[Editor’s Note: On the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, the premier poetess of the Westside gracefully returns to our pages for the first time since June 12.]
Yesterday was St. Catherine’s feast day.
In the spring of 2007, while my husband Charley and I were on a cruise down the inland waterways of Russia, I was reminded of a poem I had heard more than 50 years ago. I could only recall parts of it, but later research after we returned to the U.S. led me to the complete version.
Prayer to St. Catherine
Anonymous Author
St. Catherine, St. Catherine, oh lend me thine aid,
And grant that I never may die an old maid.
A husband, St. Catherine, a good one,St. Catherine;
Handsome, St. Catherine, rich, St. Catherine.w
But anyone’s better than no one, St. Catherine.
We were stopping to visit many towns, churches and monasteries en route from St. Petersburg to Moscow. At one of the monasteries, a guide showed us icons dedicated to St. Catherine, the patron saint of maidens and spinsters. He remarked that he didn’t think any Americans were familiar with St. Catherine.
I told him I had heard a poem to St. Catherine long ago that listed the attributes a maiden wanted in a husband.
Later that day, back on board the ship, passengers were preparing to put on a show, and I decided to develop my own poem to St. Catherine to recite, based upon what I could remember.
It was the beginning of my “poetic” career.
After having heard other passengers sing many verses of songs in Urdu and give a talk on the tonal qualities of the Chinese language, my poem was well received.
As I put my Russian shawl over my head, I asked the audience to stretch their imaginations and think of me (at 71) as a young maiden while I said my prayer to St. Catherine.
A Prayer to St. Catherine, Patron Saint of Maidens
(Adapted by Dr. Janet Hoult
from a poem vaguely remembered from 50 years ago.)
St. Catherine, St. Catherine, oh, please hear my prayer
Bring me a husband, but let him have hair!
Make his eyes like an eagle, his nose like a beak
But, St. Catherine, St. Catherine, please let him have teeth!
Make him tall, make him handsome, make him kind, make him rich,
But without any lice, so he doesn't itch.
Make him strong as an ox. A man among men,
But let him be able to count higher than ten!
Oh, St. Catherine, St. Catherine, do all that you can.
But St. Catherine, St. Catherine, please bring me a man!
Dr. Hoult may be contacted at HOULTight@aol.com
