My Feast Day

My family didn't celebrate our patron saints when we were growing up (just as well, since they "relocated" St. Gregory some time in the sixties), but I was introduced to the custom of celebrating names days at my seminary in Rome. Although I missed out, since the term did not begin by September 3, my feast day, it was normal to put a greeting under the door of a fellow student on the day we celebrated his patron saint.

What's more, my Italian friends and their families marked their "onomastico" with as much festivity as we would celebrate a birthday.

I think that Catholic customs like this are very important and I do my best promote them in the parish. So when I realized that the first Mass of the new school year fell on the memorial of Pope St. Gregory the Great I talked to the students about it, and suggested they find out when their patron's feast occurs so they can encourage their families to mark the day in some way.

Well, I discovered that I may have been preaching to the converted!  Here is the gift that the staff and students gave me at the end of Mass:

To add to my delight, the bottle was no gimmick--turns out it's from an award winning winery in California, owned by an Italian family.  And sure enough--the patriarch was Gregorio!