Saint Christopher, Patron Saint of the Motor-Car Drivers

I had long been wondering why St. Christopher had become the patron saint of motor-car drivers. The small medals which, in almost every car, pictured the athletic-looking saint, carrying on his shoulders the infant saviour of the world, each time my eyes gazed on them whilst driving along in one car or another, each time questioned my fancy; but I could find no answer to satisfy my curiosity.

If I mentioned this little problem to any one else, the people addressed generally rebuked my question rather impatiently. “Why, said they, St. Christopher passed the infant Jesus over the foaming waters. No wonder he is considered a protector, warding off dangers of the road.” Or more simply still people answered that St. Christopher had been chosen as any other saint might have been. There was no problem there!

This last answer reminded me of the explanation many people give of our nightmares. “Why, you have eaten something difficult to digest …”. As this last explanation does not account for the content of each particular nightmare, so the answer after which any saint might have been elected as patron saint of the motor-car drivers did not account for the election, as such, of St. Christopher in particular.

One day, in Athens, I was invited to visit the Museum of popular Byzantine art. We were led through the different rooms, admired the icons brought there from the chapels from the different isles or villages from the continent or the islands, and finally arrived in the room where the most popular pictures of saints were exposed. They were roughly painted pictures, often resembling the figurations drawn or painted by children. And suddenly I was confronted by two or three small painted wood panels, from the island of Crete. They represented a sort of giant,