A Saint a Day for November!

Inspired by Matt Ryan's Faerie a Day for November,(magioftom.wordpress.com/

These are real saints, and obviously no disrespect is intended towards these Holy men and women. In fact quite the opposite, I hope that readers will be curious enough to explore more about the real saints underlying the game mechanics.

Being a busy chap I can't promise I will manage to do all thirty, but I'll give it a go. I hope to cover every Tribunal, to give as much utility to these stats as possible. I may have made errors in my calculations so feel free to comment or critique directly in this thread.

All Saints have the following statistics in Ars Magica terms.
Characteristics: Int +5, Per +5, Pre +5, Com +5.
Confidence Score: 2 (10)

Powers in bold italics are detailed under the saint, powers in italics are from ROP: The Divine

Day One

[size=150]Saint David, Patron Saint of Wales[/size]

Patron Saint: Wales, Normans in Hibernia, St David's Pembrokeshire.
Divine Might 50
Feast: 1st March
Area of Veneration: Stonehenge & Hibernia Tribunals – Wales, England, English controlled areas of Ireland.
Personality Traits: Pious+6, Chaste+3, Resolute+3.
Powers: Acknowledgment of Evil, Apparition, Cure Blindness, Purify the Poisoned, Raise Up the Righteous, Refute Heretic, Resist Temptation , Raise the Dead, Ride Sea Serpent, Victory in Battle.

Saint David was son of the King Sant of Cardigan and a nun, Nonno, whom the wicked king violated. He was on his father's side a great nephew of the famous King Arthur, his birth was predicted by Saint Patrick decades before. A great Evangelist among the British, he founded many monasteries and performed many miracles, including curing blindness, and raising the dead. His most famous miracle was when the crowd who had gathered to hear him preach was so large he raised a hill under himself so all could see and hear him. He died around 589.AD.

Patron of the Welsh, he founded Saint David's Cathedral, at the town of Saint David's Pembrokeshire, Wales). a pilgrimage site. (Two pilgrimages to Saint David's are believed in 1220 to be equal to a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; so two separate pilgrimages might be played out as one Major Pilgrimage, if you are using the rules in The Church.)

His symbol is the leek, and the Welsh Marcher lords who invaded Ireland invoke Saint David as their patron saint for protection in battle.

New Powers

Raise Up The Righteous, 4 points, Init -3, Terram. By this miracle St. David can cause the land to rise, forming a small hill around the person blessed, about the size of a motte from a motte and bailey castle, and a Boundary across. The process is quite gentle, but anyone speaking from the summit can clearly be heard and be seen from all around, and the hill remains there forever after. (Based on Cursing Guidelines, ROP:The Divine, p.51)

Refute Heretic, 3 points, Init +2 Mentem. Confounds a Christian heretic in their arguments, given them -3 in all rolls to express their heretical beliefs until sunrise or sunset. Saint David in life refuted the Pelagian heresy. (Based on Wonders Guidelines, ROP:The Divine, p.56)

Ride Sea Serpent, 5 points, Init 0, Animal. A huge Sea Monster can be calmed by the intervention of the Saint, and can be safely ridden, carrying the blessed and her companions across the seas until a shore is reached. Saint David used this miracle in his life to cross over to Ireland in an emergency.

Purify the Poisoned,
6 points, Init -7, Herbam/Animal/Aquam. Food and drink that has been poisoned is made safe and palatable by this miracle, up to a single great feast's worth.

Victory In Battle, 5 points, Init 0, Mentem. Gives a great boost to morale to up to 1000 warriors after the name of St. David is invoked. This is reflected by a +1 to all attack rolls for the duration of the battle, so confident are they in victory. (Based on Blessing Guidelines, ROP:The Divine, p.51)

Today is the feast day of St Amabilis of Riom, patron Saint against fire and snakes. How about 'statting' this fellow CJ?

moved to day 20

Day 2

I love this one, quite a character, and with a widespread cultus so many player characters can be devoted to him.

[size=150]Saint Gengulphus, (“Saint Jingo”) [/size]

Patron Saint: Tanners, Shoemakers, Children, Horses, Dowsers, Unhappily Married Husbands; invoked against lameness, adulterers and to straighten the crippled.
Divine Might 50
Feast: May 11th
Area of Veneration: Normandy, Provence, Rhine, Greater Alps and Stonehenge Tribunals. Especially Burgundy, Swabia, Swiss Alps, Provence; relics at Varennes-sur-Amance, and part of his head at the Gangolfskirche in Bamberg . (The cultus of St. Gengulphus is surprisingly widespread – for full details of dedicated churches and more see the excellent website of Paul Trenchard at gengulphus.org/index.php/wel ... ue_welcome
the best website on a saint I have ever seen.)
Personality Traits: Pious +6, Just +3, Charitable +3.
Powers: Apparition, , Curse of Flatulence, Dysenteric Infliction, Holy Spring, Straighten the Crippled, Test of Gengulphus, The Feast of Worms.

Saint Gengulphus was a Burgundian noble who lived during the reign of Pepin the Short. A brave knight, he traveled far in the service of the Frankish empire, and was away from home for long periods. He was also a great hunter, and this too took him away from home, with tragic consequences. On his journey home one day he stopped to rest and eat by a spring in a field. The peasant who owned the field arrived, and Gengulphus gave him a large sum of silver to buy the spring, and take it with him. The peasant happily agreed!
On his return home his wife berated him for his foolishness, but he plunged his staff in to the ground and as he withdrew it water bubbled up as the spring burst forth. His wife was possibly unimpressed; she had already during his absences taken a lover, a local priest.

Soon common gossip of the affair reached Gengulphus; unsurprising given his well known kindness and generosity to the poor. He reacted calmly, going for a walk with his wife till he came to the spring. There he told her of the rumours, and asked if she would prove her innocence by plunging her hand in to the cool waters; if she was guilty God would send a sign. She laughed and agreed at once, but as she put her hand in the water she screamed, for the water turned red hot and scalded her badly!

Gengulphus sadly departed his wife, allowing her to keep the house and dowry. She however was determined to dispose of him now, and one night her lover crept in to his house, and tried to decapitate him with a sword. Gengulphus leapt up and chased off the evil priest, but took a mortal wound to his thigh.

His relics were taken to Varennes, and there interred. Many miracles were worked as his tomb, and meanwhile the murderous priest died in agony upon the privy, his very bowels falling out so afflicted was he by diarrhea.

Gengulphus' unrepentant wife remained frankly sceptical, and went to see the tomb where many miracles were said to happen, crying out that if Gengulphus bones worked miracles so could her arse! From that day on, every Friday whenever she tried to speak instead she farted loudly, and thus shamed she soon died in misery.

New Powers

Test of Gengulphus, 2 points, Init 3, Mentem. A natural spring of water becomes briefly endowed with a test of fidelity. If an unfaithful wife places her arm within it, she suffers +5 damage as the waters turn scalding hot. A faithful wife simply gets wet. This effect lasts for just one trial, and there is no visible sign if the spring has been effected by the power or not.

Curse of Flatulence, 4 points, Init -3, Corpus. Every Friday thereafter the victim is unable to speak; instead whenever they try to all that happens is they issue forth noxious and extremely loud farts, to the glee of their enemies, the amusement of the populace, and the horror of their friends.

Holy Spring, 4 points, Init -3, Aquam The saint causes a spring of perfectly pure and nourishing water to spring up for the benefit of the petitioner. The miraculous spring remains forever more, as a permanent addition to the landscape.

EDIT: Just noticed Erik had already covered "bloody flux" with the Dysenteric Infliction power in ROP: The Divine p.89, so changed it to that.

Further reading: Paul Trenchard's wonderful site at gengulphus.org/index.php/wel ... ue_welcome

There is a certain earthiness to his saint. I love it. What is the Hermetic equivalent of the bloody flux? Maybe I'll drum that up today.

Yes, he was in the Victorian period rather bowdlerised, but all authentic to his legend. Have a look at Paul Trenchard's website. I sometimes think we are so used to fantasy novels and modern knightly romances we forget how alien, and yet how human and down to earth, Mythic Europe can be, both at the same time!

If anyone has any requests do speak up, otherwise tomorrow I'm turning to a Cumbrian saint (Stonehenge Tribunal) to please David Curtin.

cj x

Thanks CJ. What a gent (you, not Amabilis).

See C&G, p. 28.

FM

Any more I can look up for you? I love St. Gengulphus! What Tribunals would be of interest to you? If people list Tribunals I'll try to cover them as quickly as I can :slight_smile: When I wrote the Devotion rules in The Church it was partly to give a reason for in game piety, and partly because historically the cultus of the saints were incredibly important, and Saints were invoked very often. I think quite a few stories can arise from saints and their veneration, and it gives a good reason for characters to travel, even grogs, to do pilgrimages at their shrines. Plus I think it's a vital part of the "character" of Mythic Europe, and Saints can easily give even powerful Hermetic magi headaches if some devout peasant invokes one against them following some injustice!

Anyway suggest a Tribunal and I'll see what I can find. :slight_smile:

cj x

Well, if you're taking requests, I'm partial to Stonehenge and I'd love to see writeups of St George, St Edward, St Ethelbert (patron of Hereford) and St Winifred. :smiley:

Well, since you ask...

The missus is planning to set a Saga in our home town. St Helena is our patron saint. Any chance of 'doing' her?

I'm planning to do a full version of St. Edmund, and St. Edward the Confessor as the 13th century saints of England :slight_smile: (George's cultus is common only among crusaders at the moment as I recall, and Easterm , but I'll probably do him too.) St. Ethelbert and Winifred sound fun. I'll have a go!

cj x

Moved this saint to Day 18. :slight_smile:

Moved this saint to day 19.

That is why Timothy is smart in doing "30 Objects of Desire". We should have done "30 Saints in November" and "30 Faeries in November". Pace yourself!

Excellent work, by the way. Excellent work.

[size=150]Day 3.[/size]

For Lucius T, who asked for St. Winifred. She is rather wonderful, and as it happens today is her feast day, so here you are...

[size=150]Saint Winifred[/size]

Patron Saint: Virgins, clerks; Gwytherin Convent, Holywell Flintsthire Wales and Shrewsbury Abbey, a church at Branscombe, Devon, and a dozen well shrines including in Cheshire and Oswestry, Wales. Invoked against unwanted male sexual advances, those who pollute wells and the sacrilegious, as well as those who harm innocent maidens.
Divine Might 25
Feast: November 3rd.
Area of Veneration: Stonehenge Tribunal, especially Wales and the Border counties, and Shrewsbury.
Personality Traits: Pious +6, Chaste +3, Eloquent +3
Powers: Apparition, Holy Well of Winfred, The Ever-Warm Cloak, The Outspoken Goat, The Terrible Curse of St. Winifred.

Born in Flintshire , Wales, of noble birth but humble circumstances,Winifred was a beautiful maiden. She refused all offers of marriage, telling her father (Tyfid ap Eiludd ) it was ambition to be a nun, and he consented. One days she was preparing things to carry to Mass, after her family had left their cottage and gone ahead to church. A noble named Caradog rode up, and asked to speak to the owner of the house, but after seeing Winifred he was overcome with lust and tried to lay hands upon her. When she refused he said that if she consented to sex he would make her his wife.

Winifred asked that she might go and put on some pretty clothes before he took her, and he reluctantly agreed. She went in to a room, and climbed out of the window, running off to church and safety. Tragically Caradog soon realized he had been tricked, and leaping on his horse took off after her. She was running down the hillside to the little chapel where her uncle Saint Beuno was preaching, when Caradog rode past her and with a single blow sliced her head from her shoulders.

The head bounced down the hill, and rolled in to the chapel. On seeing the ghastly sight Beuno at once made a terrible curse, and the ground opened up under Caradog and his horse, and he sank in to the ground, some say straight to hell. Beuno then picked up the head, took it, and carefully placed it upon the shoulders of the fair Winifred.
As he prayed, Winifred was restored to life. From that day on however she had a think white band around her neck, where her head was reattached to her body. A miraculous spring immediately issued forth, and Beuno raised the girl to her feet.

She immediately made plans to fulfill her ambition by traveling away to become a nun. Beuno made her promise that a year to the day later she would make for him a cloak, which she was to drop in to a stream at her convent, and he said God would deliver it to him by the rivers. And so it happened. And the cloak was such that it was never moved by the wind, or became wet, or let the cold through, and Beuno called the cloak 'Siccus'.

While Beuno remained a holy hermit, Winifred became an abbess over eleven nuns, and lived a holy and pious life. Of the miracles associated with her, her well is the best known. It used to contain three glowing stones, which rose and fell constantly in the waters, till an impious woman came one day and took one, declaring it to be magical. Soon after she sickened and died, and some say it was the curse of Saint Winifred killed her, others the very nature of the stone. The other two bright rocks were never seen in the waters of the spring again from that day forth.

On another occasion a thief lied in the chapel of Saint Winifred, giving a false oath, but the Saint made his crime obvious. He had dined that day on roast goat, and the goat sprung to life in his innards and set up a horrible bleating from inside his stomach, until he confessed his guilt.

One day a servant girl was beaten so hard by her angry mistress that she ran in terror to the chapel to try and save her life, and to seek sanctuary. The mistress chased her, raining blows on the poor girl, who collapsed unconscious as she reached the door of the chapel and found it locked. The Saint however cursed the mistress, who fell against the door (even as she beat the unconscious girl) breaking her jawbone. From that day onwards her face was horribly twisted, and she was terribly disfigured for her crimes.

On another occasion a group of bandits fell victim to the Saint's curse and died in peculiar circumstances, through sheer ill fortune. Another a party of robbers who were pursuing the tithe collector stopped when their leader pierced himself through his thigh with his own lance, and fell from his horse dead.

Innumerable people have been healed of deformity and disease at her well, if they are pious and devoted to the Saint. Winifred prayed at twelve other places in England and Wales, and wherever she prayed a holy well appeared, and these too have healing waters, and count as shrines to Saint Winifred.

Her bones were translated (moved) to Shrewsbury Abbey in the reign of Stephen, and pilgrims visit her relics there in search of miracles to this day. As her body was moved to Shrewsbury it was laid down at various spots, where some of her healing wells immediately appeared. Each has a minor shrine to her now; one is at Woolston near Oswestry in Shropshire, one near Clutton in Cheshire.

New Powers

Holy Well of Winifred, 5 points, Init -5, Aquam (Corpus). The saint can create a new holy well which gives forth clean and nourishing water b this miracle. Such water can be consumed for a Season for a +6 on Recovery rolls, if the afflicted is taken to the well, or the water drawn and conveyed to them. If the well is polluted in any way, or if money is charged for the waters, the Saint will be angered, and it will permanently lose its healing powers. Winfred's Might score is reduced by one for each new healing well, and she only recovers the Might when the healing effect ends.

The Outspoken Goat, 4 points, Init +1, Mentem (Animal). As the Hermetic spell Frosty Breath of the Spoken Lie, lasting until sunrise or sunset, but whenever the victim tells a lie whatever animal they last ate springs to life in their stomach and very loudly protests by bleating, mooing, clucking or as appropriate. Fish may just swim out of the gullet!

The Terrible Curse of St. Winifred, 5 points, Init -5, Vim. The victim suffers terrible misfortune, frequently leading to their death. In game turns this is represented by 3 additional botch dice, which continue until they repent and make amends for the transgression. (Based on the Cursing Guidelines in ROP: The Divine).

The Ever-Warm Cloak, 3 points, Init +2, Auram (Aquam). If Winifred blesses the petitioner their clothes become impervious to the weather, and do not get wet even if they are totally submerged in water, until the next Sabbath.

Hope useful Lucius.
cj x

Many thanks! :smiley:

You might want to ask Brother Cadfael about that one!

Hey Jabir, yes indeed! "the girl" never quite made it as I recall :slight_smile: I think I might do St. Beuno as an extra today if I have time, as he appears with St. Winifred.

cj x

[size=150]Day 5
[/size]
British readers will get why I chose this saint for today :slight_smile: I like her, too. :slight_smile:
[size=150]
Saint Catharine[/size]

Patron Saint: Wheelwrights, Haberdashers, the Dying, Maidens, Potters, Knife-Sharpeners, Scribes, Hatmakers, Philosophers, Educators, Librarians, Notaries, University of Paris, St Catharine's Monastery, Mount Sinai.
Divine Might 50
Feast: November 25th, (November 24th in Novgorod Tribunal).
Area of Veneration: All Tribunals but especially Novgorod, Thebes, Levant, Stonehenge, and Normandy. Relics – (fingers) Rouen, France; (body) St Catharine's Monastery, Mount Sinai, shrines at Westminster and Canterbury, England, but churches everywhere.
Personality Traits: Pious +6, Honest +3, Joyful +3.
Powers: Apparition, Catharine's Wheel, Celestial Immunity, Grant of Serenity, Refute Pagan, Resist Temptation, Sanctuary of Virginity.

Catharine was the daughter of a governor of Byzantium in ancient times. She was renowned for her honesty, and pure heart, and became a nun at the age of eighteen. She became a nun near the city of Alexandria, and when the Emperor Maxen sent out a decree that everyone should sacrifice to the pagan gods of Rome, Catharine refused and was brought before the Emperor.

He tried to make her renounce her faith and make the sacrifices, but she refused, so she was thrown in a dark prison. But the prison miraculously lit up, and she was filled with joy and praised God. Maxen became very angry at this, and called his finest philosophers to argue with her in prison, and force her by logic to renounce her faith. They tried, but each failed, and was confounded by her steadfast faith. When they did not convert her, but were themselves converted to faith in the True God. Maxen had the philosophers burned for their failure and their Christianity.

Then the Emperor went to her, and promised to raise a god statue of her and make her his wife, if she would renounce her faith. Still she refused, so he had her taken, bound to a tree, and beaten till she was unconscious. When she awoke he asked her again, but still she persevered in her faith, and said her sufferings were a joy to her because they would lead to a martyr's crown in Heaven. So Catharine was flung in an even darker gaol, and still she rejoiced.

Maxen's queen went to the gaol in which Catharine was now singing praises, and found such joy there that she asked Catharine to pray for her, and was converted. On hearing Maxen was furious, and ordered the queen beaten to death, her remains hanged from a tree by it's, her bosom cut off the corpse and then the remains of the mangled body fed to dogs. This was about to be done when one of Maxen's best knights, Porfir came to the Emperor, and declared he too had been converted, and that the queen's death was shameful and Maxen was a dog.

Porfir challenged the Emperor, and slew four thousand of his men in single combat armed only with a ladder he picked up in the palace, and would have slain the Emperor had not holy Catharine reminded him that it was wrong to slay him, but that they should patiently endure a martyr's death if that was God's will. So Porfir threw down his ladder that shattered in to pieces, and was dragged off and beheaded with the queen.

Meanwhile Catharine remained in prison, but the Emperor did not wish to slay her and let her attain a martyr's death as that was her desire. Instead he was determined to convert her to paganism. A man named Cursates came to the Emperor, and declared he had created a hideous torture device, four iron wheels covered in sharp spikes that would slice Catharine to pieces if she did not give up her faith. The Emperor approved, and she was brought to the wheel and bound to it, there to meet her death or be broken by torture.
Yet as the wheel was turned God sent angels that broke the device, and the spikes flew off killing ten thousand and forty of the assembled pagan crowd who had come to watch her torture, and the Emperor was furious at so many dying, even more so as many were converted by the miracle. And Catharine was unharmed, but taken back to the prison.

So the Emperor called again his nobles, and asked what to do, and they said she should be taken a safe distance from the city and there be beheaded. So she was taken from the city to a place outside, and stripped, and told to prepare for death; and she prayed for her executioner, and forgave him, and then asked God to let her die. And her head was struck off, and milk came forth instead of blood.

Her body was taken to Mount Sinai and buried by the faithful, and holy sweet smelling oil issued forth from her corpse, and many miracles were performed at her tomb. Her relics still lie at the remote monastery of Saint Catharine at Mount Sinai to this day, and some go there as pilgrims.

New Powers

Catherine's Wheel, 5 points, Init 0, Terram (Herbam). Makes an implement of torture break on which the petitioner is suffering break catastrophically, the pieces flying off and doing +15 damage to all enemies within twenty paces barring the victim and any supporters. This power is rarely invoked but spectacular when it is granted.

Refute Pagan, 3 points, Init +2, Mentem. Confounds a pagan in their attempts to convert the petitioner, given them -3 in all rolls to express their pagan beliefs until sunrise or sunset. (Based on Wonders Guidelines, ROP:The Divine, p.56)

Wonderful! And enjoy your fireworks tonight chaps! :slight_smile:
cj x