Sunday Stamps - April 21, 2024

 Dragons and Saints!  That's the theme of this weeks Sunday Stamps.

No Saint George and the Dragon, but I did come up with one dragon and three saints.

The dragon is the Welsh Dragon on this 1958 stamp from Great Britain.  Not a Welsh stamp.  In Welsh it is called "Y Ddraig Goch,"which means "the red dragon."  1958 was the first year the Welsh Dragon appeared on the stamps of Great Britain.  It also commemorates the Sixth British Empire and Commonwealth Games.  Now, it's simply called "Commonwealth Games." 

King Louis IX on a 1967 French stamp.  Wait!  You thought this was about saints, right?  It is!  King Louis IX was so distinguished in leading Crusades in the 1200s, after he died (1270) the Roman Catholic Church made him a saint to honor him in 1297.  He is commonly revered (to those who revere him) as Saint Louis.   Yes, the city in Missouri is named for the Saint King.  

 Saint James, Spain 1971.  It's from an altar carving in Pistoia Cathedral, Italy.  I am not Spanish, nor am I Catholic, so I don't know what the the Compostela Holy Year is.   I read it's a celebration in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, occurring in years in which July 25 (The Feast of Saint James) falls on a Sunday.  Fourteen are celebrated each century, unless the last year is not a leap year...  oh, never mind!  You can read the convoluted (to me) dating here:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobean_Holy_Year  The engraving was done by Antonio Manso Fernandez.  Okay, more info than you cared to know, but I like researching!

  This 1960 stamp from Malta depicts the consecration of St. Publius, who is considered the first bishop of Malta, and one of the first bishops of Athens.  Tradition holds that he received the Apostle Paul after his shipwreck on Malta, where Paul later cured Publius' father, as told in the Bible book of Acts.  The stamp was issued for the 19th centenary of that shipwreck.  The shipwreck is a pretty big deal in Malta.  Each year on Feb.10th there is the Feast of St. Paul's Shipwreck.   There is a big festival and a huge statue of Paul is carried around in one location.    I wonder if anywhere else celebrates a shipwreck?!

 Next week will be Marine Life.