A patron saint of procrastination?
So who knew? A patron saint of procrastination? St. Expeditus.
Legend has is that on the day Expeditus resolved to become a Christian, the devil appeared before him in the form of a raven and tried to persuade him to wait until tomorrow to convert, to which Expeditus declared ‘No! I will be Christian today!”
The classic image shows him dressed as a Roman soldier raising a cross above his head with inscribed with the word ‘Hodie’ (Latin for Today) and stamping on a raven labelled ‘Cras’ (Latin for Tomorrow). Thanks to philosopher Jack Fuller on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, I have gone on to learn all about this saintly patriarch of all things procrastintory and here are a few facts about our unsung hero:
Its suggested his name came from a case of mistaken identity; a community of French-speaking nuns were sent a package of relics from Roman catacombs and mistook the label ‘e spedito’ as being the name of the saint that was inside, expedit being the French translation
No surprises then that he was originally invoked for urgent cases, implored for success in lawsuits, and speed, becoming the patron saint of merchants looking to expedite payments
His picture is therefore often thought to drive business success
Even though there is no real evidence to say he ever existed and was more likely a scribe’s spelling error; his name being listed in a document containing so many errors that most of it is suspect.
And I like saintspreserved.com take on this; the fact he most likely exists due to error and errors are often made in haste adds a delightfully ironic poignancy to his tales!
Either way, often depicted pointing at a clock; a reminder not to waste time or procrastinate, St. Expeditus sounds like our kind of guy.