Posted on 05/17/2007 10:08:04 AM PDT by Gamecock
No one said he doesn’t exist...the details of his life as they’ve come down to us are perhaps legendary and probably very confused. But devotion to him is very old (back to the 500s), and he almost certainly was a real martyr of the third century.
We’re not sure if Christ was born on the 25th of December. Yet still we keep the feast. A saint’s feast day is a commemoration, and as such, it can be moved around, suppressed, restored, or rendered greater or lesser importance as popular piety dictates.
Your response:
“That’s the buzz word these days. Talk about how homosexuality is wrong and you hate homosexuals. Talk about how illegal immigrants are wrong for coming into the country illegally and you hate them. Talk about people who shouldn’t have abortions and you hate them. Everyone who don’t agree with your moral and theological views are hateful. I was just talking about this on another post.
It’s very nice for sound bites.”
Uhm...no. Nice try though. If you post a thread simply to attack the Catholic Church and for no other reason, then call your buddies to join in, my observation is accurate. This was a hit piece pure and simple and the hatred is the same. Your attempt to equate this smear with the opposition to homosexuality, immigration, abortion etc. isn’t just weak, it is disingenuous.
I will say a prayer for you and the others that you stop disobeying Christ and come home.
You may recall that in Acts, people in Ephesus sought healing by touching articles of clothing belonging to Paul. Protestants are obsessed by the idea that divine power must be conveyed from a distance. But even hearing the sound of a person’s voice is a physical event. I can “touch” your eardrums by creating (with my bodily organs) sound waves that touch your ear drums.
Besides the point if this is a matter of interpreting a text that both sides hold sacred,
The Church doesn’t say that the Old Testament is mythological.
So do you pray to the papoose-Christopher or the doghead-Christopher for travel safety?The story of this saint's life is astoundingly different, depending upon whether one consults Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox church sources.
Roman Catholic view
One legend states that Christopher was a very tall and physical Roman man, originally named Reprobus, who was referred to as a giant by those who knew him, and vowed to serve Jesus and became a Christian. Other sources say his name was Offero, and that he was born in Canaan.[1] He sought out a Christian hermit to inquire as to how he could better serve Jesus. The hermit directed him to a path with a dangerous crossing point at a swift river, and suggested that the man's great size and strength made him a good candidate to assist people in crossing the river. Reprobus began ferrying people across the river on his back.
One day, a small child approached the river and asked to be carried across. Reprobus began to comply, only to discover that the small boy was far heavier than any other passenger he had taken. The child revealed that he was in fact Jesus Christ, and that his unusual weight was due to the fact that he bore the sins of the world. The boy then baptized Reprobus in the river, and he acquired his new name, Christopher, which is Greek for "Christ-carrier" (from Christos, "Christ", and pherein, meaning "to bear").[1]
The child then told Christopher to plant his staff in the ground. The staff miraculously bloomed into a fruit-bearing tree. This miracle converted many. Enraged at these conversions, a local king (or by some accounts, the emperor Decius) had Christopher imprisoned, where after cruel tortures he was beheaded as a martyr.
Eastern Orthodox view
During the reign of the Emperor Decius, a man named Reprebus (or Reprobus) was captured in combat against tribes to the west of Egypt and was assigned to the numerus Marmaritarum or "Unit of the Marmaritae", which suggests an otherwise-unidentified "Marmaritae" Berber tribe of Cyrenaica. He was of enormous size and terrifying demeanor, being a cannibal with cynocephaly (the head of a dog instead of a man), like all the Marmaritae. Traditional Orthodox iconography depicts him as literally dog-headed. Regardless, Reprebus accepted baptism and began to preach the faith. Eventually, the governor of Antioch (or in some versions, the Emperor himself) decreed that Reprebus was to be executed for his faith. He miraculously survived many attempts at execution, eventually permitting himself to be martyred after converting multitudes. His body was then taken back to Alexandria by Peter of Attalia.
All cultures have legendary figures. Glad you had a good laugh except remember that the unbelievers think that the notion of a sacrificed God-man is equally ridiculous.
Are you reading the same Bible that I read? The one that talks about 12 apostles, 10 of whom were martyred for the faith? Not to mention people like St. Stephen?
The same Bible that inspired a man named Tertullian, who said "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church"?
I find it hard to keep from howling in laughter when people try to prove that the Catholic Church is flase using a Bible codified and declared infallible by the Catholic Church (well, except for the books the “reformers” cut out).
Drat!!! I'm too late.
I'm sure your husband things you're a "babe". Go ahead. Ask him. I'm sure I know the answer. ;O)
Firstly, it is a given because Scripture is adamant that believers are to obey God above men, and that no man has absolute authority on earth as the popes of Rome tried to claim for themselves.
and that the bishop of Rome. And if you're right, that it only holds as long as the bishop of Rome is orthodox, then you are by that very fact saying that *SOMEONE* has to be judging the bishop of Rome heretical.
There were councils as well as bishops and others who judged Roman popes, rightly, as heretics.
You entirely miss the point of this passage, which is that the *Bishop of Rome* judges what is heretical....
Wrong. Never was and never will be.
not as long as he just happens to be orthodox, but because the apostolic tradition of Peter and Paul has been preserved there.
The Apostolic Tradition was recorded in the Scriptures, and was and is passed on to every genuine believer, so said 98% of the Church Fathers.
So that's where the Friday Neeners Caucus got it from.
We were Friday through Thursday.(grin)
Maybe they had an open date to fill on the calendar. So "poof" Christopher the Magic Saint was invented as filler.
That's a lie! I was never a poli sci student, I don't drink beer, and I swear that I was nowhere near the Cuban Embassy in Stockholm that whole time!
Were you a certain Sgt. Shultz on a certain TV show in a former life?
A Mormon by any other name is still a Mormon.
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