Orthodoxy

My warrior patron saint is King St Edmund of East Anglia who died fighting the infidel invaders of England but one always wonders how saintly these warrior saints really were. King Stephen the Great, who has been canonised by the Romanian Orthodox Church, is said to have conceived an illegitimate child in every town to which he laid siege. When I mentioned this to an extremely devout Romanian Orthodox woman she said, "Well he was a man."

Another thing a devout Romanian Orthodox said to me remains with me. He wondered why the heroine of a French Catholic novel still felt guilty despite having been to confession because he said confession wipes out the sin. I suppose it should for us Catholics too. But Catholic guilt is a very powerful thing.