Perhaps it's these still long, hot summer days, late August, dreaming of cooler weather that I am thinking out loud. So today I realized that this is the feast of St. Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great and, according to legend, the one who found the relics of the true cross that Jesus was crucified. Pretty impressive stuff and another great witness to help us focus on Christ.
But this feast helped me to remember that St. Helena is among a list of saints and other Catholic celebrations for which many Louisiana parishes (counties) are named for. Yes, we are the only state in the union that has parishes, not counties. From just my own recall let's look at the influence of the Catholic Church in naming civil parishes:
Ascension Parish Assumption Parish St. Bernard Parish St. Charles Parish St. Helena Parish St. James Parish
St. John the Baptist Parish St. Landry St. Martin Parish St. Mary Parish!
Very impressive; 10 of the 64 parishes distictly named from Catholic teaching.
Now I live in St. Tammany civil parish but this is no saint. Legend is the name is derived from an Indian chief named Tamanend from the Delaware tribes who was most famous in the area of Philadelphia, Pa. But this great Indian was not a saint of the Catholic Church.
I'm not going to do the research, at least for now, but I wonder how many states have so many counties named after all things Catholic?
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