Edmund George

This morning around 4:10 little Edmund made his first appearance in this world. He weighed in at about 4kg, and he and his mother are doing very well. Maria and Thomas got to see him this afternoon after the rest of us had slept for a little while.

The patrons whom we have chosen for the little guy are St. Edmund Campion and St. George the Dragonslayer. St. Edmund, known as "The Pope's Champion", was an outstandingly brilliant and heroic Jesuit priest martyred for his Catholic faith in 16th century England under the bloody Protestant Queen Elizabeth. His feast day is kept on December 1, the anniversary of his death; he is also one of the Forty Martyrs of England & Wales who are jointly honored on October 25. Little more needs to be said of St. George than that he killed a dragon and is the patron of Christian knights and especially crusaders. You can't get much better than that. He also seems to have been a Roman soldier and a martyr, although little more of him is known than that. His feast is kept, with much sword fighting and dragon cake, on April 23; and he is also honored together with the rest of the Fourteen Holy Helpers on August 8.