Book Review: Michael Walsh, A Dictionary of Devotions,
Burns & Oates, 1993.

If someone, say, from the Methodist tradition picked
up this book, they’d soon be disappointed. The ‘devotional practices’
here are not what Protestant evangelicals practise in their ‘quiet
times’. Rather, it’s a fascinating collection of articles about
relics, special prayers for special occasions, confraternities
fostering special ‘devotion’, cults of the saints, pilgrimages,
and things you wear (like medals, badges and scapulars) to foster
devotion…

There are some 600 entries, explaining how such devotions
arose historically, and explaining the purpose they served in
the Christian (or, more specifically, Catholic) Church. Tables
provide comparison of the Liturgical Calendar (fixed and moveable
feasts) before and after the Reform of 1969. A comprehensive index
allows the reader to track down related subjects.

Now a paragraph of ‘Did you knows’ for your next
‘Holy Trivia’ night. Did you know actors have two patron saints
(Genesius and Vitus)? And that there are patron saints of childbirth
(Margaret of Antioch), gunners (Barbara), hunting (Hubert and
Eustace), hopeless cases (Rita of Cascia), lost articles (Anthony
of Padua), lovers (Valentine), mental handicaps (Dympna), music
(Cecilia), prisoners’ release (Foy and others), sailors (Erasmus),
travel (Bona, Christopher, Francis de Paola, Joseph and Mary –
and others), and natural disasters (Agatha, and several others).
(I thought Jean Vianney, the Cure d’Ars, was the patron saint
of priests, but I can’t find any reference in the index: someone
might like to enlighten me about that).

You might like to add strange words (at least to
non-Catholics) like ‘mandatum’ (the command to wash one another’s
feet), and ‘Quinquagesima’ (the Sunday before the first Sunday
in Lent), and ‘devotio moderna’ (a form of piety associated with
Geert Groote, 1340-84), ‘Kibeho’ (a town in Rwanda where it is
claimed the Virgin Mary appeared to seven schoolchildren), and
many others…

Non-catholics are obligated also to learn the difference
between All Souls’ and All Saints’, why cold baths are an important
form of mortification (particularly for the Irish), why there
would be articles about all the major ‘Societies’ but not all
the major saints. (Guess why. Here’s a clue: there’s an article
about Carmelites, but not about Benedictines or Jesuits. If you
want to know about the saints you’ll need Michael Walsh’s other
book, ‘Butler’s Lives of Patron Saints’ – or its new concise edition,
both published by Burns & Oates).

I didn’t know the ‘hagiography industry’ was so big.
There are two and a half pages on ‘relics’, three and a half about
the Rosary, and the longest article (I think) is about… who?
You guessed it: the Virgin Mary (ten pages, and lots of other
references).

A ‘must’ for Catholics and Anglicans (other than
‘Protestant’ Anglicans 🙂 As a non-Anglican evangelical I want
to encourage people like me to read more about the saints. But
I wonder about the notion-of-devotion to saints and particularly
about a book on Christian piety that has an article about the
Jesus Prayer but not one about Jesus.

Rowland Croucher