Switching Saints

For the past three years, I wore a St. Gerard (left) medal on my necklace. Gerard, born in 1726 and canonized in 1904, is the patron saint of children (and unborn children in particular), childbirth, motherhood, and mothers (expectant mothers in particular).

Many in my world -- in the world of the Fertility Guru -- also pray to St. Gerard for fertility help, because all they want in the world is to be an expectant mother.

Even though the way I will become an expectant mother has changed -- and I guess in a way, I already am an expectant mother -- I have continued to wear Gerard.

And then, after a friend asked, I learned that St. Thomas More is the patron saint of adoption. As I posted in August, this kind of brought my journey full circle as I had prayed to St. Thomas More on the Christmas Eve I was newly pregnant. It was as if there was a little heavenly foreshadowing.

I mentioned this story -- of St. Thomas More being my church when I lived in Rochester, of Thomas More being beheaded and canonized with St. John Fisher, which was the college I attended, and of choosing to pray to Thomas More for these reasons for these reasons -- to friends in Baltimore last summer.

They remembered it and so for Christmas this year, I received a St. Thomas More medal for my necklace. After a little back and forth with the size of the actual medallion, I finally received the it today, and replaced Gerard with Thomas.

And so what to do with St. Gerard? I could keep him, in my jewelry box with other unworn items. Or I could pass him on.

Ultimately, I've decided to pass him on to the Fertility Guru. Many a nurse commented on necklace when I was receiving fertility treatment that St. Gerard was the patron saint of the FG. And I believed it too.

And for all the kindness he showed, for how genuinely he wanted me to get pregnant, and for all the good he does for other women that ultimately come out on the other side -- I just learned of another today -- St. Gerard needs to go to the FG.

And for all the reasons I mentioned above about my past connections with St. Thomas More (right), and most especially for my new connection -- of him being the patron saint of adoption -- I will wear him on my necklace each and every day.