Catholic folk legends from before Vatican II

[patrick457]

(I wasn’t sure where to post this, I hope this forum is alright.)

My late mother had been a Catholic as a child (she converted to Judaism in 1944). Hence, her only involvement with Catholicism was long before the modernizations.

When I used to ask her about her former faith, she told me many things, but also, she shared with me some of the folk legends (not sure what else to call them) she’d heard in Catholic school, and from family members, friends, etc. I’m curious to know if anyone else is also familiar with them, and if you know the origins of them, as well as what ethnic groups they started with (if any).

Here are the ones I can remember (DISCLAIMER: I do not believe in any of these, and my mother didn’t either…I’m just repeating what I was told):

1. Anyone who dies during Holy Week goes straight to heaven.
2. The reason Gypsies wander the earth is because they made the nails that crucified Christ.
3. It always rains on Good Friday, esp. during the hours of 12 noon and 3 PM
4. Jews wander the earth because they crucified Christ.

Let me see…(The first two aren’t really pre-Vatican II folk stories, yet I heard them a lot of times in my childhood in the Philippines):

1: At 3:00 PM Good Friday, water is said to turn into blood (thus grandma always says that we should take a bath before that hour). I can say with certainty that this is merely a folktale.

2: Good Friday is the day when ‘God died’ and He leaves the world to fend for its own; thus a lot of malevolent supernatural creatures is said to roam that day (more in the realm of superstition, though).

1. ‘When the Lord’s Day falls on Our Lady’s lap, England will meet with a great mishap’ This is a reference to Good Friday falling on March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation being unlucky. This is a reference to an Early Christian belief that Jesus was conceived on the day He died; namely, March 25. It isn’t quite verifiable if this is true or not, but the last time this occured, namely in 2005, the terrorist attacks on London’s subways followed. This might be coincidence, though.
2. On a less serious note, whenever thunder rolls in the sky, we used to attribute it to St. Peter playing bowling.

 

[brotherhrolf]

1. On a less serious note, whenever thunder rolls in the sky, we used to attribute it to St. Peter playing bowling.

We of Irish ancestry believe it is the leprechauns bowling. Didn’t think about that one Patrick.

 

[HashemEchad]

Hashem Echad, all religions, including the Jewish religion, have some folk tales which probably have no basis in fact. I heard when I was younger that deaths come in threes. It has always been the case for me. One year there were nine deaths of people I knew, which, of course, is three sets of three. Is it because I always count them in threes? I don’t know.
I have no other superstitions, though. I will even walk under a ladder, as long as there is nothing on top of it to fall on my head.

I dug out a book I’d read when I was a teenager, called “Hope Is My House” by Devorah Wigoder…about an Irish Catholic American girl, from a very devout Catholic family, who converted to Judaism and married an Irish Jew (!)

Anyway, in there, she mentions that the belief that ‘deaths come in threes’ is an old Irish Catholic belief.

So maybe that’s where you heard it from?

 

[Carolinagirl411]

When it thunders my mom always told me the Angels were bowling! And when it rains and the sun shines at the same time “The Devil is beating his wife”

But I haven’t heard of deaths come in threes I’ve heard Bad things come in threes. And yes…whenever something bad happens 2 more are right to follow

for example

My first day of graduate School : I threw up in my first class due to my acid reflux, got a phone call saying my financial aid didn’t go through so I had to drive across town to prevent being kicked out of class and straighten it out, on the way home was hot and rolled down my window and the window decided to not roll up.

Rough day but it was so ridiculous all I could do was laugh!

I also heard that the Jews are cursed to wander b/c they’ll follow God for a while then reject Him…that’s why the egypt thing happened (worshipping the golden calf), The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the babylonians/rome etc, the holocaust, and conflict in middle east. Don’t really believe it though

 

[DLT]

Hashem Echad, I think my grandmother told me about death coming in threes. She was very superstition, but she was a Scot, English and German-Austrian Lutheran-Methodist. (Her mother was a Methodist and her father a Lutheran, and she had to go to both churches when she was young). There were other people in my family, though, who were of Irish descent, and perhaps she got the idea from them.

 

[HashemEchad]

Hashem Echad, I think my grandmother told me about death coming in threes. She was very superstition, but she was a Scot, English and German-Austrian Lutheran-Methodist. (Her mother was a Methodist and her father a Lutheran, and she had to go to both churches when she was young). There were other people in my family, though, who were of Irish descent, and perhaps she got the idea from them.

I’m always curious as to where these kinds of beliefs got started…sometimes I find the same belief in different cultures that are very divergent, so I assume because they share a religious faith, that must be where it came from.

How about the “knock on wood” thing? I know Italians, Jews and even others who WILL NOT say certain things without knocking on or touching wood first!

Also, my Italian grandmother used to make the “devil’s horns” with her fingers if anyone gave her the mal’occhio (evil eye).

I was amazed recently to find out that the evil eye is actually mentioned in the Bible!

 

[Carolinagirl411]

Knocking on wood stems from a legend…

There are certain types of evil fairies that live in wood and if you say something they will escape and try to mess it up so you knock on wood 3 times which disorients them and they can’t do anything evil

lol

that’s how it was explained to me

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Re Evil Eye - Is not Corruption of the Cornea more politically correct?

 

[HashemEchad]

Re Evil Eye - Is not Corruption of the Cornea more politically correct?

Its cornuto (Italian for horn)…grandmom also had a red Italian horn too, to deflect the mal’occhio!

And she used to tie a red string for good luck on the doorknob of new cars, new houses, etc I later found out that’s also a Sephardic Jewish custom, which makes sense since she descended from Spanish Jews anyway.

 

[peary]

Myth

1. The reason Gypsies wander the earth is because they made the nails that crucified Christ.

Myth

1. It always rains on Good Friday, esp. during the hours of 12 noon and 3 PM

Myth

1. Jews wander the earth because they crucified Christ.

Myth

 

[snhs]

1. Anyone who dies during Holy Week goes straight to heaven.
   Myth

How can you prove that that is a myth? It might not be an official Church belief but I don’t think you can demonstarte that its false. Its not like the rain on Good Friday one, where you only need to find one place whereit doesn’t rain, in this case you’d need to have knowledge beyond our comprehension on it.

 

[Yerusalyim]

1. Anyone who dies during Holy Week goes straight to heaven.

1. The reason Gypsies wander the earth is because they made the nails that crucified Christ.

1. It always rains on Good Friday, esp. during the hours of 12 noon and 3 PM

1. Jews wander the earth because they crucified Christ.

Two of these “legends” are simply justification for prejudices, two are just silly.

1. WHEN someone dies does not determine their eternal fate, the disposition of their soul toward God…and His mercy do.
2. It’s just as likely a Jewish or local pagan blacksmith made the nails…this simply justifies someone’s prejudice.
3. I’ve witnessed MANY Good Fridays in my 44 years where not a drop of rain fell.
4. Anti-Semitism…the Jews didn’t crucify Christ, the Romans did…and all sinners bear that guilt.

I’ve heard the dogwood legend…and others.

 

[elt1956]

Two of these “legends” are simply justification for prejudices, two are just silly.

1. WHEN someone dies does not determine their eternal fate, the disposition of their soul toward God…and His mercy do.
2. It’s just as likely a Jewish or local pagan blacksmith made the nails…this simply justifies someone’s prejudice.
3. I’ve witnessed MANY Good Fridays in my 44 years where not a drop of rain fell.
4. Anti-Semitism…the Jews didn’t crucify Christ, the Romans did…and all sinners bear that guilt.

I’ve heard the dogwood legend…and others.

Apologies, apologies. These are LEGENDS, stories, that hopefully no one believes. But you are right #4 smacks of Anti-Semitism. I am sure it was just a posting which did not intend any harm. #1 is just a beautiful, hopeful legend for Christians. As for the raining on Good Friday, as a child and even as an adult, I still wait to see if it rains that day. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t. So much for stories. Like chicken noodle soup will cure all ills???

 

[patrick457]

Not really a stictly ‘Catholic’ folk-tale, but an old and interesting one nonetheless:

THE FOURTH WISE MAN

 

[mercygate]

Apologies, apologies. These are LEGENDS, stories, that hopefully no one believes. But you are right #4 smacks of Anti-Semitism. I am sure it was just a posting which did not intend any harm. #1 is just a beautiful, hopeful legend for Christians. As for the raining on Good Friday, as a child and even as an adult, I still wait to see if it rains that day. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t. So much for stories. Like chicken noodle soup will cure all ills???

Actually, there is evidence that stuff in chicken soup IS good for upper respiratory infections. But that’s a JEWISH folk legend! I think Catholics can piggy-back on it though. But only if you have a real Jewish grandmother recipe!

 

[peary]

How can you prove that that is a myth? It might not be an official Church belief but I don’t think you can demonstarte that its false. Its not like the rain on Good Friday one, where you only need to find one place whereit doesn’t rain, in this case you’d need to have knowledge beyond our comprehension on it.

To be honest with you, I have never heard of that. One cannot demonstrate it either true or false, but just because someone dies in Holy Week doesn’t mean that irregardless they will go to heaven and will be immediately forgiven all their sins. That is not a Church teaching. I actually don’t know* where *that came from.

 

[elt1956]

Actually, there is evidence that stuff in chicken soup IS good for upper respiratory infections. But that’s a JEWISH folk legend! I think Catholics can piggy-back on it though. But only if you have a real Jewish grandmother recipe!

Hi, do you know where I can get the recipe?

 

[DLT]

Chicken soup is good for a cold because it is nourishing, easy to digest and hot liquids are prescibed by doctors and nurses for colds. So this is not a myth.

I am not Jewish, but I make chicken soup by boiling a chicken with celery, onion, and salt and pepper to one’s taste. It can be eaten just as it is, or one can add macaroni, rice, dumplings or matza balls (which are Jewish). If one has not been vomiting previously, vegetables such as carrots and peas can be added.

 

[DLT]

P.S. to last e-mail. For those who have not cooked a lot before, make sure you debone the chicken, cut or break it into smaller pieces and put it back into the chicken broth before you add anything else. Of couse, the celery should have been sliced into pieces, the onion chopped, and any vegetables that are added should be cubed into the size you want–the smaller the faster they cook.

 

[patrick457]

If the whole ‘if someone dies on Holy Week they go straight to Heaven’ thing is true, then let’s all die during the next Holy Week! I’ll get the guns and the knives. Can someone prepare the poison?

Of course, we may not know about it and we can’t guarantee for sure if it’s a myth or not, but I don’t think they hold a ‘free-for-all week’ in Heaven (time doesn’t even exist there)…

I think this story started with Jesus’ promise to the Good Thief: ‘Today you shall be with me in Paradise’.