkk at 5:11 AM on May 2, 2007