About the protection by the Spirit of saint patrons The following question was recently addressed to us by one of our subscribers:
“Setting aside all prejudices of sect and mystical ideas, the qualification of saint denotes a certain spiritual superiority, for to deserve this title one must have been distinguished by some meritorious act. According to this, and considering the matter from a Spiritist point of view, the saints, under whose invocation we are placed at birth, don’t they become our natural protectors, and when we celebrate the patronymic feast of someone whose name one bears, isn’t he attracted to it by sympathy, associating to that, at least by thought, if not by presence?”
There are two points to consider in this question, that must be considered separately.
The Spiritists, better than anyone else, know that thought attracts thought, and that the sympathy of the Spirits, whether they are beatified or not, is solicited by our feelings towards them. Now, what is it, in general, that determines the choice of names? Is this a special veneration for the saint who bore that name, admiration for their virtues, confidence in their merits, the thought of giving it as a model to the newborn? Ask most of those who choose one name if they know what they were, what they did, when they lived, what has distinguished them, if they know of any of their actions. Except for a few saints with popular histories, almost all of them are completely unknown, and without the calendar, the public would not even know if they existed. Hence, nothing can solicit one’s thought towards one rather than the other. We admit that, for some people, the title of saint is enough, and that one can take a name in confidence, as long as it is on the list of blessed ones drawn by the Church, without the need for one to know better: it is a question of faith.
But then, for these very people, what are the determining motives? There are two that almost always predominate. The first is often the desire to please some relative or friend whose self-esteem they want to flatter by giving his name to the newborn, especially if they expect something from it, because if it were a poor devil, without credit and consistency, they would not do him this honor. With that, they aim much more at the protection of man than that of the saint.
The second motive is even more mundane. What one almost always looks for in a name is a graceful form, a pleasant sounding; in a certain world especially, people want well-worn names, that have a status of distinction. Some are mercilessly rejected, because they flatter neither the ear nor the vanity, notwithstanding the fact that they were the names of most worthy of veneration saints. Besides, the name is often a question of fashion like the shape of a hairstyle.
It must be admitted that these holy characters should, in general, be little affected by the reasons for the preference given to them; in reality, they have no special reason to be more interested in those that bear their names than in others, towards whom they are like those far distant relatives whom people only remember when expecting an inheritance.
The Spiritists, who understand the principle of the loving relationships between the physical world and the spiritual world, would act differently in such a circumstance. At the birth of a child, the parents would choose, among the Spirits beatified or not, ancient or modern, friends, relatives or strangers to the family, one of those who, to their knowledge, have given indisputable proofs of their superiority, by their exemplary life, the meritorious acts they have accomplished, the practice of the virtues recommended by Christ: charity, humility, self-denial, selflessness devotion to the cause of humanity, in a word by all that they know to be a cause of advancement in the world of the spirits; they would solemnly and fervently invoke him, begging him to join the guardian angel of the child to protect him in the life he is going to travel, to guide him with his advice and good inspirations; and as a token of a covenant, they would give the child the name of that Spirit. The Spirit would see this choice as proof of sympathy, and he would gladly accept a mission that would be a testimony of esteem and trust.
Then, as the child grows up, he would be taught the story of his protector; they would repeat his good deeds to him; he would know why he had that name, and that name would constantly remind him of a fine model to follow. It would then result that in birthday celebrations the invisible protector would not fail to join forces, because he would have his place in the hearts of those present.
