Today, the 21st, is St Matthews Day .
If the man who wrote the first Gospel in the bible is the same Matthew who became one of Jesus's disciples, then he had been a collector of taxes for the Romans working and living at Capernaum.
Matthew's gospel contains much that isn't mentioned in the other gospels - the story of the magi,the sermon on the mount and some of the parables.
The painting below of Saint Matthew is copied from my Calendar of Saints book and is by Rubens
(Tuesday afternoon and just editing in to say that Ang has let me know this isn't St Matthew! It's St Thomas! I took the information from my book A Calendar of Saints and didn't check elsewhere because I assumed the book would be right - but it's Very Wrong!. The book was published in 1986 but my copy is from 1997 which means no one corrected it when it was reprinted. How strange. Thank you Angela for putting it right. I shall never take the Saints book at face value again!!)
There are several weather sayings attached to this day.............
Maybe that last one relates to the Autumn Equinox which can fall on the 21st although this year it's the 22nd, the date when daylight hours start to decrease, time to buy candles for winter.
Like moist of those lovely weather lore sayings, something yes, sometimes no! Like St Swithun. :-)
ReplyDeleteLast day of summer today then? Oh, well, there will be another summer next year (I hope)!
xx
Daylight hours have been decreasing rapidly for weeks here. It was dark last night by 7.30 and that was with a beautifully clear sky.
ReplyDeleteYes it was a nice day and a wonderful sunset, but the evenings are dark. It was lovely to see the Chelsea Flower in a different light but I don't think we will have so many big names winning the medals this year. My GS was involved in the trees getting there in the 7 o'clock show garden.
ReplyDeleteHazel 🌈🌈
Well we had Noah's Ark conditions here yesterday morning with near flooding. Odd as on my train ride I then went into clear blue sky, warm and not a drop of rain in the space of a half an hour. It now feels very damp here this morning as the ground recovers from the flood but at least the sun is shining. I am not looking forward to cooler weather as I enjoy the heat.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that any of the images of the apostles are reliable as it is usually an interpretation by an artist who probably never saw the original subject anyway, right? Often they have been portrayed as distinguished white men but weren't most of them from the middle east?
ReplyDeleteI am ready for Autumn and the cooler temps!
I agree about the artists' interpretations. I'm not an expert in saints- but I like Rubens work, so thought I would try and find out more about this picture when I read Sue's post - which is when I discovered it was St T not St M!
DeleteI do like the changing seasons. There is something special about moving one to the next season. Autumn is very beautiful with cool crisp nights and mornings and warm sunshine on sunny days. Rain is forecast for later this week. The gardens are waning, getting ready to sleep for the Winter months.
ReplyDeleteWe actually did have a very heavy dew overnight. Mind you from the looks of the trees and the way the temperature is falling we could have a very early winter.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.