Saint Christopher History

Saint Christopher medals and pendants are an enormously popular, yet traditional items of jewellery. St Christopher was the patron saint of travelling, and many people give St. Christophers medals to loved ones who are off on travels. In actual fact, there is little known about Saint Christopher, although he is the subject of many legends. In his chronicling entitled The Golden Legend, Archbishop Jacobus de Voragine wrote of how Saint Christopher sought out the greatest king whom he could serve. On learning the teachings of Christianity, St. Christopher heard of Christ, and vowed to serve Christ by helping others cross a rapid-flowing and dangerous river. This St Christopher did with diligence, and on one occasion he carried a child on his back. Saint Chrisopher found the child to be getting heavier and heavier with every stride across the river, and eventually the mighty Saint Christopher collapsed on the other side of the river bank exhausted. You are as heavy as the world itself Saint Christopher said to the child. Indeed said the child For I am the world and its maker, Christ, your Lord. With this the child vanished, and Saint Christopher was once again left alone.

Saint Christopher remains to this day one of the most popular saints, and his patronages are far and wide. Saint Christopher is the patron saint of travelling and travellers, mariners, ferrymen and also athletes. His patronage is also felt throughout the world, with St Christopher acting as the patron saint of cities throughout Italy, Spain, Greece, Croatia and the Philippines. Saint Christopher is normally celebrated on the 25th July, but is also celebrated on the 7th May in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Saint Christophers pendants and pendants are very popular because of St Christophers wide arching appeal. As the patron saint of travelling, and because of a general analogy of life being a journey which is travelled and traversed, it is common for St Christopher medallions in Spain and France to bear words like look to Saint Christopher and journey safely!.

St Christopher medals and St Christopher chains are widely used in popular culture, and there are many famous references to them. For example Ringo Star, the drummer for the Beatles, had a St Christopher Medal removed from around his neck whilst playing at a concert in New York in 1964 by a fan who later returned the Saint Christophers medal to him. Saint Christopher medals are also very popular in film and theatre, with many famous actors such as Christian Bale favouring St Christopher medals. Indeed his character wears one throughout the film the Machinist. Other famous examples of the use of Saint Christopher Medals in cinema, are in the film Crash, released in 2004, The Butterfly Effect, a film released in 2004 also, in which the main character appears during several times and stages of his life, but always wearing the same Saint Christopher medal around his neck. In 2007 in the film Gone Baby Gone, a missing child is reported to have been wearing a Saint Christopher medal.

The use of Saint Christopher pendants is hard to trace back, although it is safe to say that saint christopher pendants have been used for centuries. Geoffrey Chaucer, an English poet and writer of the 14th Century of enormous repute wrote the Canterbury Tales in which a group of pilgrims embark on a pilgrimage to visit the resting place of Saint Thomas Becket. In the prologue to this epic Middle English tale, a Knight's Yeoman is said to have A Saint Christopher on his breast of silver sheen. This is widely viewed as the first reference to a St Christopher medal in popular culture, almost 700 years ago.

Nowadays of course Saint Christophers medals are available in a huge variety of colours, styles and fashions both online, in the high street, and in thousands of market stalls throughout the world.