On the protection of the Spirit of patron saints.

The following question was proposed to us recently by one of our subscribers:

Setting aside all prejudice of sect and of mystical idea, the qualification of saint denotes a certain spiritual superiority, because, to merit that title, one must have distinguished oneself by meritorious acts of some kind. In accordance with this, and the thing being considered from the Spiritist point of view, do not the saints, under whose invocation we are placed at birth, become our natural protectors, and when someone's patronymic feast is celebrated, is not the one whose name was taken attracted by sympathy and associated with it, at least in thought, if not by his presence?

There are in this question two points to consider, which must be examined separately.

The Spiritists know, better than anyone, that thought attracts thought, and that the sympathy of Spirits, whether beatified or not, is solicited by our sentiments toward them. Now, what is it that generally determines the choice of names? A particular veneration for the saint who bore it? admiration for his virtues? confidence in his merits? the thought of giving him as a model to the newborn? Ask the majority of those who choose it whether they know who he was, what he did, when he lived, why he distinguished himself, whether they knew a single one of his actions. Excepting some saints whose history is popular, almost all are totally unknown, and, without the calendar, the public would not even know whether they had existed. Thus, nothing can, therefore, attract their thought toward one rather than toward another. Let us admit that, for certain persons, the title of saint suffices and that one may take a name in confidence, provided it be on the list of the blessed, prepared by the Church, without needing to know more: it is a question of faith. But then, for those same persons, what are the determining motives? There are two that almost always predominate. The first is, very often, the desire to please some relative or friend, whose self-love one wishes to flatter by giving his name to the newborn, especially if one expects something from him, because if he were a poor devil, without credit and without standing, they would not do him this honor. In this they aim much more at the protection of the man than at that of the saint.

The second motive is even more worldly. What is sought almost always in a name is the graceful form, an agreeable consonance. Above all in a certain world, they want quite sophisticated names, that have a stamp of distinction. There are others that are pitilessly repelled, because they please neither the ear nor vanity, even if they were of saints or female saints more worthy of veneration. And, besides, very often the name is a question of fashion, like the form of a coiffure.

It must be admitted that those holy personages in general must be little touched by the motives of the preference granted to them; in reality, they have no special reason to interest themselves, more than in others, in those who bear their name, before whom they are like those distant relatives, of whom one remembers only when one expects an inheritance.

The Spiritists, who understand the principle of the affectionate relations between the corporeal world and the spiritual world, would act otherwise in such a circumstance. When a child is born, the parents would choose, among the Spirits, beatified or not, ancient or modern, friends, relatives, or strangers to the family, one of those who, to their knowledge, gave irrefutable proofs of their superiority, by their exemplary life, by the meritorious acts they practiced, by the practice of the virtues recommended by the Christ: charity, humility, abnegation, disinterested devotion to the cause of Humanity, in a word, by all that they know to be a cause of advancement in the world of the Spirits; they would invoke him solemnly and with fervor, asking him to unite with the guardian angel of the child to protect it in the life it is going to traverse, to guide it with his counsels and his good inspirations; and as a sign of alliance they would give to that child the name of the Spirit. The Spirit would see in that choice a proof of sympathy and would accept with pleasure a mission that would be a testimony of esteem and of confidence. Then, as the child grew, they would teach it the history of its protector; they would tell it of his good actions; it would know why it bears that name, and that name would always recall to it a beautiful model to follow. It is then that on the anniversary feast the invisible protector would not fail to associate himself with it, because he would have his place in the hearts of those present.