St. Christopher

Christopher comes to us as one of the most popular saints of the medieval West and one of the most honestly difficult. The name means Christ-bearer, and the acknowledgment must be made at the outset that the biography resting behind this name is almost entirely legendary. A martyrdom is assigned to Lycia under Decius; a giant who made his living carrying travellers across a dangerous river; the night a small child asked to be carried and grew heavier with each step until the giant staggered under the weight of the one who carries the world — these are the elements of a story that whatever else it is, is not biography.

Even in antiquity versions of the Christopher story attracted critical scrutiny, and certain Eastern traditions assigned Christopher the head of a dog — the cynocephalus — which suggests that the legend grew from confused sources, possibly from a missionary to a people called the Cynocephali in ancient geography, or from the misreading of a term meaning Canaanite as meaning dog-headed. The explanations are various and none is certain.

The cult remains, however, among the most widespread in the entire Western calendar, and its persistence is not a reason to dismiss it. Christopher was one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers; his image was placed on the outer walls of churches so that those who glimpsed it on their way through the world might carry some protection with them. The theology implicit in this practice is clear enough: the saint whose name means Christ-bearer was invoked by those who bore the burden of uncertain roads, uncertain seas, uncertain days. The largest image in the church was Christopher's because the largest number of dangers required his intercession.

The name itself is the true content of the cult: every Christian who carries Christ into the world is doing what Christopher is said to have done, and the devotion expresses this truth even when the biography behind it is fiction. The historical Christopher — if there was one, if a martyr in Lycia gave the tradition its first impetus — has been absorbed entirely into the name's meaning.